7. We receive the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion of 1571, taken in their literal and grammatical sense, as expressing the Anglican response to certain doctrinal issues controverted at that time, and as expressing fundamental principles of authentic Anglican belief.
The Fundamental Declarations
The final enumerated point of The Fundamental Declarations rests upon the 39 Articles of Religion, which were a revision of Cranmer’s original 42 Articles. Although the Articles of Religion were minimized in importance and disregarded wholesale in many quarters throughout the Twentieth Century, the Anglican Church in North America stakes its claim to Anglican heritage by rooting itself fundamentally upon them as an Anglican anchor. In drafting this seventh point, the ACNA has considered the disastrous Twentieth Century and found it wanting. Instead of repeating the errors of the past century and disregarding the Articles or minimizing them as “Historical Documents” in small print (as in the 1979 Episcopal Church prayer book), the ACNA attaches them in its 2019 prayer book within the Documentary Foundations section, alongside the Fundamental Declarations.
The Articles of Religion cannot be ignored nor set aside within the ACNA. For the Articles are upheld “as expressing fundamental principles of authentic Anglican belief.” One cannot be authentically Anglican and hold the fundamental principles of the Anglican Way without receiving them as such. This seventh point of the Articles of Religion prudently invokes language from King Charles I’s preface to the Articles, issued in 1628, on the proper reading and understanding of these “fundamental principles of authentic Anglican belief.” Specifically, the seventh point’s clause that the Articles are “taken in their literal and grammatical sense” is a simple phrase that provides deep guidance on how to draw from and understand the Articles of Religion properly. This clause draws from the following quote issued by King Charles I:
That therefore in these both curious and unhappy differences, which have for so many hundred years, in different times and places, exercised the Church of Christ, we will, that all further curious search be laid aside, and these disputes shut up in God’s promises, as they be generally set forth to us in the Holy Scriptures, and the general meaning of the Articles of the Church of England according to them. And that no man hereafter shall either print, or preach, to draw the Article aside any way, but shall submit to it in the plain and full meaning thereof: and shall not put his own sense or comment to be the meaning of the Article, but shall take it in the literal and grammatical sense.
– The King’s Declaration
Prefixed to the Articles of Religion
The King’s Declaration is the appropriate lens helping us to understand the Articles of Religion. The Articles are not weapons for one’s personal pet theologies. They are not meant for altering or shaping square pegs for round holes. They are received as literally set out and in their grammatical sense to avoid the twisting and bending that tempts all those who receive holy orders and enter the pulpit. Just as the 1662 prayer book is upheld in the Fundamental Declarations to restrict rectors from ramrodding strange fire in worship, so too the Articles restrict rectors from reveling and revolting from the revelation of Scripture. Tickling ears require a tickler, and far too often clergymen are ready to tickle ears with innovative meanings that twist what has been revealed once and for all.
Notably, English clergy were canonically required to adhere to the Articles of Religion as a protection against unnecessary quarrelling or distracting the congregation from “the pure Word of God [] preached, and the Sacraments [] duly ministered” (Article 19). Therefore, Charles I notes in his Declaration:
That for the present, though some differences have been ill raised, yet we take comfort in this, that all clergymen within our realm have always most willingly subscribed to the Articles established, which is an argument to us, that they all agree in the true, usual literal meaning of the said Articles; and that even in those curious points, in which the present differences lie, men of all sorts take the Articles of the Church of England to be for them; which is an argument again, that none of them intend any desertion of the Articles established.
The ACNA, in her Fundamental Declarations, has embraced the Articles and also not intended “any desertion of the Articles established.” Notably, this seventh point of the Fundamental Declarations is the only instance in which the word “fundamental” is used. The drafters only use the word “fundamental” when stating the Articles of Religion “as expressing fundamental principles of authentic Anglican belief.” Indeed, every clergyman bound by the ACNA canons and subject to ecclesial discipline must refrain from:
Teaching or espousing any doctrine contrary to the doctrine or creeds of this Church (such as, but not limited to, doctrine expressed in the Fundamental Declarations of the Province and the standards of Christian Marriage and Sexual Morality and Ethics set forth in Canon II.7-8); removing oneself from the communion of the Church; or abandoning the Christian faith;
Title IV, Canon 3(1)(a), ACNA Canons at pg. 46 (PDF pg. 62).
The Articles of Religion, when received in their literal and grammatical sense, are protectors and guardians of the very first point of the Fundamental Declarations, the Holy Scriptures. Further, they are built upon each prior point presented by the Fundamental Declarations: from the catholic Creeds (Point 4), the orthodox Councils (Point 5), and the ancient and Biblically-infused liturgy and rule of life that is the Book of Common Prayer (Point 6). This should not surprise any student of the Articles, for they contain specific articles on the Scriptures (Articles 6, 7), Creeds (Article 8), Councils (Article 21), and liturgies (Articles 23, 24, and 34).
Undoubtedly, much has changed in the nearly five hundred years since the Articles of Religion were finalized and adopted while the Council of Trent met. However, changes within the Roman Catholic Church over the past five centuries (especially since Vatican II) are politely considered and addressed in the following clause: “as expressing the Anglican response to certain doctrinal issues controverted at that time.” Rome, whether she admits it or not, has changed much over the centuries; therefore, certain condemnations from the Articles may or may not be applicable today. For example, Article 24, regarding the worship of the Church being in the language of the people. Therefore, the caveat as to “certain doctrinal issues contraverted at that time” is an ecumenical acknowledgement and an olive branch of sorts. Yet where differences remain, they are clearly enunciated in the black and white text of the Articles.
Additionally, the Articles must be read in their literal and grammatical sense, as well as in their historical context. Words cannot be reinterpreted or dismissed by applying modern definitions to theological concepts. The Articles of Religion are not to be weaponized by the overzealous churchman on one end of the spectrum, whilst the liturgy is weaponized by the other on the other end of the spectrum. Together, the prayer book and Articles are necessary and complementary for living the ancient, reformed catholic faith in the Anglican way. Just as the Word and Sacraments are a two-sided coin delivering the Gospel, the Articles of Religion and the prayer book are the two-edged sword in which Anglicans faithfully discern orthodoxy from error and live the Christian way of life, Lord-willing. Therefore, the Anglican Church in North America echoes the sentiment found in the fourth point of the Jerusalem Declaration, which, in addition to the Fundamental Declarations, is appended in the Documentary Foundations section of the 2019 ACNA prayer book:
4. We uphold the Thirty-nine Articles as containing the true doctrine of the Church agreeing with God’s Word and as authoritative for Anglicans today.
The Jerusalem Declaration, 2019 Book of Common Prayer, pg. 792
Let us heed this authority, as we should adhere to and obey each of the six prior points of the Fundamental Declarations. The ACNA declares them as fundamental in walking faithfully in the Christian faith along the Anglican way. In many respects, the Fundamental Declarations are organized and articulate many of the same doctrines as the Articles of Religion, by starting with catholic faith, universally received across the Church, stretching across time and space, and conservatively rooting itself upon the Scriptures as the bounds of our faith. A faith summarized succinctly by the Creeds and defended in the Councils, while reformed from the excess accretions during the Western Church’s Middle Ages. The Articles of Religion, like the Fundamental Declarations, are not meant to be forgotten fenceposts but are boundaries to be walked, fortified, gated, and guarded in order to defend the flock from the wolves of the world seeking entry.
