In a sorrowful letter released today, the Most Reverend Dr. Laurent Mbanda, Chairman of the Gafcon Primates Council, has condemned the recent election of the Rt Revd Cherry Vann as Archbishop and Primate of the Church in Wales.
The election, which Mbanda describes as “another painful nail in the coffin of Anglican orthodoxy,” has prompted Gafcon to extend an invitation to Welsh Anglicans to join its network.
Mbanda’s letter, addressed to the “Gafcon family,” expresses a “heavy heart” over the events in Wales, stating that by celebrating the election and Vann’s “immoral same-sex relationship,” the “Canterbury Communion has again bowed to worldly pressure.”
Read Full Letter Below
Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Gafcon family,
Grace and peace to you from Jesus Christ, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the earth.
It is with a heavy heart that I write to you of grievous events in our beloved Anglican Communion.
The decision by the Church in Wales to elect the Rt Revd Cherry Vann as Archbishop and Primate is another painful nail in the coffin of Anglican orthodoxy.
By celebrating this election and her immoral same-sex relationship, the Canterbury Communion has again bowed to worldly pressure that subverts God’s good word.
For the Bible is clear about those who “exchange the truth about God for a lie” (Romans 1:25).
For it says that “God gave them over to shameful lusts” as “their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones”, their “men also abandoned natural relations with women” and “committed shameful acts with other men”, and that even though “they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” (Romans 1:26-27, 32)
The Bible predicted there would be “false teachers among you” and that those who follow their depraved conduct “will bring the way of truth into disrepute” (2 Peter 2:1-2).
In fact, Jesus himself judged the church in Thyatira and their tolerance of a woman who “misleads my servants into sexual immorality” (Revelation 2:20).
We must confront serious error that compromises God’s glorious and authoritative word on human sexuality.
We must speak up and take a stand.
As we met to reform and renew the Anglican Communion in 2008, Gafcon delivered the Jerusalem Statement which outlined the true heart of Anglican orthodoxy.
We took a stand about the truth of God’s word, and we continue to stand in fellowship with the majority of the world’s Anglicans who grieve this rejection of God’s voice.
We must stand again against the relentless pressure of Anglican revisionists who blatantly impose their immorality upon Christ’s precious church.
And we stand with our Anglican brothers and sisters in Wales who are dismayed and disheartened by this act of apostasy.
We established The Anglican Network in Europe (ANiE) as a home for those who wish to remain authentically Anglican, but whose conscience demands they leave Canterbury.
And Gafcon again opens our arms as a safe refuge for the faithful in the Church in Wales who in good conscience must now leave.
You are not alone.
Gafcon stands with you.
We long to see the Bible at the heart of the Anglican Communion.
So, we call upon every Anglican to embrace our Reformation heritage by willingly submitting to the glorious word of Christ in every part of life.
We cannot sit by and let this failure in leadership remain.
We cannot sit on our hands and let this apostasy continue.
We must take a stand.
We stand with authentic Anglicans.
The Most Reverend Dr. Laurent Mbanda
Chairman, Gafcon Primates Council
Friday, 1st August, 2025
