It is the responsibility of all Christian people to cling to the apostolic word, ‘once for all delivered to the saints’ (Jude 3). The apostolic word is the word of God. To depart from this word is to depart from God’s form of faith and God’s way of life. Jesus himself commissioned the apostles to tell the world about him. These men, whose word is now embedded in the New Testament, have all the authority of Jesus Christ and so of the Father who sent him. This is the word that we must cling to, lest we drift away (Heb. 2:4).

Our elders, ministers, and bishops have a responsibility to ‘hold firm to the trustworthy word’ (Titus 1:9). In their consecration, Anglican Bishops have taken responsibility to pass on faithfully the deposit of apostolic teaching, and to admonish and exhort others to do the same. To depart from biblical teaching is a severe dereliction of duty which has disastrous spiritual consequences for the people under their pastoral care. This is the serious nature of the contemporary ‘crisis’.

The Faith Once for All Delivered is a collection of essays which responds to The Windsor Report from several directions: legal, rhetorical, and theological. They are written by Australian evangelicals, who share a common belief that the future of Anglicanism ought to be shaped more and more by ‘the faith once for all delivered to the saints’.