Neo-REC position

REC History says

There was no intention on the part of Bishop George David Cummins, or of Charles Edward Cheney, that the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion should ever be altered.

It has been impossible for me to write to you since my last hurried note of Thursday.  Yesterday we had three sessions morning, afternoon, and night and are in the midst of the discussion of the articles.  Only about ten are PASSED, about two-thirds are yet to be discussed. . .

Letter home from Bishop George David Cummins,

May 15, 1875

Memoir of George David Cummins, D.D.,

Page 476

A.M. Cummins,

Reformed Episcopal Rooms, 1878, Philadelphia, PA

 

and  

And, in point of fact, they [the Thirty-nine Articles] were never replaced officially.

The Articles of the Reformed Episcopal Church were then acted upon and ADOPTED as they now stand.

A History of the Formation and Growth of the Reformed Episcopal Church, 1873-1902

Page 163

Mrs. Annie Darling Price

James Armstrong, Printer and Publisher

Philadelphia, 1902

 

and  

Among these standards which, in Aycrigg’s understanding, constituted points which were not to be changed, were the creed commonly called the Apostles Creed and the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion both of which, Aycrigg wrote, we enjoyed in the old paths of our fathers.

                                           

 

. . . Article I. to X.  ADOPTED (pp.33-35). . .

. . . Next council to be held at Ottawa (p.38; xvii.  March 1, 1876) Confer.)  Changes in Prayer Book Referred (p.39; xix.6). Art. xi-xvii. (pp.40-42).  Committees nominated (p.  43).  Art viii (p. 43).  Chicago Preachers Association of the Methodist Epis. Ch. introduced.  Rev. Edward Cridge, of Victoria, B.C., elected Bishop (p.44).  Rev. Jas. A. Latané elected Bishop (p. 45) [Declined].  Articles xix.-xxviii.  (pp.  50, 51).  ADOPTION of Articles (p.  53; xix.1.)

Memoirs of the Reformed Episcopal Church

Page 185

Benjamin Aycrigg

New York, 1880

(emphases added)

 

and  

 The Third General Council never acted to replace the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion with the Thirty-five.

       Pastoral Exhortation

                                 Bishop Leonard W. Riches, D.D.

                                                       November 7, 1996

 

ARTICLES OF RELIGION

AS ADOPTED BY THE GENERAL COUNCIL OF THE REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCH, ON THE EIGHTEENTH DAY OF MAY, IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND SEVENTY FIVE

[Extract from the Minutes of the Third General Council of the Reformed Episcopal Church, held at Chicago, May 18, 1875]:

            Whereas, This church has, in its Declaration of Principles, proclaimed its belief in the doctrines of grace substantially as they were set forth in the Thirty-nine Articles; therefore,

           RESOLVED: As the sense of this Council, that the Articles reported by the Committee on Doctrine and Worship, and accepted at this Council, be and are hereby adopted, as containing substantially the great truths known as the “Doctrines of Grace.”

           RESOLVED: That the foregoing preamble and resolution be printed as a Prefatory Note to the Articles of Religion.

(emphases added)

Note the use of the plural verb "are" in the first paragraph beginning "Resolved", referring to the plural noun "Articles". The Articles were adopted, not the report on the Articles!

Header to the Articles of Religion in the evangelical Traditional REC Book of Common Prayer for over 120 years.