The Anglican Sacramental System

Dear N.,

You raise an excellent point and one which we Anglo-Catholics always need carefully to consider - which is that we do not have any difference with either the Papal Communion or the Eastern Orthodox regarding the essential nature and substance of the Seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church, contrary to what Mr George Will asserts in his article. There has always seemed to be some confusion and misunderstanding about this fact on both the Roman and Anglican sides of the debate. Our differences with Rome regarding the Seven Sacraments are almost entirely disciplinary, and not dogmatic, in origin. You are right - we do not in any essential way disagree with the Tradition of the Undivided Church on the Sacraments, a Tradition that both Catholic Churches, Roman and Anglican, share. Our theological language of expression and elucidation may differ, but we possess in common the supernatural economy of grace that is the sacramental life.

For example, we do not dogmatically impose the medieval scholastic Aristotelian theory of transubstantiation on the revealed mystery of the Real Objective Presence, although Rome does. We do believe in the Real Substantial Presence of Our Lord under the form of bread and wine in the Eucharist without attempting to explain how the Lord is substantially present. We affirm the Eucharistic Sacrifice, again without dogmatising about it, and in the same manner we accept Baptismal Regeneration, the Seal of the Spirit in Confirmation, the grace and ontological character of Ordination, the gift of Absolution, the unction of the Holy Ghost in Anointing of the sick and the indissoluble sacramental bond of Matrimony, all without imposing any more dogmatic teaching on them than that which is required by the Holy Scriptures and the Church of the First Millennium. Our differences with the Roman Communion lie in the disciplinary arena, in the purview of canon law and the administration of the sacraments.

Other examples are: that we allow married men to be ordained priests and bishops, and bishops and priests to marry after ordination. We extend Eucharistic hospitality to all the validly confirmed, not merely to those in communion with a particular apostolic See. We anoint the sick, those may have a serious and recurring illness, or even those with spiritual and emotional illnesses, and we do not restrict Unction to the critically ill or dying. We offer a true and plenary sacramental Absolution at Mass after general confession, not limiting the intention to confer sacramental absolution solely within the forum of auricular confession. We do not allow priests to celebrate Mass alone. We do not have legislated in canon law fasting requirements before Holy Communion. But then, in some ways, we are stricter than Roman Church in our discipline, too, for example, in that we canonically forbid the marriage of a baptised Christian to an unbaptised person. But these rules, important and vital as they are, are all ancillary and disciplinary in nature and do not touch the substance of the Sacramental System. Other Apostolic Churches have yet other systems and organisations of discipline in sacramental administration.

Some ill-informed persons, inside and outside of Anglicanism, claim orthodox Anglicans only believe in two sacraments, reading as they do Article of Religion XXV incorrectly, because the Church makes the necessary distinction between two dominical sacraments whose sacramental form and matter are instituted directly by Our Lord in the Holy Gospel and whose reception is generally necessary to salvation, Baptism and the Eucharist (BCP 581), and the five minor, lesser or ecclesiastical sacraments, which were instituted by God in the Old Covenant or at Creation and have their renewed New Testament sacramental form and matter in the order of divine grace from the Apostles by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. These five lesser sacraments are true sacraments and true covenantal means of grace, genuine objective channels and gifts of grace, but are not necessary for the salvation of all people. In truth, formal Roman Cathoic theology makes this indispensable distinction (in specie as opposed in genere) in the sacramental order, but some Roman Catholics are unaware of the bifurcation. Again, in categorising the sacraments in this way, we are simply following Holy and Apostolic Tradition.