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The Future of Anglicanism is Here

2018 GAFCON Assembly in Jerusalem.

“The future has arrived.” — GAFCON Primates’ Council, October 16, 2025

The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) has declared that the long-awaited reformation of worldwide Anglicanism is now complete.

This isn’t a small breakaway faction. The churches represented by GAFCON — together with the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) — account for roughly 85 percent of Anglicans worldwide .

In other words, the center of gravity has shifted. What began as a reform movement is now the mainstream of global Anglicanism.

A Communion at the Crossroads

For decades, the Anglican Communion has struggled to maintain unity in the face of theological drift.

At the heart of the dispute lies a question as old as the Reformation: Is the Church ultimately governed by Scripture or by institutional authority?

When certain Western provinces — notably The Episcopal Church (USA), the Anglican Church of Canada, and, more recently, the Church of England — endorsed or blessed same-sex relationships, they crossed a clear biblical and confessional line.

GAFCON’s 2008 Jerusalem Statement described this as “the acceptance and promotion…of a different gospel…which undermines the authority of God’s Word written” .

That compromise, the statement warned, “tore the fabric of the Communion in such a way that it cannot simply be patched back together” .

What GAFCON’s 2025 Statement Declares

The latest communiqué, “The Future Has Arrived,” announces a decisive re-ordering of the Anglican world.

A. One Foundation of Communion

“The Anglican Communion will be reordered, with only one foundation of communion, namely the Holy Bible…translated, read, preached, taught and obeyed in its plain and canonical sense.” 

Unity, therefore, is defined not by institutional recognition but by obedience to Scripture.

B. Rejection of Failed Instruments

The statement rejects the four traditional Instruments of Communion — Canterbury, Lambeth, the Anglican Consultative Council, and the Primates’ Meeting — citing their “failure to uphold the doctrine and discipline of the Anglican Communion.”

The 2008 and 2018 conference documents chronicle years of pleas and ignored warnings. Bishops who defied biblical teaching on sexuality were welcomed at Lambeth, while those who upheld Scripture were marginalized.

C. A Return to Anglicanism’s Original Shape

GAFCON affirms that it has not abandoned Anglicanism; rather, it has reclaimed it:

“We have not left the Anglican Communion; we are the Anglican Communion.” 

The movement restores the pattern of autonomous provinces bound by the Reformation formularies — the Thirty-Nine Articles, Book of Common Prayer, and Ordinal — governed by a new Council of Primates.

The Crux of the Problem

The issue is not simply moral or political. It’s theological — a crisis of authority and repentance.

From the beginning, GAFCON identified a “false gospel” being preached within the Communion — one that:

  • Denies the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as “the way, the truth, and the life.”
  • Redefines sin, blessing same-sex unions “over against the biblical teaching on holy matrimony.”
  • Treats sexual immorality as a human right rather than rebellion against God .

At the 2023 Kigali Conference, GAFCON condemned the Church of England’s decision to bless same-sex couples, calling it “pastorally deceptive and blasphemous to craft prayers that invoke blessing in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

It also noted that “public statements by the Archbishop of Canterbury … in support of same-sex blessings are a betrayal of their vows to uphold Scripture.” 

In short, this is not about politics — it’s about whether Christ’s Church will call sin what Scripture calls sin, and whether grace still means repentance and transformation.

A Global Majority Standing Firm

What makes this moment unprecedented is scale and maturity.

The GAFCON-GSFA alliance represents tens of millions of believers across Africa, Asia, South America, and Oceania — the true heartland of the Anglican faith.

“Together, these Primates represent the overwhelming majority (estimated at 85%) of Anglicans worldwide.” 

These provinces have grown precisely because they have refused to dilute the gospel.

In places like Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, and South Sudan, Anglicanism is vibrant, missionary, and thoroughly biblical. The “old center” in the West may be collapsing, but the faith itself is flourishing.

A Model for Christian Faithfulness

Even for non-Anglicans, GAFCON offers a compelling model:

Reformation, Not Rebellion

When human institutions compromise truth, reform is not division — it’s obedience.

As the apostles said in Acts 5:29: “We must obey God rather than men.”

The Courage of Global South Christians

These churches have demonstrated what fidelity looks like under pressure — rejecting Western funding rather than accepting moral revisionism.

They show that global Christianity’s future lies not in appeasement but in conviction.

Scripture as the Sole Foundation

GAFCON’s stance reminds us that Christian unity must be confessional, not sentimental. There is no communion without truth.

For Anglicans Still Within Compromised Provinces

For believers in provinces still aligned with Canterbury, the path forward is clear.

Local GAFCON branches provide fellowship and recognition without requiring institutional permission.

The Jerusalem Declaration (2008) remains the touchstone of authentic Anglican identity — Scripture first, mission always.

“Every person is loved by God, and we are determined to love as God loves… yet appropriate pastoral care does not include pretending that God blesses sin.” 

The Future of the Faith

The GAFCON statement concludes with a simple, gospel-shaped refrain:

“To whom shall we go? We go to Christ who alone has the words of eternal life — and then we go with Christ to the whole world.” 

The re-ordered Communion now called the Global Anglican Communion embodies that mission. It has reclaimed historic orthodoxy and the missionary heart that once defined Anglicanism.

For Christians everywhere, this moment asks hard but hopeful questions:

  • Are we willing to lose institutions in order to keep the gospel?
  • Can we learn from the Global South’s courage?
  • Will we measure unity by shared truth rather than shared bureaucracy?

The future of Anglicanism — and perhaps the future of orthodox Christianity in the West — will depend on how we answer.

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Grace and Truth

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‘You Cannot Change Sex’: Veteran NHS Doctor Challenges Gender Medicine

Step into the Light

In a strongly worded open letter, Dr. Joseph Chrysostom warns young people against what he calls “deceptive” gender medical practices, including irreversible surgeries and hormone treatments. He claims these interventions do not create functioning sexual organs, but rather permanent wounds and dependencies on the medical system. He also accuses institutions of failing to protect youth and predicts growing accountability in the years ahead.

Open Letter to British Youth Considering Gender Surgery

Dear Young People, I am Dr. Joseph Chrysostom, a medical doctor who has served in the NHS for over 25 years. I am writing to you out of deep concern and genuine care — to warn you about what I believe to be some of the most harmful and deceptive medical practices currently happening in our country. These include the use of cross-sex hormones and surgeries such as vaginoplasty, orchidectomy, and phalloplasty, offered both within and outside the NHS. What I write here reflects my professional opinion and sincerely held belief based on my knowledge of human biology and surgical practice.

You have been told that you can “change sex.” But biologically, that is impossible. Every one of your body’s trillions of cells carries either XX or XY chromosomes — a genetic signature that cannot be altered by hormones or surgery. To claim otherwise is, in my view, deeply misleading. Any doctor or institution promising to “feminise” or “masculinise” the human body without changing its DNA is, in effect, deceiving you.

I believe this deception began early — in schools, through Relationship and Sex Education materials that claimed gender is fluid and that sex is “assigned at birth.”

That is false. Sex is determined at conception, and by the seventh week of foetal development, it is already biologically clear whether a person is male or female. By teaching that doctors might have “assigned” you the wrong sex, these materials planted a dangerous idea — one that could easily take hold during adolescence, a time when self-doubt and confusion are common.

In my view, this was not education but indoctrination. Schools were instructed to hide these matters from parents — the very people best placed to support you through emotional confusion. This isolation mirrors the pattern seen in cult-like ideologies: separating young people from those who love them most. Once detached from parental guidance, vulnerable youth become easy targets for ideologues and, later, for those in medicine who profit from these falsehoods. Sadly, some doctors, surgeons, endocrinologists and psychologists — knowingly or not — have become part of this system.

Cross-sex hormones are being prescribed despite well-documented long-term complications. Surgeons have begun to perform irreversible operations on healthy bodies. When challenged, the professional institutions — Royal Colleges, GMC, NHS England, and the Department of Health — all pass responsibility between themselves. No one will say these surgeries are not deceptive. Yet none will take accountability either.

Let me be clear about what these procedures truly involve:

Vaginoplasty does not create a vagina. It creates a deep surgical slit-like narrow space lined with skin. It is a wound tending to heal and contract, not an organ. It lacks the glands, microbiome, glycogen-rich inner lining, acidic pH (to protect against infections) and natural functions of a female reproductive tract.

Phalloplasty does not create a penis. It forms a mound of skin and fat from another part of the body. It cannot perform erection, emission, or ejaculation — the defining functions of male sexual anatomy.

Mastectomy cannot make a female chest into a male one. It leaves irreversible scars and removes healthy breasts permanently leaving you incapable of lactation. These are not restorative surgeries — they are destructive ones. In my opinion, they have the potential to turn healthy young people into lifelong patients, dependent on the medical system for repairs, revisions, and mental health support.

What you truly need is not surgery, but psychotherapy — compassionate, skilled counselling to help you understand and accept your biological reality.

You deserve truth, not ideology. You deserve to be treated with honesty, not with the promise of impossible transformations. I believe that within a few years, many of those who underwent these surgeries will express deep regret — but by then, it will be too late. Lost organs cannot be replaced. The physical and psychological scars are permanent.

I urge you: step away from the conveyor belt that starts in classrooms and ends in operating theatres. Parents and professionals across the world are now awakening to the dangers of gender ideology. Within the next few years this conveyor belt will be empty due to the alertness of current generation of parents.

Accountability is coming. I believe, those who performed, assisted, promoted, or profited from these procedures will one day have to answer for them. Thank you for reading this letter with an open mind. I write not to condemn you, but to protect you — before irreversible harm is done.

With sincerity and concern,
Dr. Joseph Chrysostom,
MBBS, MS (Gen Surg), FRCSEd GMC 5199143

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Step into the Light

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The Promise of Disembodiment? A Big Lie!

Modern culture is haunted by a fantasy: that our bodies don’t matter, that they are clay to be reshaped at will, or husks to be cast aside when they no longer serve us. Liel Leibovitz, in a striking First Things essay, names this trend “the promise of disembodiment”—and shows how dangerous it truly is.

“Those of us who know that we were created in God’s image have no choice but to acknowledge our bodies, those awkward earthly vessels that matter and cannot be manipulated as if they were raw material for our disembodied wills.”

From abortion to assisted suicide, from the sexual revolution to today’s transgender movement, the same underlying assumption appears again and again: the body is not sacred. It is merely a tool, an accident, or worse—a hindrance.

Leibovitz observes:

“Take away this belief in the sacred character of the body and it becomes not a temple but a speed bump.”

And once our bodies are seen as speed bumps, it becomes easier to justify all kinds of destruction. Babies in the womb are “clumps of cells.” The elderly and the sick become “burdens.” Male and female cease to be God-given realities and are recast as fluid “identities” invented in the imagination.

Why the Lie Is So Appealing

The disembodiment lie seduces because it offers a counterfeit freedom. If my body is irrelevant, then I can define myself however I wish. I can erase biological sex, evade the natural consequences of sex, or reject life itself when it no longer feels worth living.

But this “freedom” comes at a terrible cost. As Leibovitz warns, it is really an escape from reality itself:

“When you do away with the sanctity of the body, you invite tyranny, because you are no longer bound to acknowledge what is real, only what is willed.”

This is not just a philosophical mistake. It is a spiritual rebellion. To reject the body is to reject the Creator who formed us from the dust and breathed into us the breath of life (Gen. 2:7).

The Christian Response

The Christian worldview stands in radical opposition to this false promise. Scripture declares:

  • “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27).
  • Jesus himself affirms this when he says, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female” (Matt. 19:4).
  • St. Paul reminds us, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you…? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies” (1 Cor. 6:19–20).

In other words: the body is not an afterthought. It is sacred. It is integral to our personhood. It is destined for resurrection glory.

Why This Matters Now

We live in a culture where disembodiment is the new orthodoxy. Children are taught they can “change” their sex. Courts and legislatures increasingly normalize euthanasia. The abortion industry insists that unborn life is expendable. And technologies—from artificial wombs to digital fantasies of “uploading consciousness”—offer new variations of the same old lie: that we can escape the body.

But Christians must speak clearly: these are not paths to freedom. They are forms of bondage. To despise the body is to despise the very goodness of creation. To mutilate the body is to mutilate the image of God.

As Leibovitz writes:

“The rejection of the body is the rejection of limits, and the rejection of limits is the rejection of responsibility. And where responsibility vanishes, so does love.”

This last point is crucial. A world that despises the body cannot sustain love, because love, as humans, requires embodiment. It requires showing up in the flesh, bearing burdens, honoring the vulnerable, cherishing the other as they are given to us.

The True Promise: Resurrection

The gospel gives us not the false promise of disembodiment, but the true promise of resurrection. Christ himself was raised bodily from the grave. His glorified flesh is the guarantee of our future. The destiny of the Christian is not escape from the body, but the redemption of the body (Rom. 8:23).

The big lie of disembodiment ends in alienation, confusion, and death. You won’t find love there. The truth of the gospel ends in communion, clarity, and eternal life.

So let us reject the false prophets of disembodiment. Let us instead proclaim and live the truth: our bodies matter, because God made them, Christ redeemed them, and the Spirit indwells them.

SOURCE: Radical Disembodiment by Liel Leibovitz

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Don’t Believe the Lies