"From this bundle of erroneous decisions flows everything that has since happened in the Episcopal Church," stated the Continuing Church leader.

"All the recent errors are merely elaborations of principles established in 1976, of which the chief error is the implicit claim that Anglicans have authority to alter doctrine and moral teaching," he said.

Anglicans quite correctly deny that the Bishop of Rome has the authority to add doctrines, but at least popes confine themselves to defining new developments of doctrine at the rate of about one per century. The Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church do not merely add new doctrines, but also change existing ones. Far from limiting themselves to one per century, they come up with a new enormity every year according to Haverland.

"In 1977 both Canadian and U.S. Churchmen gathered in St. Louis in a great Congress to affirm orthodox Anglican faith and practice, with particular emphasis on the male character of Holy Orders - all Holy Order including the diaconate; the desirability of retaining the Prayer Book liturgical tradition; and the sanctity of unborn life and traditional Christian morality." Haverland indicated that his own church has enshrined these principles in its formularies and constitution.

Haverland said the chaos that has ensued over the decades has led to a decay of our former ecclesial homes and that more and more clergy and laymen have left by joining non-Anglican churches, by staying at home on Sunday or, more recently by joining one of the soi-distant Anglican Anglican bodies.

"The importance of the Affirmation is in the final section which claims that, 'We do nothing new.' It means we have doctrinal seriousness and there is no tolerance for the rejection of basic creedal orthodoxy. We have no party inclined towards what in Anglican history developed Latitudinarianism in Church deism, Modernism and then the various theological pathologies of recent decades. To put the difference briefly, the 'Broad and Hazy' party has been excluded from the Affirmation churches. The Affirmation explicitly embraces Councils which Rome and the Orthodox also enthusiastically and explicitly accept as part of 'the received Tradition of the Church'. In a sense the Affirmation may extend and clarify the content of the received Tradition, but it does so in a way that is entirely consistent with Anglican principles and with the living consensus of all great Catholic and Orthodox Churches."

Anglo-Papalists

"Anyone who joins an Ordinariate under Anglicanorum coetibus must consent to the Roman position that Anglican orders are invalid, that our Episcopal sacraments are null, and that we are not and never have been an Apostolic and Catholic Church. While not requiring any admission of subjective fault, Rome does require all Anglican converts to accept that objectively they have belonged to a schismatic and defective 'ecclesial body'.

"The Affirmation text does not require conversion to Rome because there has been no movement by Rome towards agreement with us in the essentials of Faith and Order. In fact the Affirmation also necessarily implies that no submission to Rome is permissible until Rome alters its rejection of our orders and of the fullness of our apostolicity and catholicity. The attempt to convert the text of the thoroughly Anglican and non-papalist Affirmation into justification for the current batch of Anglo-Papalist conversions is so misleading and so contrary to the pain text itself as to seem disingenuous. That is yet another reason for us to admire the Affirmation and to rejoice in the sound foundation it provides for us all."

Haverland said his church the Anglican Catholic Church and the Province of Christ the King and the UECNA are in full communion, while acknowledging that some things about us all are certainly very different

END