By Robin G. Jordan
To help readers to show others how far the Anglican Church
in North America has moved in the direction of unreformed Catholicism, I have
prepared a summary of the evidence. Since it is a summary of evidence, it is
limited in specific details.
The Constitution
1. The fundamental declarations in Article I of the
constitution of the Anglican Church in North America assert that the historic
episcopate is an integral part of the apostolic deposit and is absolutely
essential to the existence of the life of the Church. This is the esse position historically held by
Anglo-Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Roman Catholics.
2. The fundamental declarations dilute the authority of The
Book of Common Prayer of 1662 which forms with the Articles of Religion of 1571,
also known as the Thirty-Nine Articles, the longstanding doctrinal and worship
standard of authentic historic Anglicanism. The fundamental declarations reduce
the 1662 Book of Common Prayer to one of a number of doctrinal and worship standards
that the Anglican Church in North America recognizes as being authoritative for
Anglicans. They include the partially-reformed 1549 Prayer Book and the
pre-Reformation medieval service books that preceded it.
3. The fundamental declarations equivocate in their
acceptance of the authority of the Thirty-Nine Articles. They essentially take
the position that the Articles reflect the theological disputes of the
sixteenth century and contain some Anglican beliefs such as the agreement of
the creeds with Scripture.
The Canons
4. The canons reiterate the positions of the fundamental
declarations in Article 1 of the constitution. To these positions, they add the
position that matrimony is a sacrament.
5. The canons require the conformity of clergy to the
doctrine of “the Book of Common Prayer and the Church Catechism”—references to
the Prayer Book in preparation and To Be
a Christian: An Anglican Catechism—and the instruction of the members of
their congregations in that doctrine, adults as well as children.
6. As used in the canons the term “historic succession”
refers to the concept of a succession of bishops that extends unbroken back to
the apostles themselves and through which authority of the apostles and a
special gift of the Holy Spirit has been transmitted by the imposition of the
hands by bishops in that line of bishops. This concept is historically associated
with Anglo-Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Roman Catholicism and is central
to their understanding of apostolic succession.
7. The canons describe the ministry of bishops in terms
taken almost word for word from the Roman Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law. See Can. 375 §1. Among
other things they assert that bishops “are successors of the apostles through
the grace of the Holy Spirit given to them.” This view of the episcopate is one
historically associated with Anglo-Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Roman
Catholicism.
8. The age requirement for a bishop of the Anglican Church
in North America is identical to the age requirement for a bishop of the Roman
Catholic Church. See Can. 378 §1-3/.
9. The method of selecting bishops that the canons commend
to dioceses that presently elect their own bishops and which they
establish as normative for new dioceses is based upon the method of selecting
bishops in the Roman Catholic Church. In the Roman Catholic Catholic Church the
Pope appoints bishops or confirms those legitimately elected. Every three years
the bishops of the province and, where circumstances require, its conference of
bishops, submit to the Apostolic See a secret list of the names of priests who
are suitable candidates for diocesan bishop. The papal legate also polls the
bishops of the province for the names of suitable candidates. In addition, the
papal legate polls certain members of the college of consultors and the
cathedral chapter and may poll the secular and non-secular clergy and laity
“outstanding in wisdom.” When an assistant bishop or suffragan bishop is needed
for a diocese, the diocesan submits a list of at least three presbyters
suitable for the office to the Apostolic See.
In the Anglican Church in North America the College of Bishops performs the role of the Pope in appointing bishops or confirming their election. The diocese performs the role of the various groups and individuals that nominate suitable candidates for diocesan, assistant, and suffragan bishops in the Roman Catholic Church. The canons leave to the diocese how it nominates these candidates. They do not prohibit the diocesan bishop or the diocesan standing committee from making such nominations. The canons do restrict to at most three the number of presbyters that a diocese may nominate. The canons do not prohibit the College of Bishops from rejecting all the candidates that the diocese proposes to the College of Bishops and nominating and appointing a candidate of their own choosing.
In the Anglican Church in North America the College of Bishops performs the role of the Pope in appointing bishops or confirming their election. The diocese performs the role of the various groups and individuals that nominate suitable candidates for diocesan, assistant, and suffragan bishops in the Roman Catholic Church. The canons leave to the diocese how it nominates these candidates. They do not prohibit the diocesan bishop or the diocesan standing committee from making such nominations. The canons do restrict to at most three the number of presbyters that a diocese may nominate. The canons do not prohibit the College of Bishops from rejecting all the candidates that the diocese proposes to the College of Bishops and nominating and appointing a candidate of their own choosing.
10. When an Archbishop is the metropolitan of the province
and exercises metropolitical authority over the province, the constitution
and/or canons of Anglican provinces typically contain a provision recognizing
that the Archbishop is the metropolitan of the province and exercises metropolitical authority
over the province. The constitution and canons of the Anglican Church in North
America have no such provision. Under the provisions of the constitution the
Archbishop of the province is little more than a Presiding Bishop with a fancy
title. However, the canons require the other bishops to swear obedience to the
Archbishop, a provision that is inconsistent with the constitution and
therefore may be viewed as unconstitutional. This type of obedience is
typically reserved in Anglican provinces to whatever bishop the constitution
and/or canons recognize as the metropolitan of the province and as exercising
metropolitical authority over the province. In the case of the Province of the
Anglican Church of the Southern Cone the Provincial Executive Council has
metropolitical authority over the province, not a bishop. These facts need to be
considered in putting into proper perspective the actions of the College of
Bishops as well as his own actions when former Archbishop Robert Duncan occupied the
office of Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America.
Former Archbishop Duncan arrogated to the archiepiscopal
office powers and prerogatives that reflected an unreformed Catholic view of
the office but for which the constitution and canons made no provision. Under
the provisions of these governing documents he engaged in actions that at best
were irregular and in a number of cases contravened the provisions of the
constitution and violated the provisions of the canons. The College of Bishops
raised no objections to these actions and through its own actions essentially became
an accomplice and an accessory in these irregularities and infractions. Here
again an unreformed Catholic view of the office appears to have also dominated
its thinking.
The conduct of former Archbishop Duncan and the College of
Bishops during his tenure in office points to the kind of disregard for
constitutionalism and the rule of law that characterized a number of nineteenth
century Anglo-Catholic bishops who saw themselves above the law and not subject
to its restraints. In England a series of judicial rulings held that bishops
like other ministers are expected to obey the law. They are not free to
disregard it. In the United States these bishops went unchecked. In dioceses of
the Episcopal Church where their view of the episcopate prevailed, provisions
were incorporated into the constitution and canons recognizing that the bishop
inherently had certain powers and prerogatives traditionally associated with the
episcopal office. While the Anglican Church in North America has no such
provisions in its provincial governing documents, this view of the episcopate
is reflected in the conduct of the former Archbishop and the episcopal college
during his tenure in office.
11. The College of Bishops in electing a successor to former
Archbishop Duncan adopted the practice of meeting in secret solemn conclave
like the cardinals of Roman Catholic Church when they select a new Pope. This
points to unreformed Catholic view of the archiepiscopal office, one which
equates the Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America with the Supreme
Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.
12. The constitution and canons of the Anglican Church in
North America establish as the governing body of the province a Provincial
Council composed of a bishop, a clergy representative, and two lay
representatives from each diocese. The constitution and canons give this synod
full authority over matters of faith, order, and worship in the province. During
the past five odd years the College of Bishops has encroached upon the
authority of the Provincial Council and taken over a large part of its role,
functioning like the conference of bishops of a province of the Roman Catholic
Church. It is also noteworthy that during his tenure as Archbishop former
Archbishop Duncan created an Archbishop’s Cabinet, an administrative and
consultative body typically found in provinces of the Roman Catholic Church but
not provinces of the Anglican Communion. Here again we see the strong influence
of unreformed Catholicism upon the bishops of the Anglican Church in North
America.
13. The constitution of the Anglican Church in North America
makes provision for a Provincial Assembly, which is a larger, more representative
body than the Provincial Council. The Provincial Assembly resembles a number of
consultative bodies that are found in the Roman Catholic Church and which may,
under special circumstances, exercise very limited legislative power, typically
restricted to ratifying what has been decided at a higher level and to giving
further legitimacy to such decisions. In the case of the Provincial Assembly
its ratification of changes to the constitution and canons is the final step in
a highly-structured legislative process in which high-level decisions are given
constitutional or canonical force.
To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism
14. The catechism of the Anglican Church in North America takes
the position of unreformed Catholicism and Arminianism/Wesleyanism that faith precedes
regeneration in the order of salvation.
15. The catechism takes the unreformed Catholic position
that the gift of the Holy Spirit is exclusively conferred by the sacrament of
Baptism. While asserting faith is the proper disposition for the receipt of the
gift of the Holy Spirit by adults, the catechism is silent upon what is the
proper disposition by infants and children.
16. The catechism takes the unreformed Catholic position
that confirmation, absolution, ordination, matrimony, and anointing of the
sick are sacraments.
17. The catechism describes the process of sanctification in
terms of the healing of a disordered soul that has been wounded by sin. This view of the state of the soul owes more to modern psychology than to Scripture. In
describing the state of the soul in this way it infers that the soul is not
entirely tainted by sin—a view associated with semi-Pelagianism. Semi-Peligianism is a view of the state of
the soul historically associated with unreformed Catholicism of the Western
variety.
The term that the benchmark Anglican divines have used to
describe what happens in the process of sanctification is the renovation of the
soul radically corrupted by sin. This view is consistent with the Bible and
does not carry the same implication.
18. The catechism teaches that the sanctified attain the beatific vision, a doctrine related to
the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox belief in theosis and the Arminian/Wesleyan belief in Christian perfection.
19. The catechism emphasizes seven means by which Christians
are sanctified—“the Church’s teaching, sacraments, liturgies, seasons,
ministry, oversight, and fellowship.” Conspicuously absent from the catechism’s
understanding of sanctification is the prominent role that the Holy Scriptures
play in that process according to the Bible. This also points to an unreformed
Catholic view of sanctification.
20. Appended to the catechism is a rite for the admission of
catechumens that essentially teaches the unreformed Catholic view that the
sacrament of baptism saves, not a personal faith in Jesus Christ. This rite
includes the anointing of the catechumens with the Oil of Catechumens, also
known as the Oil of Exorcism. The English Reformers rejected this practice on
solid Biblical grounds. The anointing of the catechumens forms one of the rites
of the Roman Catholic Initiation of Adults (RCIA)
Texts for Common
Prayer
The Ordinal
21. The ordinal in Texts
for Common Prayer alters the preface of the Anglican Ordinal so that it admits
only one interpretation which is historically is associated with unreformed
Catholicism.
22. The ordinal permits the omission of the filoque clause from the Nicene Creed in all
three ordination services. This omission leaves the Anglican Church in North
America open to the charge of holding an Arian or subordinationist view of the
Son, one of the criticisms of the Eastern Orthodox omission of the filoque clause from the Nicene Creed.
23. The ordinal, like the ordinal in the 1928 Book of Common
Prayer, does not require candidates for the diaconate to genuinely believe all
the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. It dilutes this
requirement to being “persuaded that the Holy Scriptures contain all doctrine
required for eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.” The 1928 Prayer
Book’s dilution of this requirement reflects the influence of the increasingly
liberal and modernistic view of the Bible of Anglo-Catholics and Broad
Churchmen in the Episcopal Church in the 1920s.
24. The ordinal alters the formula used in the Anglican
Ordinal at the imposition of hands in the ordination of deacons so that it infers
that the bishop is conferring a special gift of the Holy Spirit upon the
ordinand with the imposition of hands. The altered formula is based upon the
formula used in the Anglican Ordinal at the imposition of hands in the
ordination of presbyters and the consecration of bishops, which a number of
more recent Anglican services books have replaced with a formula that is not
open to misinterpretation like the formula in the 1662 ordination services for
presbyters and bishops and is consistent with the Biblical and Reformation view
of ordination historically held by the reformed Church of England. In that view
ordination publicly recognizes the gifting of the ordinand for a particular
office in the church and the call of the ordinand to that office and bestows
upon the ordinand the authority to execute the office. The formula used at the
imposition of hands is a prayer for the ordinand and the imposition of hands is
an accompanying gesture of setting apart for God’s service.
In the ordinal the 1662 formula is not interpreted as the
received understanding of that formula has interpreted it—a prayer in the words
of our Lord for the Holy Spirit to empower the ordinand for office to which he
is being set apart—but as Anglo-Catholics have interpreted that formula since
the nineteenth century—a fixed form of words to accompany the bishop’s
imparting of a special gift of the Holy Spirit to the ordinand through the
imposition of hands.
25. Among the changes
that the ordinal makes to the Anglican Ordinal is that the rubrics permit
ordinands to prostrate themselves during the singing of the Veni Creator
Spiritus or other hymn to the Holy Spirit in imitation of the practice of the
Roman Catholic Church.
26. The rubrics permit the ceremonial vesting of new deacons
in maniple, stole, and dalmatic also in imitation of Roman Catholic Church
practice. These vestments have a long association with the role of the deacon
in the celebration of the Mass and by extension with the unreformed Catholic
doctrines of transubstantiation and the sacrifice of the Mass. While the
vesting of the new deacon in these vestments is optional, its inclusion in the
ordination service is an indicator of the unreformed Catholic theology
underpinning the theology of the ordinal.
26. The formula that accompanies the imposition of hands in
the ordination service for presbyters reflects a judicial view of absolution, a
view of absolution historically associated with unreformed Catholicism.
27. The rubrics permit the ceremonial vesting of new
presbyters with stole and chasuble and the anointing of their hands with the
Oil of Chrism in imitation of the practice of the Roman Catholic Church. These
ceremonies have a long association with the eucharistic doctrine of the Roman
Catholic Church and the belief that in the Mass, “Christ the Lord, through the ministry of the priest, offers himself,substantially present under the species of bread and wine, to God the Father and gives himself as spiritual food to the faithful united with his offering.”
While they are optional, their inclusion in the ordination service is an
indicator of the unreformed Catholic theology that forms the basis of the ordinal’s
theology.
28. The rubrics require the presentation of the new presbyter
with a Bible and a chalice. The presentation of a chalice and paten to a new
priest is a longstanding practice of the Roman Catholic Church associated with
its understanding of the sacerdotal role of the priest as a mediator between
man and God, offering the sacrifice of the Mass, and dispensing sacramental
grace. It is also associated with the doctrine of transubstantiation. The
rubrics do not prohibit the nestling of a paten in the chalice that is
presented to the new priest. The inclusion of the practice in the ordination
service for presbyters is an indicator of the unreformed Catholic theology underpinnings
of the ordinal’s theology.
Archbishop Cranmer dropped from the 1552 ordinal the
presentation of the chalice to the new presbyter due to its association with
Roman Catholic Church’s view of the sacerdotal nature of the priesthood for
which he found no Scriptural basis and which he concluded was contrary to the
plain teaching of Scripture.
In the 1552 and 1662 ordinals the new presbyter is presented
with a Bible which signifies not only the authority for the execution of the office
of presbyter but also the principal duties of that office—the preaching of the
Gospel and the administration of the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s
Supper. In the view of the 1552 and 1662 ordinals the administration of the
sacraments is an extension of the preaching of the gospel. The two are inseparable.
The sacraments make visible the promises of the Gospel and confirm those
promises. God gave the sacraments to invigorate, confirm, and strengthen the
faith that comes from hearing the preaching of the Gospel.
29. The rubrics permit the presentation of the new bishop
with a pastoral staff and the anointing of his forehead with the Oil of Chrism.
They also permit the presentation of the new bishop with pectoral cross,
episcopal ring, and mitre. All of these practices were discarded at the time of
the English Reformation due to their long association with the Roman Catholic Church’s
doctrine of apostolic succession for which the English Reformers found no basis
in Scripture and which they concluded was contrary to Scripture. This doctrine
maintains that a special gift of the Holy Spirit is transmitted by the imposition
of hands and anointing with the Oil of Chrism by consecrating bishops to a new
bishop and this gift had was transmitted to the first bishops in this particular
line or succession of bishops of the Roman Catholic Church by the apostles
themselves. With this special gift of the Holy Spirit is transmitted the full
authority of the apostles, making those who received it successors to the
apostles. The inclusion of these practices, while they are optional, is an
indicator of the unreformed Catholic theology forming the basis of the ordinal’s
theology.
Holy Communion
30. The two forms of Holy Communion in Texts for Common Prayer contain elements that express the unreformed
Catholic doctrines of transubstantiation and the sacrifice of the Mass. These
elements include but are not limited to the oblation of the consecrated
elements and an invitation to communion taken from the Roman Missal.
31. The rubrics permit the reservation of the sacramental
species, which is unreformed Catholic practice and reflects an unreformed
Catholic view of the eucharistic presence.
32. The exhortation that is printed after the Long Form of
Holy Communion substitutes an unreformed Catholic interpretation of the
original 1552-1662 exhortation, which includes auricular confession and
judicial absolution.
Baptism
33. The rite of Baptism in Texts for Common Prayer links regeneration as well as the gift of
the Holy Spirit to the sacrament of Baptism. The rite also takes the position
that the priest’s consecration of the water in the font infuses the water with
the power to regenerate those baptized in the water. These views are associated
with an unreformed Catholic understanding of the sacrament of Baptism. The
rubrics permit the unreformed Catholic practice of anointing the newly baptized
with the Oil of Chrism.
Confirmation
32. The preface to the rite of Confirmation in Texts for Common Prayer claims that the
rite is found in the New Testament, a claim which J. I. Packer and others have
pointed out is a “medieval mistake.” The rite takes the position that the
bishop through the imposition of hands confers upon the confirmand an increased
measure of the Holy Spirit. The rubrics permit the anointing of the confirmand
with the Oil of Christ, an unreformed Catholic practice. The rite reflects an
unreformed Catholic understanding of Confirmation.
The Three Blessed
Oils
34. This section of Texts
for Common Prayer authorizes the use of sacramentals—in this particular
case, the Oils of Exorcism, or the Oil of Catechumens, the Oil of Unction, and
the Oil of Chrism. The authorization of their use is an indicator of the unreformed
Catholic theology that forms the base of the theology of the Prayer Book in
preparation.
This summary of evidence shows a decided movement in the
direction of unreformed Catholicism in the governing documents and other
doctrinal statements of the Anglican Church in North America. It passes not
only the test of preponderance of evidence but also the test of clear and
conclusive evidence. It shows that the College of Bishops has taken major steps
toward creating in the Anglican Church in North America an environment that
greatly benefits Anglo-Catholics and their theological views. Only their
beliefs and thinking enjoy official standing in the denomination. The Biblical
and Reformation doctrines and convictions of orthodox Anglicans who fully
accept the Holy Scriptures as their rule of faith and life and the Anglican
formularies as their standard of doctrine and worship are denied any kind of
official recognition. The College of Bishops has made no effort to comprehend
their theological views in the doctrinal statements that it has endorsed to
date.
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