Why CANA's New Diocese Initiative Matters

In his article “Why Denominations and Networks Matter” Andrew Hébert offers five reasons why he believes affinity-based networks matter. They are theological identity, missiological partnership, ministerial training, pastoral accountability, and ecclesiastical fellowship. These same reasons apply to CANA’s formation of a North American deanery for confessional Anglicans—Anglicans who share a common theological identity grounded in the Holy Scriptures and the Protestant Reformation and expressed in the historic Anglican formularies.

For those who may be unfamiliar with the historic Anglican formularies, they consist of the Articles of Religion of 1571, the Book of Common Prayer of 1662, the Forms for the Making, Ordering, and Consecration of Deacons, Priests, and Bishops of 1661, and the Books of Homilies of Edward VI and Elizabeth I. Together they form the core of the central Anglican theological tradition.

Among the reasons that CANA’s North American deanery for confessional Anglicans was formed was the lack of a North American Anglican network of churches whose theology clearly stood in continuity with historic Anglicanism—with the faith embodied in the historic Anglican formularies. That faith is not only Biblical but also Reformed in its theological outlook. It shares much in common with the faith of the Magesterial Reformed Churches.

At the same time historic Anglicanism has some distinct characteristics of its own. The Reformed Anglican Church was one of the European Reformed Churches which retained liturgical forms of worship based upon those of the Medieval Catholic Church. These forms of worship were reformed to make them conform to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures and to express their doctrine. The Reformed Anglican Church also retained the office and ministry of bishop for pragmatic reasons. The Reformed Anglican Church in addition retained a number of pre-Reformation practices such as wearing the surplice during services of public worship, making the sign of the forehead of the newly-baptized, and giving a ring at weddings on the basis that such practices were not forbidden by the Holy Scriptures, were indifferent to the salvation of the individual, and served the good order and discipline of the Church.

Nineteenth century and later interpreters of historic Anglicanism have sought to exploit these particular characteristics of the Reformed Anglican Church to dislodge it from its place among the Reformed Churches, arguing that they represent an unreformed Catholic tradition within Anglicanism and therefore Anglicanism should be viewed as a compromise between Catholicism and Protestantism. However, a careful examination of how the Protestant Reformation unfolded in the British Isles and Europe exposes the flimsiness of this argument. A more accurate description of the Reformed Anglican Church is that it represents a distinctively local development of the Protestant Reformed tradition.

Readers who wish to learn more about CANA’s North American deanery for confessional Anglicans may contact the Rev. Richard LePage at pastor@ReformationAnglicanChurch.org or (207) 894-0177 or the Rev Jonathan Smith at jonathan.smith@redeemerorl.org or (321) 356-9472.