ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Conservative Anglican leaders have restructured their organization, signaling a break from the traditions of the historic Anglican Communion as they seek to reorder the 400-year-old church group.
The Global Anglican Future Conference, or Gafcon, dissolved its Gafcon Primates Council and replaced it with the Global Anglican Council.
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Leaders of numerous Anglican churches attend a religious service on the sidelines of their meeting of the Anglican Communion in Abuja, Nigeria, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Olamikan Gbemiga)
Leaders of numerous Anglican churches leave after attending a religious service on the sidelines of their meeting of the Anglican Communion in Abuja, Nigeria, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Olamikan Gbemiga)
Leaders of numerous Anglican churches leave after attending a religious service on the sidelines of their meeting of the Anglican Communion in Abuja, Nigeria, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Olamikan Gbemiga)
Rwanda Archbishop Revd Dr. Laurent Mbanda, chairman of the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, or Gafcon, left, and his wife Chantel Mbanda, leave after attending a religious service on the sidelines of a meeting by the Anglican Communion in Abuja, Nigeria, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Olamikan Gbemiga)
The new council will include primates, advisers and guarantors, made up of bishops, clergy and lay members, each with full voting privileges, Gafcon general secretary The Right Reverend Paul Donison said in a statement.
The announcement came during a meeting of the church’s conservative leaders in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, that drew 436 delegates from 48 countries representing over 180 dioceses from across the world.
“While the Chairman of the Council will be a Primate, he will not be primus inter pares (first amongst equals),” Donison said. “Believing that the current Instruments of Communion no longer meet the needs of the majority of Anglicans around the world, the Global Anglican Communion is to be led by a conciliar structure.”
Gafcon leaders have opposed liberal trends such as same-sex marriage and the ordination of openly LGBTQ+ clergy in the Anglican churches of Europe and North America, including the Episcopal Church in the United States.
Divisions have widened so sharply over recent decades that some national churches stopped participating in Anglican Communion gatherings.
Archbishop Laurent Mbanda from Rwanda, who was unanimously elected as chair of the new Global Anglican Council, told the Advent Cable Network Nigeria, the televangelism arm of the Church of Nigeria, on Thursday that leaders within Gafcon’s ranks must “reject those instruments that have not worked for us in the past.”
One of the Anglican Church’s instruments of leadership includes the Archbishop of Canterbury, currently Sarah Mullally, the church’s spiritual head and the first woman in that position. Mullally has faced opposition in her role as leader of the church.
Last year, Mbanda called for a break from the historic communion as it’s currently structured, declaring that “the Anglican Communion will be reordered.”
Leaders of numerous Anglican churches attend a religious service on the sidelines of their meeting of the Anglican Communion in Abuja, Nigeria, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Olamikan Gbemiga)
Leaders of numerous Anglican churches leave after attending a religious service on the sidelines of their meeting of the Anglican Communion in Abuja, Nigeria, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Olamikan Gbemiga)
Leaders of numerous Anglican churches leave after attending a religious service on the sidelines of their meeting of the Anglican Communion in Abuja, Nigeria, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Olamikan Gbemiga)
Rwanda Archbishop Revd Dr. Laurent Mbanda, chairman of the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, or Gafcon, left, and his wife Chantel Mbanda, leave after attending a religious service on the sidelines of a meeting by the Anglican Communion in Abuja, Nigeria, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Olamikan Gbemiga)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The United States and its allies in the Middle East are seeking Ukraine’s expertise in countering Iran’s Shahed drones, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Various countries, including the United States, have approached Ukraine for help in defending against the Iranian drones, Zelenskyy said late Wednesday. He said he has spoken in recent days with the leaders of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait about possible cooperation.
Russia has fired tens of thousands of Shaheds at Ukraine since it invaded its neighbor just over four years ago, launching a swarm of more than 800 drones and decoys in its biggest nighttime barrage. Iran has responded to joint U.S.-Israeli strikes by launching the same type of drones at countries in the Middle East.
Ukrainian assistance in countering Iranian drones will be provided only if it does not weaken Ukraine’s own defenses, and if it adds leverage to Kyiv’s diplomatic efforts to stop the Russian invasion, according to the Ukrainian leader.
“We help to defend from war those who help us, Ukraine, bring a just end to the war” with Russia, Zelenskyy said. Later Thursday, Zelenskyy said he had received a U.S. request for support to defend against the drones in the Middle East and had given the order for equipment to be provided along with Ukrainian experts without providing further details.
“Ukraine helps partners who help our security and the protection of our people’s lives,” he added in a social media post.
The White House did not respond to a message seeking comment Thursday.
Ukraine has pioneered the development of cut-price drone killers that cost as little as $1,000, rewriting the air defense rule book and making other countries take notice.
European countries got a wake-up call last September on the changed nature of air defense when Poland scrambled multimillion-dollar military assets, including F-35 and F-16 fighter jets and Black Hawk helicopters, in response to airspace violations by cheap drones.
Ukrainian manufacturers have developed low-cost interceptor drones specifically designed to hunt and destroy Shaheds, and its rapidly expanding drone industry is producing excess capacity.
Zelenskyy announced earlier this year that Ukraine would begin exporting the battle-tested systems.
The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said before chairing a meeting of EU and Gulf foreign ministers via video link Thursday that the talks would look at how Ukraine’s experience can help countries counter Iranian drones.
The Iran war, now in its sixth day, has drawn international attention away from Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II, and forced the postponement of a new round of U. S-brokered talks between Russia and Ukraine planned for this week, Zelenskyy said.
Western governments and analysts say the Russia-Ukraine war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, while there is no sign that yearlong U.S.-led peace efforts will stop the fighting any time soon.
“Right now, because of the situation around Iran, there are not yet the necessary signals for a trilateral meeting,” Zelenskyy said. “But as soon as the security situation and the overall political context allow us to resume that trilateral diplomatic work, it will be done.”
Zelenskyy thanked the United States for the return from Russia on Thursday of 200 Ukrainian prisoners of war. Russia's Defense Ministry also said it received the same number of prisoners from Ukraine and thanked the U.S. and United Arab Emirates for mediating.
Prisoner swaps have been one of the few tangible results of the talks. Vladimir Medinsky, a Russian negotiator, said on social media that a total of 500 prisoners from each side would be exchanged between Thursday and Friday.
Oleksandr Merezhko, the head of Ukraine’s parliamentary foreign affairs committee, said Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to drag out the negotiations so that he can press on with Russia’s invasion while escaping further U.S. sanctions.
He urged the U.S. administration to look at the Russia-Ukraine war and the war in the Middle East as linked.
“In reality, Russia and Iran are close allies that act in concert — Iran supplies weapons and Russia helps Iran develop its defense industry. These are interconnected conflicts,” Merezhko told The Associated Press.
Ukraine’s army has recently pushed back Russian forces at some points along the roughly 1,250-kilometer (750-mile) front line, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
Localized Ukrainian counterattacks liberated more territory than Ukrainian forces lost in the last two weeks of February, the Washington-based think tank said this week, estimating the recovered land at about 257 square kilometers (100 square miles) since Jan. 1.
Associated Press writers Lorne Cook in Brussels and Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
A Ukrainian soldier of the 48th separate brigade launches a reconnaissance drone in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
A Ukrainian soldier of the 48th separate brigade launches a reconnaissance drone in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
