Anglican Communion

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Written by: Stephen Hale

Created: 01 December 2025

This article is an attempt to capture the current situation in global Anglicanism. It needs to be borne in mind that the current situation is very fluid and between this being written and published another shift could have taken place! The writer is seeking to convey the broad picture and is not offering a commentary on the various developments. All Statements referred to here are to be found on the EFAC Global website.

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND

The actions authorised by the General Synod (by the barest of majorities in the houses of clergy and laity) have been deemed to be illegal. As such the provision of standalone services for same sex blessings and any attempt to authorise same sex marriages are on hold. They therefore need to resolve at the next General Synod in February what to do next.

Read more: Global Anglican Update

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Written by: Chris Appleby

Created: 19 March 2026

EFAC Statement of Faith and Declarations

As members of the Anglican Communion within the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church, we affirm the faith, which is uniquely revealed in the holy Scriptures, set forth in the catholic creeds, and of which The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion are a general exposition. Standing in the Reformed tradition, we lay special emphasis on the grace of God – his unmerited mercy – as expressed in the doctrines which follow:

1. God as the Source of Grace

   In continuity with the teaching of Holy Scripture and the Christian creeds, we worship one God in three Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God has created all things, and us in his own image; all life, truth, holiness, and beauty come from him. His Son Jesus Christ, full God and fully man, was conceived through the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, died, rose and ascended to reign in glory.

2. The Bible as the Revelation of Grace

   We receive the canonical books of the Old and New Testament as the wholly reliable revelation and record of God’s grace, given by the Holy Spirit as the true word of God written. The Bible has been given to lead us to salvation, to be the ultimate rule for Christian faith and conduct, and the supreme authority by which the Church must ever reform itself and judge its traditions.

3. The Atonement as the Work of Grace

   We believe that Jesus Christ came to save lost sinners. Though sinless, he bore our sins, and their judgment, on the cross, thus accomplishing our salvation. By raising Christ bodily from the dead, God vindicated him as Lord and Saviour and proclaimed his victory. Salvation is in Christ alone.

4. The Church as the Community of Grace

   We hold that the Church is God’s covenant community, whose members, drawn from every nation, having been justified by grace through faith, inherit the promises made to Abraham and fulfilled in Christ. As a fellowship of the Spirit manifesting his fruit and exercising his gifts, it is called to worship God grow in grace, and bear witness to him and his Kingdom. God’s Church is one body and must ever strive to discover and experience that unity in truth and love which it has in Christ, especially through its confession of the apostolic faith and in its observance of the dominical Sacraments.

5. The Sacraments as the Signs and Seals of Grace

   We maintain that the Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion proclaim the gospel as effective and visible signs of our justification and sanctification, and as true means of God’s grace to those who repent and believe. Baptism is the sign of forgiveness of sin, the gift of the Spirit, new birth to righteousness and entry into the fellowship of the People of God. Holy Communion is the sign of the living, nourishing presence of Christ through his Spirit to his people; the memorial of his one, perfect completed and all- sufficient sacrifice for sin, from whose achievement all may benefit but in whose atoning self-offering none can share; and an occasion to offer through him our sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise.

6. Ministry as the Stewardship of Grace

   We share, as the people of God, in a royal priesthood common to the whole Church, and in the community of the Suffering Servant. Our mission is the proclamation of the gospel by the preaching of the word, as well as by caring for the needy, challenging evil and promoting justice and a more responsible use of the world’s resources. It is the particular vocation of bishops and presbyters, together with deacons, to build up the body of Christ in truth and love, as pastors, teachers, and servants of the servants of God.

7. Christ’s Return as the Triumph of Grace

   We look forward expectantly to the final manifestation of Christ’s grace and glory when he comes again to raise the dead, judge the world, vindicate his chosen and bring his Kingdom to its eternal fulfilment in the new heaven and the new earth.

Declarations

1. We gladly proclaim and submit to the unique and universal Lordship of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, humanity’s only Saviour from sin, judgement and hell, who lived the life we could not live and died the death that we deserve. By his atoning death and glorious resurrection, he secured the redemption of all who come to him in repentance and faith.
2. We acknowledge God’s creation of humankind as male and female and the unchangeable standard of Christian marriage between one man and one woman as the proper place for sexual intimacy and the basis of the family. We repent of our failures to maintain this standard and call for a renewed commitment to lifelong fidelity in marriage and abstinence for those who are not married.

Fundamental Declarations of the Anglican Church of Australia

1. The Anglican Church of Australia, being a part of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ, holds the Christian Faith as professed by the Church of Christ from primitive times and in particular as set forth in the creeds known as the Nicene Creed and the Apostles' Creed.
2. This Church receives all the canonical scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as being the ultimate rule and standard of faith given by inspiration of God and containing all things necessary for salvation.
3. This Church will ever obey the commands of Christ, teach His doctrine, administer His sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, follow and uphold His discipline and preserve the three orders of bishops, priests and deacons in the sacred ministry.

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Written by: Peter Adam

Created: 01 August 2025

I read in a book on management that minor technical  changes are easy to achieve, but cultural changes are hard  to achieve! And if cultural changes take a long time to  achieve in a church, they take much longer to achieve in a  larger and looser structure such as a diocese. But cultural changes in a diocese have a great impact on  local churches.

WHAT HAPPENED?

In this election, we saw a massive cultural change to focus  on evangelism!

Who did we elect? 70% of the Melbourne Anglicans who  were members of Synod voted for Ric Thorpe, an  effective personal evangelist, experienced in planting  churches with the gospel, and reinvigorating churches  with the gospel, the gospel of God’s free gift of grace and  love in the Lord Jesus Christ. We voted for an Archbishop  to transform the culture of the diocese and our churches  from maintenance to mission, and a cultural change to  prioritise evangelism!

Read more: A cultural change to  evangelism: the election of  Ric Thorpe as Archbishop  of Melbourne

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Written by: Stephen Hale

Created: 01 March 2025

Statement By The Evangelical Fellowship In The Anglican Communion In Response To The IASCUFO Nairobi Cairo Proposals

(“Renewing The Instruments Of The Anglican Communion”)^[i] EFAC welcomes the opportunity to offer an initial outline response to this important report, thanking its writers for their sincere and prolonged engagement with the broken nature of our Anglican Communion. What follows sets out what we understand to be its central themes, and aspects of it which we welcome and aspects where we have questions and concerns.

It is clear from the document that these proposals have been produced in response to two interconnected problems:

1. The anachronism of colonial era structures for the Anglican Communion when the vast majority of active members are now found in the Global South.

2. The broken and impaired relationships of communion which have arisen due to doctrinal differences, especially to do with biblical anthropology and marriage. These have been in contention for several decades and been the subject of previous reports offering different paths of renewal. They have become more acute since the Bishops and General Synod of the Church of England opened the way for the blessing of same sex relationships in 2023.

The proposals can be summarised as follows:

1. A number of amendments to the classic description of the Anglican Communion adopted by the Lambeth Conference including the deletion of ‘in communion with the See of Canterbury’ to be replaced by, inter alia, ‘historic connection with the See of Canterbury’ (76)^[ii].

2. A number of changes to the existing Instruments, notably a rotating presidency of the ACC.

We welcome a number of elements in the report including:

1. The removal of ‘in communion with the See of Canterbury’. This description has been used to try and delegitimise the new orthodox Provinces, recognised by both the GSFA and GAFCON, and to imply that any breaking of communion with Canterbury is tantamount to leaving the Communion. The recent decisions of the Church of England have meant that, irrespective of who the next Archbishop of Canterbury is, he or she will not be a person whose leadership can be acknowledged by many members of the Communion as primus inter pares.

2. The recognition of the sad reality that as currently constituted the churches of the Anglican Communion have fallen even further short of the Church’s call to be “one, holy, catholic and apostolic”: no longer having in common that they “uphold and propagate the Catholic and Apostolic faith and order” but simply seeking to do so; and no longer bound to each other “by mutual loyalty” due to recent actions by various provinces, most recently the Church of England. As a result, it is accepted that the churches of the Communion are no longer in full communion with each other but only seeking “the highest degree of communion possible”.

3. The statement that “Solemn calls to unity may sometimes function as an abuse of power, as they seek to enforce a closeness of relationship that would suppress or deny important differences”(45) and the call to those “who call themselves progressive or liberal...to grant graciously the degree of seriousness with which their fellow Anglicans take the matters at hand and concede the consequences of some degree of diminished communion” (48).

4. The acknowledgment that “The Covenantal Structure of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches ... may be viewed ... as a helpful contribution to the discernment of doctrinal and ethical truth within the Communion ... in hopeful service of the unity and faithfulness of the Anglican Communion” (56).

All this makes clear that earlier attempts to reform the Instruments by seeking moratoria, repentance, and renewed covenantal affirmations and commitments have not succeeded. We continue to hope and pray that those whose actions have led to this tragic failure will repent in order that fellowship may be restored and we welcome the work of GSFA and GAFCON to reset the Communion and create structures which can enable full communion to continue between churches and faithful Anglicans based on Catholic and Apostolic faith and order.

Questions and concerns:

In forthcoming months as the report and its proposals are digested, discussed and developed in preparation for the ACC meeting in 2026 we hope attention will be given to various questions and concerns, including for us:

1. An explanation for the absence of any engagement with GAFCON. Engagement with GAFCON will be essential if IASCUFO is fully to engage with the deep differences and divisions within the Anglican Communion.

2. Whether the bold redefinition of the Communion is sufficiently reflected in the practical proposals which are seemingly minimalist and risk being largely symbolic but leaving the underlying power structures of the Communion intact (for example, in the continued parity between all 5 historic regions despite the very different number of worshipping Anglicans in them). We are concerned that more needs to be done, given the unprecedented levels of mistrust and non-participation in the legacy instruments, if the “ecclesial deficit” we face is to be addressed.

3. It would appear that the underlying assumption implied in the theological methodology of IASCUFO’s approach is that, contrary to the Communion’s clear past statements, the teaching of Scripture on matters of human sexuality is unclear and so the areas of disagreement are to be treated as adiaphora and the subject of unending dialogue until the Lord returns (43, 57). Is this what is being claimed?

4. Does the revised definition of the Anglican Communion not significantly water down the historic identity of global Anglicanism and (in contrast to the GSFA Cairo Covenant and GAFCON’s Jerusalem Declaration) fail to offer an ecclesiology clearly under the authority of the Word of God?

5. In particular, in contrast to the Cairo Covenant and earlier attempts to address the Communion’s travails such as The Windsor Report and the proposed Anglican Communion Covenant, there appears to be no place for exercising discipline against teaching judged to be contrary to Scripture. While the recognition of the need for distance or differentiation is welcome, how does a “commitment to making room for each other” not amount to acceptance of “serious doctrinal error and moral jeopardy” (48) within the Anglican Communion?

Conclusion

EFAC Global therefore welcomes the full acknowledgment by IASCUFO of the wounds of division in the Communion and the proposal that the Communion is no longer to be defined by relationship to Canterbury. It is vital, however, that in ongoing reflection on our calling as the Church, the state of the Communion, and the report’s proposals to find a new way forward, that we are not found to come under the Lord’s judgment through the prophet Jeremiah: ‘they have healed the wound of my people lightly’ (8:11).

^[i] https://www.anglicancommunion.org/ecumenism/iascufo/the-nairobi-cairo-proposals.aspx

^[ii] Numbers in parenthesis refer to paragraph numbers in the IASCUFO paper