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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.
3. 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 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 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 oun 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 Conference 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:
(a) 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.
(b) The Apostles' Creed, as the Baptismal Symbol; and the Nicene Creed, as
the sufficient statement of the Christian faith.
(c) 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.
(d) 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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