Alternative Forms of Assent and Declaration

Movers Bishop of Willochra

That General Synod asks the Standing Committee to request the Canon Law and Doctrine Commissions to examine alternative Forms of Assent, such as that offered in the Church of England’s Archbishops’ Commission Report “Subscription and Assent to the 39 Articles” (1968), and to report with any recommendations or changes to the Form of Assent and Declaration to the next Session of the General Synod:

(The English report proposes
The Church of England is part of the Church of God, having faith in God the Father, who through Jesus Christ our only Lord and Saviour calls us into the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. This faith, uniquely shown forth in the holy Scriptures, and proclaimed in the Catholic Creeds, she shares with other Christians throughout the world. She has been led by the Holy Spirit to bear a witness of her own to Christian truth in her historic formularies – the Thirty Nine Articles of Religion, and the Book of Common Prayer, and the Ordering of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. Now, as before, she has a responsibility to maintain this witness through her preaching and worship, the writings of her scholars and teachers, the lives of her saints and confessions, and the utterances of her councils. In this profession you are about to make you will affirm your loyalty to this inheritance of faith as your inspiration and direction, under God, for bringing to light the truth of Christ and making him known to this generation.

FORM OF ASSENT
I, A.B., profess my firm and sincere belief in the faith set forth in the Scriptures and in the Catholic Creeds, and my allegiance to the doctrine of the Church of England.)

(Bishop of Willochra, 31.8.85)

Resolution year: 1985
Resolution number: 61/85