Australian archbishop promotes ecumenical creed on human sexuality

Archbishop Julian Porteous. / Credit: Archdiocese of Hobart

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 12, 2025 / 17:06 pm (CNA).

A Catholic archbishop in Australia is calling attention to an ecumenical statement on human sexuality released last year as the group behind the project seeks to gain approval for the creed from “biblically orthodox leaders” worldwide.

Archbishop Julian Porteous of Hobart is among some 6,000 initial signatories of the “Australian Creed for Sexual Integrity,” a statement affirming fundamental Christian ethics on sex and gender that was drafted last October by a team of over 100 Christian faith leaders, including Catholic clergy.

In a Catholic Weekly interview last week, Porteous explained his decision to back the initiative, saying: “I thought it was good ecumenically to show support. And from the Catholic point of view, I felt we had a lot to offer because we have been able to articulate a lot of this material through magisterial teaching, through the catechism and so on, and help them with terminology.”

The creed outlines common Christian moral tenets on the creation of every person as male or female, marriage and sexuality as exclusively between men and women, the belief that every human life is sacred, and the call to chastity and faithfulness both in marriage and singleness. 

“We believe in one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who designed sex as part of his loving plan for humanity and whose will for sexual integrity is clearly revealed in holy Scripture,” the statement reads.

“We believe our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit,” the statement adds, “that Christ calls and empowers us to repent from all sin, including sexual sin, that his mercy abounds to forgive and restore, and that by living with sexual integrity we glorify God and humbly embrace his wise and loving plan for human life.”

“Every era has its particular heresies,” the creed website states. “We believe the time has come for a new creed that affirms the timeless teachings of the church regarding sexual integrity and that articulates God’s glorious design for sex and marriage as revealed in holy Scripture.”

“Our hope and prayer,” the website notes, “is that the Australian Creed for Sexual Integrity will gain global approval from biblically orthodox leaders in the Catholic Church, the Anglican/Episcopalian Church, the Lutheran Church, the Presbyterian Church, the Orthodox Church, evangelical and Pentecostal churches, and many more besides.”