A Gaff and A Con

The somewhat bizarre statement of 16 October 2025 by The Most Reverend Dr Laurent Mbanda, the Primate of Rwanda, as Chairman of the GAFCON Primates' Council, in which he claims that they are the legitimate future leaders of the Anglican Communion, is not only foolish but very sadly regrettable for a number of reasons.Just at the time when a divided and fractured world is in need of the Church of God to be a sign of human unity and peace, Archbishop Mbanda announced the withdrawal of the GAFCON Churches from Communion, not only with the See of Canterbury and the Church of England but with all other Churches of the Anglican Communion which do not similarly join them in breaking this sacred fellowship.Somewhat confusedly, this withdrawal of Communion is said not to be a withdrawal from the Anglican Communion, but the first step in a 're-ordering' of the Anglican Communion, something which one might think is the legitimate task of the Anglican Communion as a whole rather than of a sub-group trying to effect a kind of ecclesiastical coup.The statement hardly qualifies as an expression of Christian charity and mutual respect.The thinking of the statement is sadly wanting in theological coherence for a number of reasons:1. First, it mistakenly imagines that the Anglican Communion may be reordered with 'only one foundation of communion', namely the Holy Bible.It goes on to allege that the Anglican Communion 'has abandoned the inerrant word of God' which it says therefore has to be 'restored to the heart of the Communion'.This claim to biblical inerrancy is surely wishful thinking.Furthermore, it insists that the Bible is to be 'translated, read, preached, taught and obeyed in its plain and canonical sense, respectful of the church's historic and consensual reading'.This is a quotation of GAFCON'S Jerusalem Declaration, Article II, which is said 'to reflect Article VI of the 39 Articles of Religion'.When we go to Article VI of the Anglican 39 Articles of Religion, however, it says nothing about the Scriptures being inerrant.Rather, it asserts that the Scriptures 'contain all things necessary to salvation so that whatsoever cannot be read therein, or proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it