The Knack ... and How to Get It

I. How it was up-builded.

Our Communion is Embodied, Lived Tradition; our reference is reality itself -- not actions, words, and signs but, rather, that which those actions, words, and signs signify:

1. The Secure Promises of God

We acknowledge, affirm, testify to, and conserve "those Canonical books of the Old and New testament, of whose authority was never any doubt in the Church" (VI). In particular, we emphasize that the so-called "Old Testament is not contrary to the New; for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ ... Wherefore they are not to be heard which feign that the old fathers did look only for transitory promises" (VII). In other words, there is but one, unbroken historical covenant between God and his people.

2. The Reality of Effectual Grace

The sacraments are "certain sure witnesses and effectual signs of grace and God's good will towards us, by the which He doth work invisibly in us." There are "two Sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel, that is to say, Baptism and the Supper of the Lord" and "five, commonly called Sacraments, that is to say, Confirmation, Penance, Orders, Matrimony, and Extreme Unction" (XXV). Our ministers do not minister "in their own name, but in Christ's, and do minister by His commission and authority" and, hence, we "rightly do receive the sacraments ministered ..., which be effectual because of Christ's institution and promise" (XXVI). The Eucharist, for instance, is not merely "a sign ... but rather it is a sacrament of our redemption by Christ's death" (XXVIII). The old Temple is destroyed but the work of salvation goes on: there is Real Presence and Real Reception, inter alia.

3. The Succession from the Apostles

The visible church is recognizable as the "coetus fidelium, in quo verbum Dei purum praedicatur et sacramenta … recte administrantur." Although there is no perfect model, we refer directly to the historic, yet fallible, examples of "the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch … also the Church of Rome" (XIX). The church has "authority" (XX). Her ministers must be licitly called and ordained: only those "publice concessa ... in ecclesia" are recognized (XXIII). We ordain as sacred ministers "Archbishops and Bishops and ... Priests and Deacons" (XXXVI). No one, through private judgement alone, may modify "the traditions and ceremonies of the Church which be ... ordained and approved by common authority" of the institution (XXXIV). We will affirm no novelties and suffer no non-conformity.

4. The Rectitude of the Primitive Fathers

We approve the three ecumenical creeds (VIII) and, in general, the authority of the "general councils" (XXI), although their decisions must still be put to the ultimate test of conformity with Holy Scripture. Authenticity, antiquity, and true catholicity matter, as well.

5. Our Tradition of Common Worship

To be Anglican means to worship using some recognizable variant of the Book of Common Prayer, derived and adapted from the Use of Sarum, being, hence, in its essentials, a Roman Rite. Lex orandi, lex credendi.

II. How it is being torn down.

It's easy -- just proceed "progressively," in reverse order:

The 1950s, 60s and 70s:

5'. The worship of the ages is defaced.

4'. Open heresy and abject immorality go unpunished.

Aujourd'hui:

3'. We depart dramatically from the tradition of the undivided church.

Only a few more to go! In process, as we speak!

2'. Re-define the sacraments.

1'. Re-define the Law, the Prophets, and the Good News.

And then ...

"But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet, standing where it ought not (let him that readeth vnderstand) then let them that be in Iudea, flee to the mountaines."

Countdown to ecstasy!