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From: jhs@houxa.UUCP (J.SCHERER)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian
Subject: Re: WChurches saying they are the ONE TRUE CHURCH
Message-ID: <629@houxa.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 15-Feb-85 15:29:05 EST
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Posted: Fri Feb 15 15:29:05 1985
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This is a followup to a recent posting by Bill Klein which pointed
out that the Episcopal church considered other churches to be in
error.  I'd like to note that saying that someone is "in error" is
quite different from saying that he's not Christian or not a member
of Christ's one church.  If an "error" threw us out of the running,
who'd be left running?  Further, the "errors" referred to in his
quote from our Articles of Religion (which date from Elizabethian
times) have, I think, been corrected by the Romans.  Further yet,
the article stating that our form of consecration of bishops is valid
does NOT say that all other rites are invalid - only that ours is
sufficient (but not necessarily necessary).  Finally, the Articles
of Religion are not the basic statement of our faith or practice -
they show up in our prayer book as "historical documents of the
church".  I'll end by noting that although we're a hierarchial
church, there's room for a fair variety of opinions (one past Bishop
of California suggested considering the Bishop of Rome as "first
among equals" - might not satisfy the Romans but it would sure be
heresy to Anglicans of an earlier day - to some today, too).