Monday, February 13, 2006

Assent to the XXXIX Articles

Our conversation on a clergyman's relation to the XXXIX Articles reminds me of a fabulous passage from Father Collin Stephenson's Merrily On High...

'Canon N. P. Williams said, 'I assent to the 39 Articles as I assent to the Oxford Gas Works. I am aware of their existence, I am at the present moment engaged in no active plan for their destruction, but it does not mean that I approve of them.''

I think the famous Oxford theologian roundly summarises the position of many, if not most, Anglo-Catholics on the subject. We should remember that in the Church of England one only has to 'assent' to the XXXIX Articles, whatever that may mean.

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The Episcopal Charge to the 57th Annual Synod of the Diocese of the Eastern United States

The Episcopal Charge to the 57th Annual Synod of the Diocese of the Eastern United States