Thursday, December 03, 2015

A Proposal for an Ecclesiastical Bill of Rights Amendment to the ACNA Constitution


By Robin G. Jordan

Another Global South province has recognized the Anglican Church in North America. What is the basis of that recognition? Is it the ACNA’s full acceptance of the Bible as the Church’s rule of faith and life? Is it the ACNA’s adherence to the principles of doctrine and worship laid out in the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1571 and the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal of 1662? According to ACNA publicist Andrew Gross, it is the ACNA’s support of a traditional view of marriage and human sexuality. The ACNA’s moral stance, not its theological stance, has become the principal factor behind recognition of the jurisdiction as “Anglican.” As long as it opposes the normalization of homosexuality, GAFCON and Global South Primates appear to be willing to overlook its deviations from authentic historic Anglicanism.

Despite the protestations that the division between GAFCON and Global South and the Anglican Communion’s liberal wing is about more than human sexuality, the actions of the GAFCON and Global South Primates say otherwise. They are too willing to brush aside concerns about the ACNA’s very weak commitment to biblical Anglicanism. A traditional view of marriage and human sexuality is not by any stretch of the imagination the extent of biblical Anglicanism. It is a serious mistake to rely upon a traditional view of marriage and human sexuality as the sole litmus test of biblical Anglican orthodoxy. (I am not suggesting that it should not be a part of a litmus test of biblical Anglican orthodoxy but that it should not be the only litmus test of such orthodoxy. ) 

While some readers may view as “over the top” my urging of Confessing Anglicans in the Anglican Church in North America to start a Prayer Book rebellion, it is a logical and reasonable step for them to take in the light of the absence of a policy of genuine comprehensiveness in the ACNA. What is happening in the ACNA has happened in the past in a number of jurisdictions that claim to be Anglican in their heritage and origin. One school of thought has established hegemony in the jurisdiction and imposed its teaching and practices upon the jurisdiction, typically at the expense of biblical Anglicanism.

In the Episcopal Church in the USA it is a school of thought that holds increasingly radical liberal theological and moral views. Before its ascendancy Anglo-Catholicism was a dominant ecclesiastical tradition in that jurisdiction, having risen to that position in the mid and late nineteenth century. This period is marked by growing tension between Anglo-Catholics and Evangelicals in the Episcopal Church.

General Convention which was dominated by Anglo-Catholics and other Episcopalians sympathetic to Tractarian principles would adopt a number of measures targeting Evangelical Episcopalians. Episcopal clergy were prohibited from fraternizing with the clergy of churches that did not have bishops, attending their gatherings, receiving communion in their churches, and exchanging pulpits with them. It would reject Evangelical proposals to revise the 1789 Book of Common Prayer to make it more comprehensive. These proposals called for the authorization of alternative language in the Baptismal rite or an alternative Baptismal rite. While they were consistent with the principle of comprehension embodied in the 1789 Prayer Book, General Convention adamantly refused to consider the proposals. While there was a attempt at compromise in the House of Bishops, it came as too little, too late. Conservative Evangelicals seceded from the Episcopal Church over what they had come to view as the incipient Roman Catholic doctrine of the 1789 Prayer Book, a view reinforced by the Anglo-Catholic interpretation of the book.

Douglas Bess has documented in his book, Divided We Stand: A History of the Continuing Anglican Movement, the struggle between “Anglican Loyalists” and “Catholic Revivalists” for hegemony in that movement in the 1970s and 1980s. The “Catholic Revivalists” would be victorious. It has proven a hollow victory. Under their leadership North America’s several Continuing Anglican jurisdictions have not prospered. Catholic Revivalists have shown themselves to be incapable at leading their respective jurisdictions in the critical areas of evangelism and church planting. Having embraced the Roman Catholic sacramental system, they have embraced a false gospel, a gospel lacking in power to transform lives like the true gospel.

The ACNA Catechism and the proposed ACNA Prayer Book form the centerpiece of the Catholic Revivalist effort to transform the Anglican Church in North America into an ecclesial body that is exclusively unreformed Catholic in its thinking and practice. They would take the place of the Anglican formularies as the standard of doctrine and worship in the Anglican Church in North America. They would establish the doctrinal and liturgical norms to which clergy and congregations in the ACNA would be expected to conform. 

The extent of the involvement of the College of Bishops in their development and its enthusiastic endorsement of the two formularies show that it is not committed to the restoration of the Bible and the gospel to the heart of the Anglican Communion. The College of Bishops’ rejection of the historic Anglican formularies constitutes a rejection of the authority of the Bible from which the formularies derive their authority. It is also a rejection of the New Testament gospel.

Under such circumstances the rejection of the ACNA Catechism and the proposed ACNA Prayer Book is a declaration of allegiance to the Bible and the Anglican formularies and ultimately to the gospel. It is what being a Confessing Anglican is all about. It goes beyond saying that one is for the Bible, the Anglican formularies, and the gospel. It entails showing what one stands for—by actions commensurate with one’s convictions.

The time has also come to promote the adoption of an amendment to the ACNA constitution extending official standing to the Biblical and Reformation beliefs and convictions of Confessing Anglicans and establishing important safeguards for their theological identity.  

Article  XVI: An Ecclesistical Bill of Rights

1. (1) No member of the clergy, other gospel worker, congregation, or mission shall be required to use a catechism or office of instruction that does not conform in its teaching to the principles of doctrine and worship laid out in the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1571 and the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal of 1662.

(2) Clergy, other gospel workers, congregations, missions, and groupings of congregations shall be free to develop, publish, and use catechisms or offices of instruction of their own; provided that such catechism or offices of instruction conform in their teaching to the principles of doctrine and worship laid out in the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1571 and the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal of 1662.

(3) As used in this Article the term “gospel worker” refers to licensed catechists, evangelists, lay readers, pastoral assistants, and youth workers.

2. (1) No member of the clergy, other gospel worker, congregation, or mission shall be required to use forms of services that do not conform in their teaching and practices to the principles of doctrine and worship laid out in the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1571 and the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal of 1662.

(2) Clergy, other gospel workers, congregations, missions, and groupings of congregations shall be free to develop, publish, and use forms of services of their own; provided that such forms of service conforms in their teaching and practices to the principles of doctrine and worship laid out in the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1571 and the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal of 1662.

3. (1) Clergy, other gospel workers, congregations, missions, and groupings of congregations shall be free to teach and propagate the longstanding Anglican doctrines that that the episcopate is an office, not an order; that while bishops may benefit the well-being of the Church, they are not absolutely essential to its existence; and that apostolic succession is a succession of doctrine, not a succession of bishops.

(2) No member of the clergy, other gospel worker, congregation, mission, or grouping of congregations, shall be required to teach and propagate any doctrine that conflicts with these doctrines.

4. Dioceses, dioceses-in-formation, and other grouping of congregations shall be free to impose reasonable limits on the terms of office of their bishops, including but not limited to the establishment of a mandatory retirement age and specific terms of office for its bishops.

5. (1) Dioceses, dioceses-in-formation, and other groupings of congregations shall be free to nominate and elect their own bishops; and in the event the College of Bishops declines to confirm the election of a bishop-elect, they shall be entitled to receive a detailed written explanation of the College of Bishops’ decision within 30 days of the aforesaid decision.

(2) No bishop-elect shall be denied confirmation of his election on the basis of his full acceptance of the Bible as the Church’s rule of faith and life; his adherence to the principles of doctrine and worship laid out in the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1571 and the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal of 1662; and/or his subscription to the longstanding Anglican doctrines that that the episcopate is an office, not an order, that while bishops may benefit the well-being of the Church, they are not absolutely essential to its existence, and that apostolic succession is a succession of doctrine, not a succession of bishops.

6. (1) Clergy, other gospel workers, congregations, missions, and groupings of congregations shall be free to form voluntary associations for the purposes of advancing the gospel, defending and promoting the principles of doctrine and worship laid out in the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1571 and the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal of 1662, and perpetuating the Reformation heritage of the Anglican Church, and for such other purposes that they determine are in their common interest.

(2) Dioceses, dioceses-in-formation, and other groupings of congregations shall be free to form distinct jurisdictions in the province on the basis of their full acceptance of the Bible as the Church’s rule of faith and life; their adherence to the principles of doctrine and worship laid out in the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1571 and the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal of 1662; and their subscription to the longstanding Anglican doctrines that that the episcopate is an office, not an order, that while bishops may benefit the well-being of the Church, they are not absolutely essential to its existence, and that apostolic succession is a succession of doctrine, not a succession of bishops. Such jurisdictions shall be free to establish their own form of governance and adopt and amend their own constitutions, canons, and regulations.

(3) No group of dioceses, dioceses-in-formation, and other groupings of congregations organized into a distinct jurisdiction shall be suspended or removed from membership in the province on the basis of their full acceptance of the Bible as the Church’s rule of faith and life; their adherence to the principles of doctrine and worship laid out in the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1571 and the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal of 1662; and/or their subscription to the longstanding Anglican doctrines that that the episcopate is an office, not an order, that while bishops may benefit the well-being of the Church, they are not absolutely essential to its existence, and that apostolic succession is a succession of doctrine, not a succession of bishops.

7. Dioceses, dioceses-in-formation, and other groupings of congregations shall be free to recognize as congregations or missions of such groupings of congregations  communities and groups of Christian worshipers located outside their geographic boundaries and to license clergy and other gospel workers resident outside such boundaries.

8. (1) No candidate for ordination shall be required to undergo theological training in a seminary or other institution that does not fully accept the Bible as the Church’s rule of faith and life and which does not genuinely subscribe to the principles of doctrine and worship laid out in the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1571 and the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal of 1662.

(2) No candidate for ordination shall be denied ordination on the basis of his full acceptance of the Bible as the Church’s rule of faith and life, his adherence to the principles of doctrine and worship laid out in the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1571 and the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal of 1662, and/or his subscription to the longstanding Anglican doctrines that that the episcopate is an office, not an order, that while bishops may benefit the well-being of the Church, they are not absolutely essential to its existence, and that apostolic succession is a succession of doctrine, not a succession of bishops.

9. No member of the clergy or other gospel worker shall be denied licensure or have his license suspended or revoked on the basis of his full acceptance of the Bible as the Church’s rule of faith and life, his adherence to the principles of doctrine and worship laid out in the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1571 and the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal of 1662, and/or his subscription to the longstanding Anglican doctrines that that the episcopate is an office, not an order, that while bishops may benefit the well-being of the Church, they are not absolutely essential to its existence, and that apostolic succession is a succession of doctrine, not a succession of bishops.

10. No congregation or mission shall be required to accept the appointment of a member of clergy or any other gospel worker who does not fully accept the Bible as the Church’s rule of faith and life, who does not genuinely subscribe to the principles of doctrine and worship laid out in the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1571 and the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal of 1662, and/or who does not agree with the longstanding Anglican doctrines that that the episcopate is an office, not an order, that while bishops may benefit the well-being of the Church, they are not absolutely essential to its existence, and that apostolic succession is a succession of doctrine, not a succession of bishops.

11. (1) No applicant for recognition as a diocese or diocese-in-formation or  some other grouping of congregations shall be denied such recognition on the basis of its full acceptance of the Bible as the Church’s rule of faith and life, its adherence to the principles of doctrine and worship laid out in the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1571 and the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal of 1662, and/or its subscription to the longstanding Anglican doctrines that that the episcopate is an office, not an order; that while bishops may benefit the well-being of the Church, they are not absolutely essential to its existence; and that apostolic succession is a succession of doctrine, not a succession of bishops.

(2) No diocese, diocese-information, or other grouping of congregations may be suspended or removed from membership in the province on the basis of its full acceptance of the Bible as the Church’s rule of faith and life, its adherence to the principles of doctrine and worship laid out in the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1571 and the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal of 1662, and/or its subscription to the longstanding Anglican doctrines that that the episcopate is an office, not an order; that while bishops may benefit the well-being of the Church, they are not absolutely essential to its existence; and that apostolic succession is a succession of doctrine, not a succession of bishops.

12. (1) No community or group of Christian worshipers shall be denied affiliation with a diocese, diocese-in-formation, or other group of congregations as a congregation or mission on the basis of its full acceptance of the Bible as the Church’s rule of faith and life, its adherence to the principles of doctrine and worship laid out in the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1571 and the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal of 1662, and/or its subscription to the longstanding Anglican doctrines that that the episcopate is an office, not an order; that while bishops may benefit the well-being of the Church, they are not absolutely essential to its existence; and that apostolic succession is a succession of doctrine, not a succession of bishops.

(2) The affiliation of a congregation or mission with a diocese, diocese-in-formation, or other group of congregations shall not be suspended or revoked on the basis of its full acceptance of the Bible as the Church’s rule of faith and life, its adherence to the principles of doctrine and worship laid out in the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1571 and the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal of 1662, and/or its subscription to the longstanding Anglican doctrines that that the episcopate is an office, not an order; that while bishops may benefit the well-being of the Church, they are not absolutely essential to its existence; and that apostolic succession is a succession of doctrine, not a succession of bishops.

This amendment would not eliminate the need for further reform in the ACNA particularly in its form of governance, its manner of selecting bishops, and its disciplinary canons but it would be a major step in the right direction. The reaction to this amendment would show whether there is really a place in the Anglican Church in North America for Anglicans who are faithful to the Bible and the Anglican formularies and who stand in the Anglican Church’s Reformation heritage. It would also reveal who outside of North America is really their friend.

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