|
Adopted, December 2, 1873
I.
The Reformed Episcopal Church, holding "the faith once
delivered unto the saints," declares its belief in the Holy Scriptures
of the Old and New Testaments as the Word of God, as the sole rule of Faith
and Practice; in the Creed "commonly called the Apostles' Creed;"
in the Divine institution of the Sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper;
and in the doctrines of grace substantially as they are set forth in the Thirty-Nine
Articles of Religion.
II.
This Church recognizes and adheres to Episcopacy, not as
of Divine right, but as a very ancient and desirable form of Church polity.
III.
This Church, retaining a liturgy which shall not be imperative
or repressive of freedom in prayer, accepts The Book of Common Prayer, as
it was revised, proposed, and recommended for use by the General Convention
of the Protestant Episcopal Church, A.D. 1785, reserving full liberty to alter,
abridge, enlarge, and amend the same, as may seem most conducive to the edification
of the people, "provided that the substance of the faith be kept entire."
IV.
This Church condemns and rejects the following erroneous
and strange doctrines as contrary to God's Word:
First, that the Church of Christ exists only in one order
or form of ecclesiastical polity:
Second, that Christian Ministers are "priests" in another sense
than that in which all believers are a "royal priesthood:"
Third, that the Lord's Table is an altar on which the oblation of the Body
and Blood of Christ is offered anew to the Father:
Fourth, that the Presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper is a presence in
the elements of Bread and Wine:
Fifth, that regeneration is inseparably connected with Baptism.
|
