If there is no purity of faith, there is no catholicity.

The Roman Catholic doctrine of "papal infallibility" was adopted July 18, 1870 at the First Vatican Council (1869–1870).

I don’t remember any of my Episcopal seminary professors ever mentioned this important collection, and it was a happy day when I discovered them tucked away in a dusty corner of the seminary library.

Why schism is, at the same time, always regrettable and sometimes necessary - the only proper response to an institutional church that refuses to reform itself according the authority of Holy Scripture

The last few months I have searched various Anglican and Episcopal Church websites to find out what is being taught in adult SS classes and new member classes. It is actually shocking how shallow (and factually wrong!) are many of the things that are being taught! Early in my ministry I received a very generous postcard with the famous portrait of Thomas Cranmer from Bishop Fitz Allison thanking me for something I wrote. He concluded his card with: “Please don’t stop teaching the Articles of Religion to your folks!” Fitz was right, and for 40 years I have tried to teach Reformation Anglicanism. Here are my notes for an introductory class on Reformation Anglicanism. Please feel free to use them, change them, or dump them as you find helpful.

Perkins passionately believed that Scripture can be best understood and preached from a reference of law & gospel: the law (the Bible’s commandments and imperatives) show us God’s standard for living and our failure to live up to it, and it then leads to our need for a righteousness beyond our own self-righteousness. The gospel is the word of Scripture about God’s solution for human sinfulness: Jesus who lived the life we failed to live in our good efforts, and who died the death that we deserve because of our sin.

When Mary died, her half-sister Elizabeth was crowned Queen of England January 15, 1559. Elizabeth was the last of five monarchs of the House of Tudor. She had private Lutheran leanings, but she was more interested in keeping peace between the different Protestant factions in England. In her long reign as Queen and Supreme Governor…