The Pope is a Catholic and we're not a church!

The Pope has released a document affirming the teaching of Roman Catholicism on the nature of church and where we Protestants fit it. The Pope calls us a religious community and not a church:

"According to Catholic doctrine, these Communities do not enjoy apostolic succession in the sacrament of Orders, and are, therefore, deprived of a constitutive element of the Church. These ecclesial Communities which, specifically because of the absence of the sacramental priesthood, have not preserved the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic Mystery cannot, according to Catholic doctrine, be called "Churches" in the proper sense."

We need to remember that there are very real differences between the teaching of the Roman Catholic church and Protestantism: how we are saved and what church is are only two! The Reformers in England wrote the 39 Articles which are the statement of belief for Anglicans.

Article 19 says this "The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ’s ordinance ...."

Phew, we really do have a church!

For the 39 Articles check out the Anglican Church League website.

You might like to check out Mark Gilbert's new set of Bible Studies that go into what the Bible really teaches on how God saves.

Check out the full document from the Pope.