Statement of what we believe as Anglicans in the Anglican Church in North America.
We believe and confess Jesus Christ to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no one comes to the
Father but by Him. Therefore, the Anglican Church in North America identifies the following
seven elements as characteristic of the Anglican Way.
We confess the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments to be the inspired Word of
God, containing all things necessary for salvation, and to be the final authority and
unchangeable standard for Christian faith and life.
We confess Baptism and the Supper of the Lord to be Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself in
the Gospel, and thus to be ministered with unfailing use of His words of institution and of the
elements ordained by Him.
We confess the godly historic Episcopate as an inherent part of the apostolic faith and practice,
and therefore as connected to the fullness and unity of the Body of Christ.
We confess as proved by Holy Scripture the historic faith of the undivided church as declared in
the three universal creeds: The Apostles’ Creed, The Nicene Creed, and The Athanasian Creed.
Concerning the seven Councils of the undivided Church, we affirm the teaching of the first four
Councils and the Christological clarifications of the fifth, sixth and seventh Councils, in so far as
they are agreeable to the Holy Scriptures.
We receive The Book of Common Prayer as set forth by the Church of England in 1662, together
with the Ordinal attached to the same, as a standard for Anglican doctrine and discipline, and,
with the Books which preceded it, as the standard for the Anglican tradition of worship.
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 the fundamental principles of authentic Anglican belief.
In all these things, the Anglican Church in North America is determined by the help of God to
hold and maintain as the Anglican Way has received them the doctrine, discipline and worship
of Christ.
“The Anglican Communion,” Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher wrote, “has no peculiar thought,
practice, creed or confession of its own. It has only the Catholic Faith of the ancient Catholic
Church, as preserved in the Catholic Creeds and maintained in the Catholic and Apostolic
constitution of Christ’s Church from the beginning.” It may teach as necessary for salvation
nothing but what is read in the Holy Scriptures as God’s Word written or may be proved
thereby. It therefore embraces and affirms such teachings of the ancient Fathers and Councils
of the Church as are agreeable to the Scriptures, and thus to be counted apostolic. The Church
has no authority to innovate. It is obliged continually, and particularly in times of renewal or
reformation, to return to “the faith once delivered to the saints.”
To be an Anglican, then, is not to embrace a distinct version of Christianity, but a distinct way of
being a “Mere Christian,” at the same time evangelical, apostolic, catholic, reformed, and Spirit-filled. (From the ACNA)
