So, we’re Anglican.
I know that’s a weird and unfamiliar word to many of
you. But it’s not a weird denomination. At all.
I promise :)
We both grew up Baptist but have been attending an
Anglican church (which we LOVE) for six years.
At Wheaton, Kolby experienced and was really drawn to a more formal, historical expression of
worship and so, when we moved here and planted roots, he took me a little out
of my comfort zone and we visited some churches outside of the more familiar
Baptist, non-denominational, and Bible churches. We visited a large Anglican
church that Kolby liked a lot but was too formal for me, but it just so
happened that the church was launching a new church plant nearby that was small
and more casual. We met with the pastor
and his wife and heard their heart and vision for the church and furthering the
kingdom of God, and we knew instantly we wanted to be in on it. The rest is history, I guess!
So, for anyone interested in hearing more about this
“Anglican” thing, read on…
[And be warned this got way longer than I intended! But I'm never one to be short-winded, and I actually learned some stuff as I was putting this together.]
A quick summary
Anglican literally means English, and the Anglican Church
simply means the Church of England. It took
on that name when separating off from the Roman Catholic Church during the
reformation in the 16th century.
Anglicanism is the largest Protestant denomination and the third largest
Christian religious body in the world (after Roman Catholicism and Eastern
Orthodoxy). Its membership consists of 80 million people in 164 countries.
Anglicanism is often referred to as the via
media, the “middle way,” between Protestantism and Catholicism. Like
Protestants, Anglicans understand Scripture as the final authority for teaching
and preaching. Like Catholics, Anglicans embrace the traditions of worship from
the ancient Church.
If it’s such
a huge denomination, how on earth have I never heard of it?
The Anglican Church here in the U.S. took on the name “Episcopal,”
because during the Revolutionary War, it wasn’t cool to say you were part of
the Church of England. The Episcopal
Church is the American wing of the worldwide Anglican Church. But in the last few decades the Episcopal
Church started liberalizing on some theological matters, and about ten years
ago a group of Episcopal churches in the U.S. decided to realign themselves
with the beliefs and theology of the worldwide Anglican Church. This group broke away from the name “Episcopal” and reverted to “Anglican.” There haven’t
been churches in the U.S. with the Anglican name until fairly recently, so you
might not have even come across one yet.
You’ve probably heard of Anglicans and just didn’t know
it. Many noted evangelical scholars and authors are Anglican, including C.S.
Lewis, John Stott, J.I. Packer and N.T. Wright.
What do
Anglicans believe?
Because Anglican is such a foreign word to many, people
often ask what we believe, namely—what makes your denomination different from
mine? And I don’t really have a good
answer for that because Anglicanism is anything but unique. We don’t have a defining thing that makes us
different.
Our statement of belief is just this: the Nicene Creed. This statement of belief, which all
Christians have adopted since it was crafted in 325 A.D., is the bare minimum
standard for what it means to be a Christian.
There are lots of other topics that churches can land on either side of
(how/when to baptize, women’s role in ministry, if/how to use music, etc.), but
this unifying creed is the litmus test for Christianity and outlines the core
beliefs of the Anglican Church.
The Via Media
Anglicans hold on to the Catholic heritage in the ancient
creeds, sacraments, and the threefold ministry of deacons, priests, and
bishops, but Anglicans embrace the elements of the Reformation that focus on
Biblical authority, have a firm commitment to the doctrine of justification by
faith, and have a missionary zeal to bring others into life in Christ.
This idea of being the via media—the middle way—means, to
quote a former Anglican Archbishop, we are “at the same time evangelical,
apostolic, catholic, reformed, and Spirit-filled.” I’ve found that to be the case. Some Anglican worship services are hard to
distinguish from a Catholic service.
Others feel almost Pentecostal—lots of spontaneous prayers or raised
hands during worship. At our church, there
would be some things that felt really “high church”—we recite prayers together,
we serve communion every week—but there’s plenty that feels like a typical
evangelical service—announcements, sermons, contemporary worship songs.
Like other protestant churches, Anglicans have a heavy
focus on scripture. Like Catholics, Anglicans
have a sacramental theology, which means that we believe that communion and
baptism are holy moments instituted by Jesus that express God’s grace.
Liturgy
Patterns of worship vary widely among churches (traditional,
contemporary, etc.). Anglican churches
are liturgical, which translates to “the work of the people” and just means that
Anglican
worship is an act of the entire congregation. Worship in the early church was liturgical—it
was not a passive experience but a participatory action and event in which the
assembled people of God actively worshipped together as a Church. Incorporating the Psalms, creeds, hymns, and
verses used by the earliest Christians reminds us that we do not worship God in
a historical vacuum, but are connected to God’s people throughout time.
Liturgy
expresses what we believe and bears witness to the story of our faith. My personal favorite part of this is that in
this model, the sermon isn’t the headlining event. That comes toward the beginning of the
service. Instead, everything builds to
communion, where we are reminded of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and we
receive his grace and forgiveness together as a body.
Baptism
I wrote a bit about this topic already when Beckett was
baptized (read here). But in the Anglican Church, a person may be baptized
at any age. We commonly baptize infants
as an expression of obedience and accept the grace of God on their behalf. This tradition has its origins in Colossians
2:11-12 when Paul identifies baptism as the “circumcision of Christ,” a
practice that initiated eight-day-old infant males to the covenant made by
Abraham. Infant baptism is not a
substitute for a child’s eventual individual expression of faith in God and
decision to turn from sin and put their trust in Jesus Christ, but rather an
important sign of God's pre-existent love and adoption of them.
Eucharist,
aka Communion, aka the Lord’s Supper
Eucharist
is the sacramental communion between Christ and his members (1 Corinthians 10:
16). We celebrate it every Sunday and it is the focal point of the worship
service.
The first Christians were Jews, and
in the Jewish faith, all liturgy (public worship) is ultimately about covenant
renewal. Israel’s very existence
depended upon continual renewal of her covenant with God. The early church viewed the Eucharist in the
same light. It was not a “ritual” but a
covenant with God that was continually renewed upon entering into communion
with the risen Lord. In short, for the
first Christians the Eucharist constituted the Church and so became the central
act of worship.
During
Eucharist, we engage in the Church’s central act of praise and thanksgiving
(the word “Eucharist” simply comes from the Greek word for “thanksgiving”),
renew our covenant with Christ as his Church, and receive from him the fruits of
his death and resurrection offered in this sacrament.
Church governance, ordination
Basically, there are two forms of church government:
congregational and episcopal. A congregational
church is independent—ruling itself, electing its own leaders, and ordaining
its own clergy. Baptist, Bible and
several other denominations follow this model.
Episcopal (I’m not talking about the Episcopal denomination noted above,
which I know is confusing!) is a church system governed by a hierarchy of
bishops. The title bishop comes from the
Greek word episkopos, which translates as overseer. Bishops have authority over a group of
churches, called a diocese. Decisions are made with the input and
recommendation of the local congregation members, but ultimately, priests and
bishops—having been ordained by God to shepherd the church—have the final say.
Episcopal governance is the predominant pattern in Catholic and Anglican churches and is also common in Methodist and Lutheran churches, among others. These
churches have three types of ministers, all based in scripture (I Timothy 3:1,
3:13, 5:17, 1 Peter 5:1-3): the diakoneo
(translated "deacon"), presbyteros
(translated "priest"), and episkopos
(tranlated "bishop"). In the
Anglican tradition, deacons, priests, and bishops are ordained to particular
roles, but ministry is still considered to be a vocation of all Christians. Ordination is also considered a sacrament
because it is believed that God empowers the person, through the Holy Spirit,
to fulfill their particular ministry and calling. Ordination is always
conferred by the laying on of hands by one or more Bishops as an outward sign
of the inward reality of God's call. In
a priestly ordination, all the priests of the diocese lay hands upon the
ordinand following the example of Scripture: "Neglect not the gift that is
in you, which was given you with the laying on of the hands of the
presbytery" (1 Tim. 4:14, Acts 8:18).
OK-that's what I've got. Please don't hesitate to ask questions or talk about any of this further sometime!
