FULL COMMUNION AGREEMENT
(COMMUNIO IN SACRIS) INCLUDED BETWEEN THE ANGLICAN PROVINCE OF AMERICA AND THE TRADITIONAL ANGLICAN CHURCH
February 16, 2022.
Beloved in Christ, Please find attached to this press release the official concordat which establishes full sacramental communion (communion in sacris) between the Anglican Province of America (APA) and the Traditional Anglican Church (TAC). The concordat was unanimously approved by the TAC College of Bishops on February 3, 2022 and by the APA House of Bishops on February 11, 2022.
This Full Communion Agreement advances the growing unity of Continuing Anglicans worldwide and connects two larger parts of the Permanent Church for the first time, expanding the existing Full Communion Agreement between the Anglican Province of America and the Anglican Church in America (the American Church Province of the traditional Anglican Church). It is also the first agreement establishing full communion between another permanent Anglican jurisdiction and the whole of the world traditional Anglican Church.
Pray that this effort towards the reunification of the Continuing Anglican Churches will bear fruit in the Kingdom of God and spark new ecumenical discussions with our brethren across the Anglican continuum. This is another important step forward in the reunification of the permanent Anglican Churches as we seek to strengthen our common witness to our Lord Jesus Christ, to his saving Gospel and to the historic Anglican tradition within the One, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
Together, the Anglican Province of America and the traditional Anglican Church have taken another step in the direction of reconciliation and the reunification of the Christian Church in its Anglican expression.
This Concordat will be officially signed during a Solemn Pontifical Mass at Saint Barnabas Cathedral in Atlanta, Georgia on Sunday, May 22, 2022, the fifth Sunday after Easter.
May we all be one – Ut unum sint!
The Very Reverend Chandler Holder Jones, SSC
Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Province of America Bishop Ordinary of the Diocese of the Eastern United States
The Very Reverend Shane B. Janzen, OSG
Primate of the Traditional Anglican Church Metropolitan of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada Bishop Ordinary of the Diocese of Canada West
AGREEMENT ESTABLISHING FULL SACRAMENTAL COMMUNION
(COMMUNIO IN SACRIS)
INCLUDED BETWEEN
THE ANGLICAN PROVINCE OF AMERICA
AND
THE TRADITIONAL ANGLICAN CHURCH
THE Anglican Province of America (with the APA Global Mission Partners defined in the attached Appendix) and the Traditional Anglican Church, desiring to walk together in the way of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, believing in and defending the Christian faith and the Catholic religion, and particularly as it has been received and expressed in the historic Anglican tradition, and seeking full sacramental communion (communio in sacris) with each other, hereby accept and bind to the following agreement:
- In accordance with this agreement, we enter into full sacramental communion (communion in sacris) with each other; and thus recognize the Orders, Liturgy, Doctrine and Discipline of the other, while respecting the canonical independence and doctrinal integrity of each Church.
- We recognize each other as Orthodox Anglicans and Catholics by virtue of our common adherence to the fundamental principles and authorities accepted and summarized in The Affirmation of Saint Louis (1977).
- We recognize each other in essentials the same faith; the same sacraments; the same moral teaching; and the same worship; likewise, we recognize to each other the same Holy Orders of bishops, priests and deacons in the same apostolic succession.
- We hereby admit all members in good standing of each Church to participate fully in the liturgy of each Church and to receive the sacraments from one another.
- We recognize and honor the jurisdictional integrity of each church, always seeking to respect each church’s authority over its congregations, clergy, and people.
- By this Agreement, we recognize and encourage the clergy of each Church to serve, preach and otherwise participate in the liturgy of each Church, subject always to the canonical discipline and liturgical practice of the respective Church and the express authorization prerequisite of the respective bishops. Ordinary.
- We recognize and respect that the clergy of each Church remain under the authority of their respective Bishop Ordinary until transferred by Dimissory Letters or other instruments of transfer. We will not allow any clergy to move from one jurisdiction to another without the permission of the ordinary bishop who authorized it.
- While seeking unity with other Christians within the community of the one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, and working for a true restoration of the visible unity of all Orthodox Christians, we desire to preserve and maintain our identity Anglican; that is, to uphold and remain faithful to the Catholic Faith, the Apostolic Order, the Orthodox Worship and the Gospel Witness of the historic Anglican tradition revealed in Holy Scripture, defined in the Three Creeds, maintained by the undivided early Church in the Seven Councils, and set forth in the Book of Common Prayer.
PROGRAM
The Caribbean Missionary District (APA)
The Philippine Mission District (APA)
The Indigenous Pastoral of the Anglican Province of America in Ecuador
THEREFORE, with faith in the love of God, the communion of the Holy Spirit, and the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we enter into this agreement of full sacramental communion. (communio in sacris), thus proclaiming our Christian faith, our Anglican heritage, and our desire to uphold it, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be all honor and glory, world without end. Amen.
