By Robin G. Jordan
One of the things that caught my attention in the ACNA College of Bishops’ January Communiqué was the reference to the development of
a rite for the Admission of Catechumens for the ACNA Prayer Book along with
rites for Baptism and Confirmation. This struck me as unusual because almost
all of the Anglican service books that I have examined (and I have examined
quite a few of them) do not contain a rite for the Admission of Catechumens. In
the Anglican provinces that have such a rite, it is typically found in a book
of offices intended for use on special occasions.
The Episcopal Church devotes a whole section of The Book of Occasional Services (2003) to the preparation of adults for baptism and the catechumenate. The
preface to The Book of Occasional Services describes it as “a collection of liturgical resources related to
occasions which do not occur with sufficient frequency to warrant their
inclusion in The Book of Common Prayer.”
The use of these liturgical resources is optional. The Anglican Church of
Canada’s Occasional Services (1992),
however, does not have a corresponding section.
The main volume of the Church of England’s Common Worship (2000), which contains a
number of rites and services not found in The
Book of Common Prayer (1662) contains nothing that corresponds to a rite
for the Admission of Catechumens. The Christian Initiation volume of Common Worship contains a section titled
Rites on the Way: Approaching Baptism. Among the liturgical resources in this
section are Thanksgiving for the Gift of a Child; Welcome of Those Preparing
for the Baptism of Children; Welcome of Disciples on the Way of Faith, Affirmation of
the Christian Way; Call and Celebration of the Decision to be Baptized or
Confirmed, or to Affirm Baptismal Faith; The Presentation of the Four
Texts; Prayers in Preparation for Baptism. (The ‘Four Texts’ are
Jesus’ Summary of the Law, the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Beatitudes.)
Common Worship’s Christian Initiation
volume fits the description of a book of offices intended for use on special
occasions. The liturgical material that the volume contains is supplemental and
its use is optional.
The only Anglican service book in my collection that has anything
that approximates a rite for the Admission of Catechumens is The Book of Common Worship (2004)
of the Church of South India (CSI). It contains The Office for Making a Catechumen. This office is quite brief and is found in the rite for the Baptism
of Adults. The office is normally used after the Lessons at a service of
public worship. See the accompanying article, “The Office for Making a Catechumen.”
I ran a Google search on the phrase “rite for the
Admission of Catechumens.” It produced a Zenit article on Pope Francis celebrating
the rite of Admission to the Catechumenate for 500 catechumens this past November. It produced a slew of diocesan
guidelines for the Rite of Acceptance into the Order of Catechumens of various
Roman Catholic dioceses in North America. It also produced a Wikipedia article
on the Roman Catholic Church’s Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA)
and a number of other articles on the RCIA.
Only on the fifth page did I find anything that discussed
the catechumenate in an Anglican church. I found an article that described the
catechumenate process in an Episcopal church, which I gathered from its website
is traditionalist Anglo-Catholic. Its rector is a graduate of Nashotah House. It
has a shrine to our Lady of Walsingham
and sponsors an annual pilgrimage to Walsingham.
I also found a power point presentation titled
“Appreciating the Ancient Future of the Rites of Initiation” and produced for
the Annual Gathering for the North American Association for the Catechumenate.
It contains a reference to the Episcopal Church’s rite for Admission of
Catechumens.
I continued my search for another three pages and found a
PDF file of James C. Dodge’s paper, The Catechumenate Ancient & Future: Can Ancient Tradition Guide Us Today? The
bibliography contained a link to the North America Association for the
Catechumenate, which I followed to the NAAC’s website. There I found a list of
the oranization’s denominational partners: They include the Anglican Church of Canada, the Episcopal Church, USA, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America,the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Canada, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Reformed Church in America, and the United Methodist Church.
The bibliography also included a listing for the late
Robert E. Webber’s Ancient-Future Evangelism: Making Your Church a Faith-Forming Community (Grand Rapids, MI:
Baker Books, 2003). Webber was active in promoting the revival of the
catechumenate in the Episcopal Church and other Protestant denominations.
I continued my search for another two pages and found a PDF file outlining the catechumenal process at St. Andrew’s Cathedral of the
Episcopal Diocese of Hawai’i. At this point I discontinued my search.
I was prompted to ask myself, “Why has the ACNA College
of Bishops decided to give prominence to a rite for the Admission of
Catechumens to the extent that the College of Bishops is including the rite in
the ACNA Prayer Book rather than in a book of offices intended for use on special
occasions?” Three explanations suggest themselves.
The first explanation is
that the Episcopal Church has such a rite in The Book of Occasional Services and to outdo the Episcopal Church,
the ACNA leadership has decided not only to have a rite for the Admission of
Catechumens but to feature it prominently in the ACNA Prayer Book along with
the ACNA Catechism.
The ACNA leadership displays a strong tendency toward
one-upmanship in their attitude toward the Episcopal Church, seeking to outdo
TEC in just about everything. This one-upmanship is motivated in part by the
desire for the Anglican Church in North America to be viewed as more dynamic
than the Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church and ultimately to
be recognized as the sole Anglican province in the Canada and the United
States.
The second explanation is the movement of the Anglican
Church in North America in the direction of unreformed Catholicism in doctrine,
church order, and practice under its present leadership, a movement that I have
documented in a number of articles. This movement is driven by what I have
described as a “Catholic Resurgence” in the ACNA. Among the factors
contributing to this particular development is the strong influence of traditionalist
Anglo-Catholic and charismatic Ancient Future/Convergence ideologies upon
thinking in the ACNA. I would not be surprised at all if the ACNA leadership
emulates the Roman Catholic Church’s Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.
The ACNA Theological Taskforce on the Catechism used The Catechism of the
Catholic Church as its model for the ACNA Catechism.
The GAFCON Theological Resource Group identifies
Anglo-Catholicism along with liberalism as the two major challenges to the
authority of the Bible and the Anglican formularies in the global Anglican
Church today. Due to its fragile commitment to given truth in the Scriptures,
its antipathy to the Protestant Reformation, and its openness to unreformed
Catholicism I would identify charismatic Ancient/Future Convergence ideology as
the third major challenge to the Bible and the Anglican formularies’ authority
in the contemporary global Anglican Church.
The third explanation is the profound influence that the
late Robert Webber has had upon the thinking of clergy in the Anglican Church
in North America. Webber championed the revival of the catechumenate as well as
worship practices of the early and medieval Church, practices that the English
Reformers rejected and disowned as inconsistent with the Bible and sound
theology. His influence has continued after his death. Trinity School for
Ministry, one of the seminaries training ACNA clergy, has opened a Robert E. Webber Center to promote his teaching.
I suspect that all three explanations have bearing upon
the decision to give prominent place to a rite for the Admission of Catechumens
in the ACNA Prayer Book.
At issue is not whether new Christians need to be
discipled in the Christian faith and life but whether an approach like the
Roman Catholic Church’s Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults is the right
way to go about discipling them. Is it the best way to ensure that new Christians
are given a solid grounding in the teaching of the Bible and the doctrine of
the Anglican formularies? If the Anglican Church in North America adopts a
flawed Catechism, the use of this approach would result in the indoctrination
of new Christians in teaching inconsistent with the Bible and doctrine not in
agreement with the Anglican formularies.
For North American Anglicans committed to the teaching of
the Bible and the doctrine of the Anglican formularies and concerned about the
direction in which the present leadership of the Anglican Church in North
America is taking that ecclesial body, the possibility of the ACNA leadership
adopting such an approach should also be a major cause for concern. Its
adoption would decrease markedly the likelihood of such Anglicans establishing
and maintaining an enclave of Anglican orthodoxy in the ACNA.
Since I wrote this article, the ACNA College of Bishops has endorsed a flawed Catechism, one which in the key areas of salvation, the sacraments, the Holy Spirit, and sanctification departs from the teaching of the Bible and doctrine of the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion and takes Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox positions or in its choice of language permits instruction of those studying the Catechism in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox positions in these key areas.
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