Abuja analysis: Gafcon finds its next step

This week, 347 Anglican bishops and 121 lay and clergy Anglican leaders from 27 provinces met in Abuja, hosted by the Church of Nigeria, to “confer and celebrate the Global Anglican Communion”.

The meeting was trailed as a “kairos moment” by Bishop Paul Donison, Gafcon’s General Secretary, a Communion re-ordering. In late October he had set out that the Conference would include the Council of Primates electing a primus inter pares, a "first among equals", to lead the Communion. Yet, in a surprise move mid-way through the gathering, a communique confirmed that the Council of Primates is to be reconstituted as a new leadership body, the Global Anglican Council, with a mix of members including primates, advisors, and guarantors (see en news article here).

Furthermore, its new unanimously elected Chairman Archbishop Laurent Mbanda of Rwanda would not be primus inter pares after all, as the new Council had “discerned that if we are to move past old structures, we must leave behind old titles as well”.