What Makes Anglicans Anglican?

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Countless books have been written to define the essence of Anglican Christianity. Anglicanism emerged in the 16th century, in the maelstrom of the Reformation. Many people labour under the misapprehension that King Henry VIII founded the Anglican Church as an act of rebellion against the Pope, who had refused to permit his divorce and remarriage. (This misapprehension is a particular irony, given that the Church of England until very recently would also have rejected Henry’s petition.)

Our Church is episcopal

Anglicans distinguished themselves from other churches of the Reformation by continuing to insist on a threefold order of ordained ministry (i.e. bishops, priests, and deacons). Ours is an “episcopal” church, meaning that our bishops stand in the place of the apostles. Anglicans hold that our bishops stand in an “historical succession,” taking us right back to the apostles themselves. Our bishops are called to maintain the unity of the church, both by remaining faithful to the teaching of their first century predecessors, and by conferring with one another globally.

What this means at the parish level is that Anglican Churches are not autonomous, nor are they free to worship, or act, without reference to the rest of the Anglican Church. We use the same prayer books, for instance. We uphold the same beliefs and practices regarding baptism and the eucharist. We accept our obligation to assist other Anglican communities who need our help. And so on.

We uphold the authority of scripture, tradition and reason

Our unity as Anglicans is based on a firm commitment to the Bible as “Word of God”; to tradition as the received thinking and practice of the Church; and to reason, as the means for assessing and reassessing our beliefs and positions.

We opt for the middle way (via media) as a matter of principle

Not surprisingly, within Anglicanism, there is a wide spectrum of views on many subjects. The characteristic approach of Anglicans in the face of this range of views is to embrace a “middle way” – the so-called via media. The via media is not a matter of compromise, or of settling upon the lowest common denominator, but rather of a definitive belief that in holding opposites in tension, we negotiate the solution which is most true.

We believe it is possible and desirable to love God with our minds

The Anglican commitment to ride the middle way requires intelligent faith, or as our predecessors put it, fides quaerens intellectum – faith seeking understanding.

This is quite different from “understanding seeking faith” – that is, the attempt to reason our way to belief. Anglicans accept that the reality of God is not “discovered” by us (like explorers chancing upon something previously unknown), but is rather “disclosed” by God. There is no chance about it: God wants us to know him. More than this, this reality of God is larger than our meagre capacity to think, to apprehend, or even to imagine.

This said, Anglicans take the position that our beliefs cannot be contrary to reason. We value the place of intellect in our Christian faith and practice, and we do not expect people to park their brains at the church door when they come to worship. We expect and welcome hard questions. Even when we don’t know the answer.

We worship liturgically

Anglicans value a particular “shape” or structure in our worship, which we trace back to the experience of the earliest Christians. This includes focusing on Scripture, which we call “the Liturgy of the Word,” and a celebration of Christ’s presence in the eucharist (or Communion), which we call “the Liturgy of the Table.” At one time, English speaking Anglicans could attend any Anglican church in the world, and find a service that matched almost exactly their experience at home. These days, it is not the exact words so much as the structure of the service which is unchanging.

The literal meaning of the word “liturgy” is “the work of the people,” and in the past 50 years, Anglicans have recovered a sense of the role of all participants in public worship. No longer do we think of the priest as doing something “for us”. Rather, we are all of us – even those without an obvious leadership role, such as readers, or singers, or altar servers – celebrants of the liturgy.

We love our prayer books

Anglicans are well known for their books of Common Prayer – compendia of services, rites of passage, prayers, and the psalms – which are used not only for Sunday worship, but for personal devotions. Because the liturgy is written down, it is not uncommon, for example, for Anglicans to memorize large parts of the service, and even of such variables as the Sunday collect (or prayer) of the day. These texts “get in our bones,” and are part of our reflexive piety.

The Prayer Book has been in transition or revision since 1549. The desire to maintain a particular edition of the prayer book, as over against any further revision or changes, runs counter to the reforming spirit of its first author, and of its history since that time.

Anglicans need to remember that the principal purpose of a prayer book was to put the liturgy into the hands of the people, in a language they could understand (i.e. not Latin!), so they could be active, speaking, participants, and not merely hearers and observers, in public worship. This is what we value most: that the prayer book enables the liturgy truly to be “the work of the people.”

Baptism and the Holy Eucharist are central to our faith and practice.

Anglicans view baptism with water, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, as full initiation into Jesus Christ, and into the life of the Christian Church. Baptism inaugurates an indelible covenant between the newly baptised, and Christ and his Church. As with any other rite of initiation, membership carries both obligations and privileges. Each baptismal candidate vows to reject evil, and to turn to Christ. He or she makes a profession of faith, and vows to practise that faith in both the Church and the world. The Church, for its part, vows to support the newly baptised, and makes a place for him or her at the table of the Eucharist, where practising believers come to be instructed, supported, nourished and equipped for their life as Christians in the world.

For Anglicans, the Eucharist, or Holy Communion, is the principal act of worship on Sundays. Not only did Christ command us to “do this” in his memory: we also believe that he is really and truly present to us in the eucharistic sacrament. We receive Communion in order to be one with Christ, as well as to strengthen and equip us for the work he has given us to do in the world.

Baptism and the Eucharist are considered “primary” sacraments, both in the sense that Jesus himself instituted them, and that they are “required” for practising Christians. Anglicans also accept that there are five other sacraments, which include confirmation (or the reaffirmation of baptismal vows), marriage, the anointing of the sick, ordination, and reconciliation (confession and absolution). These are “secondary” sacraments in that none of them is required in order to “get at” a primary sacrament, but rather are available (and make sense) only to those who are already baptised, communicant members of the Christian Church.

We cling to the ancient Creeds

The ancient Creeds determine for Anglicans the “rule of faith” by which scripture is to be interpreted and reason is to be guided.

Creed literally means “what we give our heart to.” A creed, though a summary, is a testimony of faith. Creeds developed from baptism, and really look forward to Christian life.

The Apostles’ Creed is one of the earliest creeds and expresses our baptismal faith. It states our conviction that God is our Creator, that Jesus Christ was born, died and rose again to reign with God in power, and that the Holy Spirit brings us the Church and the forgiveness of sins in a community of both the living and the dead. It affirms our hope that resurrection is God’s plan for this creation.

The Nicene Creed, from the fourth century, is a more official creed. It arose out of debate and struggle. It affirms that Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are fully divine along with God the Father in the working out of our salvation.

Anglicans seek above all to hold to the core of these creeds, given that they were products of their time and place in history. These creeds give us our “charter” boundaries in understanding God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit.

We approve of beauty

In our worship, and in our churches, Anglicans aim for a beauty which engages all of the senses – sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. In this, we followed a different path than the Puritans, who valued plainness and simplicity, and who therefore thought stained glass, statuary, coloured vestments and hangings, incense, flowers, and the singing of anthems and other choral music, to be a distraction from the pure worship of God.

The Anglican approach to “bodily pleasures” – and this would extend to dance, theatre, and even a wee nip (in moderation) – is rooted in our historical emphasis upon the theology of the Incarnation. In brief, this is the belief that in Christ, we have the perfect intersection between humanity and divinity, and therefore, that our very earthiness is part of what God uses to effect our salvation. We take seriously that this is earthiness is part of God’s gift to us, and is ours to enjoy. In Christ, God chose to leave aside the “protections” of un-creatureliness, to show us our true potential and purpose. Anglicans endeavour, however imperfectly, to do the same.

We believe that Christian faith is never just “about us”

Anglican piety is not concerned solely, nor even chiefly, with the state of our own souls. Similarly, we care about more than the well-being of our own churches. We do care about these things, of course, but primarily in so far as they equip us to care for God’s world.

Anglicans take seriously our baptismal vows to “seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbour as ourselves,” and to “strive for peace and justice among all people, respecting the dignity of every human being.”

To be the face and hands of Christ to the world requires us to engage with suffering, sin and sorrow, and to build up all that is life-giving and godly. We therefore have a strong commitment to social justice, to ministries of comfort and solace, and to the arts or any other dimension of our human life which enhances our humanity.

Those attending an Anglican church cannot expect a community which refrains from considering or commenting upon the political, moral, business, or social issues of the day. Our calling is to build up the kingdom of God “on earth as in heaven.”

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