The Catholicization of the Anglican Church in North America: The Evidence

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.

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.

Readers should expect to hear all kinds of denials of this movement in the direction of unreformed Catholicism from those who will be ultimately affected by this movement. Anglo-Catholics and those who have been influenced by their beliefs and thinking, on the other hand, are not likely to deny this movement but will defend the College of Bishops for taking the Anglican Church in North America in this direction. One can expect to hear such arguments as it reflects the consensus of opinion in the Anglican Church in North America. The College of Bishops is seeking to save Anglican Christianity from the effects of the past 50 years, and so forth. Those who make these arguments can be expect ignore the fact that the Anglican Church in North America contains orthodox Anglican clergy and congregations that fully accept the Bible as their rule of faith and life and the Anglican formularies as their standard of doctrine and worship. A few may acknowledge the existence of these clergy and congregation in the Anglican Church in North America and may adopt the position that it is in everyone’s best interest if they affiliated with another denomination. Those making such arguments can be expected to dodge the conclusion of the GAFCON Resource Group that their ideology represents a major challenge to the authority of the Bible and the Anglican formularies in the Anglican Church along with liberalism.