By Robin G. Jordn
In my previous article, “The Classic Formularies in the Anglican Church in North America: The Thirty Nine Articles of Religion of 1571,” we saw how the Anglican Church in North America’s fundamental declaration on the Thirty-Nine Articles is worded in such a way in Article I of its constitution that clergy and congregations in the ACNA are not actually required to accept the authority of the Thirty-Nine Articles or adhere to their reformed doctrine. The provisions of this particular fundamental declaration are purely cosmetic—included for the sake of appearance. They acknowledge the Thirty-Nine Articles to be a historic formulary for Anglicans but they do not recognize the Articles to be an authoritative standard of doctrine for the ACNA.
The ACNA fundamental declarations in Article I do require a doctrinal commitment to the canonical books of the Old and New Testament as being the inspired Word of God, containing all things necessary for salvation, and being the final authority and unchangeable standard for Christian faith and life. They also require doctrinal commitments to the three catholic creeds, the teaching of the first four councils of the undivided church, and the Christological clarifications of the fifth, sixth, and seventh council “insofar as they are agreeable with Scripture.”
The ACNA fundamental declarations in addition require a commitment to the unreformed Catholic doctrine that bishops are essential to the church—to the belief that there can be no valid church without them. Bishops are of the very esse of the church—its very essence. This doctrine is one of a number of doctrines over which Anglicans historically have been divided.
Conservative evangelicals and many other Anglicans take a different view of bishops. They hold that bishops belong to the bene esse, or well-being, of the church. Bishops may benefit the good order of the church but they are not absolutely necessary. The church can and does exist without bishops.
The ACNA fundamental declaration on the historic episcopate is not the only unreformed Catholic doctrine to which the Anglican Church in North America requires a commitment. The canons infer that confirmation, penance, ordination, matrimony, and extreme unction are sacraments in their recognition of matrimony as a sacrament. They also infer that the sacraments operate automatically and invariably—ex opere operato.They teach that bishops succeed the apostles through the Holy Spirit given to them—the doctrine of tactual or sacerdotal succession. These doctrines, like the esse view of the significance of bishops for the order of the church, gained prominence in the Episcopal Church during the nineteenth century Catholic Revival. From the Episcopal Church they were carried over into the Anglican Church in North America. They are also numbered among the doctrines over which Anglicans historically have been divided.
To all these doctrines the Anglican Church in North America demands unreserved subscription. All candidates for holy orders and all clergy must make this declaration:
“I do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God and to contain all things necessary to salvation, and I consequently hold myself bound to conform my life and ministry thereto, and I do solemnly engage to conform to the Doctrine, Discipline and Worship of Christ as this Church has received them.”
How then has The Book of Common Prayer of 1662 fared in the Anglican Church in North America? The 1662 Book of Common Prayer is the long recognized doctrinal standard of Anglicanism, alongside the Thirty-Nine Articles and the 1661 Ordinal.
The ACNA fundamental declaration on the 1662 Book of Common Prayer states:
“We receive The Book of Common Prayer as set forth by the Church of England in 1662, together with the Ordinal attached to the same, as a standard for Anglican doctrine and discipline, and, with the Books which preceded it, as the standard for the Anglican tradition of worship.”
Note that this statement contains three evasions. With these evasions the Anglican Church in North America dodges acceptance of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer as its definitive standard of doctrine and worship.
The first evasion is the use of the article “a” before the phrase “standard for Anglican doctrine and discipline.” As Ephraim Radner observes in "The ACNA Constitution In Line with the Covenant," its use cloaks this standard with a sort of indefiniteness. Radner goes on to point out:
“The clear implication is that there may be other legitimate ‘standards’, and that the BCP of 1662 is rather one among many, although obviously an acceptable one. Clearly, that the early BCP’s represent the standard for “the tradition” of Anglican worship is incontestable as a historical claim. Furthermore, a ‘tradition of worship’ is itself a loose referent and already indicates an acceptance that the BCP’s of the Reformation and post-Reformation are no longer in explicit use among many Anglicans.”
The second evasion is the addition of the phrase “with the Books which precede it” to the second clause of the fundamental declaration in which the ACNA receives the 1662 Book of Common Prayer as “the standard for the Anglican tradition of worship.” This evasion reduces the 1662 Prayer Book to one of a number of “books” that form this standard.
The third evasion is that books preceding the 1662 Book of Common Prayer are not identified. They are not limited to Prayer Books. The pre-Reformation medieval service books and even earlier liturgies are not excluded.
Like its fundamental declaration on the Thirty-Nine Articles, the Anglican Church in North America’s fundamental declaration on the 1662 Book of Common Prayer is purely cosmetic. It has no weight. In the “theological lens” that the Prayer Book and Common Worship developed to guide its preparation of a Prayer Book for use in the ACNA, and which the College of Bishops approved as an official doctrinal statement of the ACNA, the 1662 Prayer Book receives very little attention. The partially-reformed 1549 Prayer Book and the retrograde 1928 Prayer Book receive much greater attention. Indeed they are treated as if they are long recognized doctrinal and worship standards of Anglicanism, not the 1662 Prayer Book.
One of the Eucharist rites that were introduced at the recent Provincial Assembly was a contemporary language translation of Rite I from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. The late Peter Toon in “Why Rite One Is More Dangerous than Rite Two” warned against the use of Rite I because while it is ostensibly based upon the 1928 Communion Office, it incorporates innovations from the 1979 Prayer Book.
It is difficult to see how the Anglican Church in North America can avoid repeating the mistakes of the Episcopal Church as long as it does not accord the Thirty-Nine Articles and the 1662 Book of Common Prayer the importance and authority that they warrant as the long-recognized doctrinal standard of Anglicanism and give the 1662 Prayer Book the weight that it is due as Anglicanism’s equally long-recognized standard of worship and prayer. The ACNA is well on way to replicating in the twenty-first century the Anglo-Catholic-Broad Church environment that existed in the Episcopal Church in the twentieth century and which gave birth to its present radicalism. The ecclesiastical governance model that the ACNA has adopted will not deter or prevent the spread of radicalism in the ACNA once it gains a foothold. On the contrary, that model is likely to facilitate its spread.
Related:
The Classic Formularies in the Anglican Church in North America: The Thirty Nine Articles of Religion of 1571
Provincial Committees and Taskforces in the Anglican Church in North America
The Provincial Legislative Process in the Anglican Church in North America
The Evangelical Bar in the Anglican Church in North America
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