What we believe

We, the participants in the Global Anglican Future Conference, have  met in the land of Jesus’ birth. We express our loyalty as disciples to  the King of kings, the Lord Jesus. We joyfully embrace his command to  proclaim the reality of his kingdom which he first announced in this  land. The gospel of the kingdom is the good news of salvation,  liberation and transformation for all. In light of the above, we agree  to chart a way forward together that promotes and protects the biblical  gospel and mission to the world, solemnly declaring the following tenets  of orthodoxy which underpin our Anglican identity.

1. We rejoice in the gospel of God through which we have been saved by  grace through faith in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Because God first loved us, we love him and as believers bring forth  fruits of love, ongoing repentance, lively hope and thanksgiving to God  in all things.

2. We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be  the Word of God written and to contain all things necessary for  salvation. 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.

3. We uphold the four Ecumenical Councils and the three historic Creeds as expressing the rule of faith of the one holy catholic and apostolic  Church.

4. We uphold the Thirty-nine Articles as containing the true doctrine  of the Church agreeing with God’s Word and as authoritative for  Anglicans today.

5. We gladly proclaim and submit to the unique and universal Lordship  of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, humanity’s only Savior from sin,  judgement and hell, who lived the life we could not live and died the  death that we deserve. By his atoning death and glorious resurrection,  he secured the redemption of all who come to him in repentance and  faith.

6. We rejoice in our Anglican sacramental and liturgical heritage as an  expression of the gospel, and we uphold the 1662 Book of Common Prayer as a true and authoritative standard of worship and prayer, to be  translated and locally adapted for each culture.

7. We recognize that God has called and gifted bishops, priests and  deacons in historic succession to equip all the people of God for their  ministry in the world. We uphold the classic Anglican Ordinal as an  authoritative standard of clerical orders.

8. We acknowledge God’s creation of humankind as male and female and  the unchangeable standard of Christian marriage between one man and one  woman as the proper place for sexual intimacy and the basis of the  family. We repent of our failures to maintain this standard and call for  a renewed commitment to lifelong fidelity in marriage and abstinence  for those who are not married.

9. We gladly accept the Great Commission of the risen Lord to make disciples of all nations, to seek those who do not know Christ and to  baptize, teach and bring new believers to maturity.

10. We are mindful of our responsibility to be good stewards of God’s  creation, to uphold and advocate justice in society, and to seek relief  and empowerment of the poor and needy.

11. We are committed to the unity of all those who know and love Christ and to building authentic ecumenical relationships. We recognize the orders and jurisdiction of those Anglicans who uphold orthodox faith and  practice, and we encourage them to join us in this declaration.

12. We celebrate the God-given diversity among us which enriches our  global fellowship, and we acknowledge freedom in secondary matters. We pledge to work together to seek the mind of Christ on issues that divide  us.

13. We reject the authority of those churches and leaders who have  denied the orthodox faith in word or deed. We pray for them and call on  them to repent and return to the Lord.

14. We rejoice at the prospect of Jesus’ coming again in glory, and  while we await this final event of history, we praise him for the way he  builds up his church through his Spirit by miraculously changing lives.