Based upon the
Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral of 1886, 1888
We the people of the
Christian Synod of Saint Timothy, do hereby solemnly declare to all whom it may
concern, and especially to our fellow-Christians of different Communions who contend
for the faith once delivered to the saints:
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 Spirit, are members of the Christ's Church.
3. That this Synod 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 visibile 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 Mysteries of Baptism
and the Eucharist, ministered with unfailing use of Christ's words of
institution and of the elements ordained by Him.
4. The Succession of Faith
and Order (commonly called the Apostolic Succession or 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 day, we hereby declare our desire and readiness to enter into full intercommuion with all or any Christian Bodies seeking the restoration of fellowship and unity in the Church.