GAFCON Resets Communion // No Rival Leader to APB Mullally // Conciliar vs. Confessionalism // Canon Resigns over LLF Prayers // What is wrong with CofE? //
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End Times Speculation Unleashes “Prophecy” Nutters //Gen Z least Religious in US History
QUOTES OF THE DAY:
"The early Church converted the Roman world without altar calls, stage lighting, or seeker-sensitive liturgies. She did it by forming disciples, baptizing converts, and worshiping God with seriousness and awe." — Rev. Dr. Donald H. Moore
"The souls who don't know Christ need us to be clear in articulating the faith and faithful in presenting it with our words and our deeds. Our children do not need us to leave a legacy, but a field bearing fruit. GSFA and GAFCON, put your hands together on the Gospel plow and get to work." — Andrew Brashier
"Reordering the Anglican Communion is now necessary, because a significant number of provinces who claim to be Anglican have abandoned the authority of Scripture and failed to follow Christ faithfully." — GAFCON Communiqué
"God intends us to penetrate the world. Christian salt has no business remaining snugly in elegant little ecclesiastical salt cellars; our place is to be rubbed into the secular community, as salt is rubbed into meat, to stop it going bad. And when society does go bad, we Christians tend to throw up our hands in pious horror and reproach the non-Christian world; but should we not rather reproach ourselves? One can hardly blame unsalted meat for going bad. It cannot do anything else. The real question to ask is: Where is the salt?" — John Stott
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
March 6, 2026
THE Anglican Communion has been reset — but not, as anticipated, with a rival to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Even so, the Anglican Communion as we have known it is seriously, perhaps fatally, wounded by the heresies emanating from the West. As a result, the Global South has set the stage for a major change in how the Communion will function going forward.
Leaders representing 80 million Anglicans met this past week in Abuja, Nigeria — the largest province in the Communion — and declared that the marker for orthodoxy is Holy Scripture, not culture, and that the Jerusalem Declaration is the new "Nicene" creed of Anglican orthodoxy.
Some 400 bishops, clergy, and laity, meeting in Abuja under the banner of GAFCON — the Global Anglican Future Conference — said they would now determine the future for orthodox Anglicans in more strategic ways than when GAFCON first reorganized the Communion in 2008.
GAFCON declared that the Anglican Communion will be reordered with its sole foundation in Holy Scripture, rejecting the previous instruments of communion such as the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC).
The conference emphasized the need for a conciliar structure to lead the Communion, moving away from traditional Anglican leadership — though not necessarily toward a confessional model.
GAFCON continued to uphold the Jerusalem Declaration, which articulates the Communion's commitment to the authority of Scripture. These developments represent a significant shift in the Anglican Communion's governance and theological outlook. The full communiqué can be read here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/communique-the-abuja-affirmation
What GAFCON did was declare a new council to lead its churches, accusing the Church of England of straying from biblical faithfulness. Rebranded as the Global Anglican Communion, the group appointed Rwandan Archbishop Laurent Mbanda as its chairman — replacing the Archbishop of Canterbury in that role. The council also elected Brazilian Archbishop Miguel Uchoa and Bishop Paul Donison (USA) to serve alongside him. Mbanda will not hold the title of "first among equals," a designation the Archbishop of Canterbury traditionally holds.
One speaker, the Anglican Bishop of Tasmania, the Rt. Rev. Richard Condie, took the gloves off when he declared that antichrists had entered the Church. Speaking to conferees at GAFCON's G26 mini-conference, he said the challenges facing the Church today should come as no surprise. The Apostle John described false believers as a sign of "the last days," referring to them as the spirit of antichrist.
"We are here because of the antichrists among us," Condie said, emphasizing that false teachers and false believers have always been a feature of Christian discipleship. He cautioned that the danger is not limited to those outside the orthodox faith — church leaders themselves must guard their hearts against denying Christ. "We deny him when we expect deference and walk in pride as leaders," he said. "We deny him when we are taken in by money given to us by heretical teachers." You can read more here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/abuja-tasmanian-bishop-says-anti-christ-s-are-among-us
I have written at length about this gathering, with other reliable sources also adding to the mix:
https://www.virtueonline.org/post/gafcon-overhauls-leadership-structure-stops-short-of-formal-schism
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One criticism of GAFCON is its embrace of conciliarism, which critics argue is inconsistent with Anglicanism's confessional tradition.
Dr. Gillis J. Harp, a retired history professor at Grove City College, argues that the path forward for orthodox Anglicans lies in recovering their Reformation heritage, not in building new institutional frameworks.
Harp traces the current doctrinal drift in part to a decision made at the founding of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the 1780s, when American Anglicans chose not to require clergy to subscribe to the Thirty-Nine Articles. By the late 1970s, those Articles had been relegated to a "Historical Documents" appendix at the back of the American prayer book.
"The Articles will help reinvigorate Anglican theology because they reflect the core teaching of the Protestant Reformation," Harp writes. He identifies key doctrines — including the supremacy of Scripture, justification by grace through faith, and the proper administration of the sacraments — as non-negotiables for any genuine Anglican recovery.
Both Archbishop Bob Duncan (ACNA emeritus) and Bishop Phil Ashey (Diocese of Western Anglicans) have championed the Three Streams model, but it has been roundly criticized by Reformed theologian Dean Chuck Collins as insufficient Anglican ecclesiology.
Collins writes: "'Three Streams' threatens our Anglican identity. An idea hatched in 1954 (in Lesslie Newbigin's book The Household of God) cannot possibly describe what the Church of England was founded on or what Anglicans believe today. Three Streams not only explains the wild diversity — and sometimes complete discontinuity — from one Anglican church to another, but the notion that equal respect be given to Catholic, Evangelical, and Pentecostal streams appears nowhere in the historic Anglican formularies or in Anglican teaching until modern times. It is the latest in a long line of conciliar attempts to reach consensus apart from confessional Anglicanism."
Whether he is right or wrong, time will tell.
For the moment, the future has arrived. As the Jerusalem Communiqué states:
"For more than two decades, we have in prayerful humility called for the repentance of those senior leaders of the Anglican Communion who have denied the orthodox faith in word and deed.
Reordering the Anglican Communion is now necessary, because a significant number of provinces who claim to be Anglican have abandoned the authority of Scripture and failed to follow Christ faithfully. While matters of human sexuality are one expression of this, they are merely symptomatic of deeper doctrinal and moral departures from the teaching of Scripture.
The leadership of the Canterbury Instruments of Communion has failed to exercise discipline, maintain the biblical witness, and uphold fundamental Anglican doctrine as expressed in its Reformation Formularies (the Thirty-Nine Articles and the 1662 Book of Common Prayer including the Ordinal). Instead, these Instruments seek to hold together a confused communion of institutional co-existence, based on the fiction of 'walking together' with those who are walking away from the truth of the gospel and the teaching of Jesus."
There you have it — schism in all but name. If you do not recognize the titular head (Archbishop Mullally), you have for all intents and purposes cut yourself off from the Communion as it now stands. There will be no more journeys to Lambeth Palace, no more Eucharists in Canterbury Cathedral (now overseen by a dean in a same-sex partnership), and fewer ordinands from the Global South pursuing theological education at English universities.
A new day has dawned. Now we await to see how far and wide the light will shine.
For an excellent commentary on the GAFCON communiqué, see theologian Michael Bird's analysis here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/the-jerusalem-statement-a-commentary-part-one-the-gospel-of-grace-and-biblical-authority
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An Honorary Canon at Chelmsford Cathedral has resigned over its use of the controversial Prayers of Love and Faith (PLF). The Rev. John Dunnett said it was "impossible" to fulfill his role while maintaining his integrity when the Cathedral is using prayers that bless the relationships of same-sex couples — contrary to the teachings of Scripture.
The cathedral first used the PLF in November 2025. The Chelmsford Diocesan Evangelical Network (CDEN) wrote to the Bishop and Dean expressing "profound concern" and asking them to reconsider. In January, the Dean responded confirming they would continue to use the prayers. You can read more here: https://www.christian.org.uk/news/cofe-canon-quits-over-cathedrals-use-of-same-sex-blessing-prayers/
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What exactly is wrong with the Church of England? Bijan Omrani, author of God is an Englishman: Christianity and the Creation of England, argues that the Church simply isn't doing enough. It is underpowered in spreading public knowledge of the faith. Instead of properly investing in its workhorses — the parish clergy — it funds ever-ballooning diocesan bureaucracies and squanders capital on unjustifiable initiatives such as Project Spire, the £100 million "reparations" payment for historic slavery. One might also add the grossly mishandled safeguarding failures that have seen countless children sexually abused while church leaders closed ranks and gave abusive priests and bishops a pass.
"This is not the behavior of a church that is taking its problems seriously. Just as Jerusalem should have listened to Jeremiah before the Babylonians destroyed it, so too should the church now heed the warnings of the Humanists, before it is too late," Omrani writes. You can read more here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/if-the-church-of-england-were-serious-about-revival-this-is-what-they-would-be-doing
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A serious power struggle involving a well-respected aid organization ministering to the persecuted church has gone public, causing immense grief to those it serves and to its donors. Barnabas Aid, founded in 1993 by Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo, has become embroiled in legal disputes resulting in what some describe as an illegitimate seizure of the organization, amid cries of mismanagement and a string of resignations.
You can read the full story here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/serious-doubt-cast-on-veracity-of-accusations-against-barnabas-aid-founders-accusers-now-under-inve and here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/barnabas-aid-was-an-illegal-takeover-say-solicitors
END-TIMES SPECULATION is multiplying rapidly. It has become fashionable to forecast the apocalypse as war heats up in the Middle East, and self-styled prophets entertain the credulous with predictions drawn from the books of Daniel and Revelation.
There is no "battle of Armageddon" in the Book of Revelation, says theologian David MacInnes. Given recent news that more than a hundred service members have filed complaints alleging that a commander told them war with Iran is part of "God's divine plan" — and that a sitting president is "anointed by Jesus" to ignite Armageddon — it is important to be clear about how unbiblical these claims are, MacInnes writes.
"This claim has more to do with the fiction of the Left Behind series and dispensational theology than it does with the Book of Revelation."
Revelation was composed in the late first century, most likely during the reign of Domitian, when the Roman Empire demanded not only political loyalty but religious reverence. Rome ruled through claiming divine sanction. Emperors were hailed as "Lord" and "Savior," and participation in imperial cults was a sign of allegiance. Refusal could mean marginalization, economic exclusion, or worse.
Revelation is not a coded forecast of 21st-century geopolitics. As John states in the opening verse, the entire letter is the revelation of Jesus Christ — the way of God through Jesus Christ being revealed in the world. It is written in the prophetic genre of apocalyptic resistance literature, pulling back the curtain on earthly empires and naming them for what they are: beastly. You can read more here: https://www.facebook.com/david.macinnes.92
The basic narrative goes something like this: modern Israel is the same Israel described in the Bible. God made eternal promises to that nation. And before Jesus returns, certain prophecies must be fulfilled in the Middle East. The more of those prophecies get fulfilled, the closer we are to the end of the world. This means that in the minds of the doomsday cult adherents, wars are never just wars. They’re signs. They’re signals. They’re proof that the end of the world is getting closer. Be excited, not sad.
You can see this mindset every time a major event happens involving Israel. When Donald Trump moved the American embassy to Jerusalem in 2018, many conservative Christians celebrated it not primarily as a diplomatic decision but as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Fox News host Jeanine Pirro even wrote that Trump had acted like the ancient Persian king Cyrus, fulfilling prophecy by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
This kind of thinking isn’t fringe inside white evangelicalism. It’s mainstream. And because white evangelicals wield enormous political power in the United States, their theology often spills over into foreign policy.
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Gen Z is the least religious cohort in American history. 43% of this generation born roughly between 1996 and 2012 identify as religious “nones.” While there have been many reports since Charlie Kirk’s assassination indicating increased interest in religion and increased church attendance, according to statistician Ryan Burge, there is not yet statistical evidence of religious revival among young people.
There is, however, ample evidence that these Zoomers are looking for meaning and willing to reconsider religion. Specifically, though these trends may not be large enough to be captured in statistics, there seems to be a growing interest in more rigorous forms of faith.
John Stonestreet and Glenn Sunshine of Breakpoint. You can read their full take here: https://breakpoint.org/why-gen-z-nones-are-reconsidering-religion-2/
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