Global Anglicans ‘London Bypass’ and a journey via Cairo and Nairobi

The twin conservative factions in the Anglican world, the Gafcon/the Global Anglican Communion GSFA the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches, have competing visions. Not of what they want – a reset Anglican Communion based on traditional Biblical principles – but for the moment, they disagree on how to get there. Both have said they remain in the Anglican Communion, and they are not leaving. But both want to change it.

Think of it as a Google map of getting to work, showing multiple routes:

Route one, the Gafcon motorway- or London bypass This high-speed road avoids London and the Church of England. The new Archbishop of Canterbury and the Anglican paraphernalia based in London are no longer needed.

Last October Gafcon grabbed headlines when they declared “the future has arrived” in their Martyrs Day Statement. The bold statement said a new version of the Anglican Communion is already here.

Here are three key clauses that abandon the old structure, reject new teachings on sexuality and

” We reject the so-called Instruments of Communion, namely the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), and the Primates Meeting, which have failed to uphold the doctrine and discipline of the Anglican Communion.

“We cannot continue to have communion with those who advocate the revisionist agenda, which has abandoned the inerrant word of God as the final authority and overturned Resolution I.10, of the 1998 Lambeth Conference [which rejected same-sex marriage].

“Therefore, Gafcon has re-ordered the Anglican Communion by restoring its original structure as a fellowship of autonomous provinces bound together by the Formularies of the Reformation, as reflected at the first Lambeth Conference in 1867, and we are now the Global Anglican Communion.”

This statement was not declaring something new but setting out the same roadmap gafcon has had from the beginning – loosen ties with liberal or progressive Anglicans and reimagine the fellowship.

Route 2: The GSFA highway through London, Cairo and Nairobi. A January meeting in the Seychelles produced a roadmap from the Primates (National Leaders) of the GSFA in the form of a communique.

Like Gafcon they separated themselves from progressive Anglicans who have accepted same sex relationships, including the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, but said, unlike Gafcon, they were engaged in the traditional communion structures. Here are two key paragraphs.

1. We lamented the departure from historic Anglican teaching, which is now becoming entrenched in the senior leadership of the Church of England. However, we recognise that there are many in the Church of England, united in ‘The Alliance’, who have remained faithful and are offering an increasingly effective resistance to the revisionist agenda. It was a privilege for some of us to be present with over three hundred orthodox leaders in July last year and we assure them of our continued solidarity as they contend for the faith.
2. As GSFA, we are working to be truly a home for all orthodox Anglicans in which relationship-based mission, mutual service, discipleship, and practical action to care for one another are the flesh on the bones of our ecclesial structure. GSFA will also continue to engage for the time being with the IASCUFO Nairobi-Cairo proposals.

Their difference with Gafcon is contained in the last part of that excerpt.
The “IASCUFO Nairobi-Cairo proposals” refers to a December 2024 proposal by a part of the traditional communion bodies, the Inter Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO) that attempts to bridge differences and is addressed to the GSFA’s concerns.

It decentralises the Church of England, whose progressive direction has caused consternation for both GSAF and Gafcon. The definition of “Anglican” is proposed to be changed. Instead of saying a church must be in communion with the Church of England in order to be “Anglican” – the tie is loosened and replaced with a statement that simply acknowledges a historic tie. Under the new definition, churches are Anglican “through their shared inheritance, mutual service, common counsel in conference, and historic connection with the See of Canterbury.” 

The evangelical REACH-SA Church in South Africa, a member of Gafcon but not a member of the Anglican Communion, has a history dating back before the first Lambeth Conference (a meeting of Bishops) in 1867, which was called to deal with issues in South Africa. So under the new definition REACH-SA, the Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa could be considered Anglican. And maybe the conservative breakaway Anglican Church in North America could fit too.

The Nairobi Cairo proposals also replace the Archbishop of Canterbury’s key role in convening key meetings.

A key clause in the GSFA statement is that they will engage with the Nairobi Cairo proposals “for the time being” which indicates that they may disengage in the future, perhaps aligning more closely with the Gafcon approach.

This means that Gafcon’s London bypass and GSFA’s route through Cairo and Nairobi may merge in the future.

There’s an overlap between the leaders of Gafcon and GSFA, with both headed by Primates (national leaders) councils.

Primates of provinces in both the GSFA and Gafcon:
• Justin Badi Arama, Primate of South Sudan, chairs the GSFA Primates Council
• Miguel Uchôa Cavalcanti, Primate of the Anglican Church in Brazil, Vice Chairman of Gafcon
• Samy Shehata, Primate of the Province of Alexandria and Deputy Chairman, GSFA
• Stephen Kaziimba, Primate of the Church of the Province of Uganda
• Ande Titre, Primate of the Province of the Anglican Church of Congo
• Stephen Than Myint Oo, Archbishop of the Church of the Province of Myanmar
• Steve Wood, Archbishop, Anglican Church in North America
• Enrique Lago Zugadi Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Chile

This means eight of the thirteen provinces in GSFA belong to Gafcon, and eight of the eleven provinces of Gafcon belong to the GSFA.

Will the London bypass and the Nairobi Cairo highway merge? The next step in the conservative movements in Anglicanism takes place in Abuja, Nigeria, in early March, when G26, an assembly of Bishops convened by Gafcon, takes place.