Handout One:

As orthodox Anglican Christians we are…

Evangelical: We believe the Good News of Jesus Christ to be the Gospel of Life and Salvation for the whole world and believe that all persons are called into a personal relationship with the Living God in Jesus Christ.  As a mission minded communion, we believe that we are commissioned and empowered by the Holy Spirit to make Jesus Christ, (through our witness of the Faith, public testimony, our daily ministry, and through Word & Sacrament), a living and present reality in the lives of those whom we daily encounter.  Our faith, moral beliefs, worship, preaching and teaching are grounded in God’s holy Word.  As evangelical Christians we proclaim Jesus Christ to be the Way, the Truth and the Life and the only means of salvation for humankind.

Reformed/Protestant: We believe in the primacy and authority of the Holy Bible over and within the Church, emphasizing God’s Word in our worship, preaching and teaching.  We humbly submit ourselves to the transforming power of the Holy Scriptures as Divinely inspired, containing all things necessary to Salvation and believe it is not lawful for the Church to proclaim any thing that is contrary to God’s Word written, nor is it lawful for any one part of the Church to alter the Evangelical Faith or Catholic Order of the whole Church unilaterally.  Furthermore, we proclaim that Salvation is a free gift of God given by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Spirit-filled/Charismatic: We believe that Christian life is, by definition, new life in the Holy Spirit.  We fully understand our Faith and ministry as gifts from God and evidence of the Spirit’s power and presence among us.  It is the Holy Spirit who draws us into the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; in whom we daily encounter the Living God.  Apart from the Holy Spirit, we can not be born anew in Christ and our labors are in vain.

Orthodox: We profess the Faith once delivered to the Saints.  We believe our Faith to be at one with the holy Faith of the undivided Catholic Church of the first Christian Millennium before the sad divisions within the Christian Church and believe our contemporary worship, in Word and Sacrament, to be in direct continuity with the Church of all ages and places.  The word ‘orthodox’ means right belief in God and right worship of God.  Therefore, we offer the authentic historic Faith and worship of the ancient Church for today’s world.

Catholic:  We have retained, proclaim and celebrate the same Holy Scriptures, Creeds, Councils, moral teachings, Sacraments (i.e., Holy Baptism & Holy Communion), and Orders of Ministry (those of Bishop, Priest, and Deacon) as that of the undivided Catholic Church of the first Christian Millennium.  The word ‘Catholic’ [Greek, katholikos] means Universal or Whole.  Therefore, we proclaim the whole doctrine, moral teaching, discipline and worship of the Universal Church as traditionally received within the Anglican Communion and articulated in the classical Anglican Formularies (the Thirty-Nine Articles, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and Ordinal, and the Lambeth Quadrilateral).  Believing Christian life to be sacramental, we celebrate all seven Sacraments, i.e., the two Dominical Sacraments and the five Sacramental Rites of the Catholic Church.

Believers in the Sanctity of Human Life:  We are fully committed to the Biblical and Catholic view of the Sanctity of all human life from the moment of conception until natural death.

Apostolic:  By our faithfulness to the above, we seek to present the teaching, mission, worship and fellowship of the Apostolic Church to today’s world.

Handout Two:

The Vincentian Canon [434]

(1) I have therefore continually given the greatest pains and diligence to inquiring, from the greatest possible number of men outstanding in holiness and in doctrine, how I can secure a kind of fixed and, as it were, general and guiding principle for distinguishing the true Catholic Faith from the degraded falsehoods of heresy.  And the answer that I receive is always to this effect; that if I wish, or indeed if anyone wishes, to detect the deceits of heretics that arise and to avoid their snares and to keep healthy and sound in a healthy faith, we ought, with the Lord’s help, to fortify our faith in a twofold manner, firstly, that is, by the authority of God’s Law [i.e., God’s Word], then [secondly] by the Tradition of the Catholic Church.

(2) Here, it may be, someone will ask, since the canon of Scripture is complete, and is in itself abundantly sufficient, what need is there to join to it the interpretation of the Church?  The answer is that because of the very depth of Scripture all men do not place one identical interpretation upon it. The statements of the same writer are explained by different men in different ways, so much so that it seems almost possible to extract from it as many opinions as there are men.  Novatian expounds in one way, Sabellius in another, Donatus in another, Arius, Eunomlus and Macedonius in another, Photinus, Apollinaris and Priscillian in another, Jovinian, Pelagius and Caelestius in another, and latterly Nestorius in another.  Therefore, because of the intricacies of error, which is so multiform, there is great need for the laying down of a rule for the exposition of Prophets and Apostles in accordance with the standard of the interpretation of the Church Catholic.

(3) Now in the Catholic Church itself we take the greatest care to hold that which has been believed everywhere, always and by all. 

That is truly and properly ‘Catholic,’ as is shown by the very force and meaning of the word, which comprehends everything almost universally.  We shall hold to this rule if we follow universality [i.e., occumenicity], antiquity, and consent. We shall follow universality if we acknowledge that one Faith to be true which the whole Church throughout the world confesses; antiquity, if we in no wise depart from those interpretations which it is clear that our ancestors and father proclaimed; consent, if in antiquity itself we keep following the definitions and opinions of all, or certainly nearly all, bishops and doctors alike.

(4) What then will the Catholic Christian do, if a small part of the Church has cut itself off from the communion of the Universal Faith?  The answer is sure.  He will prefer the healthiness of the whole body to the morbid and corrupt limb.

But what if some novel contagion try to infect the whole Church, and not merely a tiny part of it?  Then he will take care to cleave to antiquity, which cannot be led astray by any deceit of novelty.

What if in antiquity itself two or three men, or it may be a city, or even a whole province be detected in error? Then he will take the greatest care to prefer the decrees of the ancient General Councils, if there are such, to the irresponsible ignorance of a few men.

But what if some error arises regarding which nothing of this sort is to be found? Then he must do his best to compare the opinions of the Fathers and inquire their meaning, provided always that, though they belonged to diverse times and places, they yet continued in the faith and communion of the one Catholic Church; and let them be teachers approved and outstanding.  And whatever he shall find to have been held, approved and taught, not by one or two only but by all equally and with one consent, openly frequently, and persistently, let him take this as to be held by him without the slightest hesitation.

Vincent of Lerins, Commonitorium (434)

Handout Three

Canon A5 Church of England

“The doctrine of the Church of England is grounded in the holy Scriptures, and in such teachings of the ancient Fathers and Councils of the [Catholic] Church as are agreeable to the said Scriptures. In particular such doctrine is to be found in the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, the Book of Common Prayer, and the Ordinal” (Canon A5 of the Church of England).

Handout Four

Preface to the Ordinal 1662

It is evident unto all men diligently reading holy Scripture and ancient Authors, that from the Apostles' time there have been these Orders of Ministers in Christ's Church; Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. Which Offices were evermore had in such reverend Estimation, that no man might presume to execute any of them, except he were first called, tried, examined, and known to have such qualities as are requisite for the same; and also by publick Prayer, with Imposition of Hands, were approved and admitted thereunto by lawful Authority. And therefore, to the intent that these Orders may be continued, and reverently used and esteemed in the Church of England, no man shall be accounted or taken to be a lawful Bishop, Priest, or Deacon, in the Church of England, or suffered to execute any of the said Functions, except he be called, tried, examined, and admitted thereunto, according to the Form hereafter following, or hath had Episcopal Consecration, or Ordination.

Handout Five

Lancelot Andrewes ~ 1,2,3,4,5…

“One Canon reduced to writing by God Himself, two Testaments, three Creeds, four General Councils, five centuries, and the series of Fathers in that period…determine the boundary of our Faith.” – Lancelot Andrewes

Handout Six

Thomas Ken

“I die in the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Faith, professed by the whole Church before the disunion of East and West:  more particularly, I die in the Communion of the Church of England, as it stands distinguished from all Papal and Puritan innovations, and as it adheres to the doctrine of the Cross.”

Handout Seven

Quote by John Jewel, Bishop

“We have returned to the Apostles and the old Catholic Fathers. We have planted no new religion, but only preserved the old that was undoubtedly founded and used by the Apostles of Christ and other holy Fathers of the Primitive Church”.  --John Jewel, Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae, 1562.

Handout Eight

Quote from, The Book of Homilies (“…on Holy Scripture), by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer

“To a Christian man there can be nothing either more necessary or profitable, then the knowledge of holy Scripture, forasmuch as in it is contained God’s true word, setting forth his glory, and also man’s duty. And there is no truth nor doctrine necessary for our justification and everlasting salvation, but that is (or may be) drawn out of that fountain and Well of truth. The knowledge of holy Scripture is necessary. Therefore as many as be desirous to enter into the right and perfect way unto God, must apply their minds to know holy Scripture, without the which, they can neither sufficiently know God and his will, neither their office and duty.