The Continuing Anglican Church declares its belief in the Holy
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the Word of God and the
only sufficient Rule of Faith and entreats all the faithful to read the same
diligently, not only as their duty and privilege, but in obedience to
Christ’s command, “Search the Scriptures.” For the moral instruction
contained therein it accepts also the so-called Apocryphal books.
II. THE CREEDS
The Continuing Anglican Church accepts the Nicene Creed, without the
“filioque” interpolation as the only one of universal obligation but
believes also the other two symbols known as the Apostles’ Creed, and
the Creed of S. Athanasius.
III. THE COUNCILS
The Continuing Anglican Church receives as Ecumenical the Seven
General Councils whose dogmatic decrees are today accepted by all
Apostolic Churches of the East and West, viz:- (1) Nicea, 325; (2)
Constantinople, 381; (3) Ephesus, 431; (4) Chalcedon, 451; (5)
Constantinople, 553; (6) Constantinople, 680; (7) Nicea, 787.
IV. THE SACRAMENTS
The Continuing Anglican Church holds that a Sacrament is a sacred rite
divinely instituted to convey grace, having a sensible or visible sign
connected with prayer as the means by which the grace is conveyed. It
receives as a part of the original deposit of the faith “Once for all
delivered to the saints” the Seven Gospel Sacraments.
i. BAPTISM. It acknowledges Baptism as the Sacrament established
by Christ to cleanse man from Original Sin and to make them
members of the Christian Church, it is the sacrament of
Regeneration of the New Birth.
ii. CONFIRMATION. It believes that Confirmation is the Sacrament
in which the Holy Spirit is given with the fulness of His Gifts to
the believer and regards the Bishop as the ordinary minister of
this Sacred Rite.
iii.PENANCE. It believes that in the Sacrament of Penance, Jesus
Christ Himself inwardly looses from their sins those who
sincerely repent of them and outwardly make confession, and
that every validly ordained priest has the power to pronounce
Christ’s pardon to penitent sinners confessing their sins. It
allows both public and private confession, the mode being
optional with the penitent.
iv.THE EUCHARIST. It holds that the Eucharist is both a Sacrament
and a Sacrifice offered for the living and the dead. It believes
that in this most holy Sacrament of the Altar there is the real
Presence of the glorified spiritual Body and Blood of Christ
under the forms of bread and wine, the mysterious
transformation being effected by the Holy Spirit. Since this is a
mystery it shuns all terms of definition and description. It
maintains that the Chalice should not be denied the laity in holy
communion; it believes that the Liturgy ought to be said in the
language of the people; and it permits in connection with this
Sacrament the use of the names Eucharist, Mass, or Divine
Liturgy.
v. UNCTION OF THE SICK. It believes Unction of the Sick to be a
Sacrament of the New Dispensation, instituted for the spiritual
and corporal solace of the sick, to be used for the benefit of the
Christian when seriously ill, and not only when approaching
death. Both the mode and the efficacy of this Sacrament are
indicated in the fifth chapter of the Epistle of St. James.
vi.SACRED ORDERS. It believes that Order is a Sacrament which
confers upon those who validly receive it the power to exercise
special ministerial function, Bishops alone being the ministers
of this Sacrament. The greater, or Holy Orders, which are of
divine institution, are the Episcopate, the Priesthood, and the
Diaconate, reader, exorcist, acolyte and subdeacon. It believes
the episcopate necessary for the life of the Church, that all
bishops are equal in power and authority by divine right and that
their prerogatives of honor and jurisdiction are derived from the
Church and regulated by her canons.
vii. HOLY MATRIMONY. It believes marriage, when a man and
woman are joined together according to the sacred rite of the
Church, to be a sacrament, and that the civil ceremony of
marriage prescribed by law in certain countries, should always
be blessed by the priest. There should be no dissolution of the
bonds of marriage except for adultery, and malicious desertion
(including proven extreme abuse,) and no priest of this Church
is permitted to perform the marriage ceremony of any person
who has a divorced husband or wife living, unless such a person
produces satisfactory evidence from court records that he or she
is the innocent party in a divorce granted for the cause of
adultery or malicious desertion. In all cases involving the
marriage of a divorced person, the priest must submit the facts
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to, and receive the consent of his/her Bishop, before performing
the rite.
V. THE SAINTS
The Continuing Anglican Church believes that the departed saints are
not dead, but living, and that if the prayers of the righteous on earth avail
much, the prayers of our glorified brethren nearer the throne of God
must be more potent. Hence, we consider it a good and useful practice to
invoke the prayers of the saints for us, and to pray ourselves for the
repose of the souls of the faithful departed.
VI. SACRED PICTURES AND IMAGES
The Continuing Anglican Church holds that pictures and images of
Christ and the Saints may be reverenced as sacred things, though not
adored. We do not deny to any Christian the use of this pious practice if
it be an aid to worship, but we caution against abuses thereof when the
picture or image is given the adoration which belongs only to God, or its
veneration considered necessary to salvation or justification.
