"Recapturing Orthodoxy"
The Fellowship of Concerned Churchmen
Wilmington, Delaware
17 September 2004
The Rev. Fr. David C. Kennedy, SSC

Legitimacy, Orthodoxy, and Authority in Anglicanism are all related, and since, to my knowledge none of the three speakers assigned these topics have conspired, you will, for better or worse, get three talks from three points of view, which I suspect will be about the same thing. If we all basically agree, then let us hope the Holy Ghost is at work among us.

Anglicanism today is made up of the Church of England, which consists of the two Provinces of Canterbury and York, which were separated from the rest of the Western Church in the 16th Century, and those churches which are derived from Her missionary work ever since. Anglicans define themselves as Reformed Catholics, and see themselves as preserving the historic Faith of the Church of the early centuries before abuses and corruption became so problematic.

We quote St. Vincent of Lerins from the 5th century, and appeal to his definition of what is Catholic, which is defined as what has been believed everywhere, always, and by everybody. Lerins is a small island of the southern coast of France. "Quad ubique, quad semper, quod ab omnibus creditum est." Just as the Anglican position of not requiring anything to be taught and believed as necessary to salvation which cannot be proved from Holy Scripture is a position which was developed from observing the state of things, so the same development much earlier made the Vincentian Canon the standard of belief that is has been ever since.

Perhaps we should define what we mean by "orthodox." It means "right praise or opinion." It also has to do with "right worship." We often say "Lex orandi, lex credendi," which means "the law of praying, is the law of believing." That is great as far as it goes, but our praying and believing must be orthodox too.

What do we Anglicans believe the Orthodox Faith is? Certainly the Faith of the first 5 centuries, which would fit the definition of St. Vincent of Lerins. This would include the first Four Councils, which defined the Trinity and the Incarnation. It would include the authority of Holy Scripture, the Creeds and Apostolic Ministry and the Sacraments. Perhaps some might argue about the details, but that would be a fringe matter.

This all worked very well until fairly recently when the Orthodox and Catholic Faith of Anglicanism began to be attacked mostly from within, by people who had contracted a good dose of the Zeitgeist. Bishop Pike denied the Trinity and the Incarnation. Parts of the Anglican Communion permitted the "ordination" of women to the Apostolic Ministry, changed the traditional Book of Common Prayer into something quite different, and then most recently, the overthrowing of traditional and Biblical Christian morality.

We had no method within Anglicanism to deal with these challenges. No Supreme Court. No Pope. No check on the power of church synods or general conventions. Thus we have the present mess, in which many Anglicans who see themselves as Orthodox are attempting to work the mess out.

The Official Anglican Communion is working on developing a Communion-wide Canon Law, which would define what we believe as Anglicans, so that erring Provinces, such as the Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church of Canada could be disciplined. This remains to be seen.

There are several things I would suggest that we can do in the meanwhile.

First, We can remain faithful to what we know to be Orthodox, using the definition of St. Vincent of Lerins. I suspect most of us here do that already.

Second, we can see ourselves as the descendants of the two separated provinces of the Church of England from the rest of the Western Church. The Papacy is not what it was at the time of the Reformation. It is time to let the Pope be our spokesman, and let the Roman Catholic Church, and to a lesser extent the Eastern Orthodox, overshadow us when it comes to defending Orthodox Christian teaching. All of the things done that have caused so much trouble among us, are things that we were warned about by our Roman and Eastern friends. The latest report of ARCIC (Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission), entitled, "The Gift of Authority," has been recommended to us as a way forward. We should accept the teaching and moral authority of the Pope even though we are not yet in full communion. With a Pope as good as the present one, that should not be a major problem, but certain theological and jurisdictional differences with Rome remain for us as Anglican.

Third, we need to reclaim our heritage of the Book of Common Prayer. I don't think one can be an Anglican without the Prayer Book. The most widely used Book of Common Prayer is that of the Church of England 1662. I think all of us should adopt that as our doctrinal standard. We could permit the 1928 American BCP and the Canadian 1962 BCP as developments from the 1662. When we come to the American 1979 so called Book of Common Prayer, the Book of Alternative Services of the Anglican Church of Canada, we come to a different matter. The Canadians are most honest is calling their book, a book of alternative services. That is what the American 1979 is also, and we should be honest enough to admit it. Keep those books and use them, but with the understanding that they are to be understood in the light of the 1662, and other Prayer Books coming from that tradition.

Perhaps there are some questions.