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NOTICE:
In God's Providence, the Church of the Redemption has ended regular worship services.
This site will remain as a testimony to Redemption's "fighting the good fight".
Pastor Emeritus - Rev. Mr. Robert N. McIntyre
Our Doctrine
s
a continuing, traditional evangelical church, the Church of the Redemption
stands with other evangelical branches of Christ's Church in affirming the
biblical teaching of salvation found only in our Saviour, Jesus Christ and
the authority of the Bible. We believe the Bible to be the infallible,
inerrant Word of God, containing all things necessary for faith and
doctrine, and the ONLY source of God's revelation. (See
Article Five of the
Thirty-five Articles of
Religion.) As Reformed believers, we deny any claimed revelation apart
from the Word of God, be they private voices, church traditions, or
"charismatic gifts".
We also stand squarely with our brethren of the Reformed faith. We proclaim the doctrines of grace, so ably expounded by the Reformers. As a church of the Edwardian English Reformation tradition, we trace our existence and our doctrine to the English Reformation, and claim as our spiritual forebears such men as Wyclif, Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley, Hooper, à Lasco, Bucer, Martyr, and Calvin.
Our founders separated from the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1873. The Protestant Episcopal Church had moved higher in ritual and practice as a result of the Oxford Movement, leaving the thoroughly Protestant, Evangelical and Reformed low church believers with no other option.
Our Worship
he Church of the
Redemption worships using the 1930 traditional Book of Common Prayer of the Reformed
Episcopal Church (reprinted in 1932 and 1963). Our Prayer Book is a descendent of the
first American Prayer Book of Bishop William White, Chaplain to the
Revolutionary Army. Bishop White's book itself was a descendant of
the Second Book
of Edward VI (1552). With this Protestant, evangelical lineage, our Low Church
Prayer Book has had purged from its text any Romanizing elements such as
prayers for the dead, altars, baptismal regeneration, priests and priestly
absolution, as often found the 1928, 1662, and modern Prayer Books -
including the revised REC Book of Common Prayer. (See
the words of one of our first bishops,
Bp.
Charles Edward Cheney.)
The traditional Reformed Episcopal Book of Common Prayer retains a worship common to Christians throughout the world and throughout the centuries. We raise our voices in praise and prayer in a thoughtful, reverent manner. Our worship is not designed to entertain the participant, nor to glorify any other than God Almighty. Rather, we recognize that the worship of God, through our Lord Jesus, is to be entered into thoughtfully and seriously; demanding our very best.
Our Government
raditionally,
the Reformed Episcopal
Church used an episcopal form of government (led by bishops). As the
Declaration of
Principles state, this form of government was used, not because it
was believed this
is the only form, but it is an ancient form, supported by the Scriptures. The
traditional, evangelical bishop recognizs that he is primus inter pares,
first among equals, not a pontifical overlord. While maintaining an
historic episcopate, tracing its lineage through the Anglican branch of
Christ's Church, the doctrine of Apostolic Succession is denied (the
doctrine which requires bishops supposedly tracing their consecration back
to the Apostles to have a duly constituted Church). Traditional,
Evangelical Episcopalians recognize ministers of other branches of Christ's
Church as co-laborers in the Lord, working through another form of church
polity. Traditional Evangelical Episcopalians recognize members of other
branches of Christ's Church as fellow believers and transfer membership
into and from other evangelical churches as full communicants without any
anti-Christian requirement for baptism or confirmation by a bishop.
The traditional Evangelical bishops bonded the individual congregations together in a larger body in the Church of Christ. The duties of a traditional evangelical bishop are specifically limited to ordination and confirmation, both serving to emphasize the broader nature of the Kingdom of God and the Church.
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Let us carefully observe how little good they do who attempt to mix up evangelical preaching and a ritual ceremony. Little, did I say? - they do no good at all! The world is never won by trimming and compromising, by facing both ways, and trying to please all. The cross of Christ is never made more acceptable by sawing off its corners, or by polishing, varnishing, and adorning it. Processions and banners, and flowers, and crosses, and excessive quantity of music, and elaborate services, and beautiful vestments may please children and weak-minded people. But they never helped forward heart-conversion and heart-sanctification, and they never will. Bishop J. C. Ryle First Bishop of Liverpool, U.K. |
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