The Doctrine of the Proposed 2019 ACNA Prayer Book: Part 5

By Robin G. Jordan

A fifth place to look for clues to the doctrine of a Prayer Book is the Form and Manner of Making, Ordaining, and Consecrating of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, commonly known as the ordinal. The ordination services were the first services of the proposed 2019 ACNA Prayer Book drafted by the Prayer Book and Common Liturgy Task Force and endorsed by the College of Bishops. The College of Bishops, at the time it endorsed these services, took the unusual step of declaring these services off limits to further revision.

With the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion of 1571 and The Book of Common Prayer of 1662, the classical Anglican ordinal, the Form and Manner of Making, Ordaining, and Consecrating of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons of 1661, form the longstanding Anglican standard of doctrine and practice. All three formularies have their origins in the first two centuries of the reformed Anglican Church, a formative period in the shaping of historic Anglicanism. The 1661 ordinal is essentially the 1552, 1559 ordinal. The Restoration bishops made a number of modest changes to 1552, 1559 ordinal, notably to the form used at the imposition of hands at the consecration of a bishop and the ordination of a priest. But beside these changes the 1661 ordinal does not differ greatly from its predecessors. The Jerusalem Declaration upholds it as “an authoritative standard for clerical orders.”

The 1792 American ordinal is essentially the 1661 ordinal. Among the notable changes are that the presiding bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA, not the archbishop of the province, is the chief consecrator at the consecration of a bishop. The reading of the King’s mandate was dropped. Since the presiding bishop was not a metropolitan to whom the other bishops were subordinate, the oath of obedience to the archbishop was also omitted. The presiding bishop was at the formation of the PECUSA the senior-most bishop by date of consecration in the House of Bishops. He was the presiding officer of that body and the presiding office of the General Convention and had some other largely ceremonial duties. He did not exercise the kind of authority that the modern-day Episcopal Church’s presiding bishop exercises.

One of the distinct features of the 1792 American ordinal is the alternative formula, "Take thou Authority…." The inclusion of this formula was a compromise with those who objected to the formula, “Receive the Holy Ghost…” due to its sacerdotal implications. The latter is a medieval addition to the ordinal: It was first used in the thirteenth century. It is unknown to the ancient rites. The alternative formula was retained in the 1892 and 1928 ordinals but was dropped from the 1979 ordinal. Its omission reflects a shift toward a more sacerdotal view of the priesthood in the Episcopal Church.

A notable change was made in the wording of the Examination in the Form for Making Deacons in the 1928 ordinal. The question, “Do you unfeignedly believe all the Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testament?” was changed to “Are you persuaded that the Holy Scriptures contain all Doctrine required as necessary for eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ?” This change reflects changing attitudes toward the Scriptures in the PECUSA in the early twentieth century due to the growing influence of modernism. Similar wording is used in the 1979 ordinal and the ACNA ordinal.

Textually the ACNA ordinal borrows heavily from the 1979 ordinal. In a number of places the texts are used differently, apparently to avoid the appearance of slavishly imitating the 1979 ordinal. Doctrinally the ACNA ordinal, however, moves further away from the classical Anglican ordinal than does the 1979 ordinal. This is most evident in its rubrics and the practices that they authorize or sanction. While a number of these practices are optional, their inclusion in the ACNA’s ordination services has bearing on the doctrine of these services.

The delivery of the chalice (with a paten nestled in it) to the ordinand has strong associations with the medieval and modern-day Roman Catholic doctrines of eucharistic sacrifice and transubstantiation as do the prostrating of the candidate before the altar and the anointing of the ordinand’s hands with blessed oil. In the medieval church the paten with a host and the chalice with wine were given to each ordinand, with the words:”Receive the power of offering sacrifice to God and of celebrating Mass for the living and the dead.”

While the delivery of the paten and chalice were briefly retained in the 1550 ordinal, it was dropped from the more reformed 1552 ordinal. From the 1552 ordinal on, a Bible was given to each ordinand not just as a symbol of his new office but as a strong reminder that he as a priest (or presbyter) was first and foremost a minister of the gospel. His administration of the gospel sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion was a part of that ministry.

The anointing of a bishop’s head with blessed oil and his ceremonial vesting also have strong associations with the Roman Catholic doctrine of the sacrament of holy orders as well as its doctrine of apostolic succession. Both doctrines were rejected by the English Reformers as contrary to the teaching of the Bible.

The doctrine of the ACNA ordinal is a complete about-face from that of 1792 American ordinal. Rather than accommodating those who stand in continuity with the English Reformers and historic Anglicanism in their rejection of Roman Catholic sacerdotalism and sacramentalism, the ACNA ordinal does the reverse. It caters to those seeking to promote unreformed Catholic beliefs and practices in the Anglican Church in North America.

I have written extensively not only on the doctrine of the ACNA ordinal but also its promoters’ misleading statements about the ordinal. I have included links to a number of these articles. They are in no particular order.

“A Critique of PBS President Gavin Dunbar's Appraisal of the New ACNA Ordinal”
“A Fork in the Road: A Plea for a Biblically Faithful Ordinal”
"The Doctrine of the New ACNA Ordinal: Classically Anglican? Or Troublingly Unreformed?"
"Archbishop Robert Duncan on the New ACNA Ordinal – Part II"
"What You May Not Know about the New ACNA Ordinal"
"Archbishop Robert Duncan on the New ACNA Ordinal"
“Undoing the English Reformation with the Anglican Church in North America”
"Further Thoughts on the New ACNA Ordinal"
"Prelates and Pontificals in the Anglican Church in North America"
"The New ACNA Ordinal: Shadows of Things That Will Be or Shadows of Things That May Be?"
“The 2011 Ordinal: A Foretaste of the New American Prayer Book”

The ACNA ordinal was indeed a foretaste of the proposed 2019 ACNA Prayer Book. Despite the hype seeking to equate the ordinal and subsequently the whole book with 1662 Book of Common Prayer in the minds of ACNA’ers and others, the two books are poles apart in doctrine and liturgical usages.

Like the proposed 2019 ACNA Prayer Book, the ACNA ordinal is actually a proposed ordinal. While it may have received the endorsement of the College of Bishops, it has never been approved by the Provincial Council and the Provincial Assembly. No canon has been enacted to authorize its use. At best it may be regarded as a trial ordinal but even then no canon has been enacted to authorize the use of trial rites and services. The canons of the Anglican Church in North America established a task force to develop a liturgy for the province but did not delineate a procedure for its trial use, final approval, and future revision. It is a major defect of the ACNA’s canons. One thing, however, is clear is that the Provincial Council, not the College of Bishops, is given authority in all matters related to the worship of the province.

What the College of Bishops has been doing is arrogating to itself authority that is rightly that of the Provincial Council under the provisions of the ACNA’s governing documents. Since half of the membership of the Provincial Council is comprised of bishops, the Provincial Council has acquiesced to this encroachment upon its authority. It has not been able to protest, much less otherwise resist this abuse of ecclesiastical authority.

Is the College of Bishops afraid of the outcome if the proposed 2019 ACNA Prayer Book is presented to the Provincial Council and the Provincial Assembly for approval? I am not talking about the kind of automatic approval without proper consideration that has characterized the deliberations of these two bodies to date. I am talking about an extensive review of the book by a panel of ACNA’ers that are firmly committed to remaining faithful to the Bible and the historic Anglican formularies and a similar review of the book by representatives of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans who share that commitment, the submission of their reports to the Provincial Council and to the Provincial Assembly, an exhaustive section by section examination of the book in each body, debate and amendment of each section, and then section by section final approval of the book, with this process spread out over several sessions of the Provincial Council and Provincial Assembly.

Such a process, I suspect, would produce an entirely different book from the one that the College of Bishops has endorsed, a book that would be broader in its outlook and sensitive to a wider range of views.

I personally would have greater confidence in such a process than the one which produced the proposed 2019 ACNA Prayer Book, provided that it was done honestly and transparently. The process that produced the proposed book has clearly favored one school of thought over the other schools of thought represented in the Anglican Church in North America, a school of thought that seeks to move the Anglican Church away from its reformed heritage in the direction of unreformed Catholicism.

Another question that deserves an honest answer is why did the College of Bishops declare the ACNA ordinal off-limits to further revision? I am not going to speculate as to why the bishops took that unusual step. I do think that the ordinal should be on the table with the other sections of the proposed 2019 ACNA Prayer Book. The Anglican Church in North America should be free to revise it to conform more closely to the reformed beliefs and practices of historic Anglicanism, even to replace it with a new ordinal that embodies these beliefs and practices. Perhaps a conservative translation of the 1792 American ordinal into modern English would meet the need for a more reformed ordinal in the ACNA. It is far more reformed than the proposed ordinal that the College of Bishops endorsed.

Image Credit: The Anglican Church in North America