Recant
To retract. Used especially in regard to a charge of ecclesiastical misdoing or heresy, the word meant to repent of a prohibited or heretical act. The word is no longer found in the canons, but the concept is found in the canon, “Of the Abandonment of the Communion of this Church,” whereby a member of the clergy guilty of acts of abandonment may make “a good faith retraction” of acts or words constituting abandonment and avoid being deposed.
Glossary definitions provided courtesy of Church Publishing Incorporated, New York, NY,(All Rights reserved) from “An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church, A User Friendly Reference for Episcopalians,” Don S. Armentrout and Robert Boak Slocum, editors.