mls@attunix.att.com (Mike Siemon) (11/17/89)
In case anyone is confused by the apparent contradiction in Mr. Firth's posting: > My prayer book lists these as the Seven Sacraments: ... > > The Anglican church recognises only the first two as sacraments, as > being ordained of Christ himself. The last statement may be misleading. It's a sort of ultra-protestant reading of a more nuanced position, at least as far as the Episcopal Church goes. Episcopalians definitely *do* take Baptism and Eucharist as "the two great sacraments given by Christ to his Church" (BCP p.858) and make a distinction between them and other sacraments. Again, to quote from the Catechism* (p. 860-861) Q: What other sacramental rites evolved in the Church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit? A: Other sacramental rites which evolved in the Church include confirmation, ordination, holy matrimony, reconciliation of a penitent, and unction. Q: How do they differ from the two sacraments of the Gospel? A: Although they are means of grace, they are not necessary for all persons in the same way that Baptism and the Eucharist are. ... Q: Is God's activity limited to these rites? A: God does not limit himself to these rites; they are patterns of countless ways by which God uses material things to reach out to us. Q: How are the sacraments related to our Christian hope? A: Sacraments sustain our present hope and anticipate its future fulfillment. Note the careful terminological distinction -- Baptism and Eucharist are the "great" or "Gospel" sacraments; others are "sacramental rites" -- and the ecumenical position of the Church is that this distinction is significant enough that we could enter into union with a Protestant denomination that accepted (along with the other three points of the Lambeth Quadrilateral) only "the two Sacraments -- Baptism and the Supper of the Lord -- ministered with unfailing use of Christ's words and of the elements ordained by Him." Granting the distinction all due weight, it remains true that the Episcopal Church does (though probably not all its members do :-)) grant the traditional Catholic sacraments to have sacramental force. ---- * intended, in addition to its main use in instructing candidates for baptism and confirmation, "to provide a brief summary of the Church's teaching for an inquiring stranger who picks up a Prayer Book." Technical statements will be more complex than these words -- and subject to various forms of dispute *within* the Church. But the wording in the catechism is deliberately chosen to avoid problems that might arise from an extreme statement of any one of the strands that makes up the Anglican tradition. -- Michael L. Siemon "I cannot grow; ...!cucard!dasys1!mls I have no shadow ...!att!sfbat!mls To run away from, standard disclaimer I only play"