The Doctrine of the New ACNA Ordinal

Classically Anglican? Or Troublingly Unreformed?

By Robin G. Jordan

When the doctrine of the new ACNA Ordinal is evaluated, it is quite clear that despite its use of texts and wording from the classical Anglican Ordinal, the new ACNA Ordinal is far removed from the classical Anglican Ordinal in its theology. The reference to the late Peter Toon’s explanation of et cum spiritu tuo in the General Introduction and Notes at the beginning of the Ordinal, the additions and alterations in the historic Preface of the classical Anglican Ordinal, and the restoration of the pre-Reformation Medieval Catholic ceremonies and ornaments in the ordination services are dead giveaways.

The General Introduction and Notes on the new ACNA Ordinal contain the following note:

This edition restores a more accurate translation of “et cum spiritu tuo” as “and with your spirit.” For more information, please see Peter Toon's explanation of the phrase in, “An Anglican Prayerbook,” Preservation Press, 2008, pg. 44.

I examine the Peter Toon’s explanation of the Salutation “The Lord be with you” “And with your spirit” in An Anglican Prayer Book in a 2008 article, “An Anglican Prayer Book (2008): The Order for the Holy Communion—Part I.”

The third thing that caught my attention is the particular interpretation that An Anglican Prayer Book (2008), like the trial services, gives to the salutation "The Lord be with you" "And with your spirit". Both the Introduction to The Order for Holy Communion in the trial services and An Anglican Prayer Book (2008) describe these words as being "more like a prayer, where the presence of the Lord with his people is being affirmed by the Minister, and in turn, the people pray that the spiritual gift is given to him in ordination will be aroused, so that the Celebration will be in spirit and in truth, and thus acceptable to the Lord." This raised a red flag in my mind when I first read it in the Introduction to The Order for Holy Communion in the trial services.

First, the view expressed in this description is not Scriptural. Worshipping God in spirit and truth is not dependent upon the arousal of the priest’s "spiritual gift" but upon the state of the worshiper’s hearts. In a discussion of the merits of "Lord be with you" "And with your spirit" an Anglo-Catholic Canadian priest of my acquaintance offered this explanation of the words:

"It is more than a mutual salutation, though that is the name we have given it; it is a mutual prayer best appreciated in English when presented in the Southern dialect: ‘The Lord be with all y'all...’ ‘And with your (singular) spirit,’ which essentially means that the people are praying that the Lord may dwell in the soul of the priest, sanctifying him and enabling him to do the work of his office. For it is through him that the Holy Spirit works to affect the miracle of the Eucharist, and of Baptismal regeneration. So while ‘And also with you’ is a nice salutation, it does not convey the Spirit-filled holiness of the moment."

What he is saying is what the Introduction to The Order for Holy Communion in the trial services and An Anglican Prayer Book (2008) says but in less specific terms. This raises questions as to whether the words "Lord be with you" "And with your spirit" should be used in The Order for Holy Communion, much less this particular interpretation of them be given in the Introduction to The Order for Holy Communion. All Anglicans do not share this sacerdotal view of the priesthood, which ascribes to the priesthood the power to confect bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ and historically is associated with the doctrine of Transubstantiation. It has been a point of heated dispute between Anglo-Catholics and Evangelicals.

The New Testament also teaches that the Holy Spirit indwells all believers and not just the priest. While the Holy Spirit may impart to them different varieties of gifts, they all share in the same Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:4). All manifestations of the Spirit are given for the common good (1 Corinthians 12:7). The one and same Spirit empowers them and apportions them to each one individually as he wills (1 Corinthians 12:11).

Second, this salutation is not used in the Communion Service in the 1552, 1559, 1604, and 1662 Prayer Books and the 1789 and 1892 American Prayer Book because of its association with the doctrine of Transubstantiation, which classical Anglicanism rejects. In looking through my copies of the 1552 Prayer Book and 1559 Prayer Book, I find the salutation used only once—before the Lesser Litany at Morning and Evening Prayer. In the 1669 Prayer Book it is used before the Lesser Litany at Morning and Evening Prayer and before the Lord’s Prayer at the Confirmation Service and in the 1789 and 1892 American Prayer Books after the Apostles’ Creed at Morning and Evening Prayer and before the Lord’s Prayer at the Confirmation Service.

I also examine the Scriptural meaning of the Salutation in the same article.

The doctrine to which Peter Toon alludes in his explanation of et cum spiritu tuo in An Anglican Prayer Book is the pre-Reformation Medieval Catholic doctrine that claims that a priest, by virtue of his ordination, is “made a special link between God and his people” through whom the Holy Spirit works “during a sacrament as the principal means of dispensing divine grace to the people.” It is also the doctrine of the post-Tridentian Roman Catholic Church. The English Reformers rejected this doctrine of ordination, the priesthood and the sacraments. As Dr. Ashley Null noted in an interview in 2002, Archbishop Cranmer understood the Holy Spirit to come directly to God’s people through his Word. This is the doctrine of the Form and Manner of Making, Ordaining, and Consecrating of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons of 1552, 1559, and 1662. It is the doctrine of the classical Anglican Ordinal.

The changes that the new ACNA Ordinal introduces in the American Ordinal go well beyond the translation and local adaptation of the Ordinal to the culture of North America. It is quite obvious that the new ACNA Ordinal was produced not to just to provide the Anglican Church in North America with its own modern language Ordinal in which the defective Examination of the 1979 Ordinal was corrected. The new ACNA Ordinal replaces the Biblical and Reformation theology of the classical Anglican Ordinal with the theology of the pre-Reformation Medieval Catholic and post-Tridentian Roman Catholic pontificals in barely disguised form. The part of the Anglican Church in North America that subscribes to this unscriptural and un-Anglican set of beliefs is exploiting the new church’s desire for an ordinal of its own to foist its doctrine upon the rest of the ACNA and to make its doctrine the official doctrine of the new church.

It is time for those in the Anglican Church in North America who do not subscribe to the doctrine of the new ACNA Ordinal to speak up and speak out. They have only themselves to blame if they do not voice their objections and the ACNA leadership takes their silence as acceptance. It now should be quite evident that those who do subscribe to its doctrine are going to take advantage of any reluctance to say anything out of the fear of being characterized as anti-Catholic, divisive, or intolerant. What is happening in the Anglican Church in North America is the same thing that happened in the Episcopal Church—a theological school of thought that does not represent authentic historic Anglicanism establishing its sway in the church at the expense of other segments of the church that do stand in greater continuity with the Protestant Reformed Church of England in their doctrine and practice. In such an environment those segments have very little hope of maintaining their own orthodox Anglican identity. The Constitution, the Canons, and now the Ordinal of the Anglican Church in North America are stacked against them.