A major shift has occurred within the global Anglican community as conservative Anglican leaders from across Africa, Asia, and South America announced a decisive break from the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The decision was reached during the Global Anglican Council meeting held in Abuja from March 3 to March 6, where hundreds of bishops and church leaders gathered to address long-standing doctrinal disputes within the Anglican Communion.
According to a resolution issued at the end of the meeting, the leaders declared the formal inauguration of the Global Anglican Communion, a structure that will operate separately from the traditional leadership system centred around the Church of England.
The meeting reportedly brought together 347 bishops and 121 lay and clerical leaders representing 27 Anglican provinces around the world.
The newly formed body will be chaired by Laurent Mbanda, with Miguel Uchôa serving as Deputy Chair and Paul Donison as General Secretary.
Church leaders said the move followed years of disagreements over doctrinal issues such as same-sex relationships and the ordination of women as bishops.
In their statement, the council accused the leadership structures linked to Canterbury — including the Lambeth Conference and the Anglican Consultative Council — of failing to uphold biblical discipline.
They also declared that Anglican leaders within the new structure would no longer attend future meetings convened by Canterbury or contribute financially to the Anglican Consultative Council.
The council further encouraged member provinces to amend their constitutions to remove references to being “in communion with the See of Canterbury,” while affirming the Jerusalem Declaration as the core confession of faith for the new body.
Meanwhile, the Church of Nigeria, led by Henry Ndukuba, has already formally severed ties with the Church of England, describing recent developments within the UK church as harmful to orthodox Christian doctrine.
Despite the dramatic shift, the council insisted the move should not be seen as a breakaway, but rather a restructuring intended to preserve what it described as the historic and biblical foundations of Anglicanism.
The leaders also called on Anglicans worldwide who share their doctrinal convictions to join the new Global Anglican Communion.
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