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The Solemn Declaration of 1893
This statement established the Anglican Church of Canada’s independence from the
Church of England while still preserving bonds of communion.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
We, the Bishops, together with the Delegates from the Clergy and Laity of
the Church of England in the Dominion of Canada, now assembled in the
first General Synod, hereby make the following Solemn Declaration:
We declare this Church to be, and desire that it shall continue, in full
communion with the Church of England throughout the world, as an integral
portion of the One Body of Christ composed of Churches which, united
under the One Divine Head and in the fellowship of the One Holy Catholic
and Apostolic Church, hold the One Faith revealed in Holy Writ, and
defined in the Creeds as maintained by the undivided primitive Church in
the undisputed Ecumenical Councils; receive the same Canonical
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as containing all things
necessary to salvation; teach the same Word of God; partake of the same
Divinely ordained Sacraments, through the ministry of the same Apostolic
Orders; and worship One God and Father through the same Lord Jesus
Christ, by the same Holy and Divine Spirit who is given to them that believe
to guide them into all truth.
And we are determined by the help of God to hold and maintain the
Doctrine, Sacraments, and Discipline of Christ as the Lord hath
commanded in his Holy Word, and as the Church of England hath received
and set forth the same in ‘The Book of Common Prayer and Administration
of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church,
according to the use of the Church of England; together with the Psalter or
Psalms of David, pointed as they are to be sung or said in Churches; and
the Form and Manner of Making, Ordaining, and Consecrating of Bishops,
Priests, and Deacons’; and in the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion; and to
transmit the same unimpaired to our posterity.