The American Anglican Council & Anglican Formularies.

(As the search goes on for a God-directed and Christ-honoring response to the present crisis in the ECUSA, I offer this starter for discussion, knowing that there will be serious reflection and consideration before & at the various Diocesan Conventions, the Plano/Dallas Congress of the AAC and especially at the Primates Meeting in mid-October. I wish I could go to all these meetings and listen in!)

It is a cause of thankfulness to Almighty God that the American Anglican Council (AAC) is responding positively in the late summer and autumn of 2003 to the crisis over authority & sexuality within the Episcopal Church. Bishops, clergy & lay leaders in this organisation are standing up to be counted on behalf of what they believe the Episcopal Church ought to believe, teach and confess and how it ought to behave before God, the Judge of all men.

I want to suggest that the ability of the AAC to respond to this growing crisis is somewhat restricted because of the inadequacy of the doctrinal basis on which it stands. In terms of moral fervour and spiritual energy the AAC is exemplary. However it is not yet so in the area of doctrine because of its own self-chosen mission statement, which is inadequate to the task in hand.

In "A Place to Stand. A Call to Mission", which expresses the identity of the AAC there is this section:

"Historic Faith, Ecumenical Vision. We affirm the Faith of the Church as it is set forth in the Nicene and Apostles' Creeds and in the classical Prayer Book tradition, including those documents contained in the "Historical Documents" section of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer (BCP p.863). We further affirm the principles of the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral (BCP p.876) as an expression of the normative authority of Holy Scripture and as a basis for our present unity with brothers and sisters in the Anglican Communion and for the future reunion of all the divided branches of Christ's one holy, catholic and apostolic Church."

The content of this paragraph is encouraging; but, it could be much better. This paragraph points to the classic, biblical and orthodox Anglican Way; but, it could do so much more effectively & clearly.

First of all, it lumps together two different forms of Doctrinal Statement. The Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral (1888) was meant only as a Statement of the relation of Anglican Provinces to other denominations. It is a rehearsal of the basics required & needed for union with other Churches. Nowhere does it claim to be an internal confession of faith for an Anglican Province. In contrast, the Creeds of the Church and the Formularies of the Anglican Way [the classic Book of Common Prayer, the Articles of Religion and the Ordinal] are internal statements of what the Church actually believes, teaches and confesses and what is the basis of her worship of the Holy Trinity. The Quadrilateral is to be read against the background of the historic Formularies.

Secondly, this statement from the AAC actually treats the 1979 Prayer Book of the Episcopal Church as a genuine edition of the classic Book of Common Prayer, in a line from the edition of 1662 through those of 1789, 1891 and 1928. Though the Episcopal Church did erroneously and mischievously call its Prayer Book of 1979 by the hallowed title of "The Book of Common Prayer," anyone examining it will see at once that the content does not fit such a title, but rather, fits another title (used in England and Canada), that of, "A Book of Alternative Services".

If the AAC, and the dioceses attached to it, were to adopt as their basis the classic Anglican Formularies (all happily contained within the covers of the 1928 edition of the classic BCP edition of 1928 published by Oxford University Press) as the internal standards of the Anglican/Episcopal Way, and the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral as the basis for ecumenical relations with other Churches, then the AAC could continue to use the 1979 Prayer Book as providing alternative services to be used alongside and under the doctrinal authority of the historic, classic Book of Common Prayer. Such a change would place the AAC in the historic line of biblical and classic Anglican orthodoxy and thus cause her to have the same doctrinal basis as most Provinces of the Anglican Family, chiefly that of the Church of England. She would have the Book of Common Prayer (with the Ordinal and the Articles) and in relation to it she would have another prayer book, containing alternative services. And thereby she would be authentically Anglican and poised, by God's mercy, to engage in mission effectively and profoundly.

In the interim, all her Bishops could declare loudly and clearly - as Bishop Ackerman has done -- that parishes which so desire may use now any or all of the services within the 1928 BCP. This would send out a clear message that the clsasic Anglican Way was being recovered as the basis for an ongoing mission.

The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.)