Exclusionism in the Anglican Church in North America

By Robin G. Jordan

With their approval of the proposed ACNA catechism the ACNA bishops have rejected the Protestant and Reformed heritage of the Anglican Church and aligned themselves doctrinally with the unreformed Catholicism of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. They have espoused a revisionist redefinition of Anglicanism. This redefinition disconnects Anglicanism from the New Testament and Reformation doctrine of justification by grace alone by faith alone in Christ alone and embraces Anglo-Catholic and Roman Catholic beliefs and practices at the expense of the supreme authority of the Bible.

The ACNA bishops have proscribed in effect the teaching of the doctrinal views of conservative Evangelicalism and classical Protestant and Reformed Anglicanism in the Anglican Church in North America. The ACNA canons requires conformity to the “doctrine, discipline, and worship” of the Anglican Church in North America from its clergy. This means that they must teach what the catechism teaches even though the catechism goes against their own beliefs and convictions. Otherwise they are subject to disciplinary proceedings under the provisions of the ACNA canons.

The Anglican Church in North America has not to date shown any inclination toward a policy of full inclusion of all conservative schools of Anglican thought. The lack of any appetite for such a policy among its leaders has been evident since its Common Cause days. It may be seen in the ACNA’s fundamental declarations, its canons, its “theological lens,” its proposed ordinal, and its trial services of Morning and Evening Prayer and Holy Communion. It is clearly evident in the proposed catechism.

The Anglican Church in North America has also demonstrated that it is not entirely unfriendly toward liberalism. The wording of Title II.2.2 of the ACNA canons is suggestive of a liberal understanding of the Scriptures. It is the view that the Bible contains the Word of God rather than is the Word of God. Only parts of the Bible are inspired by the Holy Spirit. The proposed ACNA Ordinal does not require blanket belief in the canonical books of the Old Testament and the New Testament, as does the classical Anglican Ordinal. Both the canons and the proposed ordinal were approved by the ACNA College of Bishops. The proposed ordinal has yet to receive canonical approval, as is also the case of the proposed catechism.

The proposed catechism adds to the dilemma of Anglicans who subscribe to the doctrinal views of conservative Evangelicalism and classical Protestant and Reformed Anglicanism and who joined the Anglican Church in North America out of the naïve belief that the different schools of Anglican thought could coexist together without one school of thought seeking to gain ascendency. They are faced with the difficult choice of further compromising their beliefs and convictions or leaving the ACNA.

The proposed catechism also adds to the dilemma of another group of Evangelicals in the Anglican Church in North America, those who are Protestant and Arminian in their doctrinal views. The catechism’s only concessions to Arminian Evangelicalism are its teaching about prevenient grace and faith preceding regeneration.

The time has come for those concerned about these developments in the Anglican Church in North America to go on the offensive. The ACNA College of Bishops, Provincial Council, and Provincial Assembly will be meeting this coming June. The twin issues of the present direction of the ACNA and its lack of genuine comprehensiveness need to be raised at these gatherings whether or not they are on the agenda. There needs to be a concerted effort to ensure that these issues are properly and satisfactorily addressed not only during the 90 days preceding these gatherings but in the months following them. If the ACNA cannot deal evenhandedly with the different school of Anglican thought represented in that body, it has no place seeking recognition as a bona fide Anglican province.