The Thirty-Nine Articles: A Faith for Today: Articles 33 - 36: Organizing the Church

Christ’s church needs to be organized. It cannot exist in a state of anarchy, nor is it to be a dictatorship. Freedom and order, love and submission are to exist side by side - as they do in heaven. But on earth this is hard to achieve, because believers are sinful people. We have seen aspects of church order in previous chapters, but Articles 33-36 give us more. These may seem pedantic or irrelevant to the church today: in fact they offer important principles and details.

DISCIPLINE
Article 33 raises the issue of excommunication: officially barring people from receiving Holy Communion and thus cutting them off from the heart of church life and fellowship. The Article does not argue for or against excommunication - a practice of the ancient and mediaeval church - but assumes that it will sometimes be necessary. It is the most drastic of the forms of church discipline: not a popular subject today, but biblical and timely. As we consider excommunication we see principles which should govern all church discipline. To read more, click here.