The Anglican Church in America

The Most Reverend Louis W. Falk, Primate

Adapted for the Anglican Church in America from

The Anglican Catholic Church of Canada

Compiled by E. C. Goodwin

including extracts from the writings of

The Rt. Rev. C. J. DeCatanzaro, PhD

The Rt. Rev Alfred Woolcock, DD

The Very Rev. Roland Palmer, DD SSJE

and other sources

THE ANGLICAN CHURCH IN AMERICA IS NOT A NEW CHURCH

The Anglican Church in America continues to be the Church to which Anglicans have always belonged. It continues steadfast in the Faith, Order, and discipline of that Church. Thus it has become the Continuing Anglican Church here in America.

Anglicans have inherited from the Churches of England and Ireland the Faith of the undivided primitive Church, together with the Apostolic Orders of Bishop, Priest and Deacon, in succession from the Apostles and Our Lord; and also the discipline and moral standards of the historic Christian Church from the beginning.

We are Anglo-Catholic, emphasizing the fact that we hold “the whole truth as it is in Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today and forever”. Saint Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch in the second century, coined the word “Catholic” meaning wholeness or complete-ness. A Catholic Christian was, and is, one who holds the fullness of the Christian Faith as set forth in Holy Scripture.

WE ARE ANGLICAN AND CATHOLIC IN BACKGROUND

WE ACCEPT ALL THAT JESUS CHRIST HAS TAUGHT US. He is the eternal Son of God, the Way, the Truth, and the Light, who was born into this world as a human child of the Virgin Mary, lived among us as a perfect human being, died on the Cross, rose from the dead, and lives and reigns for evermore. He is the center of our Faith; no one else. What we believe we believe because of Him. He is the standard of what is right or wrong, and true or false, not what society or the contemporary world thinks.

BECAUSE WE BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST, we believe in the Bible. We believe in the Bible because it speaks of Him, His acts and His teachings. It points forward to them in the Old Testament; it relates them directly in the Gospels; it looks back on them and reflects on them in the Acts and the Epistles. It looks forward to His Second Coming and the final Judgment of mankind in the Book of Revelation. The Bible is infinitely precious to us because of Jesus Christ. We do not seek to avoid it, change it or to explain it away. We use it in worship through the historic Book of Common Prayer.

BECAUSE WE BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST, we accept the Creeds. They summarize what Christians, guided by the Holy Spirit, have always believed about Him. We recite them with confidence. They express the convictions by which we want to live and die.

BECAUSE WE BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST, we accept His commandments. We know that we are responsible to Him as the Judge of all mankind. We also know that we often fail to measure up to them, but He offers us forgiveness of sins and His Holy Spirit to overcome our weaknesses and shortcomings and make us more like Him.

BECAUSE WE BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST, we believe in His Church. It is His Church, subject to His marching orders, sent by Him to witness to His truth to all men everywhere. It is not ours to change as we see fit, to make into a social club for ‘our kind of people’, or into a political organization either to prop up the existing order or to bring about social change.

BECAUSE WE BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST, we believe in His Sacraments. We believe that in Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Communion, Absolution, Holy Unction, Holy Matrimony and Holy Orders, He is really present and acts for our salvation. We must meet Him in faith and penitence.

BECAUSE WE BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST, we believe in the Sacred Ministry. Bishops, Priests and Deacons are His agents who must act on His instructions, first given to His Apostles. They must proclaim His word, administer His Sacraments, and on His behalf minister to His people. Their role is not to be exalted social workers, political agitators, or amateur psychologists. We do not accept women priests because Our Lord did not choose women Apostles, and has given us no authority to invent something new and different. For us that is enough; He is the eternal truth, and knows far better than any of us.

THE ESSENTIALS OF TRUTH AND ORDER

The Church is the Body of Christ at work in the world. She is the society of the Baptized called out from the world; in it, but not of it. As Christ’s faithful Bride, she is different from the world, and must not be influenced by it. We repudiate all deviations from the Faith in whole or in part, and bear witness to the essential principles of evangelical Truth and Apostolic Order.

THE TRADITIONAL ANGLICAN COMMUNION

The Traditional Anglican Communion is the worldwide association of Churches, which continue in common with the essentials of the Catholic faith in its Anglican expression. All are in communion with the Anglican Church in America. Here are the names of the churches in other countries: The Anglican Catholic Church of Canada, The Anglican Catholic Church in Australia, The Church of Torres Strait, The Church of Ireland (Traditional Rite), The Traditional Anglican Church (in England), The Anglican Church in Southern Africa, and The Anglican Church of India. The Anglican Church in America has a Missionary Diocese in Central America and Mexico, and another in Puerto Rico, and a Missionary District in Colombia.

AN INVITATION TO YOU

We invite you to worship with us. You will find us very friendly and willing to help with any questions you may have. Many Anglicans troubled by the changes in the faith and doctrines in their church in the present age, have either stopped going to church or have joined non-Anglican churches only to find that their spiritual hunger and longing for the true Catholic sacraments, and the doctrines of the Book of Common Prayer continue to be unsatisfied. They then have found their spiritual home in the Anglican Church in America.

If you are new to the Church, or have lapsed for any length of time, we would welcome you home. If you would like to talk with someone about the Anglican Church in America in a location nearest to you, please write or visit the parish shown on the panel below.