Faith Foundations: The Basic Elements of the Faith

By Hugh C. Edsall
 

Editor’s Note: Many persons believe The Episcopal Church and its partner churches in the Anglican Communion do not deliver the kind of clear and potent Christianity that challenges the theological chaos facing us today. That is not true, for Anglicans have a solid foundation upon which we can build a relationship with the holy God who loves us and desires our redemption and our love in return. During Lent, The Living Church examined, in six parts, some of the basic elements of the faith as practiced by Anglicans.
 
Part One: Authority

Any presentation of elements of the faith needs to begin with two urgent questions: Does God exist? Is Jesus Christ God in human nature? If the answer to either of these questions is “no,” then the existence of churches and the practice of the Christian religion is in vain.
 
Christians, of course, aren’t the only ones who believe that God exists. Cultural studies indicate that over the whole course of recorded human history most people have believed in some form of deity. God’s self-disclosure is called “revelation.” Because he loves us (his creatures most capable of responding to him), God reveals himself to us. He reveals his nature, his plan for our relationship with him, his love for us, and his earnest desire that we love him in return. The Christian religion is based entirely on what we believe God has revealed about himself from the beginning of recorded history.
 
John the Baptist very properly asked Jesus, “Are you the Christ, or do we look for another? (Matt. 11:3). Is Jesus Christ God indwelling human nature? If he is not, then
Christianity is baloney – all of it that isn’t directly attributable to the moral codes of Judaism. The Jewish moral law, exemplified by the Ten Commandments and the entire Levitical law, already contained every ethical or moral commandment Jesus taught. Christianity without Christ is nothing but the best of Judaism.
 
Jesus and the Father
The new teachings Jesus presented were about himself. Many would like to have Jesus as a wonderful ethical teacher, a great example of sacrificial heroism, but they deny that he was anything more than that. Here are his own words: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30); “He that has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Jesus was asked at his trial, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” He answered, “I am, and you shall see me coming in the clouds with power and great glory!”
 
Jesus was presented to Pilate for crucifixion for being a blasphemer, because he claimed to be God. He wasn’t crucified for preaching the beatitudes, healing the sick on the Sabbath day, feeding the 5,000, or even eating with tax collectors. He was delivered to Pilate because of his claim to divinity. If the crucifixion had been the end of Jesus, we would never have heard of him. (The Romans killed many people for various reasons. The Jews stoned many to death.) Maybe a religious historian or two would have a note about an eccentric ecstatic who thought he was divine. But the rest of us would not. There would be no churches and no Christians.
 
The reason there are billions of Christians today is because of the resurrection. Jesus was crucified, and on the third day, he was raised from death by the power of God. Jesus did not need the resurrection. He could have returned to the Father directly from the cross, and few of us would blame him for doing just that, but it would have left no proof that his claims and promises were true, and the Christian religion would not exist. The resurrection was for our benefit, not his, to prove that he is who he said, and that his promises are true. There were witnesses of the resurrection— lots of them. St. Paul refers to more than 500 witnesses at once, and invites his readers to go and question them (1 Cor. 15:6). The apostles themselves were the primary witnesses.
 
Jesus was with the apostles for a long time after the resurrection, and not as some sort of misty spirit or mental apparition. He said to them, “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have”
(Luke 24:39).
 
How do we know it’s true? In the Jewish religion, truth was valued above everything. Emphasis on truth runs the whole length of the Old Testament. Jesus emphasized truth constantly, and spoke of himself as the Truth (John 14:6). The writers of the gospels emphasized the importance of truth (John 21:24; 1 John 1:1-4). Would they have deliberately or carelessly lied about something as crucial to them as the coming of the promised Messiah and the claims he made? Would they have done that, knowing that what they said was not true or only wishful thinking? Would they have died for a lie of their own making?
 
Christians believe that God exists, and that he is holy, wise, powerful and just. We believe that he loves us passionately, forgives our sins, and desires our presence with him in joy forever. We believe these things on the basis of the self-disclosure he has made through patriarchs and prophets, and finally through Jesus. We further believe that Jesus Christ is precisely who he said he is — God in human form. We believe this because we trust the testimony of the people who were willing to suffer death for the sake of that testimony. We believe that Jesus did, and does, have the complete authority to make his promises to those who would come to believe.
 
 
Part 2: The Scriptures

Robert Dentan, professor at The General Theological Seminary, writing for the Church’s
Teaching Series, says, “It is the conviction of Christians that God revealed himself in history. The Bible is the written record of that revelation. It is not primarily a book about men, but about God: its chief value is not that it contains great literature, but that it shows us what God is like and what God has done.”

Jesus taught from the Old Testament, and recognized it as the written record of the developing revelation of God to his chosen people. Using the Old Testament, he showed that he was the promised Messiah. The New Testament contains the written record of Jesus’ teachings and the teachings of his followers, inspired by the Holy Spirit, who, he promised would bring to their remembrance whatsoever he had said to them. Indeed, everything the Church teaches is founded in holy scripture. The Bible has primacy over all other sources of doctrine.

The books which the Church approved for inclusion in the New Testament contain the source teachings from our Lord and the original apostles which are basic to all church doctrine. Roughly speaking, if it’s not founded in scripture, we don’t teach it. This is what is correctly meant by members of the historic Church when they speak of the “primacy” of scripture.

Many people think the Church is founded upon scripture. Not so. The Church is founded upon our Lord. The Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is the product of the Church, the product of the inspired people of God. The priority is obviously this: God first (He alone has the ultimate primacy), then the Church (the people of God, beginning with Abraham), and then what they wrote as God inspired them to write. The great majority of the New Testament was written after Jesus had founded the Church, and was written precisely because the writers had formed a definite theological understanding of his person. They wrote so that his teachings would be preserved along with the special inspiration of the original apostles and evangelists.

First 500 Years
The Church was founded by our Lord many years before the first New Testament book was written. The New Testament is the Church’s product, and the Church stood in judgment over all of the New Testament writings for the first 500 years A.D. to see what books should be included in the official list, what should be taught and believed, and which books (like the gospels of Peter and Thomas) should be excluded. Thus the Church is both prior to scripture in terms of time and responsible for the correct interpretation of scripture because the Church, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, determined the official content. When we have questions about the meaning of a particular biblical passage, we should ask the Church, God’s agent in writing, just as we would ask a secular author what was meant in a certain passage of his own secular writing. The author would be the ultimate authority.

It must be pointed out that since the division of East and West at the end of the first millennium, it has not been possible to have a genuine ecumenical council with all of the apostolic successors present, so the truly authoritative doctrine of the Church all comes from its first thousand years.

The great Anglican theologian, Richard Hooker, in the Preface to his Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, writes “When Scripture does not speak clearly, then reason must apply itself; but reason’s function is to understand and apply Scripture; it is not an autonomous source of authority.” Indeed, the great councils’ main function was to understand and apply scripture.

Many people believe all Christian doctrine is crystal clear in the Bible, that no further explanation is required, and no refinement necessary. A moment’s thought shows how untrue this is. For example, all Baptists and many other fundamentalists say the Bible forbids the baptism of the very young. Jehovah’s Witnesses believe passionately in their own ability to interpret the Bible, but they directly contradict the usual protestant on nearly every important subject, beginning with the doctrine of the Trinity.

The Old Testament consists of 39 books originally written in Hebrew. It is believed that
God revealed himself directly to the Hebrew people because they had a concern for God which set them apart from the rest of the ancient world. Their literature is marked by an almost exclusive preoccupation with religious ideas and behavior.

The New Testament consists of 28 books originally written in Greek. It is the written record of the coming of God the Son to take our nature upon himself in order to save us and give us the promise of eternal life.

Between these two main sections is the Apocrypha, a group of books which the Anglican
Communion regards as of considerable historical interest, but not useful for doctrine.
Many Bibles do not include these books.

The church has already selected for our study all of the really meaningful and useful parts of the Bible and left out the relatively boring parts. This selection is in the lectionaries found in the Book of Common Prayer, pp. 888-1001. Using the lectionary eliminates the problem of bogging down. In addition, the lectionary limits the amount of scripture to be
read on any one day, thus avoiding fatigue.

The Daily Office Lectionary, beginning on Page 934, lists scripture readings for every day of the year. It is arranged in a two-year cycle, with the readings on the left-hand pages to be used in odd-numbered years, and those on the right-hand pages in even-numbered years. If the lectionary is used faithfully, the real meat of the Bible will be covered in two years.

Part 3: The Sacraments

If God is good, and God is creator or initiator of the universe, then it stands to reason that the physical creation must be intrinsically, basically good. This means that the human body, being physical, is intrinsically good also. To say otherwise is to criticize the Creator, and that is blasphemy. Yes, we know that the body has powerful appetites, and that if they are not controlled by the mind, they can get out of hand and cause major problems. But that is not the body’s fault. It simply means that the mind did not discipline the body sufficiently to keep it out of trouble. But the body is essentially good.

Knowing our nature, Jesus gave us physical handles on spiritual realities. This is what a sacrament is—a physical handle on a spiritual reality, transmitting power from God. Sacraments are outward signs that God is doing something for us inwardly. The Church has a more dignified definition: “A sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace, ordained by Christ himself, as a means whereby we receive that grace, and a pledge to assure us thereof.”

Jesus said two sacraments were necessary to salvation: baptism and Holy Communion. Of baptism, he said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are born anew of water and of the Holy Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). That’s why he commanded the apostles to go into all the world, baptizing all nations. The spiritual reality of baptism is incorporation into the body of Christ. The sacrament of baptism is far more than a mere initiation rite. It is more than joining a society, with Jesus as president. Through baptism we become members of the body of Christ, the Church, of which Jesus is the head.

The Catechism (BCP, p. 858) teaches that “Holy Baptism is the sacrament by which God adopts us as his children and makes us members of Christ’s body the Church, and inheritors of the Kingdom of God.”

The physical handle on our incorporation into Christ is, according to the Catechism, “water in which the person is baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” The water represents washing, and it symbolizes the waters of birth, fulfilling Jesus’ requirement that we must “be born anew by water and the Holy Spirit” (John 3:5).

Greatest of Gifts
The Holy Eucharist, or Holy Communion, is the other sacrament necessary for salvation.
The service sets forth the greatest of all “good gifts,” our Lord Jesus Christ’s gift of himself. The Eucharist is the only service Jesus himself gave for regular Christian worship. He gave other sacraments, but they are not for regular worship. We receive baptism and confirmation once. Reconciliation, or confession, or penance, is not used in the company of others. Holy matrimony is intended to be experienced once; ordination, or holy orders, not by all; and unction, only occasionally.

Also known as the Lord’s Supper, the Mass, or the Divine Liturgy, the Holy Eucharist connects us to the reality of Jesus’ immediate presence with us at his altar. We need to remember two very important things: The Eucharist is necessary to salvation because the Lord said it is. The Eucharist is the constant feeding of Christian people with his substance and life.

The other sacraments — confirmation, penance, unction, marriage or matrimony, holy orders or ordination—while not deemed necessary for salvation, are important nevertheless. In confirmation, the Church expects people who were baptized as infants to ratify and confirm the promises made in their name by their parents and godparents at their baptisms. So in this sacrament we state before God’s people, in the presence of his bishop, that we truly believe and accept Jesus as our Savior and Lord. In addition, we ask that the power of the Holy Spirit, which we received in baptism, may be poured out in our lives.

The sacrament of penance is provided by the Church, under the authority of Christ himself. The use of sacramental confession in the presence of a bishop or priest is not required in the Anglican Communion. It is simply a special gift of God’s forgiving power.

Holy unction is available to be administered in times of physical illness. The oil of unction is carried in a small container called an oil stock, holding cotton wool which has been soaked with blessed olive oil. Unction is administered by a priest, who presses his thumb against the cotton wool and anoints the patient, making the sign of the cross on the forehead, praying for physical and spiritual healing.

Christian marriage is described as a “solemn and public covenant between a man and a woman in the presence of God.” Marriage is a sacrament in the sense that it has outward and physical signs (words and rings exchanged) and conveys God’s grace to live in love and fidelity. The ministers of this sacrament are the man and the woman: they marry each other. The priest is there to witness what they do in the name of the state and bless it in the Name of God.

The Anglican Communion has an official statement as to the nature and purpose of the sacred (ordained) ministry. It is found in the preface to the Ordinal (BCP, p. 510): “The Holy Scriptures and ancient Christian writers make it clear that from the apostles’ time there have been different ministries within the church. In particular, since the time of the New Testament, three distinct orders of ordained ministers have been characteristic of Christ’s holy catholic Church. First, there is the order of bishops, who carry on the apostolic work of leading, supervising, and uniting the Church. Secondly, associated with them are priests. Together with the bishops they carry out the missionary and pastoral work of the Church. Thirdly, there are deacons who assist the bishops and priests in all of this work.”

Part 4:  The Creed

A creed is a statement of belief. Credo is Latin, meaning “I believe.” Some denominations say we shouldn’t use creeds. That’s like saying that Christians shouldn’t say what they believe, or that they shouldn’t be unified in saying it.

Jesus emphasized the essential nature of belief in him in such texts as “Whoever lives and believes in me has escaped the judgment and passed from death to life” (see John 3:16, 5:24, 6:47). Peter said, “Neither is there salvation in any other Name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). At the end of his gospel, John the apostle says: “Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (20:30).

Christians were under persecution for the first 311 years of the Church’s life. The persecution was by a succession of Roman emperors who viewed allegiance to Christianity as treason, since the emperors claimed divinity for themselves. They were determined to get Christians to deny Christ. In addition, the Christians were ordered to worship or pay homage to Caesar: a de facto denial of Christ. Captured Christians were brought before some object or idol symbolizing Caesar’s rule and “divinity,” and were ordered to kneel and put a pinch of incense at the feet of the idol. When the Christians refused to do that, they were tortured in horrible ways, yet there is no record of any denial of their Lord.

The last persecution began in A.D. 303 under the Emperor Diocletian, and it raged throughout the empire for nearly a decade. Still the Church could not be broken. Finally, Diocletian’s successor, Galerius, conceded defeat in his Edict of Toleration in 311, making Christianity a tolerated religion. Two years later, Emperor Constantine published the Edict of Milan, giving complete and unconditional recognition to Christianity.

Before legalization, Christians had little time to study the exact identity of Jesus Christ and his relationship to the Father. They knew he was Lord and believed he was divine. They knew the scriptural verses. They were eager to follow him. They were baptizing, confirming, and receiving the Eucharist every chance they got. Thousands were converted. Now that they had an opportunity to meet together in safety, they began to ponder the essential identity of Jesus.

Athanasius and Arius
Two camps of Christians developed, one led by Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, and the other by a priest in Alexandria named Arius. Athanasius maintained that the scripture clearly said that God the Son (the second person of the blessed Trinity, who took our nature upon him and is known as Jesus Christ) was of the same being, same essence, same substance, same inner reality, with the Father. The Greek word meaning “identical substance” is homo-ousias.

Arius maintained that God the Son is of “similar substance” with the Father, but not the same, and that he was created. The Greek word for “similar substance” is homoi-ousias. So the controversy concerned the Lord’s being of the same substance (homo), or of similar substance (homoi) with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

There was serious division in Christian ranks for the first time, and Constantine, fearing the controversy would divide his empire, called all of the bishops, the apostolic successors, together to settle it in an ecumenical (worldwide) council. The brave Christians of the first three centuries had witnessed to the truth, despite the ever-present possibility of dying for their belief. They knew Jesus Christ to be Savior and Lord, and they believed he was God in human flesh; but it was now essential that they state precisely his relationship with God the Father and state the nature of his being.

Constantine called for the council to be held in the city of Nicea in 325. The apostolic successors remembered well the words of the Lord: “When the Spirit of Truth is come to you He will lead you into all truth, bringing to your remembrance whatsoever I have said to you” (John 14:6). They believed that the Holy Spirit would protect them from error as they gathered together praying for his protection. The product of the Council of Nicea was the Nicene Creed, the central statement of basic Christian belief. The creed, as written by the bishops at Nicea and polished by them at the following Council of Constantinople in 381, settled the argument and answered the question about the relationship of God the Son with the Father and the Holy Spirit. It also declared in the clearest of terms God’s action to save us.

In the Nicene Creed, presented on page 326 and page 358 of the Book of Common Prayer, the first paragraph considers God the Father; the second, God the Son; and the third, God the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, and everlasting life. The word “catholic” is a composite Greek word katholou meaning, literally, “in accordance with the wholeness”; that is, possessing all four essential characteristics: the apostolic succession, the seven sacraments, the faith, and the scriptures. This term is the basis for the title of the book from which these articles were excerpted, Whole Christianity.

The first paragraph of the creed declares belief in God the Father, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen.

The second paragraph clarifies the truth about God the Son as determined by the bishops under the promised protection of the Holy Spirit. God the Son is eternally begotten of the Father. He has eternally been with the Father and the Spirit by nature. God the Son is equal in majesty, glory and eternity with the Father and the Holy Spirit. In saying that God the Son is “eternally begotten of the Father,” we acknowledge there never was a time when the Son was not.

In the third paragraph, we find the statement “We (the bishops gathered together in council) believe in the Holy Spirit.” This is the great empowering Holy Spirit promised by Jesus to the apostles, the same one who guided the council, and who guides and empowers us to this day, the agent of power in creation and in the sacraments.

The creed is the church’s official statement of Christian belief. When it is recited during the Eucharist, it is the context by which we understand the day’s selection of scripture and the sermon, which have covered a very limited aspect of the whole faith. Saying the creed reminds us of the whole picture, but in a very rapid overview.

Part 5:  The Liturgy

The service most Episcopalians will find in their churches on Sunday is the Holy Eucharist, the only service Jesus himself established for regular Christian worship, and the central act of worship in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

The word “Eucharist” is a combination of two Greek parts: Eu, meaning “good,” and charis, meaning “gift.” We hear that it means “thanksgiving,” and surely thanksgiving to God for his mercy is involved, but it’s more than that. The service actually sets forth the greatest of all “good gifts,” our Lord Jesus Christ’s gift of himself.

The Holy Eucharist is one of several names for this central act of Christian worship. In some places, it is called “the Mass,” which is really a nickname, being short for the closing words of the old Latin rite, Ite missa est, used in dismissing the faithful. In some places the service is called “Holy Communion,” but actually that refers to the part of the service where people receive communion. “Divine Liturgy” is usually used by Christians of the Orthodox tradition. It means God’s work of the people. “The Lord’s Supper” is used by many protestants to describe an act of worship, but it really refers to the night Jesus instituted the service and gave it to us.

Regardless of what the service may be called, as practiced by Episcopalians there are two main sections of the service: The preparation, or the service of the word, and the action.

When our Lord gave us the service, he did four things:
• He took bread and wine.
• He consecrated the bread and wine, saying “This is my body,” and “this is my blood.”
• He broke the consecrated bread.
• He distributed both to the disciples.

We repeat these four actions as the central part of every Eucharist, and they are all that is strictly necessary for a “valid” Eucharist. However, those actions would take only five minutes or so. The brevity of such a service would hardly indicate the great reverence we should have for the coming of Jesus himself to feed us with his own substance and life. So before these great actions we have preparation — prayer, scripture reading and confession — to get us ready for the coming of our Lord.

In the early days of the Church, catechumens (those who were just learning their catechisms or basic doctrines of Christianity) were allowed to stay only for this preparation part of the service. Then they were sent away. Only those who had made their baptismal commitment to Christ were allowed to remain for the second section — the Eucharist itself.

This preparation or service of the word begins with a sentence of acclamation which may vary with the season. “Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit” is used most often. It is followed by the Collect for Purity, in which we acknowledge that even though our sinfulness and our brokenness make us unworthy to offer God praise, he wants us there anyway.

This is followed by a hymn of praise, usually the Gloria in Excelsis — pure adoration, praising God for being God, not only for all the things he’s done for us, but just for existing!

Next is the collect of the day, a summary-type or “collecting”- type prayer that sums up the prayers of the people. There is a special collect for each Sunday of the year and for each major holy day. Many other occasions have their own collects too.

The collect is followed by readings of the scriptures, often by members of the congregation who step forward to read an appointed lesson. Usually there will be a reading from the Old Testament, a reading from the psalms, and a reading from the Book of Acts or one of the epistles. The gospel is always read or sung by a deacon or priest.

A sermon follows the gospel reading and may explain the readings and show how they apply to life in the present, or the preacher may preach on whatever he or she chooses. The sermon is followed by the reading of the Nicene Creed, the great framework statement of Christian belief.

Then the Prayers of the People are read — often by a deacon or lay person. In these prayers, we are opening channels for God’s love and power to flow to various persons and causes. In order to be spiritually clean before receiving communion, we say the General Confession. At some times of the year, the confession and absolution by a priest may be said at the beginning of the liturgy. Before entering the second part of the Eucharist, there should be a sense of peace and unity within the body, and so we greet one another with the exchange of the Peace.

The Offertory
The liturgy continues with the Offertory, a time when representatives of the congregation bring to the altar the bread and the wine to be used in the Eucharist. Another important part of the Offertory is that those present offer themselves to God. In addition, money-offerings are part of the offertory as they symbolize our dedication of ourselves, our life and labor, to God.

There is a three-part introduction to the action of consecrating the bread and wine—the Sursum Corda, in which we lift our hearts in joy to God; the Sanctus (holy), in which we sing or say praise to God; and the Benedictus (Blessed is he who comes), the greeting of the approaching Messiah entering Jerusalem.

This introduction is followed by a short narrative of what God has done for us, and then the words of institution — the words Jesus spoke as he consecrated first the bread and then the wine. The Eucharist sets before the Father the sacrifice Jesus made for us. He offered himself. Therefore Jesus, both priest and victim of the sacrifice, offered to atone for the sins of everyone who would believe in him.

The Lord’s own prayer appears in all services of the Church, and it follows these important actions in the Eucharist. Next is the breaking of the bread as the celebrant breaks the consecrated host, the body of the Lord, as Jesus did.

The fourth action of our Lord was to give his body and blood to the disciples assembled with him. All persons who are members of the body of Christ by virtue of their baptism are invited to receive the food which maintains life in that body. We receive communion with careful reverence.

Following communion, we recite a prayer of thanksgiving for what God has just given us. Then the priest or bishop blesses those assembled, and the deacon or celebrant dismisses the congregation.

While space does not permit all the details that could be written about the Eucharist, we need to remember two very important things about it: The Eucharist is necessary to salvation because the Lord said it is. The Eucharist is the constant feeding of Christian people with his substance and life.

Part 6: The Prayer Book

The Anglican Communion throughout the world has a great asset: The Book of Common Prayer. This wonderful book does two centrally important things: In its various national translations, it directs the worship of the national member churches, and it makes the doctrine of the Church clear. We call it simply “the prayer book.” It contains prayer and worship which we share “in common” with each other, as distinguished from private prayer.

The first Book of Common Prayer was published in England in 1549. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer was largely responsible for assembling the best rites for the Eucharist and other services, editing them, and translating them into English. From that day to this, the Book of Common Prayer has been regarded as a masterpiece, both of literature and theology, because the language is so beautiful and the doctrine is so clear and easy to understand.

The prayer book has been revised many times since it was first published, but the basic doctrine of the Church has always been preserved. Each national branch of the Anglican Communion has its own version of this book, laid out in much the same way, teaching the same basic doctrine, with the same services of worship, but in the language of the local people, acknowledging local circumstances. Individual national provinces revise their own versions of the prayer book as the need arises. The 1979 edition presently used by The Episcopal Church benefits from the labors of many liturgical scholars (those who study how people worship). It contains the easily followed order of worship for the commonly used services of the Church. Services used only occasionally are found in the readily available Book of Occasional Services. Countless other books offering prayers for private devotion are also available.

The prayer book is more than a book of worship services. It sets forth simply and with authority the doctrine (teaching) of the Church. It clearly states what we believe as members of the Anglican branch of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. What we believe is expressed through our worship. The prayer book contains solid, clear teaching on all the subjects central to our Christian life. Anyone wishing to know what is taught by the Anglican Communion needs only to pick up a copy of the book and study it.

The Episcopal Church is frequently accused of being unclear in its doctrine. Indeed, even some Episcopalians think this is true, but it is emphatically not! The doctrines set forth in the prayer book, our official book, are forceful and clear as crystal. People who say that we lack doctrinal clarity are ignorant of the prayer book’s content. Therefore it is very important for Anglicans, wherever they may be found around the world, to learn thoroughly the contents of this superb liturgical and theological book.

The official title of the prayer book is “The Book of Common Prayer and Administration
of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church Together With the Psalter or Psalms of David According to the use of The Episcopal Church.” That’s a long title, but all of it is important. When the Church is considering the publication of a new edition of the prayer book, two successive General Conventions must approve it in identical wording. Then a “standard” book is produced and placed in the care of the custodian of the Standard Book of Common Prayer. All published copies are to conform to the standard book as certified by the custodian.

There are many services in the prayer book which are not sacramental, and thus do not require a priest or bishop to conduct them. Grouped under the heading “The Daily Office,” they include Daily Morning Prayer, Daily Evening Prayer, Noonday Prayer, Order of Worship for the Evening, Compline, and Daily Devotions for Individuals and Families. These services, whether done alone or with others, are disciplined labors of love offered to God. They are not intended to convey to us strong rushes of sacramental grace or power as the sacraments do.

Some other parts of the prayer book are worth brief mention. The Psalter, or book of psalms, begins on Page 582. The Psalter is printed in full in the prayer book because congregational participation is expected whenever a psalm is used as part of the propers. The psalms were composed many years before Christ.

Prayers for various occasions follow, beginning on page 810.

An Outline of the Faith, commonly called the Catechism, begins on Page 845. It is a clear, rapid outline statement of the teaching of the Church with regard to central subjects: Human Nature, God the Father, the Old Covenant, the Ten Commandments, God the Son, the scriptures, and others. At the back of the prayer book are the lectionaries for the Eucharist and the Daily Offices. The former is a list of all the scripture readings for the Eucharist for all of the Sundays, holy days, feasts and fasts of the church year. It is arranged in a three-year cycle, years A, B and C, so that a very large percentage of the Bible is read at the Eucharist over a three-year period. The Daily Office lectionary is for use with services listed under “The Daily Office.” It lists scripture readings for every day of the year, and it is arranged in a two-year cycle, with the readings on the left-hand pages to be used in odd-numbered years, and right-hand pages in even-numbered years. When using these offices at home, it is quite proper to use any part or all of the day’s assigned readings.

The prayer book is a treasure house of teaching and worship. It will be of constant benefit to those who use it faithfully.

The Rev. Hugh C. Edsall is a priest of the Diocese of Florida and the author of Whole Christianity, a book published in 2004, from which this series of articles is adapted. To order the book, contact the Anglican Bookstore at 1-800-572-7929.

We invite your response to this series through a Letter to the Editor. Email your letter to tlc@livingchurch.org. Please include your name, city and state.
 
To find more news, feature articles, and commentary about the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion not available online, read The Living Church magazine each week. Click here to start your subscription.