Archbishop Laurent Mbanda has been "unanimously" elected as Chairman of the - newly created, freshly-named - Global Anglican Council (GAC).
The news comes on day three of the Global G26 Conference being held in Abuja, Nigeria by Gafcon, the worldwide movement of conservative, Bible-based Anglicans.
In an announcement on its website, it was revealed that the Gafcon Primates have dissolved the "Gafcon Primates Council", and are creating a new "Global Anglican Council".
The statement describes the world as a place where "most organisations and individuals are concerned about keeping power and authority" and goes on to provide details of the newly named Council: "[It] includes primates, advisors, and guarantors, which will include bishops, clergy, and lay members each with full voting privileges."
It continues: "This expanded Council reflects the willingness of the Primates to share their authority with a wider group of global Anglican leaders, both lay and clergy. While the Chairman of the Council will be a Primate, he will not be primus inter pares (first amongst equals)."
In addition to Mbanda's election as Chairman, Archbishop Miguel Uchoa was "unanimously" elected as Vice-Chairman and Bishop Paul Donison as General Secretary.
Speaking exclusively to en following the announcement, Josep Rossello - Assistant Bishop in the Anglican Convocation Europe (a diocese of the evangelical Anglican Network in Europe) - said: "The formation of the new Global Anglican Council isn’t just an administrative decision; it’s a declaration that the future has arrived.
"By gathering in Abuja this week, we are moving from standing for the faith to reaching the nations with the gospel of Christ. We walk together in unity and truth as global Anglicans who remain faithful to the historic, Biblical, Anglican Church."
The Gafcon Primates Council has led the Gafcon movement since 2008, after being set up by the first Global Anglican Future Conference at its meeting in Jerusalem.
"The Global Anglican Council has discerned that if we are to move past old structures, we must leave behind old titles as well," said Gafcon General Secretary Paul Donison. The organisation has come to the conclusion that the "current Instruments of Communion" no longer meet the needs of the majority of Anglicans around the world and so the Global Anglican Communion is to be led by a conciliar structure (where authority is exercised through councils, rather than a single, "centralised", leader, with decisions made corporately by consensus).
Mbanda, Uchoa and Donison's terms will conclude at the end of Gafcon V in Athens in 2028. The Council also determined that Primates who retire from their Provincial office between Gafcon Assemblies may remain on the Council until the conclusion of the next Gafcon Assembly.
"Today is a historic day for the Global Anglican Communion," the organisation concludes. "Indeed, the future has arrived!"
For more details on the G26 Global Conference, see Monday's en piece here.
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