The Anglican Church in North America: Pulling Back the Curtain

A Survey of the ACNA Doctrinal Statements and Their Theological Leanings: The Canons - Part 1

By Robin G. Jordan

In this article I examine not only the theological leanings of the canons of the Anglican Church in North America but also the implications of a number of provisions in the ACNA canons. An understanding of the implications of these provisions is essential to an understanding of the significance of the canons’ theological leanings. The canons are divided into four parts. I examine each part in the order that it appears in the canons. I have divided the article itself into two parts. I begin my examination of the canons in the first part and complete it in the second part.

The canons of the Anglican Church in North America may be found here.

Title I Organization and Administration of the Church

Canon 7, Section 1. Mission partners, affiliated ministries, and religious orders must subscribe without reservation to the ACNA fundamental declarations stated in Article I of the ACNA constitution. Ministry partners are the founding entities of the Province listed in Article II of the ACNA constitution and jurisdictions or coalitions deemed to have a special relationship with the ACNA (Canon 7, Section 2). Affiliated ministries include seminaries, mission agencies, ministry organizations, religious societies and sodalities and dioceses and other entities that are a part of a jurisdiction other than the ACNA (Canon 7, Section 3).

The position that ACNA takes in its fundamental declarations as to what defines core Anglican identity is not the same position as the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (GFCA) takes. The GFCA believes that Canon A5 of the Canons of the Church of England expresses the doctrinal foundation of Anglicanism, which defines core Anglican identity. Under the provisions of Canon 7,Section 1 an ecclesial organization or network that fully accepts the authority of Holy Scripture and the Anglican formularies and agrees with the position of the GFCA as to what defines core Anglican identity but has reservations concerning the doctrinal positions set out in ACNA fundamental declarations – specifically the third, sixth, and seventh declaration - would not qualify for affiliation with the ACNA. This includes any such organization or network that accepts the principles of Prayer Book revision articulated by the GAFCON Theological Resource Group in Being Faithful: The Shape of Historic Anglicanism Today that all new liturgies should be measured against the 1662 Prayer Book. Those that depart significantly from the 1662 Prayer Book should be subject to Communion-wide scrutiny.

Title II Worship and the Administration of the Sacraments

Canon 1, Section 2. Section 2 of the Canon 1 reiterates the sixth fundamental declaration of the ACNA. It also includes a provision not found in the ACNA constitution. It restricts the use of only the “authorized Books of Common Prayer of the originating jurisdictions” in ACNA congregations. It permits their use until such time as a Prayer Book for use in the ACNA has been adopted. Under the provisions of this section only the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, the 1928 American Prayer Book, the 1979 American Prayer Book, An Anglican Prayer Book (2008), the 1962 Canadian Prayer Book, the Anglican Church of Canada’s The Book of Alternative Services (1985), the Anglican Church of Kenya’s Our Modern Services (2002, 2003), the Nigerian Prayer Book, the Southern Cone Prayer Book, and the Reformed Episcopal Church Prayer Book (2005) and its contemporary language edition may be used in the ACNA.

These Anglican service books differ significantly in their doctrine and liturgical usages. For example, the 1662 Prayer Book, like the 1552 Prayer Book on which it is based, excludes anything suggestive of eucharistic sacrifice and takes the position that Christ is not substantively present in the eucharistic elements. On the other hand, the 1928 American Prayer Book is open to interpretation as teaching the medieval Roman Catholic doctrine that the eucharist is a reiteration or representation of Christ’s sacrifice.  The 1979 American Prayer Book affirms the 1958 Lambeth doctrine that the eucharist is a participation in Christ’s ongoing sacrificial activity.  Both the 1928 Prayer Book and 1979 Prayer Book take the position that there is an objective real presence of Christ in the eucharistic elements.

Excluded under its provisions is the Church of England’s Alternative Service Book 1980 and Common Worship (2000), An Australian Prayer Book (1978), A Prayer Book for Australia (1995),  and the Diocese of Sydney’s Sunday Services (2001) and Common Prayer: Resources for Gospel-Shaped Gatherings (2012) and other more recent Anglican service books. It is noteworthy that the excluded Anglican service books include several books that seek to accommodate the different schools of Anglican thought represented in their respective provinces or are designed for the use of conservative Anglican Evangelical congregations.

The ACNA ordinal, the two trial ACNA eucharistic rites, the ACNA catechism, and the proposed ACNA rites for admission of catechumens, baptism, and confirmation exhibit a definite theological bias. They for the most part reflect Roman Catholic teaching and liturgical practice. There is a strong likelihood that the final version of the ACNA Prayer Book will exhibit the same theological bias. Once it is adopted, it will be the only service book authorized for use in the ACNA. This has serious implications for congregations and clergy that are evangelical in their theological outlook and loyal to the Protestant and Reformed principles of the Anglican Church based on Holy Scripture and set out in the Thirty-Nine Articles and 1662 Book of Common Prayer. They will be required to use a service book that on key doctrinal issues conflicts with what they understand the Bible to teach and the Anglican formularies to uphold. The canons leave them with no other option.

Canon 4, Section 2. Section 2 of Canon 4 requires all ACNA clergy to instruct their congregations “in the doctrine, sacraments, and discipline of Christ, as the Lord has commanded and as they are set forth in the Holy Scriptures, in the Book of Common Prayer, and in the Church Catechism.” The Book of Common Prayer and the Church Catechism to which this section refers is not 1662 Prayer Book and its Catechism but the ACNA prayer book and the ACNA catechism.

Canon 4, Section 3. Subsection 4 of Section 3 of Canon 4 permits the admission of “young baptized children” to the Holy Communion. It does not specific at what age they may be admitted and under what conditions. It appears to leave their admission solely to the priest, subject presumably to any instructions that the bishop of the diocese might give the clergy of the diocese. The subsection does not require any uniformity of practice on the admission of young baptized children to the Holy Communion. Nor does it require young baptized children to evidence repentance and a vital faith before they may be admitted to the Holy Communion

Article 25 of theThirty-Nine Articles sets out the doctrine that the sacraments “have a beneficial effect or working only in those who receive them worthily.” On the other hand “those who receive them unworthily bring condemnation on themselves.” This doctrine does not distinguish between adults and children.

Article 29 of the Thirty-Nine Articles sets out the doctrine that those who are unrepentant or devoid of a vital faith, while they may eat the bread and drink the cup, they are in no way “partakers of Christ.” Rather they eat the bread and drink the cup to “their condemnation.” This applies to unrepentant, unbelieving children even though they may be baptized.

Subsection 5 of this section permits “members in good standing of other branches of Christ’s Church, who have been baptized, with water, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” It contains a reference to what it describes as the “qualifications” of receiving the Holy sacrament of Holy Communion “rightly, worthily, and with faith” in Article 28 of the Thirty-Nine Articles—one of the few references to the Articles in the ACNA canons. However, the specific passage to which it alludes does not concern “qualifications” for receiving the sacrament but rather sets out the doctrine that only to those who “rightly, worthily, and with faith” receive the sacrament are the elements of bread and wine a participation in Christ’s Body and Blood.

Whoever drafted this subsection either did not properly understand the passage in question or they deliberately misrepresented its meaning—an example of what GAFCON Primates’ Council Chairman and Kenyan Archbishop Iliud Wabukala has described as taking the Articles and doing whatever one pleases with them.

The subsection applies what it describes as the “qualifications” of a right, worthy, and believing reception to “members in good standing of other branches of Christ’s Church, who have been baptized, with water, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” It does not apply these “qualifications” to young baptized children.

Subsection 4 represents “a desertion of the Articles” and subsection 5 a putting of one’s own sense to the meaning of a particular Article. See the Royal Declaration of Charles I prefaced to the Thirty-Nine Articles.

Canon 7, Section 1. Section 1 of Canon 7 describes matrimony as a “sacrament” whereas Article 25 describes matrimony as a state of life allowed in the Scriptures. Article 25 emphasizes that matrimony does not “belong in the same category as the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper” as it has it has “no visible sign or ceremony commanded by God.” The Form of the Solemnization of Matrimony in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer describes matrimony as “an honourable estate, instituted of God in the time of man’s innocency.” The view that matrimony is a sacrament reflects Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox teaching. It is also the view of matrimony set out in the ACNA catechism. Under the provisions of Canon 4, Section 2 it is the view of matrimony in which all ACNA clergy are required to instruct their congregations even though it conflicts with the teaching of the Bible and the doctrine of the Anglican formularies, which are in agreement with the teaching of the Bible.

TITLE III Of Ministers, Their Recruitment, Preparation, Ordination, Office, Practice and Transfer

Canon 2, Section 1.  According to Section 1 of Canon 2 clergy in an ACNA diocese owe canonical obedience to the bishop of the diocese and the bishop of the ACNA diocese in turn owes canonical obedience to the archbishop of the ACNA.  This obedience is “in all things lawful and honest,” which includes teaching and liturgical practice. Under the provisions of this section clergy are expected to obey the bishop in such matters and the bishop, the archbishop.

As we shall see clergy may, under the provisions of the ACNA canons, be disciplined for disobedience to their bishop and presumably bishops for disobedience to the archbishop. A priest in a diocese may disagree with the ACNA doctrine that matrimony is a sacrament but the canons require him to instruct his congregation in that doctrine and the bishop of the diocese may require him to do so. If he does not, disciplinary proceedings may be instituted against him for violating the canons and disobeying the bishop of the diocese.

Under the provisions of the ACNA canons clergy and bishops may be disciplined for conforming to the teaching of Holy Scripture and the doctrine of the Anglican formularies. This should give us pause. There are those who argue that the institution of such disciplinary proceedings will never happen but they have no real basis for their opinion. The ACNA constitution and canons do not recognize freedom of conscience or diversity of opinion upon matters over which Anglicans have historically been divided. The two documents side with one particular school of thought on a number of key issues.

Canon 2, Section 1.  Section 1 of Canon 2 gives a bishop full discretion in determining whether a candidate for ordination is “sufficiently instructed in Holy Scripture and in the doctrine, discipline and worship of this Church, as defined by this Province.” If the bishop is a strong proponent of the particular school of thought favored in the ACNA constitution, canons, and other doctrinal statements or simply an institutionalist, this section enables the bishop to delay the ordination of candidates whom he does not believe are fully indoctrinated in that school of thought’s teaching and liturgical practice or to deny ordination to them altogether. It permits ACNA bishops both individual and collectively to exclude from ordained ministry in the ACNA individuals who are in their estimation too evangelical in their theological outlook and too loyal to the Protestant and Reformed principles of the Anglican Church based on Holy Scripture and set out in the Thirty-Nine Articles and the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. Bishops who do ordain such individuals may be subject to disciplinary proceedings on the grounds that they did not ensure that they were “sufficiently instructed in Holy Scripture and in the doctrine, discipline and worship of this Church, as defined by this Province.”

Canon 2, Section 7 prohibits the ordination of anyone who “has not been properly trained in Holy Scripture, and the Doctrine, Discipline and Worship of this Church.”  It does not explain what it means by “properly trained,” presumably leaving that final determination to the ecclesiastical authority of the diocese. The Anglican Standards Task Force has prepared a set of seminary standards which were approved by the ACNA College of Bishops in 2011. These standards are not binding upon the bishops. Their compliance with the standards are voluntary. A canon would be required to make the standards mandatory. Based upon their past actions such a canon would offer no assurance that the bishops would comply with the standards. 

Canon 3 is related to deacons and their ordination. Among the provisions of this canon, which are worthy of note, is the provision in Section 1 requiring candidates for the ACNA diaconate to demonstrate “sufficient knowledge of Holy Scripture, the Doctrine, Discipline and Worship of this Church, and any other topics the Bishop shall deem necessary for the office and ministry of Deacons.” This means that the bishop may require examination of a candidate in his knowledge of the theology, vesture, and ceremonial that the particular school of thought favored in the ACNA doctrinal statements associates with the office and ministry of a deacon. To this end the bishop may require a candidate to receive instruction in this theology, vesture, and ceremonial. To put it more bluntly, the bishop may require the candidate to undergo indoctrination in the teaching and liturgical practice of that school of thought. Since ordination as a deacon is a prerequisite to ordination as a presbyter, such indoctrination will be an integral part of the formation of clergy in ACNA dioceses in which the bishop is a strong proponent of the same school of thought or an institutionalist. Clergy whom the teaching and liturgical practice of this particular school thought has not influenced will be a rarity in the ACNA.

Section 2 of this canon is also noteworthy. It requires subscription without reservation to the following declaration as a condition of ordination to the diaconate in the ACNA.

“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.”

The key phrase in this declaration is “as this Church has received them.”  It is a reference to the Anglo-Catholic and high church tradition and unreformed Catholic theology given prominence in ACNA doctrinal statements. In subscribing to this declaration a candidate for Holy Orders in the ACNA is agreeing to conform to this particular tradition and theology. If he fails to conform to the official doctrine, discipline, and worship of the ACNA once he is ordained, disciplinary proceedings may be instituted against him. His subscription to the declaration may be used as evidence against him in such proceedings. This also should give us reason for hesitation.

Canon 4 is related to presbyters and their ordination. Among the subjects on which candidates for the presbyterate must demonstrate satisfactory knowledge is doctrine, which the canon defines as “the Church’s teaching set forth in the Creeds and the Offices of Instruction.” This wording comes from an earlier version of the canons of the Episcopal Church in the USA. “The Offices of Instruction” in this earlier version of the Episcopal Church’s canons is a reference to the offices of instruction in the 1928 Prayer Book. In the case of the ACNA this reference would presumably be now to the ACNA catechism. As we shall see when we examine the ACNA catechism, it is in doctrine for a large part Roman Catholic and to a lesser extent Eastern Orthodox and Arminian/Wesleyan. Nowhere in the list of subjects on which such candidates must demonstrate satisfactory knowledge is found any reference to the Book of Homilies, the Thirty-Nine Articles, and the 1662 Book of Common Prayer—historic formularies of the Anglican Church based on the Holy Scriptures and setting out the Anglican Church’s Protestant and Reformed principles.

Only in the ACNA seminary standards are found references to “the Articles of Religion and the classical prayer books.” They set out the following standard: “Approved Anglican Seminaries and Approved Anglican Tracks must provide dedicated course work on the Catholic Creeds, the 39 Articles of Religion and an approved Book of Common Prayer.” Note that it does not require study of the 1662 Prayer Book and the 1552 Prayer Book on which it is based—only “an approved Book of Common Prayer.” There is no mention of the Book of Homilies.

Like Canon 3, Canon 4 contains a provision that enable a bishop to require a candidate for the presbyterate to undergo indoctrination in the teaching and liturgical practice of the particular school of thought favored in the ACNA doctrinal statements.  Canon 4 also requires subscription to the same declaration as in Canon 3 as a condition of ordination to the presbyterate. 

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