The Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral 1886, 1888
Adopted by the House of Bishops Chicago, 1886
We, Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United
States of America, in Council assembled as Bishops in the
Church of God, do hereby solemnly declare to all whom it may
concern, and especially to our fellow-Christians of the different
Communions in this land, who, in their several spheres, have
contended for the religion of Christ:
1.Our earnest desire that the Savior's prayer, "That we all
may be one," may, in its deepest and truest sense, be speedily
fulfilled;
2. That we believe that all who have been duly baptized with
water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost, are members of the Holy Catholic Church.
.That in all things of human ordering or human choice, relating
to modes of worship and discipline, or to traditional
customs, this Church is ready in the spirit of love and
humility to forego all preferences of her own;
4.That this Church does not seek to absorb other Communions, but
rather, co-operating with them on the basis of a
common Faith and Order, to discountenance schism, to heal the
wounds of the Body of Christ, and to promote the
charity which is the chief of Christian graces and the visible
manifestation of Christ to the world.
But furthermore, we do hereby affirm that the Christian
unity...can be restored only by the return of all Christian
communions to
the principles of unity exemplified by the undivided Catholic Church
during the first ages of its existence; which principles we
believe to be the substantial deposit of Christian Faith and Order
committed by Christ and his Apostles to the Church unto the
end of the world, and therefore incapable of compromise or surrender
by those who have been ordained to be its stewards and trustees for
the common and equal benefit of all men.
As inherent parts of this sacred deposit, and therefore as
essential to the restoration of unity among the divided branches of
Christendom, we account the following, to wit:
1.The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the
revealed Word of God.
2.The Nicene Creed as the sufficient statement of the Christian
Faith.
3.The two Sacraments,--Baptism and the Supper of the
Lord,--ministered with unfailing use of Christ's words of
institution
and of the elements ordained by Him.
4.The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its
administration to the varying needs of the nations and
peoples called of God into the unity of His Church.
Furthermore, Deeply grieved by the sad divisions which affect the
Christian Church in our own land, we hereby declare our
desire and readiness, so soon as there shall be any authorized
response to this Declaration, to enter into brotherly conference
with all or any Christian Bodies seeking the restoration of the
organic unity of the Church, with a view to the earnest study of the
conditions under which so priceless a blessing might happily be
brought to pass.
Note: While the above form of the Quadrilateral was adopted by
the House of Bishops, it was not enacted by the House
of Deputies, but rather incorporated in a general plan referred for
study and action to a newly created Joint
Commission on Christian Reunion.
Lambeth Conferent of 1888 Resolution 11
That, in the opinion of this Conference, the following Articles
supply a basis on which approach may be by God's blessing made
towards Home Reunion:
1.The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as
"containing all things necessary to salvation," and as being the
rule and ultimate standard of faith.
2.The Apostles' Creed, as the Baptismal Symbol; and the Nicene
Creed, as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith.
3.The two Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself--Baptism and the
Supper of the Lord--ministered with unfailing use of
Christ's words of Institution, and of the elements ordained by
Him.
4.The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its
administration to the varying needs of the nations and
peoples called of God into the Unity of His Church.
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