2025: A Year to Forget//Is GAFCON and GSFA the future of the Anglican Communion? //TEC Faces Decline and Canon Application Failures//

Dec 30, 2025
9 min read

CofE Faces Evangelical Failures and Backlash to Woman Archbishop Appointment//ACNA leadership failures//Continuing Church Mergers

By David W. Virtue, DD

www.virtueonline.org

December 30, 2025

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

2025 was not a year to remember or repeat. The steady drumbeat of “reset” and “realignment” continued with a fractured communion. The West and North moved further away from the gospel, even as the Global South embraced the faith with greater intensity.

As the West embraced the culture and ditched the Bible, provinces like Nigeria embraced the gospel and the pain of persecution while adding 15 new dioceses, even as their people were being slaughtered by Islamic terrorists. By contrast The Episcopal Church merged dioceses as their numbers fell and parishes closed.

Western Anglicanism is not worth dying for; there is nothing in it worth saving. It has been hollowed out by years of compromise with the culture over (homo)sex and a refusal to believe that Jesus is the only way to the Father. The Great Commission has long been decommissioned.

One is reminded of the words of Jesus; “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in heaven. …” Western Anglicanism is frightened of its own spiritual and theological shadow. It fears rebuttal… if you stand for nothing you will fall for anything and that is the state of our Anglican churches in the West today. Western Anglicanism pays lip service to the creeds, refuses to accept the full authority of scripture and wonders why its pews are empty. Sodomite marriages have not filled pews.

ALL IS NOT LOST

On October 16, 2025, the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) issued a bold statement declaring "the future has arrived." In this declaration, GAFCON announced it had single handedly reordered the Anglican Communion, rejecting the traditional Instruments of Communion and establishing itself as the authentic expression of global Anglicanism.

The GAFCON reset of the Anglican Communion aims to restore biblical authority and has declared that the Anglican Communion will be reordered as a fellowship of autonomous provinces. Many orthodox provinces have expressed dissatisfaction with the direction of the Anglican Communion, particularly following the election of Sarah Mullally as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury.

Global South leaders claim to represent up to eighty-five percent of practicing Anglicans worldwide with GAFCON positioning itself as the guardian of biblical orthodoxy against the revisionist agenda of Canterbury and the Western provinces.

While there is talk of a formal schism with the West, that seems not to be on the cards. The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) has been clear in its disapproval of Western Anglican innovations particularly in response to the Church of England's decisions regarding same-sex blessings and the appointment of Sarah Mullally as Archbishop of Canterbury, the first woman leader in the church’s 1,400-year history. She is viewed as progressive (revisionist) on a number of issues but especially sexuality, which has alienated her from the vast majority of the Anglican Communion’s bishops.

However, the GSFA, which has overlapping bishops with their GAFCON brethren, are committed to maintaining the unity of the visible church and the fabric of the Anglican Communion. They will remain true to the historic faith, the Anglican formularies, the authority of Scripture and sexual morality, honoring the 1998 Lambeth Conference Resolution 1:10.

GAFCON will represent the future of Anglicanism in terms of numerical strength and global reach.

If it wasn’t enough to rain on the Anglican parade over same sex marriage, one Anglican province did the unthinkable. The Church in Wales elected an avowed lesbian archbishop to run its affairs, a more in your face act cannot be imagined. Is a transsexual archbishop waiting in the wings?

Among the blows and woes the Church of England suffered, none did as much damage to its evangelical wing as the John Smyth, Jonathan Fletcher and Mike Pilavachi sexual predation over abuse of power and authority issues. The fallout is still being felt after the then Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby resigned following an independent review that found he and other senior church leaders had covered up the abuse of over 100 boys and young men by Smyth.

There was a lot of hype and talk about a quiet revival in the Church of England which turned out not to be the case. New attendance stats released by the Church of England were in marked contrast to the Bible Society’s report of a quiet revival in the UK.

It was touted that attendance at Church of England churches rose for the fourth year in a row, was a headline on the official Church website. “The overall number of regular worshippers across the Church of England’s congregations rose to 1.009 million in 2024, a rise of 0.6 per cent, according to the annual Statistics for Mission findings,” the Church of England “Statistics for Mission” report says.

But Madeleine Davies of the Church Times contradicted the official optimism. “The data, published, record that in 2024 attendance rose for the fourth year, but that recovery since the Covid-19 pandemic has slowed. Increases in attendance since 2023 were smaller than in previous years. In 2019, a “middle-sized” church had an all-age average weekly attendance (AWA) of 34.5; in 2024, the equivalent figure was 26. The median church has just one child in attendance, compared with three in 2019.” The moral of this story is don’t believe what the church turns out as official news. A different reading could be that any revival in the UK is occurring outside the Church of England.

EPISCOPAL CHURCH WOES

The Episcopal faced two major issues this past year. The first was its numbers as it decreased its footprint on American soil and the violation of its canons by bishops and clergy alike.

As of 2023, the Episcopal Church had approximately 1,547,779 active baptized members and about 2.4 million total members. The church has seen a decline in membership over the past decade, with a total membership drop of around 21% from 2013. In 2023, the average Sunday attendance was nearly 411,000, reflecting a recovery from the pandemic.

However, a deeper look at the church’s numbers revealed that in 2024 Episcopal Church’s Baptismal number dropped to 19,624 down from 20,247 in 2023. Resulting in a -3.1% drop of 623.

The other issue was the calls for criminal investigations into the Episcopal Church’s failure to fulfill mandatory child abuse reporting obligations, reported by Anglican Watch, the unofficial watchdog of the Episcopal Church. They have called on state attorneys general to investigate the denomination’s ongoing refusal to comply with state mandatory child sex abuse reporting obligations. Of particular concern is the refusal of Episcopal Church officials to report historic child sex abuse cases, notably in New York, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Maryland.

“Anglican Watch is appalled by the fact that senior Episcopal Church officials, including former Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, former Bishop for Pastoral Development Todd Ousley, and retired Bishop Alan Gates all failed to report the allegations that Episcopal priest Richard Losch took one or more boys across state lines for the purpose of raping them,” says Anglican Watch official Eric Bonetti.

“The states in question — Massachusetts, Michigan, and New York — all expressly require reporting of historical abuse and impose criminal penalties for failing to do so.

The failed safeguarding performances which reared its head at St. Thomas Fifth Avenue was perhaps the most egregious of all the parish failures. You can read more here: https://www.anglicanwatch.com/anglican-watch-files-title-iv-complaint-against-saint-thomas-rector-carl-turner-believes-lawsuit-against-parish-is-warranted/ and here: https://www.anglicanwatch.com/heres-the-truth-about-the-saint-thomas-church-fifth-avenue-sexual-assault-and-defamation-lawsuit/

But the church that got the biggest public headlines of the year was the Anglican Church in North America.

A major article in the Washington Post accused ACNA Archbishop Stephen Wood of sexual misconduct, abuse of power, plagiarism and much more. Some 3,500 words were written blowing up the orthodox archbishop of the small 100,000-member denomination by one of America’s leading newspapers. He now faces a trial for his behavior which could result in his being tossed out of the church.

ACNA Bishop Stewart Ruch III, accused of mishandling abuse allegations and failing to safeguard parishioners in his care, was found not guilty by a church court on all counts after a tumultuous trial that spanned more than four months.

The decision came more than six years after a 9-year-old child in the Upper Midwest Diocese, which is led by Ruch, first came forward with sexual abuse allegations against a lay minister, who has since been convicted of felony sexual assault and felony child sexual assault. More than 10 clergy and other lay leaders in Ruch’s diocese have been accused of misconduct, a pattern that abuse advocates say resulted from Ruch’s leadership failures.

But the case that could well be the financial undoing of the denomination came from Bishop Derek Jones of the Special Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy (SJAFC). The complaints include allegations of ecclesiastical power abuse, wrongful use of disciplinary processes, backdating or fabrication of church documents, interference with external employment opportunities, wrongful release of a priest from orders, and infliction of financial, emotional, and psychological stress upon persons in Jones' care.

Jones was inhibited. He went on to split from the ACNA and formed his own church - The Anglican Reformed Catholic Church – which includes those bishops ousted from the ACNA. Millions of dollars in lawsuits are at stake here. Leaders describe the new alignment as "Classic Anglican." You can read more here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/jafc-bishops-form-new-anglican-denomination-the-anglican-reformed-catholic-church-will-be-led-by-bi

To cap off the church’s troubles, another article appeared in the Washington Post claiming that the interim ACNA leader Bishop Julian Dobbs was involved in financial scandal.

Dobbs, who suspended the denomination’s archbishop over allegations of sexual misconduct — was himself previously investigated over two separate allegations of financial impropriety, according to a federal lawsuit and a global charity’s internal records.

The road ahead for ACNA appears rocky, and further schism cannot be ruled out. Whether these developments are isolated events remains to be seen.

On the plus side, The Anglican Church in America reunited with The Anglican Catholic Church.

The House of Bishops and The Executive Council of The Anglican Church in America voted unanimously to reverse a historic schism with The Anglican Catholic Church. Thirty-four years ago, at a meeting in Deerfield Beach, Florida, a failed merger with the American Episcopal Church, resulted in a schism that has lasted until the present. Over the past twelve years, many ecumenical meetings have been convened to discuss how to repair this damage, which is often regarded as the most unfortunate event in the history of the Anglican Continuum.

Early efforts at reunification resulted in the historic communio-in-sacris (shared participation in the sacraments) agreement which was signed in Atlanta, Georgia in 2017. This agreement united the Anglican Church in America, The Anglican Catholic Church, The Anglican Province of America and The Diocese of the Holy Cross in a communion of Anglican jurisdictions. Subsequently, The Diocese of The Holy Cross joined The Anglican Catholic Church. In October, 2023, the General Synod of The Anglican Church in America voted unanimously to join with other Continuing churches at the earliest possible time. On April 8, 2025, the House of Bishops of The Anglican Church in America voted “unanimously and irrevocably” to reunite with The Anglican Catholic Church. The Executive Council in its meeting of April 29, 2025, affirmed and ratified the decision by the House of Bishops.

There are still outstanding issues but a synod will be held within the next seven months to finalize the reunification of the ACA and the ACC.

****

We are going down to the wire as we prepare VOL for its biggest and best year yet, but we need your support to make it happen.

With my new Substack davidvirtue2.substack.com on the Middle East, we are expanding our coverage in 2026 to include:

· The rise of Anglicanism in the Global South as it separates from the Global North.

· The decline of liberalism and progressive theology, and the growing threat of Islam to our faith.

· The increasing decline of the Anglican Church of Canada, The Episcopal Church, The Church of England, the Church in Wales and the Scottish Episcopal Church.

· The rise of GAFCON and the GSFA to counter the threat of western liberalism and secularization.

· The financial influence by TEC to pressure the Global South with money aimed at persuading African Anglicans to accept pansexuality.

· How oil-rich Middle Eastern nations use their wealth to shape Western minds and promote Islam while systematically undermining the Christian West.

· The persecution of Christians throughout the world.

· We need to raise $30,000 by December 31st to continue our coverage of the Anglican Communion. We are bringing on board new writers with clear insights into Scripture and culture.

VOL has no mega-donors and no grants—just faithful readers like you who believe we tell the truth however difficult it may be. Tens of thousands of enthusiastic VOL readers trust us to expose the most pressing issues facing Anglicanism today.

Please give before December 31st to ensure your gift is tax-deductible this calendar year.

Your partnership allows us not only to continue our work but to grow and do even better with more writers and commentators.

How to Give:

Online: PayPal donation link at https://www.virtueonline.org/donate

By check (tax-deductible):

VIRTUEONLINE

P.O. BOX 111

Shohola, PA 18458

Thank you for your support,

David