Tag: Anglican Theology

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Anonymous asks: does the anglican church believe rhat praying to saints is okay, because i seem to get rather contradictory answers….

No we don’t.  One of our defining formularies is the 39 Articles and Article 22 states:

The Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory, Pardons, Worshipping and Adoration, as well of Images as of Reliques, and also invocation of Saints, is a fond thing vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God.

Which pretty much sums it up really.  If God is not the object of our prayers, and the agent of our prayers, then we are asserting that we can reach out to God in our own strength, or through the strength of someone else.  This undermines the work of Christ and suggests that we do not have absolute need of him – something that goes against the heart of the Christian faith.  Christ alone is our mediator.

We do respect the “Saints” as particular exemplars of the faith and count them amongst the “church triumphant” – but we count them as forebears – brothers and sisters in service, not the captains that we follow.

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Tony asks: You are an Anglican right-does your church believe that faith alone is needed to go to heaven

Hi Tony,

The short answer is “yes.”

Within orthodox Anglican theological circles there is variance as to what “faith alone” means (along the spectrum of the efficacy of our faith, or the faithfulness of Christ), and what “go to heaven” means (along the spectrum from ethereal eternal life to the Kingdom of God on earth).  And of course there are a number of Anglicans who have moved away from orthodoxy.

But the short answer is “yes.”

The Anglican formularies helpfully expound the definitive Anglican view.  The Thirty-Nine Articles speak to your question.  I have included some of the relevant articles below.

Thanks,

W.

Article X

Of Free-Will

The condition of Man after the fall of Adam is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and good works, to faith, and calling upon God: Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will.

Article XI

Of the Justification of Man

We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith, and not for our own works or deservings: Wherefore, that we are justified by Faith only is a most wholesome Doctrine, and very full of comfort, as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification.

Article XII

Of Good Works

Albeit that Good Works, which are the fruits of Faith, and follow after Justification, cannot put away our sins, and endure the severity of God’s Judgement; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively Faith; insomuch that by them a lively Faith may be as evidently known as a tree discerned by the fruit.

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