The 39 Articles of Religion: Article 33, Excommunication

As John Rodgers writes, "Excommunication is an official act of discipline by the Church that bars a member from partaking of Holy Communion and includes other deprivations that may be included in the act of discipline." There are two forms of excommunication. One form is lesser and bars an unrepentant sinner from taking Holy Communion and abstaining from a leadership position in the local congregation. The greater form is what this article describes that goes a step beyond, banning one from all contact with the common life of the Church until that person is restored by public declaration. This greater form is rarely practiced today.

XXXIII. Of excommunicate Persons, how they are to be avoided.

That person which by open denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the unity of the Church, and excommunicated, ought to be taken of the whole multitude of the faithful, as an Heathen and Publican, until he be openly reconciled by penance, and received into the Church by a Judge that hath the authority thereunto.