November 7, 2025
by John Fonville
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Category:
Reformation Anglicanism
| Tags: evangelicalism, Reformation, Nicene Creed, creeds, confessions, Word and Sacrament, Anglicanism, scripture, catholicity, Carl Trueman, The Creedal Imperative, Church History, theology, Apostles Creed, Reformation Anglican Identity, Confessional Anglicanism, Protestantism, Mission Statements, Church Culture, Reformation Anglicanism, The Center for Reformation Anglicanism
Many Evangelical churches replace historic creeds with corporate-style mission statements, valuing vision over confession. Drawing on Carl Trueman’s The Creedal Imperative, this post argues that every church has a creed—whether public and accountable or private and untested. Reformation Anglicans, by contrast, embrace the ancient creeds “proved by most certain warran...
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November 4, 2025
by John Fonville
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Category:
Reformation Theology
| Tags: grace, law and gospel, faith, belgic confession, heidelberg catechism, justification, lordship salvation, sola fide, solus christus, sola gratia, Trinity, Holy Spirit, Christology, Reformation, Nicene Creed, Anglican, Thirty-Nine Articles, pneumatology, R. Scott Clark, Confessional Theology, Reformation Anglicanism, The Center for Reformation Anglicanism
The Nicene Creed confesses both the Son and the Holy Spirit as Lord. This article shows how Reformation Christianity upholds the one saving Lordship of the triune God, contrasting it with “Lordship Salvation,” which turns the confession “Jesus is Lord” from a declaration of Christ’s deity into a moral condition for salvation. True lordship is confessed in the gos...
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November 4, 2025
by John Fonville
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Category:
Reformation Theology
| Tags: sanctification, assurance, belgic confession, heidelberg catechism, justification, sola fide, Union with Christ, Reformation, duplex beneficium, George Hunsinger, Jonathan Edwards, dispositional soteriology, faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, Protestant Reformation, reformed theology, imputed righteousness, Anglican, Thirty Nine Articles, Reformation Day, Reformation theology, Calvin, Justification by Faith, fides caritate formata, Westminster Confession, forensic justification, Reformation Anglicanism, The Center for Reformation Anglicanism
This article contrasts John Calvin’s Reformation doctrine of justification by faith alone with Jonathan Edwards’s later “dispositional soteriology.” Drawing from Calvin’s Institutes (3.11) and the Reformed confessions, it shows that saving faith is receptive—accepting, receiving, and resting on Christ’s righteousness alone—while Edwards’s model redefines ...
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November 4, 2025
by John Fonville
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Category:
Reformation Anglicanism
| Tags: grace, justification, sola fide, Salvation, Reformation, Council of Trent, Christ alone, virgin Mary, Anglicanism, Protestant Reformation, ACNA, Rome, Anglican, Thirty-Nine Articles, theology, Catechism of the Catholic Church, doctrine, Mariology, Mediatrix, Co-redemptrix, Mater Populi Fidēlis, biblical gospel, GAFCON, Reformation Anglicanism, The Center for Reformation Anglicanism
This article examines the Vatican’s recent doctrinal note Mater Populi Fidēlis (“Mother of the Faithful People of God”) from a Reformation Anglican perspective. While the note rejects the Marian title Co-redemptrīx, it leaves untouched Rome’s official teachings on cooperative grace and Mary’s ongoing intercessory role as Mediātrīx. Drawing on the Catechism of...
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November 4, 2025
by John Fonville
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Category:
Anglican Formularies
| Tags: grace, gospel, justification, sola fide, sola scriptura, sacraments, Salvation, Authority, Reformation, faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, Roman Catholic Church, purgatory, imputed righteousness, scripture, Anglican, Reformed confession, Thirty-Nine Articles, Reformation Anglicanism, theology, Catechism of the Catholic Church, Marian doctrines, invocation of saints, relics, images, Adoration, indulgences, pardons, The Center for Reformation Anglicanism
This article contrasts the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s teaching on justification with the Reformation Anglican doctrine confessed in the Thirty-Nine Articles. Whereas the Catechism presents justification as an infused, cooperative process involving grace and merit, the Articles proclaim the biblical gospel of justification by faith only—Christ’s righteousness ...
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November 4, 2025
by John Fonville
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Category:
Reformation Theology
| Tags: Thomas Cranmer, Anglican Formularies, Reformation Anglicanism, 1662 Book of Common Prayer, All Saints Day, Communion of Saints, Articles of Religion, Beatitudes, Revelation 7, Apostles Creed, The Center for Reformation Anglicanism
All Saints’ Day is not a celebration of human achievement but of divine grace—the communion of sinners redeemed and united in Christ. Drawing on the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, this reflection explores how the Reformers retained and reformed the feast, freeing it from superstition and re-centering it on the grace of God in the risen Lord who alone is our Mediator and t...
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November 4, 2025
by John Fonville
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Category:
Reformation Theology
| Tags: gospel, Eucharist, Holy Communion, faith alone, grace alone, Thomas Cranmer, Book of Common Prayer, comfortable words, Anglican, Reformation Day, Reformation Anglicanism, English Reformation, Oxford Martyrs, Ashley Null, Reformation theology, Lord’s Supper, Church History, Martyrdom, All Saints Day, Archbishop of Canterbury, Real Presence, Spiritual Presence, Edward VI, Stephen Gardiner, Communion of Saints, Paramout Church, Theology of the Sacrament, Cranmer Doctrine, Anglican Worship, Sacrament of Faith, Cranmer’s Defence, Cranmer's Martyrdom, The Center for Reformation Anglicanism
On this Reformation Day—the Eve of All Saints’ Day—we remember Thomas Cranmer, the English Reformer and Archbishop of Canterbury who gave the Church the Book of Common Prayer and a gospel-centered vision of the Lord’s Supper. Cranmer taught that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist—not in the bread and wine themselves, but spiritually to the faith of believer...
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November 4, 2025
by John Fonville
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Category:
Reformation Theology
| Tags: faith, worship, assurance, sacraments, Eucharist, Holy Communion, Reformation, faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, Mass, scripture, transubstantiation, Anglican, Reformation Day, English Reformation, Oxford Martyrs, Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, Lord’s Supper, Cranmer, Church History, theology, Anglican History, Reformation history, Marian martyrs, Black Rubric, Martyrdom, Reformation Anglicanism, The Center for Reformation Anglicanism
On Reformation Day we remember Bishop Nicholas Ridley, martyred in 1555, whose Brief Declaration of the Lord’s Supper defended the gospel against transubstantiation. Ridley taught that in Holy Communion believers truly receive Christ by the Spirit through faith — not by the bread changing into flesh — so that faith, not fear, is the way of communion....
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November 4, 2025
by John Fonville
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Category:
Anglican Worship and Liturgy
| Tags: gospel, worship, assurance, evangelical, Prayer, Liturgy, Holy Communion, Discipleship, tradition, Reformation, Book of Common Prayer, Word and Sacrament, historic worship, church, scripture, Anglican, Cranmer, theology, repetition, formation, Reformation Anglicanism, The Center for Reformation Anglicanism
Many dismiss the Book of Common Prayer’s liturgy as “mere repetition,” but repetition is what forms us in Christ. Rooted in the Reformation, Anglican worship shapes our hearts, grounds us in Scripture, and offers deeper gospel fluency than the shallow novelties of modern Evangelical worship....
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November 4, 2025
by John Fonville
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Category:
Anglican History & Identity
| Tags: sola scriptura, Reformation, Book of Common Prayer, Anglicanism, Anglican Formularies, Thirty-Nine Articles, Reformation Anglicanism, Anglican identity, Ordinal, Classical Anglicanism, Elizabethan Settlement, Homilies, Anglican History, The Center for Reformation Anglicanism
Anglicanism isn’t a vague nostalgia—it’s a Reformation identity anchored in Scripture and the historic formularies (Articles, 1662 BCP, Ordinal, Homilies). Here’s why Paramount Church embraces Reformation Anglicanism, articulated by our Rector, John Fonville, Director of the Center for Reformation Anglicanism....
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November 4, 2025
by John Fonville
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Category:
Anglican Theology & Practice
| Tags: Book of Common Prayer, Anglicanism, Anglican Formularies, Reformation Anglicanism, church polity, episcopacy, Bishops, Ashley Null, Cranmer, Anglican Theology, Anglo-Catholicism, Baptist polity, esse, bene esse, apostolic succession, gospel primacy, The Center for Reformation Anglicanism
This article responds to recent criticisms of episcopacy by showing how Reformation Anglicanism distinguishes between the esse and bene esse of the church. While Anglo-Catholics treat bishops as essential to the church’s very existence, Reformation Anglicans hold that the gospel alone is the essence of the church, with qualified episcopacy serving its well-being. Rooted ...
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November 4, 2025
by John Fonville
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Category:
Anglican Theology & Practice
| Tags: Anglican, Anglicanism, Reformation, Thirty-Nine Articles, Eucharist, Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion, sacraments, Eucharistic Adoration, transubstantiation, Book of Common Prayer, Cranmer, Gerald Bray, Anglican Theology, Word and Sacrament, Reformation Anglicanism, The Center for Reformation Anglicanism
This article examines whether the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion forbid Eucharistic adoration. Drawing on Articles 25 and 28 and Gerald Bray’s The Faith We Confess, it explains why Anglicans reject reservation, elevation, and adoration of the consecrated elements, and instead embrace Word and Sacrament as Christ’s appointed means of grace....
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November 4, 2025
by John Fonville
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Category:
Liturgy
| Tags: Eucharist, Book of Common Prayer, 1662 BCP, Post-Communion Prayer, grace and gratitude, Reformation theology, Lord’s Supper, Prayer of Oblation, Anglican liturgy, Trinitarian prayer, Reformation Anglicanism, The Center for Reformation Anglicanism
This reflection explores the Prayer After Communion in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer (often called the Prayer of Oblation). Gospel-shaped and Trinitarian, the prayer moves from thanksgiving to Christ’s merits, to self-offering, grace, humility, and doxology. It beautifully embodies the gospel of grace and gratitude: grace first, gratitude second....
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