This week in Australia, a group of Anglicans have joined together to launch the “Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans,” which seeks reform the church around the “biblical gospel”.

The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA) is a fellowship that recognises Anglicans according to their doctrine, rather than by their historical practices.

“It’s a fellowship of Anglicans who particularly subscribe to, who confess a particular statement of faith: the Jerusalem Declaration,” says Richard Condie, Archdeacon of Melbourne and the chairman of FCA Australia’s board. [The Jerusalem Declaration is a 16-point declaration of contemporary orthodox Anglicanism that tries to touch on some of the key issues in our world today according to the conservative position].

Condie says the aim of the FCA is to “promote orthodox Anglican theology and practice in the Anglican Church of Australia and to bring life and vitality into churches.”

In England, New Zealand and the United States, “we have seen an accommodation of the gospel message, especially around issues of sexuality” says Condie.

“There is an erosion of confidence in the truth of the Bible that has led to an erosion of teaching about sexuality, the uniqueness of Christ, the resurrection, about abortion, euthanasia, and all kinds of things, such that this is not recognisable as historic biblical Christianity.

“And there’s been faithful people, faithful Anglicans, still sticking to the scriptures,” says Condie. “What happens to people who still hold to the Bible’s teaching? They suddenly become out of fellowship with their leaders. Who are they then in fellowship with?”

We are not at the same point in Australia, says Condie, but “many of us fear that a crisis is coming in the Australian Anglican Church, where one of our leaders – one of our Bishops – will step outside the bounds of orthodoxy.”

Sexuality and the role of homosexual people in the leadership of the church is the presenting issue in the modern day. “That is probably the area we’re going to fall over on, and at that moment it’s going to be very hard for an orthodox Anglican who believes the Bible to accept the authority of their bishop when they teach that something that the Bible calls sin is not sin,” says Condie.

“I would much rather go to the wall over the resurrection or over the uniqueness of Christ than I would over sexuality, but that happens to be the issue of our day.”

“We have lost confidence in the authority of the Bible to let us know how we should live,” says Condie. “The symptom is what we decide about human sexuality, but the cause is what we decide about the Bible, and the authority of the Bible. And Anglicans have always been Bible people.

“It is about being in fellowship with those people who are out of fellowship, it is about proactively creating discussion around orthodoxy, and then it is there as an emergency organisation to swing into action to try and help people if and when something happens that is contrary to God’s word.”

The FCA is being launched at the Anglican Futures Conference being held in Melbourne this week.