To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism

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To Be a

Christian

To Be a

Christian

An Anglican Catechism

Approved Edition

To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism

Copyright © 2020 by The Anglican Church in North America

Published by Crossway

1300 Crescent Street

Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Working edition previously released by Anglican House Publishers, 2014

Cover design: Kevin Lipp

First printing 2020

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4335-6677-6

ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-6680-6

PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-6678-3

Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-6679-0

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Packer, J. I. (James Innell), editor. | Scandrett, Joel, editor.

Title: To be a Christian: an Anglican catechism.

Description: Approved edition. | Wheaton: Crossway, 2020. | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019025495 (print) | LCCN 2019025496 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433566776 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781433566783 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433566790 (mobi) | ISBN 9781433566806 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Anglican Communion—Catechisms. | Anglican Communion—Doctrines—Miscellanea.

Classification: LCC BX5005 .T6 2020 (print) | LCC BX5005 (ebook) | DDC 238/.3—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019025495

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019025496

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2020-01-17 10:46:33 AM

Table of Contents

Preface

Committees, Writers, and Consultants

Introduction by J. I. Packer

Concerning Scripture References

Part I

Beginning with Christ

Introduction

The Gospel

Salvation

Part II

Believing in Christ

The Apostles’ Creed and the Life of Faith

Concerning the Creeds

Concerning Holy Scripture

The Apostles’ Creed, Article I

The Apostles’ Creed, Article II

The Apostles’ Creed, Article III

Concerning Sacraments

Part III

Belonging to Christ

The Lord’s Prayer and the Christian Life

Concerning Prayer

The Lord’s Prayer

A Rule of Prayer: Scripture, Prayer, and Worship

Part IV

Becoming Like Christ

The Ten Commandments

Justification and Sanctification: Living in Forgiveness and Healing

Appendix 1: Prayers for Use with the Catechism

Appendix 2: A Rite for Admission of Catechumens

Appendix 3: The Nicene Creed

Appendix 4: The Creed of Saint Athanasius

Appendix 5: A Note on the Articles of Religion

Appendix 6: Vision Paper for Catechesis

Appendix 7: Guiding Principles for Catechesis

Index of Scripture

Preface

Why an Anglican catechism? Anglicans are heirs of a rich tradition of Christian faith and life. That tradition stretches from today’s worldwide Anglican Communion of millions of believers on six continents back centuries to laymen like William Wilberforce, who led the abolition of the slave trade in England, to the bishops and martyrs of the English Reformation like Thomas Cranmer, and to missionaries like Augustine of Canterbury and Saint Patrick, who spread the Gospel throughout the British Isles.

Throughout these centuries, Anglicans have articulated their faith in reference to classic sources of doctrine and worship. All true doctrine, Anglicans believe, is derived from Holy Scripture, which is the wellspring and ground for testing all that is taught in the Church. Saint Paul instructs the Church, All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). Further, Article 6 of the Articles of Religion states, Whatever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of the Faith.

Classic sources for the explication and elucidation of scriptural doctrine include the following:

The Early Church. Anglicans have always held in high regard such teachings of the ancient Fathers and Councils of the Church as are agreeable to the Scriptures, and which are summarized in the Apostles’ Creed, Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, and Athanasian Creed.

The Articles of Religion (1571). The Articles, also known as the Thirty-Nine Articles, summarize the biblical faith recovered at the Reformation and have become the doctrinal norm for Anglicans around the world.

The King James Bible (1611). The translation of the Bible into English, begun in the sixteenth century by William Tyndale, achieved its classic form in the 1611 translation under King James I and remains the basis for many modern versions, such as the Revised Standard Version and the English Standard Version. In keeping with the principles of the English Reformation that promote worship in language that the people understand (Articles of Religion, 24), the Bible has since been translated into many languages. Anglican Christianity has now spread to encompass people of many races and languages all over the world.

The Book of Common Prayer (1549–1662). The Anglican Prayer Book is known worldwide as one of the finest expressions of Christian prayer and worship. The 1662 Prayer Book is predominantly composed of Scriptures formulated into prayer. It has been the standard for Anglican doctrine, discipline, and worship, and for subsequent revisions in many languages.

Music and hymnody. Hymns, from writers like Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, John Mason Neale, and Graham Kendrick, have formed the spirituality of English-speaking Anglicans around the world. Today, composers in many languages continue in this powerful tradition of catechesis through music.

The Lambeth Quadrilateral. Resolution 11 of the Lambeth Conference (1888) affirmed four marks of Church identity required for genuine unity and fellowship. These are the Holy Scriptures containing all things necessary for salvation, the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith, two sacraments ordained by Christ—Baptism and the Eucharist—and the historic Episcopate, locally adapted. These serve as a basis of Anglican identity, as well as instruments for ecumenical dialogue with other church traditions.

The Jerusalem Declaration (2008). This statement from the Global Anglican Future Conference in 2008 has become the theological basis for the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, of which the Anglican Church in North America is a part.

In keeping with this rich, diverse, and historic tradition of doctrine and worship, we receive this catechism and commend its use for the building up of the Church today.

We envision this catechism being used for courses, shorter or longer, based on groups of questions and answers. The degree to which it is used directly for instruction and the amount of memorization asked of individual catechumens are left to the catechist to determine by context and circumstance. What is more, the resources of modern technology open up multiple possibilities for its use in creative new ways.

A catechism is ideally to be used in the context of a relationship between the catechist (the discipleship instructor) and the catechumen (the one being instructed) to foster the process of catechesis (disciple-making). The catechumen is invited by the catechist to a new identity in Christ and into a new community, to the praise of God’s glory, to the practice of stewardship, and to sharing in the ministry of making disciples of all nations.

Building on the 2014 working edition of the catechism, this edition (approved 2018) has been enriched by feedback from hundreds of laypersons, clergy, bishops, and theologians of the Church. This input helped create a catechism we trust will be useful, especially for those raised with limited exposure to the Christian faith.

We give thanks for the sacrificial work and scholarship of those listed below, who have served the Church in the creation of the two editions of this catechism.

We pray that this book will be an effective instrument to disciple believers in the truth of the Gospel, so that they may serve Jesus Christ throughout the world (2 Timothy 2:15). May this catechism serve to build up the Body of Christ by grounding Christian believers in the Gospel.

On behalf of the College of Bishops

of the Anglican Church in North America

The Most Reverend Foley Beach

Archbishop and Primate

The Most Reverend Robert Duncan

Archbishop and Primate, 2009–2014

Committees, Writers, and Consultants

The Reverend Canon Dr. J. I. Packer Theological Editor

The Reverend Dr. Joel Scandrett Executive Editor

Anglican Church in North America Committee for Catechesis

Mr. Kirk Botula

Mrs. Taryn Bullis

The Reverend Brian Foos

The Reverend Dr. Jack Gabig

The Reverend Canon Arthur Going

Dr. Philip Harrold

The Reverend Dr. Stephen Lake

Mrs. Kristy Leaseburg

The Reverend Lee Nelson

The Reverend Tripp Prince

The Reverend Ben Roberts

The Reverend Dr. Joel Scandrett

Mrs. Bronwyn Short

Dr. Leslie Thyberg

Writers/Consultants

Mr. Timothy Belcher

The Reverend John Boonzaaijer

The Reverend Dr. Susan Bubbers

The Reverend Dr. Charles Erlandson

The Reverend Randall Foster

The Reverend Mark Galli

Dr. Sarah Lebhar Hall

Dr. Gary Holt

The Reverend Dr. Toby Karlowicz

The Very Reverend Dr. Robert Munday

The Very Reverend Dr. Stephen Noll

Dr. Daniel Olson

The Reverend Canon Dr. J. I. Packer

Dr. Ann Paton

Mrs. Amelia Schmotzer

The Very Reverend Dr. Justyn Terry

Dr. William Witt

Anglican Church in North America Bishops Review Committee

The Right Reverend Dr. Bill Atwood

The Most Reverend Dr. Foley Beach

The Right Reverend John Guernsey

The Right Reverend Neil Lebhar

The Right Reverend Dr. Francis Lyons

The Right Reverend Dr. Eric Menees

The Right Reverend Dr. Ray Sutton

The Right Reverend Stephen Wood

Introduction

Two thousand years ago in Israel, the man who is God incarnate and Israel’s Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, led his