A Window to the Thinking behind the New ACNA Catechism

By Robin G. Jordan

In this fourteenth article in the series, “The New ACNA Catechism – A Closer Look,” we examine the appendices of Being A Christian: An Anglican Catechism. In addition to Prayers for Use with the Catechism of the Anglican Church in North America, A Rite for Admission of Catechumens Proposed to the College of Bishops of The Anglican Church in North America, and The Creeds appended to the new ACNA catechism are Toward an Anglican Catechumenate: Guiding Principles for the Catechesis Task Force Anglican Church in North America and Vision Paper for Catechesis in the Anglican Church of North America. The five documents provide a window to the thinking behind the new ACNA catechism (and in at least two cases, the apparent lack of thinking).

Prayers for Use with the Catechism of the Anglican Church in North America

What is notable about this collection of prayers is that it contains two prayers that differ in their view of baptism and confirmation from that of the new ACNA catechism. These prayers are: For Preparation for Baptism and For Preparation for Confirmation. One would expect that any prayers adopted for use with the catechism would be consistent with its teaching. For Preparation for Baptism infers that we are regenerated by baptism. The catechism, on the other hand, teaches that regeneration is tied to faith and that the Holy Spirit is given in baptism. For Preparation for Confirmation teaches that the Holy Spirit is given in confirmation, not baptism. It contradicts what the catechism teaches.

A Rite for Admission of Catechumens Proposed to the College of Bishops of The Anglican Church in North America

In this rite the catechumens are anointed with the Oil of Catechumens. In the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church the Oil of Catechumens is used to anoint the baptismal candidate before he is baptized. The anointing is a part of the baptismal rite. The Oil of Catechumens is believed to strengthen the baptismal candidate in his struggle with evil, temptation, and sin. The Roman Catholic Church classifies the Oil of Catechumens as a sacramental. The Code of Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church defines sacramentals as “sacred signs by which effects, especially spiritual effects, are signified in some imitation of the sacraments and are obtained through the intercession of the Church.” Sacramentals include the holy water typically found in a stoup near the entrance to a Roman Catholic parish church and the blessed salt used in the rite of exorcism. The use of the Oil of Catechumens in the proposed rite of admission of catechumens points not only to the influence of unreformed Catholicism in the Anglican Church in North America but also to the tendency toward ritualism in the ACNA.

The Creeds

In the Nicene Creed the words “and from the Son” are placed in brackets and may be omitted. 

College of Bishops Resolution Concerning the Nicene Creed (Epiphany, 2013, adopted unanimously)

Resolved,

The normative form of the Nicene Creed for the Anglican Church in North America is the original text as adopted by the Councils of Nicaea (325 A.D.) and Constantinople (381 A.D.). This form shall be rendered in English in the best and most accurate translation achievable.

Resolved,

The Anglican Church in North America acknowledges that the form of the Nicene Creed customary in the West is that of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, including the words “and the Son” (filioque), which form may be used in worship and for elucidation of doctrine.

Resolved,

Because we are committed to the highest level of global unity possible, the College of Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America seeks advice of the Theological Commission of the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans concerning implementation of the recommendation of the Lambeth Conference of 1978 to use the normative form of the Nicene Creed at worship.

Toward an Anglican Catechumenate: Guiding Principles for the Catechesis Task Force Anglican Church in North America

After a lengthy and at times esoteric discussion of catechesis, the authors of this paper delineate what they describe as five guiding principles for the Catechesis Task Force. What is notable about the paper that its primary focus is the revival of an early Church practice and its use in an Anglican context. It pays little attention to the realities of the twenty-first century North American mission field. While similarities exist between the ancient pagan world and the modern secular world, there are also major differences. The paper does not attempt to examine these realities and develop a methodology for sizing up a particular community and determining what would be the most workable approach to evangelization and adult faith formation in that community. Such an exegesis of the community might point to an entirely different approach than the one which the Anglican Church in North America appears to have wedded itself.

What is also notable about this paper is that its authors represent the two dominant theological strands in the Anglican Church in North America—what Gerald Bray has described as “charismatic open evangelical ritualism” and Anglo-Catholicism. The dominance of these two theological strands in the ACNA accounts in large part for its efforts to revive the catechumenate. Behind these efforts can be discerned the influence of the late Robert Webber and the Ancient-Future worship renewal movement, the Roman Catholic Church, and to some extent the Eastern Orthodox Churches. Those who closely monitor developments in the ACNA have noted a steady movement in the direction of unreformed Catholicism. This is quite evident in the method the ACNA College of Bishops has adopted to select a new Archbishop, as well as in the ACNA fundamental declarations, its canons, its “theological lens,” its ordinal, its trial services, its new catechism, and its proposed rite for admission of catechumens.

Vision Paper for Catechesis in the Anglican Church of North America

The vision paper is insistent that all churches in the Anglican Church in North America must adopt the same approach to adult faith formation. It does not consider that the method it promotes—the revival of the catechumenate—has its drawbacks. Vatican II revived the catechumenate in the Roman Catholic Church in the 1960s. The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA), however, has had mixed success. While adults and older children are being catechized, baptized, and confirmed, they are not being converted. The Roman Catholic Church continues to lose members. While Roman Catholic Church has attracted a number of high profile evangelicals, it has lost substantially more of its own members to evangelical denominations.

What is noticeably missing from the vision paper is any recognition of the need to instruct inquirers, new Christians, and church members in what New Testament teaches about the Great Commission, the priesthood of all believers, the interdependence of the Body of Christ, and the gifts of the Spirit. Without a solid grounding in these basics, they will never become effective, fruit-bearing disciples of Jesus Christ. There is a growing body of evidence that in order to engage and reach the unchurched population of North America churches must abandon an attractional approach and adopt in its place a missional approach. This requires that believers not only be committed to bringing the gospel to the lost but also be equipped to do so.

Also conspicuously absent is any recognition of the need to develop a course of instruction that may be adapted to the culture, educational level, and language skills of those receiving instruction. The unchurched population in North America is not monocultural. The educational level of its members varies from illiterate to doctoral level. It includes a large segment for whom English is not their first language and whose language proficiency ranges from negligible to bilingual proficiency.

The vision paper is clear as to which “Hermeneutic Tradition” it is referring. Anglicans are divided over how the Scriptures should be interpreted and understood. Hermeneutical principles that are acceptable to Anglo-Catholics are not acceptable to evangelicals.

Sacraments receive a decided emphasis in the vision paper. As we seen in our examination of the catechism proper, in its use of this term the Catechesis Task Force is not just referring to baptism and the Lord’s Supper but also to confirmation, absolution, ordination, marriage, and anointing of the sick.

The vision paper makes a number of statements about the sacraments that merit comment. It states, baptism and confirmation bring the individual into the life of the Church, incorporate him into the body of Christ, and regenerate him to new life.” In this statement the vision paper articulates a Roman Catholic view of baptism and confirmation contradicts what is taught in the new ACNA catechism. The latter teaches that regeneration follows faith and precedes baptism. The catechism does not tie regeneration to baptism, only the gift of the Holy Spirit. According to the catechism, the grace conferred in confirmation is the strengthening of the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer for Holy Spirit’s daily increase in the believer’s Christian life and ministry.

The vision paper also places teaching of the Word second in order to the sacraments: “The grace of God works through the sacraments and also through the teaching of the Word [emphasis added].”

The vision paper offers a Roman Catholic view of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.

The Holy Communion feeds God’s people “in an heavenly manner” with the Body and Blood of Christ.  Christ is really given to the faithful in the Holy Communion.  This is the continued grace of God in the believer’s life which, co-working with the work of the Holy Spirit in the ministry of the Word, continues to sanctify and grow the believer, with the Church of Jesus as a whole, “till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

What the foregoing paragraph refers to as “the continued grace of God in the believer’s life” is what the Roman Catholic Church calls “sanctifying grace.” See Grace: What It Is and What It Does. The vision paper does not identify the source of the quote, “in a heavenly manner.” It does not come from the Prayer Book Catechism or the Thirty-Nine Articles. It does, however, suggest C. B. Moss’s reinterpretation of Article 28 in a Romeward direction. Moss claimed that Article 28 taught that Christ was substantively present in the Holy Communion, in the consecrated bread and wine. This paragraph appears to imply the same thing. The Declaration on Kneeling in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer excludes any substantive presence of Christ in the elements.

The vision paper’s reference to “mother church” is unusual in a purportedly Anglican document. A similar reference is also found in Toward an Anglican Catechumenate: Guiding Principles for the Catechesis Task Force Anglican Church in North America. The use of this phrase is typical of Roman Catholic documents.

The footnotes to the vision paper contain a selective use of a quote from the Proposed Canons of 1571 that is typically found in the works of Anglo-Catholic writers. When the passage is read in the context of the canon in which it is found, it is clear that these writers are misinterpreting this passage.

But chiefly they shall take heed, that they teach nothing in their preaching, which they would have the people religiously to observe, and believe, but that which is agreeable to the doctrine of the old Testament, and the new, and that which the catholic fathers, and ancient Bishops have gathered out of that doctrine [emphasis added][33]. And because those articles of Christian religion, agreed upon by the Bishops, in the lawful, and godly convocation, and by their commandment, and authority of our noble princess Elizabeth assembled and holden [= held], undoubtedly are gathered out of the holy books of the old, and new Testament, and in all points agree with the heavenly doctrine contained in them: because also the book of common prayers, and the book of the consecration of Archbishops, Bishops,  Ministers and Deacons, contain nothing repugnant to the same doctrine, whosoever shall be sent to teach the people, shall not only in their preaching, but also by subscription confirm the authority, and truth of those articles. He that doth otherwise, or troubleth the people with contrary doctrine, shall be excommunicated.

This passage, when read in context, does not support whatever notions of “Hermeneutic Tradition” the vision paper is promoting. 

The Preface to the Ordination Service cited in the same footnote is the Preface to the Ordination Service in the ACNA Ordinal, not the 1662 Prayer Book Ordinal. The ACNA Ordinal alters the Preface to the Ordination Service, substituting “three” for “these.” The footnote does not identify the source of the Thomas Cranmer quote, the date of that quote, or the context. It may be assigning a different meaning to the quote than what Cranmer himself meant, which can be determined from the context. It also may not represent Cranmer’s mature thinking but his earlier thinking. Here the source and date of the quote is invaluable. What you see in this footnote further evidence of the Catechumenate Task Force’s proclivity for “cherry picking.” This proclivity does not inspire any confidence in the task force’s scholarship or its ethicality.

The appendices to Being A Christian: An Anglican Catechism, like the catechism itself, confirm the movement of the Anglican Church in North America in the direction of unreformed Catholicism. Anglicans who fully accept the authority of the Bible and the Anglican formularies and stand in continuity with the English Reformers, particularly those are presently members of a congregation in the ACNA or are clergy in the ACNA need to take note of the direction in which the special interest groups are taking the ACNA. Implied in the vision paper’s insistence that all ACNA churches adopt the approach to adult faith formation that it is championing is that they also teach what the new ACNA catechism teaches. The handwriting is on the wall!