Foundational Documents

Our Constitution, Canons and other important diocesan and provincial documents.

As diocese and part of a province, we have governing documents and policies to help us wisely, safely and effective function and flourish. Below you can find some of those foundational documents.

Diocesan Constitutions & Canons

ACNA Constitutions & Canons

Our Province of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) also has a constitution and canons. You can find them here.

Diocesan foundational theological statements

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen. WE, the Bishops, together with the Delegates from the Clergy and Laity of the Church of England in the Dominion of Canada, now assembled in the first General Synod, hereby make the following Solemn Declaration:

WE declare this Church to be, and desire that it shall continue, in full communion with the Church of England throughout the world, as an integral portion of the One Body of Christ composed of the Churches which, united under the One Divine Head and in fellowship of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, hold the One Faith revealed in Holy Writ, and defined in the Creeds as maintained by the undivided primitive Church in the undisputed Ecumenical Councils; receive the same Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as containing all things necessary to salvation; teach the same Word of God; partake of the same Divinely ordained Sacraments, through the ministry of the same Apostolic Orders; and worship One God and Father through the same Lord Jesus Christ, by the same Holy and Divine Spirit who is given to them that believe to guide them into all truth.

And we are determined by the help of God to hold and maintain the Doctrine, Sacraments, and Discipline of Christ as the Lord hath commanded in his Holy Word, and as the Church of England hath received and set forth in The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church according to the use of the Church of England; together with the Psalter or Psalms of David, pointed as they are to be sung or said in Churches; and the Form and Manner of Making, Ordaining and Consecrating of Bishops, Priests and Deacons and in the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion; and to transmit the same unimpaired to our posterity.

Comment on the importance of the Solemn Declaration
This foundational document of the Anglican Church of Canada is included in the Book of Common Prayer 1959/62 which is the authorized Prayer Book of the Anglican Church of Canada. It is under the doctrinal stipulations of this Book of Common Prayer that all worship, including that from the Book of Alternative Service, must be based. The Solemn Declaration defines the foundations of faith as being the Holy Scriptures, the Traditional Creeds, and the 39 Articles of Faith. From these statements there can be no deviation within the Anglican Church of Canada.