An Ancient Future Catechumenate in the Anglican Church in North America?

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.