Evangelicalism
In the words of Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, confessional evangelicalism refers to "that movement of Christian believers who seek a constant convictional continuity with the theological formulas of the Protestant Reformation". While approving of the evangelical distinctions proposed by Bebbington, confessional evangelicals believe that authentic evangelicalism requires more concrete definition in order to protect the movement from theological liberalism and from heresy. According to confessional evangelicals, subscription to the ecumenical creeds and to the Reformation-era confessions of faith (such as the confessions of the Reformed churches) provides such protection. Confessional evangelicals are represented by conservative Presbyterian churches (emphasizing the Westminster Confession), certain Baptist churches that emphasize historic Baptist confessions such as the Second London Confession, evangelical Anglicans who emphasize the Thirty-Nine Articles (such as in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney, Australia), and some confessional Lutherans with pietistic convictions.
Evangelical Anglicanism
The new evangelicals would provide the strongest opposition to the liberal trajectory of the Episcopal Church, especially regarding progressive views on homosexuality. In the late 1980s, evangelicals began to form organizations aimed at promoting and defending their understanding of Anglican orthodoxy and changing liberal church policies. In 1996, Alden Hathaway, the Bishop of Pittsburgh, founded the American Anglican Council to represent evangelicals at the national level. Unable to alter the liberal program of the Episcopal Church, evangelical Episcopalians and their Anglo-Catholic allies looked to Anglican churches in the Global South for help in a process called Anglican realignment.