Archbishop Titus Chung, honorary secretary of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA), has become the first major conservative Anglican leader to express concerns about the implications of the launch of a Global Anglican Communion since it was announced in a GAFCON communiqué nearly two weeks ago.
An October 28 statement with Chung’s signature, issued by the bishops of the Province of the Anglican Church of South East Asia that he leads as primate, acknowledged that the GAFCON announcement marks “an important moment in the ongoing life of the worldwide Anglican family,” but the bishops suggest that a lengthy process of discernment will be necessary to evaluate the idea. They also signal a desire to engage further with proposals for restructuring the Anglican Communion that are not due to be acted upon until next summer.
This likely quashes any hopes GAFCON leaders may have had that Chung would participate in the first gathering of the Global Anglican Communion’s Council of Primates, which is to convene in Nigeria just over four months from now.
“Significant existential, structural, and ecclesiological questions have been raised by the communiqué—particularly regarding the Instruments of Communion, which require careful study and prayerful discernment, especially in light of ongoing discussions of reform. These matters have serious implications for the unity, governance, faith, order, and the future mission of the Church,” the bishops write.
“Accordingly, the Province will act in consultation with its Provincial Synod, Provincial Standing Committee to engage our Dioceses and members, in accordance with due canonical process. The Bishops of the Province are fully committed to maintaining unity and seeking common cause under God, within the teachings of Holy Scripture, together with the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches, of which the Province is a member.”
The bishops’ message also mentions its agreement with many of the GAFCON communique’s claims about Anglican faith and order, as well as its firm support for a traditional understanding of marriage.
“We fully understand GAFCON’s deep concern for the faithfulness of the Church to the authority of Holy Scripture, and we most certainly affirm the historic Anglican convictions that Scripture contains all things necessary for salvation, that Jesus Christ is the only Savior and Lord, and that marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman. We maintain a steadfast commitment to these biblical truths, the renewal of Anglican witness globally, and eschew all revisionist teachings that speak against traditional orthodoxy and biblical truths concerning sexuality,” the bishops say.
“We call upon all members of our beloved Province to continuously pray for the Anglican Communion—that the Lord will purify His Church, renew her witness, and unite His people in truth and love,” they add.
Despite South East Asia’s key role in the launch of Anglican realignment in 2000, the province has pursued a much more cautious course under the leadership of Chung and his predecessor, Archbishop Melter Tais.
The church’s bishops firmly condemned the Church of England’s 2023 decision to allow the blessing of same-sex unions, calling it unbiblical and stating that they found the claim that its doctrine had not changed unconvincing. Yet they also said that they remained in communion with the Church of England, believing that “the unity of the Anglican Communion should not be lightly abandoned.”
Though South East Asia has played a leading role in the GSFA since its origins in the 1990s, Tais declined to sign the Ash Wednesday Statement by ten GSFA primates that responded to the same decision by rejecting Archbishop Justin Welby as the “first among equals leader of the Anglican Communion” because of his support for same-sex blessings. After becoming primate in October 2023, Chung participated in the 2024 Primates’ Meeting convened by Welby (unlike most GSFA primates who signed the Ash Wednesday Statement).
He serves on the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith, and Order, which developed the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals, the plan for reform of the Anglican Communion’s structures mentioned in the bishops’ recent statement, which are due to be considered for adoption by the Anglican Consultative Council next summer.
The Anglican Communion’s Secretary General, Bishop Anthony Poggo, argued in his pastoral letter in response to the GAFCON communiqué that the proposals could be a constructive way of addressing some issues raised by the communiqué.
Bishops of the Church of South East Asia were elected to numerous positions of leadership at the First Assembly of the GSFA’s Covenantal Structure in 2024. In addition to Chung’s election as one of the Steering Committee’s officers, Tais was one of three bishops elected to the Board of the Assembly. Two of the province’s other bishops, Stephen Abbarrow of West Malaysia and Danald Jute of Kuching, were chosen to serve with Chung on its Faith and Order Commission, which could eventually be tasked with preparing a response to GAFCON’s proposal (they are three of seven members of the commission).
The patient, rigorous approach to discernment about the GAFCON proposal outlined by South East Asia’s bishops is more characteristic of the GSFA, which has often described itself as an “ecclesial body,” as distinguished from the “movement” of GAFCON. A senior GSFA leader recently told The Living Church that the body had no immediate plans to issue a statement about the Global Anglican Communion launch, as this would involve lengthy consultation.
A familiar modern Anglican maxim holds that GSFA moves on Asian time and GAFCON on American time. The Global Anglican Communion’s future could well end up caught between the two.
The Rev. Mark Michael is editor-in-chief of The Living Church. An Episcopal priest, he has reported widely on global Anglicanism, and also writes about church history, liturgy, and pastoral ministry.
