The Cathedral Parish of Saint Saviour

The Christian Episcopal Church of Canada

The Christian Episcopal Church of Canada was established in 1991 by baptised and confirmed members of the Anglican Church of Canada who were determined to preserve and maintain, and transmit unimpaired to future generations, the faith, doctrine, worship, and discipline of the Church of England in the Dominion of Canada as it was established by the First General Synod in 1893.

The old "Church of England in the Dominion of Canada" was renamed the "Anglican Church of Canada" in 1955. In the 1960's and 1970's, the Anglican Church of Canada began to alter its doctrine and worship in ways that are wholly contrary to God's revelation to mankind in His Holy Word and the Sacred Tradition of the undivided Catholic and Apostolic Church.

The relaxation of the Church's Biblically-based canon law concerning divorce and remarriage; the admission of women to the three-fold male ministry of deacon, priest, and bishop with the attendant suppression of the female order of deaconess; the liberalisation of the Church's official teachings in regard to the practise of homosexuality, and official permissiveness in regard to abortion and euthanasia; the open criticism of the inspiration of the Bible and of the accuracy of the three Creeds; the adoption of "new-age inspired" and "gender-inclusive" liturgies to replace the traditional Book of Common Prayer and the corresponding re-writing of hymns to reflect "political correctness" to replace the hymns in the 1938 Book of Common Praise; and, since July 2001, the acceptance of ministers of protestant denominations commissioned without the laying on of hands of valid Bishops standing in the Apostolic Succession to minister to Anglican congregations: all these are amongst the many violent and unwarranted changes which have led to the complete separation of the Christian Episcopal Church of Canada from the Anglican Church of Canada.

The Christian Episcopal Church of Canada is a branch and integral portion of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself upon the faith and ministry of His holy Apostles. The Christian Episcopal Church of Canada is Scripturally grounded, and doctrinally Catholic and Apostolic, upholding and preserving the Anglican tradition, and preaching the Christian Gospel to all the world.

The Doctrinal Standards of the Christian Episcopal Church of Canada are those which were first set forth by the Church of England in the reign of Queen Elizabeth the First, and then in their definitive form at the time of the Restoration of King Charles the Second, and these are: I) The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments; II) The three Creeds of the Catholic and Apostolic Church, that is to say, the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Creed of Saint Athanasius, and the authoritative Dogmatic Definitions of the undisputed Ecumenical Councils; III) The Thirty-nine Articles of Religion of the Church of England; and IV) The 1662 Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England.

And since the Christian Episcopal Church of Canada is an integral and living part of the one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church that must struggle with and confront the complex issues facing Christians today, we carefully ensure that all of our doctrinal standards and statements are interpreted agreeably to the witness and authority of sacred Scripture and the unbroken tradition of the one holy Catholic Church faithfully transmitted from the Apostles' time to our own day, and especially in the light of the agreed statements of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commssion established by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey, and Pope Paul VI.

The Christian Episcopal Church of Canada rejoices that it is heir to that richness of godly and profound scholarship and generous breadth of devotional experience which is the peculiar feature and hallmark of the Anglican tradition, and that it is a Church which is truly Catholic and Apostolic in its doctrine, ministry, and worship, as well as truly Evangelical in its Christian mission and witness.

The Christian Episcopal Church of Canada is in full communion with all those Provinces, Dioceses, and Parishes, and with such individual Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, Clergy, and Laity, of the Anglican Communion that have remained faithful to the Word of God and the Sacred Tradition of the undivided Catholic and Apostolic Church. The Christian Episcopal Church of Canada is the sister Church of the Christian Episcopal Church in the United States of America which, until 1992, had been the Missionary Diocese of the Americas of the Episcopal Church in the United States.

The Christian Episcopal Church of Canada is a daughter Church of the Church of England, and seeks to maintain that peace and unity which comes only through the exercise of Christian charity. All questions of "churchmanship" are left up to the individual Christian and to the individual parish; and the only things insisted upon are those things which have always been held by the Catholic Church to be absolutely indispensible to its life and witness, such as the acceptance of the Divine inspiration and inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments and their supreme and binding authority in all matters of faith and morals, and of the three Creeds of the Catholic Church as the true expression of the Christian Faith; the necessity of the Sacraments of Holy Baptism and the Holy Communion to be received by all Christians; the pastoral oversight of the Church by validly and properly consecrated Bishops standing in the Apostolic Succession, and by Priests ordained by them; and the need for every Christian believer to have an authentic, living, and saving relationship with God the Father through His Son Jesus Christ.

The great strength of Anglicanism has always been to recognise and to value godly diversity within the bounds set by the Word of God and the witness of the undivided Catholic Church. This is what was set forth for us in the Book of Common Prayer by our Anglican Reformers, which is why we are "Prayer Book" Anglicans. Since we believe the Christian faith as received and set forth by the Church of England in the Book of Common Prayer, we use only the Book of Common Prayer for all services of worship.

There is unity in faith and doctrine because we all accept and use the Book of Common Prayer which, for us, is our outward sign of the oneness that we have in Christ, and it is the bond that unites us together in the expression of our common faith through common worship. In the Services of the Christian Episcopal Church of Canada, we use the 1962 Canadian Book of Common Prayer, and the old blue Hymn Book, the 1938 Canadian Book of Common Praise.

The Archbishop and Primate of the Christian Episcopal Church of Canada is The Most Reverend Archibald Donald Davies, who, in 1970, was consecrated the Bishop of Dallas of the Episcopal Church, and later, in 1985, became the first Bishop of Fort Worth, and was then later apointed by the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church to be the American Bishop of Europe. It is through Archbishop Davies that we have received the Apostolic Succession and Catholic Orders, and also the right to establish lawfully a separate traditional Anglican jurisdiction in Canada.

If you are a Bible-believing Anglican who has had quite enough of the all the man-inspired changes and the consequent upheavals which have made you feel alienated from the present-day Anglican Church of Canada, and if you desire simply to have your beloved Anglican Church back again the way it was, and to live, to worship, and to die, in peace, in the traditional Anglican Church which your forefathers and foremothers knew, and in which you were confirmed: then take the time to contact us, and we will gladly send you more information about the Christian Episcopal Church of Canada and our work, and about how you, your family, and your friends, can become members and join with us in helping to rescue and preserve our holy, gentle, kindly, and beloved Anglican tradition and to preserve it intact - whole and entire - to pass on to those generations which are yet to come.