The theological resource book for the Global Anglican Future conference has been launched at a news conference in Jerusalem.

The book has been released for discussion at the conference and has already attracted media attention around the world.

A report in Britain’s Telegraph newspaper referring to the book was headlined Hardline bishops declare Anglican split and went on to declare that they had “formally declared an end to the Anglican communion”.

That was firmly rejected by one of the GAFCON leaders, Sydney Archbishop Peter Jensen, who referred to the actions in North America by churches in defiance of the Lambeth decisions of 1998 on homosexuality.

“If we’re talking about schism and the break up of the communion, that’s where it starts and that’s where the responsibility is,” Archbishop Jensen says.

Earlier, Archbishop Jensen told the BBC from Amman that the actions meant that the Anglican communion had turned “from a nuclear family to an extended family”.

The launch of The Way, the Truth and the Life came after the GAFCON delegates arrived in Jerusalem from Jordan, where their pre-consultations ended early.

Primate of Nigeria, Archbishop Peter Akinola, who is the Chairman of the Globa Anglican Future Conference, had returned to Jerusalem after being in diplomatic limbo on the border for three hours.

Because of the short time allowed for the consultations, leaders decided not to wait for a delayed clearance as rooms became available for more productive discussions at the conference venue.

The move also allowed the launch of the resource book to go ahead in Jerusalem.

Canon Dr Vinay Samuel, one of the editors of the book, told the news conference that the book was about Anglican identity and what constituted Anglican orthodoxy.

He said “In the midst of a lot of confusion and uncertainty ... many bishops felt that Lambeth was not a place where we could come to this kind of common ground and therefore, GAFCON was the right place.”