Dear sionnsar,
A quick, slightly off-topic question. Which canon of Scriptures does the Anglican Communion recognize? The Catholic canon, or the Protestant canon?
Thanks,
sitetest
Apparently, both? I am not comlpletely sure what is meant by "selections" used in the following paragraph. However, it is clear that not all of the Apocrypha is contained in the BCP.
from here:
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/anglican_listening_61766_ENG_HTM.htm
"The Apocrypha is a collection of books written by people of the Old Covenant. The Articles of Religion note that these books may be read "for example of life and instruction of manners," but are not used to establish any doctrine (Art. VI, BCP, p. 868). Selections from the Apocrypha are included in the BCP lectionaries for the Holy Eucharist and the Daily Office."
and
"All persons ordained as bishops, priests, or deacons in the Episcopal Church must solemnly declare at their ordination that they "do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, and to contain all things necessary to salvation. . .." (BCP, pp. 513, 526, 538). Selections from scripture for the Episcopal Church's services of the Holy Eucharist and the Daily Offices are provided by the lectionaries of the BCP (pp. 889-1001)."
What is Scripture? The 39 Articles of Religion are the only place in the Anglican formularies where the books of the Bible are actually listed. The Articles list the books of the Hebrew Masoretic Scripture as authoritative (i.e. the Protestant Old Testament) along with the New Testament canon established by the Council of Carthage in 395. The books of the Septuagint not appearing in the Masoretic (i.e. the O.T. Apocrypha) are also listed as godly and worhtwhile to read and study, but not as a source of doctrine (in another words, doctrinal items that are in them may be found elsewhere in the Bible). This is in contrast to the Westminster Confession, which states that the Apocrypha is completely worthless. The lectionary includes, from time to time, selections from the Apocrypha.
It really wasn't until the invention of the printing press and the mass production of Bibles that Christian leaders began to seriously resolve the question of what books constituted the Old Testament canon.