Anglicans Ablaze: The Thirty-Nine Articles and Anglican Comprehensiveness (Part 2)

In Part 1 of this article I noted that GAFCON in the Jerusalem Statement calls the Anglican Church back to the Thirty-Nine Articles, which with the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and 1661 Ordinal form the long-recognized doctrinal standard of Anglicanism. I drew attention to the four main functions of the Articles, among which is to set bounds to Anglican comprehensiveness. I examined how the American Church’s tacit rejection of the authority of the Articles at a very early stage in its history would influence the direction that it has taken. I concluded that the present direction of the American Church, not only in the Episcopal Church but also in the self-identified Anglican bodies that have broken away from that denomination, greatly reduces the likelihood of a positive response to this call in the United States. In Part 2 of the article I examine the bounds that the Articles set to Anglican beliefs and practices .

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