Everything about Anglicanism totally explained
Anglicanism is rooted in the beliefs and practices of
Christian churches which either have historical connections with the
Church of England or maintain a
liturgy compatible with it. The word
Anglican originates in
ecclesia anglicana, a mediæval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 meaning
the English Church. Adherents of Anglicanism are termed
Anglicans. The great majority of Anglicans are members of churches belonging to the
Anglican Communion. However, there are a great variety of nonaffiliated Anglican churches, most notably the
Continuing Anglican Churches.
The faith of Anglicans is founded in the Scriptures and the Gospels, the traditions of the Apostolic Church, the
apostolic succession--"historic episcopate," and the early Church Fathers. Anglicanism forms one of the branches of
Western Christianity; having definitively declared its independence from the Roman pontiff at the time of the
Elizabethan Religious Settlement. By the mid 17th century the Church of England (and associated episcopal churches in
Ireland and in England's
American colonies) came to be seen as comprising a distinct Christian tradition with theologies, structures and forms of worship representing a middle ground, or
via media, between
Roman Catholicism and
Protestantism. Following the
American Revolution, Anglican congregations in the United States and
Canada were each reconstituted into an independent church with their own bishops and self-governing structures; which, through the expansion of the
British Empire and the activity of
Christian Missions, was adopted as the model for many newly formed churches, especially in
Africa,
Australasia and the regions of the
Pacific. In the 19th century the term
Anglicanism was coined to describe the common religious tradition of these churches; as also that of the
Scottish Episcopal Church, which, though originating earlier within the
Church of Scotland, had come to be recognised as sharing this common identity.
The degree of distinction between Reformed and western Catholic tendencies within the Anglican tradition is routinely a matter of debate both within specific Anglican churches and throughout the
Anglican Communion. Unique to
Anglicanism is the
Book of Common Prayer, the collection of services that worshippers in most Anglican churches used for centuries. While it has since undergone many revisions and Anglican churches in different countries have developed other service books, the
Prayer Book is still acknowledged as one of the ties that bind the
Anglican Communion together. There is no single
Anglican Church with universal juridical authority, since each national or regional church has full autonomy. As the name suggests, the
Anglican Communion is an association of those churches in
full communion with the
Archbishop of Canterbury. With over seventy-seven million members the Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion in the world, after the
Roman Catholic Church and the
Eastern Orthodox Church.
Terminology
The word
Anglicanism is a
neologism from the 19th century; being constructed from the much older word
Anglican. As an adjective,
Anglican is used to describe the people, institutions, and churches as well as the liturgical traditions and theological concepts developed by the
Church of England.
Although the term
Anglican is found referring to the Church of England as far back as the 16th Century, its use didn't become general until the latter half of the 19th Century. In British parliamentary legislation referring to the English
Established Church, it's described as the
Protestant Episcopal Church, thereby distinguishing it from the counterpart established
Protestant Presbyterian Church in Scotland.
High Churchmen, who objected to the term
Protestant, initially promoted the form
Reformed Episcopal Church; and it remains the case that word
Episcopal is preferred in the title of
The Episcopal Church (the province of the Anglican Communion covering the United States) and the
Scottish Episcopal Church. Outside of the British Isles, however, the word
Anglican Church came to be preferred; as it distinguished these churches from others that claimed an episcopal polity; although the
Church of Ireland and the
Church in Wales continue to use the term only with reservations.
Anglicanism defined
Anglicanism, in its structures, theology, and forms of worship, is commonly understood as a distinct Christian tradition representing a middle ground between
Roman Catholicism and
Protestantism and, as such, is often referred to as being a
via media (or
middle way) between these traditions. The faith of Anglicans is founded in the
Scriptures and the
Gospels, the traditions of the
apostolic Church, the historic
episcopate, the first four
Ecumenical Councils, and the early
Church Fathers. Anglicans understand the Old and New Testaments as 'containing all things necessary for salvation' and as being the rule and ultimate standard of faith. Anglicans understand the
Apostles' Creed as the baptismal symbol, and the
Nicene creed as the sufficient
statement of the Christian faith.
Anglicans uphold the catholic and apostolic faith and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. In practice, Anglicans believe this is revealed in Holy Scripture and the catholic creeds, and interpret these in light of the Christian tradition of the historic Church, scholarship, reason, and experience.
Anglicans celebrate the traditional sacraments, with special emphasis being given to the
Holy Eucharist, also called Holy Communion, the Lord's Supper or the
Mass. The Eucharist is central to worship for most Anglicans as a communal offering of prayer and praise in which the life, death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ are proclaimed through prayer, reading of the Bible, singing, and the reception of bread and wine as instituted at the
Last Supper. Whilst many Anglicans celebrate the Eucharist in similar ways to the predominant western Catholic tradition, a considerable degree of liturgical freedom is permitted, and worship styles range from the simple to elaborate.
Unique to Anglicanism is the
Book of Common Prayer, the collection of services that worshippers in most Anglican churches used for centuries. It was called
common prayer because all Anglicans used to share in its use around the world. In 1549, the first Book of Common Prayer (BCP) was compiled by
Thomas Cranmer, who was then
Archbishop of Canterbury. Whilst it has since undergone many revisions and Anglican churches in different countries have developed other service books, the Prayer Book is still acknowledged as one of the ties that bind the Anglican Communion together.
Anglican Identity
Development
By the
Elizabethan Settlement, the Churches of England and Ireland had been established through legislation in
Parliament; and assumed allegiance and loyalty to the British Crown in all their members. However, from the first, the Elizabethan Church began to develop distinct religious traditions; assimilating some of the theology of
Reformed churches with the services in the
Book of Common Prayer, under the leadership and organisation of a continuing episcopate ; and over the years these traditions themselves came to command adherence and loyalty. Potentially this would create a crisis of identity, were secular and religious loyalties to conflict - and such a crisis indeed occurred in 1776 with the
American Declaration of Independence, most of whose signatories were, at least nominally, Anglican . For these American Patriots, even the forms of Anglican services were in doubt, since the Prayer Book rites of Matins, Evensong and Holy Communion, all included specific prayers for the British Royal Family. Consequently, the conclusion of the War of Independence resulted in the creation of two new Anglican churches,
The Episcopal Church in the United States of America in those States that had achieved independence; and
The Church of England in Canada in those North American colonies remaining under British control and to which many Loyalist churchmen had migrated. Reluctantly, legislation was passed in the British Parliament (the
Consecration of Bishops Abroad Act 1786) to allow bishops to be consecrated for an American church outside of allegiance to the British Crown (whereas no bishoprics had ever been established in the former American colonies) . Both in the United States, and in Canada, the new Anglican churches developed novel models of self-government, collective decision-making, and self-supported financing; that would be consistent with separation of religious and secular identities .
In the following century, two further factors acted to accelerate the development of a distinct Anglican identity. From 1828 and 1829,
Dissenters and
Roman Catholics could be elected to the
House of Commons, which consequently ceased to be a purely Anglican body; but which nevertheless, over the following ten years, engaged in extensive reforming legislation affecting the interests of the established churches of both England and Ireland. The propriety of this legislation was bitterly contested by the
Tractarians, who in response developed a vision of "Anglicanism" as religious tradition deriving ultimately from the
Ecumenical Councils of the patristic church. Those within the Church of England opposed to the Tractarians, and to their revived ritual practices, introduced a stream of Parliamentary Bills aimed to control innovations in worship ; but this only made the dilemma more acute, with consequent continual litigation in the secular and ecclesiastical courts.
Over the same period Anglican churches engaged vigorously in
Christian Missions, resulting in the creation, by the end of the century, of over ninety colonial bishoprics ; which gradually coalesced into new self-governing churches on the Canadian and American models. However the case of
John William Colenso Bishop of Natal, reinstated in 1865 by the English
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council over the heads of the Church in South Africa, demonstrated acutely that the extension of episcopacy had to be accompanied by a recognised Anglican ecclesiology of ecclesiastical authority, distinct from secular power.
Consequently, at the instigation of the Bishops of Canada and South Africa, the first
Lambeth Conference was called in 1867 ; to be followed by further conferences in 1878 and 1888, and thereafter at ten year intervals. The various papers and declarations of successive Lambeth Conferences, have served to frame the continued Anglican debate on identity, especially as relating to the possibility of ecumenical discussion with other churches. This ecumenical aspiration became much more of a possibility, as other denominational groups rapidly followed the example of the Anglican Communion in founding their own transnational alliances: the
Alliance of Reformed Churches, the
Ecumenical Methodist Council, the
International Congregational Council, and the
Baptist World Alliance.
Theories of Anglican Identity
In their rejection of absolute parliamentary authority, the Tractarians - and in particular
John Henry Newman - looked back to the writings of 17th Century Anglican divines, finding in these texts the idea of the English church as a
via media between the Protestant and Roman Catholic traditions. This view was associated - especially in the writings of
Edward Bouverie Pusey - with the theory of Anglicanism as one of three "
branches" (alongside the Catholic and Orthodox churches) historically arising out of the common tradition of the earliest
Ecumenical Councils. Newman himself subsequently rejected the theory of the
via media, as essentially historicist and static; and hence unable to accommodate any dynamic development within the church. Nevertheless, the aspiration to ground Anglican identity in the writings of the 17th Century divines, and in faithfulness to the traditions of the
Church Fathers reflects a continuing theme of Anglican ecclesiology, most recently in the writings of
Henry Robert McAdoo..
The Tractarian formulation of the theory of the
via media was essentially a party platform, and not acceptable to Anglicans outside the confines of the
Oxford Movement. However, the theory of the
via media was reworked in the ecclesiological writings of
Frederick Denison Maurice, in a more dynamic form that became widely influential. Both Maurice and Newman saw the Church of England of their day as sorely deficient in faith; but whereas Newman had looked back to a distant past when the light of faith might have appeared to burn brighter, Maurice looked forwards to the possibility of a brighter revelation of faith in the future. Maurice saw the Protestant and Catholic strands within the Church of England as contrary but complimentary, both maintaining elements of the true church, but incomplete without the other; such that a true catholic and evangelical church might come into being by a union of opposites. Central to Maurice's perspective, is his belief that the collective elements of family, nation and church represent a divine order of structures through which God unfolds his continuing work of creation. Hence, for Maurice, the Protestant tradition maintains the elements of national distinction which are amongst the marks of the true emerging universal church, but which have been lost within Roman Catholicism in the parasitic internationalism of centralised Papal Authority. In the coming universal church, each national church would maintain the six signs of Catholicity: baptism, eucharist, the creeds, Scripture, an episcopally ordered ministry, and a fixed liturgy; of which the latter would take a variety of forms in accordance with divinely ordained distinctions in national characteristics.
In the latter decades of the 20th Century, Maurice's theory, and the various strands of Anglican thought that derived from it, have been criticised by
Stephen Sykes; who argues that the terms
Protestant and
Catholic as used in these approaches are synthetic constructs denoting ecclesial identities unacceptable to those to whom the labels are applied. Hence, the Roman Catholic Church doesn't regard itself as a party or strand within the universal church - but rather identifies itself as the universal church. Moreover, Sykes criticises the denial, implicit in theories of
via media, that there's no distinctive body of Anglican doctrine, other than those of the universal church; accusing this of being an excuse not to undertake systematic doctrine at all. Contrariwise, Sykes notes a high degree of commonality in Anglican liturgical forms, and in the doctrinal understandings expressed within those liturgies. He proposes that Anglican identity might rather be found within a shared consistent pattern of prescriptive liturgies, established and maintained through canon law, and embodying both a historic deposit of formal statements of doctrine, and also framing the regular reading and proclamation of scripture. Sykes nevertheless agrees with those heirs of Maurice who emphasize the incompleteness of Anglicanism as a positive feature, and quotes with qualified approval the words of
Michael Ramsay:
Doctrine
Catholic and Reformed
In the time of
Henry VIII the nature of Anglicanism was based on questions of jurisdiction—specifically, the belief of the Crown that national churches should be autonomous—rather than theological disagreement. The effort to create a national church in legal continuity with its traditions, but inclusive of certain doctrinal and liturgical beliefs of the
Reformers, was joined by a real concern to make the institution as hospitable as possible to people of different theological inclinations, so as to maintain social peace and cohesion. The result has been a movement with a distinctive self-image among Christian movements. The question often arises as to whether the Anglican Communion should be identified as a
Protestant or
Catholic church, or perhaps as a distinct branch of Christianity altogether. The official position of the Anglican Communion is that, like the Roman Catholic and Orthodox communions, it's a full and distinct branch of the "
One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church," created by Christ.
The distinction between Reformed and Catholic, and the coherence of the two, is routinely a matter of debate both within specific Anglican Churches and throughout the Anglican Communion by members themselves. Since the
Oxford Movement of the mid-19th century, many Churches of the Communion have revived and extended liturgical and pastoral practices similar to Roman Catholic theology. This extends beyond the ceremony of
High Church services to even more theologically significant territory, such as sacramental theology (see
Anglican sacraments). While Anglo-Catholic practices, particularly liturgical ones, have resurfaced and become more common within the tradition over the last century, there remain many places where practices and beliefs remain on the more Reformed or Evangelical side (see
Sydney Anglicanism).
Guiding principles
For 'High Church' Anglicans, doctrine is neither established by a
magisterium, nor derived from the theology of an
eponymous founder (such as
Lutheranism or
Calvinism), nor summed up in a confession of faith (beyond those of the
creeds). For them, the earliest Anglican theological documents are its prayer books, which they see as the products of profound theological reflection, compromise, and synthesis. They emphasise the
Book of Common Prayer as a key expression of Anglican doctrine. The principle of looking to the prayer books as a guide to the parameters of belief and practice is called by the Latin name
lex orandi, lex credendi ("the law of prayer is the law of belief"). Within the prayer books are the so-called fundamentals of Anglican doctrine: The
Apostles' and
Nicene Creeds, the
Athanasian Creed (extremely rarely recited, nowadays), the scriptures (via the lectionary), the sacraments, daily prayer, the
catechism, and apostolic succession in the context of the historic threefold ministry.
Evangelical Anglicans point more to the more Reformed
Thirty Nine Articles, with their insistence on justification by faith alone and predestination, and their hostility to the Roman Catholic church (see
Anti-Catholicism). Following the passing of the 1604 Canons, all Anglican clergy had formally to subscribe to the Articles. Nowadays, however, they're no longer binding, but are seen as an historical document that has played a significant role in the shaping of Anglican identity. The degree to which each of the Articles has remained influential varies. Arguably, the most influential of them has been Article VI on the
sufficiency of Scripture, which states that
Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever isn't read therein, nor may be proved thereby, isn't to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. This article has informed Anglican biblical
exegesis and
hermeneutics since earliest times.
Anglicans look for authority in their so-called "standard divines" (see below). Historically, the most influential of these - apart from Cranmer - has been the sixteenth century cleric and theologian
Richard Hooker who after 1660 was increasingly portrayed as the founding father of Anglicanism. Hooker's description of Anglican authority as being derived primarily from Scripture, informed by reason (the intellect and the experience of God) and tradition (the practices and beliefs of the historical church), has influenced Anglican self-identity and doctrinal reflection perhaps more powerfully than any other formula. The analogy of the "three-legged stool" of scripture, reason, and tradition is often incorrectly attributed to Hooker. Rather Hooker's description is a hierarchy of authority, with scripture as foundational, and reason, and tradition as vitally important, but secondary, authorities.
Finally, the extension of Anglicanism into non-English cultures, the growing diversity of prayer books, and the increasing interest in ecumenical dialogue, has led to further reflection on the parameters of the Anglican identity. Many Anglicans look to the
Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral of 1888 as the "
sine qua non" of Communal identity. In brief, the Quadrilateral's four points are the Holy Scriptures, as containing all things necessary to salvation; the Creeds (specifically, the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds), as the sufficient statement of Christian faith; the dominical sacraments of
Baptism and
Holy Communion; and the historic
episcopate.
The corpus produced by Anglican divines is diverse. What they've in common is a commitment to the faith as conveyed by Scripture and the Book of Common Prayer, thus regarding prayer and theology in a manner akin to that of the
Apostolic Fathers. On the whole, Anglican divines view the
via media of Anglicanism, not as a compromise, but "a positive position, witnessing to the universality of God and God's kingdom working through the fallible, earthly
ecclesia Anglicana." These theologians regard Scripture as interpreted through tradition and reason as authoritative in matters concerning salvation. Reason and tradition, indeed, is extant in and presupposed by Scripture, thus implying co-operation between God and humanity, God and nature, and between the sacred and secular. Faith is thus regarded as
incarnational, and authority as dispersed.
Among the early Anglican divines of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the names of Thomas Cranmer,
John Jewel, Richard Hooker,
Lancelot Andrewes, and
Jeremy Taylor predominate. The influential character of Hooker's
Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity can't be overestimated. Published in 1593 and subsequently, Hooker's eight volume work is primarily a treatise on Church-state relations, but it deals comprehensively with issues of
biblical interpretation,
soteriology,
ethics, and
sanctification. Throughout the work, Hooker makes clear that theology involves prayer and is concerned with ultimate issues, and that theology is relevant to the social mission of the church.
The eighteenth century saw the rise of two important movements in Anglicanism:
Cambridge Platonism, with its mystical understanding of reason as the "candle of the Lord," and the
Evangelical Revival, with its emphasis on the personal experience of the
Holy Spirit. The Cambridge Platonist movement evolved into a school called
Latitudinarianism, which emphasised reason as the barometer of discernment and took a stance of indifference towards doctrinal and ecclesiological differences. The Evangelical Revival, influenced by such figures as
John Wesley and
Charles Simeon, re-emphasised the importance of
justification through faith and the consequent importance of personal conversion. Some in this movement, such as Wesley and
George Whitefield, took the message to the
United States, influencing the
First Great Awakening, and created an Anglo-American movement called
Methodism that would eventually break away, structurally, from the Anglican churches after the American Revolution.
By the nineteenth century, there was a renewed emphasis on the teachings of the earlier Anglican divines: Theologians such as
John Keble,
Edward Bouverie Pusey, and
John Henry Newman had widespread influence in the realm of polemics, homiletics, and theological and devotional works, not least because they largely repudiated the Old High Church tradition and replaced it with a dynamic appeal to antiquity which looked beyond the Reformers and Anglican formularies. Their work is largely credited with the development of the
Oxford Movement, which sought to reassert Catholic identity and practice in the Anglican Church. Through such works as
The Kingdom of Christ,
Frederick Denison Maurice played a pivotal role in inaugurating another movement,
Christian socialism. In this, Maurice transformed Hooker's emphasis on the
incarnational nature of Anglican spirituality to an imperative for social justice. In the nineteenth century, Anglican biblical scholarship began to assume a distinct character, represented by the so-called "Cambridge triumvirate" of
Joseph Lightfoot,
F. J. A. Hort, and
Brooke Foss Westcott. Their orientation is best summed up by Lightfoot's observation that "Life which Christ is and which Christ communicates, the life which fills our whole beings as we realise its capacities, is active fellowship with God."
The twentieth century is marked by figures such as
Charles Gore, with his emphasis on natural revelation,
William Temple's focus on Christianity and society,
J.A.T. Robinson's provocative discussions of deism and theism, Darwell Stone's and E. L. Mascall's thomism and defence of Catholic orthodoxy, and Kenneth Kirk's Moral Theology. Outside England, one sees such figures as
William Porcher DuBose,
William Meade, and
Charles Henry Brent in the United States. More recently, theologians such as Henry Chadwick.
John Macquarrie and
Don Cupitt, who rejected all the doctrines of historic Christianity in favour of a "Christian Buddism",
Jeffrey John,
N.T. Wright, and
Rowan Williams have added to the mix.
Churchmanship
"Churchmanship" can be defined as the manifestation of theology in the realms of liturgy, piety and, to some extent, spirituality. Anglican diversity in this respect has tended to reflect the diversity in the tradition's Reformed and Catholic identity. Different individuals, groups, parishes, dioceses and provinces may identify more with one or the other, or some mixture of the two.
The range of Anglican belief and practice became particularly divisive during the 19th century when some clergy were disciplined and even imprisoned on charges of
ritual heresy while, at the same time, others were criticised for engaging in public worship services with ministers of Reformed churches. Resistance to the growing acceptance and restoration of traditional Catholic ceremonial by the mainstream of Anglicanism ultimately led to the formation of small breakaway churches such as the
Free Church of England in England (1844) and the
Reformed Episcopal Church in North America (1873).
Anglo-Catholic (and some Broad Church) Anglicans celebrate public liturgy in ways that understand worship to be something very special and of utmost importance.
vestments are worn by the clergy, sung settings often used and
incense may be used. Nowadays, in most Anglican churches, the Eucharist is celebrated in a manner similar to Roman Catholics and some Lutherans though, in many churches, more traditional, "pre-Vatican II", models of worship are common, (for example, an "eastward orientation" at the altar).
The Eucharist may be celebrated with a priest, deacon and
subdeacon dressed in traditional vestments, with incense and
sanctus bells and with prayers adapted from the
missal or other sources by the celebrant. Such churches may also have forms of
Eucharistic adoration such as Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. In terms of personal piety some Anglicans may recite the
rosary and
angelus, be involved in a devotional society dedicated to "Our Lady" (the
Blessed Virgin Mary) and seek the intercession of the saints.
In recent years the prayer books of several provinces have, out of deference to a greater agreement with Eastern
Conciliarism (and a perceived greater respect accorded Anglicanism by Eastern Orthodoxy than by Roman Catholicism), instituted a number of historically Eastern and
Oriental Orthodox elements in their liturgies, including introduction of the
Trisagion and deletion of the
filioque clause from the
Nicene Creed.
For their part, those
Evangelical (and some Broad Church) Anglicans who emphasise the more Protestant aspects of the Church stress the Reformation theme of
salvation by grace through faith. They emphasise the two dominical sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist, viewing the other five as "lesser rites". Some Evangelical Anglicans may even tend to take the inerrancy of Scripture literally, adopting the view of Article VI that it contains all things necessary to salvation in an explicit sense. Worship in churches influenced by these principles tends to be significantly less elaborate, with greater emphasis on the Liturgy of the Word (the reading of the scriptures, the sermon and the intercessory prayers). The Order for Holy Communion may be celebrated bi-weekly or monthly (in preference to the
daily offices), by priests attired in
choir habit, or more regular clothes, rather than Eucharistic vestments. Ceremony may be in keeping with their view of the provisions of the controversial
Ornaments Rubric of the historic English prayer books — no candles, no incense, no bells and a minimum of manual action by the presiding celebrant (such as touching the elements at the
Words of Institution).
In recent decades there has been a growth of
charismatic worship among Anglicans. Both Anglo-Catholics and Evangelicals have been affected by this movement such that it isn't uncommon to find typically charismatic postures, music, and other themes evident during the services of otherwise Anglo-Catholic or Evangelical parishes.
The spectrum of Anglican beliefs and practice is too large to be fit into these labels. Many Anglicans locate themselves somewhere in the spectrum of the Broad Church tradition and consider themselves an amalgam of Evangelical and Catholic. Such Anglicans stress that Anglicanism is the "
via media" (middle way) between the two major strains of Western Christianity and that Anglicanism is like a "bridge" between the two strains.
Sacramental doctrine and practice
As befits its prevailing self-identity as a
via media or "middle path" of
Western Christianity, Anglican sacramental theology expresses elements in keeping with its status as being both a church in the
Catholic tradition as well as a church of the
Reformation. With respect to sacramental theology the Catholic heritage is perhaps most strongly asserted in the importance Anglicanism places on the
sacraments as a means of
grace,
sanctification and
salvation as expressed in the church's
liturgy and doctrine.
Of the seven sacraments, Anglicans recognise baptism and the Eucharist as being directly instituted by Christ. The other five sacraments are regarded variously as full sacraments by
Anglo-Catholics or as "sacramental rites" by
Evangelicals.
The seven sacraments are
Baptism,
Confession and absolution,
Holy Matrimony,
Holy Eucharist (also called Holy Communion or Mass),
Confirmation,
Holy Orders (also called Ordination), and
Anointing of the Sick (also called Unction.)
Whilst infant
baptism is the norm in Anglicanism, services of thanksgiving and dedication of children are sometimes celebrated, especially when baptism is being deferred. Anglicans regard baptism as an unrepeatable sacrament. People
baptised in other traditions will be confirmed without being baptised again unless there's doubt about the validity of their original baptism. Already confirmed Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians are simply received into the Anglican Church.
Eucharistic theology
Anglican Eucharistic theology is divergent in practice, reflecting the essential comprehensiveness of the tradition. Some very few Low Church Anglicans take a strictly memorialist (Zwinglian) view of the sacrament. In other words, they see Holy Communion as a memorial to Christ's suffering, and participation in the Eucharist as both a re-enactment of the Last Supper and a foreshadowing of the heavenly banquet -- the fulfillment of the Eucharistic promise. Most Low Church Anglicans believe in the
Real Presence but deny that the presence of Christ is carnal or is necessarily localised in the bread and wine. Despite explicit criticism in the
Thirty-Nine Articles, many High Church or Anglo-Catholic Anglicans hold, more or less, the Roman Catholic view of the Real Presence, as expressed in the doctrine of
transubstantiation, seeing the Eucharist as a liturgical representation of Christ's atoning sacrifice with the elements actually transformed into Christ's Body and Blood.
Most Anglicans, however, implicitly or explicitly adopt the Eucharistic theology of
consubstantiation, first articulated by the Lollards, or Sacramental Union, first articulated by Martin Luther. Luther's analogy of Christ's presence was that of the heat of a horseshoe thrust into a fire until it's glowing. In the same way, Christ is present in the bread and the wine.
The classical Anglican aphorism regarding Christ's presence in the sacrament is found in a poem by
John Donne:
» He was the Word that spake it;
He took the bread and brake it; » and what that Word did make it;
I do believe and take it.
An Anglican position on the Eucharistic sacrifice ("Sacrifice of the Mass") was expressed in the response
Saepius Officio of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to
Pope Leo XIII's Papal Encyclical
Apostolicae curae.
Anglican and Roman Catholic representatives declared that they'd "substantial agreement on the doctrine of the Eucharist" in the
Windsor Statement on Eucharistic Doctrine from the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Consultation
and the
Elucidation of the ARCIC Windsor Statement. Despite this agreement, other ecclesiological differences between the two churches prevent full intercommunion.
Practices: prayer and worship
» see also Evensong and
Prayer of Humble Access
In Anglicanism there's a distinction between liturgy, which is the formal public and communal worship of the Church, and personal prayer and devotion which may be public or private. Liturgy is regulated by the prayer books and consists of the Holy Eucharist (some call it Holy Communion or Mass), the other six Sacraments, and the Divine Office or Liturgy of the Hours.
Book of Common Prayer
The
Book of Common Prayer (BCP) is the foundational prayer book of Anglicanism. The original was one of the instruments of the
English Reformation and was later to be adapted and revised in other countries where Anglicanism became established. The BCP replaced the various 'uses' or rites in Latin that had been used in different parts of the country with a single compact volume in the language of the people so that "now from henceforth all the Realm shall have but one use".
With British colonial expansion from the seventeenth century onwards, the Anglican church was planted across the globe. These churches at first used and then revised the use of the Prayer Book, until they, like their parent, produced prayer books which took into account the developments in liturgical study and practice in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which come under the general heading of the
Liturgical Movement.
Anglican worship: an overview
Anglican worship services are open to all visitors. Anglican worship originates principally in the reforms of
Thomas Cranmer, who aimed to create a set order of service like that of the pre-Reformation church but less complex in its seasonal variety and said in English rather than Latin. This use of a set order of service isn't unlike the Roman Catholic tradition. Traditionally the pattern was that laid out in the
Book of Common Prayer. Although many Anglican churches now use a wide range of modern service books written in the local language, the structures of the Book of Common Prayer are largely retained. Churches which call themselves Anglican will have identified themselves so because they use some form or variant of the Book of Common Prayer in the shaping of their worship.
Anglican worship, however, is as diverse as Anglican theology. A contemporary "
low church" or Evangelical service may differ little from the worship of many mainstream Protestant churches. The service is constructed around a sermon focused on Biblical exposition and opened with one or more Bible readings and closed by a series of prayers (both set and extemporized) and hymns or songs. A "
high church" or Anglo-Catholic service, by contrast, is usually a more formal
liturgy celebrated by clergy in distinctive
vestments and may be almost indistinguishable from a Roman Catholic service, often resembling the "pre-Vatican II" Tridentine rite. Between these extremes are a variety of styles of worship, often involving a robed choir and the use of the organ to accompany the singing and to provide music before and after the service. Anglican churches tend to have
pews or chairs and it's usual for the congregation to kneel for some prayers but to stand for hymns and other parts of the service such as the Gloria, Collect, Gospel reading, Creed and either the Preface or all of the Eucharistic Prayer. High Anglicans may genuflect or cross themselves in the same way as Roman Catholics.
Until the mid-twentieth century the main Sunday service was typically
morning prayer, but the
Eucharist has once again become the standard form of Sunday worship in many Anglican churches; this again is a similar to Roman Catholic practice. Other common Sunday services include an early morning Eucharist without music, an abbreviated Eucharist following a service of morning prayer and a service of
evening prayer, sometimes in the form of sung
Evensong, usually celebrated between 3 and 6 p.m. The late-evening service of
Compline was revived in parish use in the early 20th century. Many Anglican churches will also have daily morning and evening prayer and some have midweek or even daily celebration of the Eucharist.
An Anglican service (whether or not a Eucharist) will include readings from the Bible that are generally taken from a standardised
lectionary, which provides for the entire Bible (and some passages from the
Apocrypha) to be read out loud in the church over a three year cycle. The
sermon (or
homily) is typically about ten to twenty minutes in length, though it may be much longer in Evangelical churches. Even in the most informal Evangelical services it's common for set prayers such as the weekly
Collect to be read. There are also set forms for
intercessory prayer, though this is now more often extemporaneous. In high and Anglo-Catholic churches there are generally prayers for the dead.
Although Anglican public worship is usually ordered according to the canonically approved services, in practice many Anglican churches use forms of service outside these norms. Many Evangelical churches sit lightly to the set forms of morning and evening prayer, though generally respecting the canonical order of Holy Communion. Liberal churches may use freely-structured or experimental forms of worship, including patterns borrowed from ecumenical traditions such as those of
Taizé Community or the
Iona Community.
Anglo-Catholic parishes might use the modern Roman Catholic liturgy of the
Mass or more traditional forms, such as the
Tridentine Mass (which is translated into English in the
English Missal), the
Anglican Missal, or, less commonly, the
Sarum Rite. Traditional Catholic devotions such as the
Rosary,
Angelus and
Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament are also common among Anglo-Catholics.
Eucharistic discipline
Only
baptized persons are eligible to receive communion. In the past, it was common to restrict communion to those who hadn't only been baptised but also
confirmed. In many Anglican provinces, however, all baptised Christians are now often invited to receive communion and some dioceses have regularised a system for admitting baptised young people to communion before they're confirmed.
The discipline of fasting before communion is practised by many Anglicans. Most Anglican priests require the presence of at least one other person for the celebration of the Eucharist, though some
Anglo-Catholic priests (like Roman Catholic priests) may say private Masses. As in the Roman Catholic Church, it's a canonical requirement to use fermented
wine for the Eucharist, Unlike in Roman Catholicism, however, the consecrated bread and wine are always offered to the congregation. In some churches the sacrament is reserved in a tabernacle or aumbry with a lighted candle or lamp nearby. Only a priest or a bishop may be the celebrant at the Eucharist, though
Sydney Anglicans may soon authorise lay people to celebrate the Mass.
Divine office
All Anglican prayer books contain offices for
Morning Prayer (Matins) and
Evening Prayer (Evensong). In the original Book of Common Prayer these were derived from combinations of the ancient monastic offices of
Matins and
Lauds; and
Vespers and
Compline respectively. The prayer offices have an important place in Anglican history. Prior to the
Catholic revival of the nineteenth century, which eventually restored the
Holy Eucharist as the principal Sunday liturgy, and especially during the eighteenth century, a morning service combining Matins, the
Litany and ante-Communion comprised the usual expression of common worship; while Matins and Evensong were sung daily in cathedrals and some collegiate chapels. This nurtured a tradition of distinctive
Anglican chant applied to the
canticles and
psalms used at the offices (although
plainsong is often used as well).
In some official and unofficial Anglican service books these offices are supplemented by other offices such as the
Little Hours of
Prime and prayer during the day such as (
Terce,
Sext,
None and
Compline). Some Anglican monastic communities have a Daily Office based on that of the Book of Common Prayer but with additional antiphons and canticles, etc. for specific days of the week, specific psalms, etc. See, for example,
Order of the Holy Cross (External Link) and Order of St Helena, editors,
A Monastic Breviary (Wilton, Conn.: Morehouse-Barlow, 1976). The All Saints Sisters of the Poor
(External Link), with convents in Catonsville, Maryland and elsewhere use an elaborated version of the Anglican Daily Office. The
Society of St. Francis publishes Celebrating Common Prayer which has become especially popular for use among Anglicans.
In England, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and some other Anglican provinces the modern prayer books contains four offices:
- Morning Prayer, corresponding to Matins and Lauds
- Prayer During the Day, roughly corresponding to the combination of Terce, Sext and None (Noonday Prayer in the USA)
- Evening Prayer, corresponding to Vespers
- Compline
In addition, most prayer books include a section of prayers and devotions for family use. In the US, these offices are further supplemented by an "Order of Worship for the Evening", a prelude to or an abbreviated form of Evensong, partly derived from Orthodox prayers. In the United Kingdom, the publication of Daily Prayer, the third volume of Common Worship was published in 2005. It retains the services for Morning and Evening Prayer and Compline and includes a section entitled "Prayer during the Day". 'A New Zealand Prayer Book' of 1989 provides different outlines for Matins and Evensong on each day of the week, as well as "Midday Prayer", "Night Prayer" and "Family Prayer".
Some Anglicans who pray the office on daily basis use the present
Divine Office of the Roman Catholic Church. In many cities, especially in England, Anglican and Roman Catholic priests and lay people often meet several times a week to pray the office in common. A small but enthusiastic minority use the
Anglican Breviary, or other translations and adaptations of the Pre-Vatican II Roman Rite and
Sarum Rite, along with supplemental material from cognate western sources, to provide such things as a common of Octaves, a common of Holy Women and other additional material. Others may privately use idiosyncratic forms borrowed from a wide range of Christian traditions.
"Quires and Places where they sing"
In the late medieval period, many English cathedrals and monasteries had established small choirs of trained
lay clerks and boy
choristers to perform
polyphonic settings of the
Mass in their
Lady Chapels. Although these "Lady Masses" were discontinued at the Reformation, the associated musical tradition was maintained in the
Elizabethan Settlement through the establishment of choral foundations for daily singing of the Divine Office by expanded choirs of men and boys. This resulted from an explicit addition by Elizabeth herself to the injunctions accompanying the 1559
Book of Common Prayer (that had itself made no mention of choral worship) by which existing choral foundations and choir schools were instructed to be continued, and their endowments secured. Consequently, some thirty-four cathedrals, collegiate churches and royal chapels maintained paid establishments of lay singing men and choristers in the late 16th Century . All save four of these have - with an interruption during the
Commonwealth - continued daily choral prayer and praise to this day. In the Offices of
Mattins and
Evensong in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, these choral establishments are specified as "Quires and Places where they sing".
For nearly three centuries, this round of daily professional choral worship represented a tradition entirely distinct from that embodied in the intoning of
Parish Clerks, and the singing of "
west gallery choirs" which commonly accompanied weekly worship in English parish churches. However, in 1841, the rebuilt
Leeds Parish Church established a surpliced
choir to accompany parish services; drawing explicitly on the musical traditions of the ancient choral foundations; and over the next century, the Leeds example proved immensely popular and influential for choirs in cathedrals, parish churches and schools throughout the Anglican communion . More or less extensively adapted, this choral tradition also became the direct inspiration for robed choirs leading congregational worship in a wide range of Christian denominations.
In
1719 the cathedral choirs of
Gloucester,
Hereford and
Worcester combined to establish the annual
Three Choirs Festival, the precursor for the multitude of summer music festivals since. By the 20th century, the choral tradition had become for many the most accessible face of world-wide Anglicanism - especially as promoted through the regular broadcasting of choral evensong by the
BBC; and also in the annual televising of the festival of
Nine lessons and carols from
King's College, Cambridge. Composers closely concerned with this tradition include
Edward Elgar,
Ralph Vaughan Williams,
Gustav Holst,
Charles Villiers Stanford and
Benjamin Britten. A number of important 20th century works by non-Anglican composers were originally commissioned for the Anglican choral tradition - for example the
Chichester Psalms of
Leonard Bernstein, and the
Nunc dimittis of
Arvo Pärt.
Organization and mission of the Church
Principles of governance
Contrary to popular misconception, the British monarch isn't the constitutional "Head" but in law "The Supreme Governor" of the Church of England, nor does he or she have any role in provinces outside England and Wales. The role of the crown in the Church of England is practically limited to the appointment of bishops, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, and even this role is limited, as the Church presents the government with a short list of candidates to choose from. This process is accomplished through collaboration with and consent of ecclesial representatives
(see Ecclesiastical Commissioners). The monarch has no constitutional role in Anglican churches in other parts of the world, although the prayer books of several countries where she's head of state maintain prayers for her as sovereign.
A characteristic of Anglicanism is that it has no international juridical authority. All thirty-nine provinces of the Anglican Communion are independent, each with their own
primate and governing structure. These provinces may take the form of national churches (such as in Canada, Uganda, or Japan) or a collection of nations (such as the West Indies, Central Africa, or South Asia), or geographical regions (such as Vanuatu and Solomon Islands) etc. Within these Communion provinces may exist subdivisions called
ecclesiastical provinces, under the jurisdiction of a metropolitan archbishop. All provinces of the Anglican Communion consist of
dioceses, each under the jurisdiction of a
bishop. In the Anglican tradition, bishops must be consecrated according to the strictures of
apostolic succession, which Anglicans consider one of the marks of
catholicity. Apart from bishops, there are two other orders of ordained ministry:
deacon and
priest. No requirement is made for
clerical celibacy, though many Anglo-Catholic priests have traditionally been bachelors. Because of innovations that occurred at various points after the latter half of the twentieth century, women may be ordained as deacons in almost all provinces, as priests in some, and as bishops in a few provinces.
Anglican religious orders and communities, suppressed in England during the Reformation, have re-emerged, especially since the mid-nineteenth century, and now have an international presence and influence.
Government in the Anglican Communion is
synodical, consisting of three houses of
laity (usually elected parish representatives),
clergy, and bishops. National, provincial, and diocesan synods maintain different scopes of authority, depending on their
canons and constitutions. Anglicanism isn't
congregational in its polity: It is the diocese, not the parish church, which is the smallest unit of authority in the church, and diocesan bishops must give their assent to resolutions passed by synods.
(See Episcopal polity).
Focus of unity: The Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury has a precedence of honour over the other primates of the Anglican Communion, and for a province to be considered a part of the Communion means specifically to be in full communion with the See of Canterbury. The Archbishop is, therefore, recognised as primus inter pares, or first amongst equals even though he doesn't exercise any direct authority in any province outside England, of which he's chief primate. The current Archbishop of Canterbury as of 2003, Rowan Williams is the first appointed from outside the Church of England since the Reformation: he was the former Archbishop of Wales.
As "spiritual head" of the Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury maintains a certain moral authority, and has the right to determine which churches will be in communion with his See. He hosts and chairs the Lambeth Conferences of Anglican Communion bishops, and decides who will be invited to them. He also hosts and chairs the Anglican Communion Primates' Meeting and is responsible for the invitations to it. He acts as president of the secretariat of the Anglican Communion Office, and its deliberative body, the Anglican Consultative Council.
Instruments of unity
The Anglican Communion has no international juridical organization. All international bodies are consultative and collaborative, and their resolutions are not legally binding on the independent provinces of the Communion. There are three international bodies of note.
The Lambeth Conference is the oldest international consultation. It was first convened by Archbishop Charles Longley in 1867 as a vehicle for bishops of the Communion to "discuss matters of practical interest, and pronounce what we deem expedient in resolutions which may serve as safe guides to future action." Since then, it has been held roughly every ten years. Invitation is by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Anglican Consultative Council was created by a 1968 Lambeth Conference resolution, and meets ly. The council consists of representative bishops, clergy, and laity chosen by the thirty-eight provinces. The body has a permanent secretariat, the Anglican Communion Office, of which the Archbishop of Canterbury is president.
The Anglican Communion Primates' Meeting is the most recent manifestation of international consultation and deliberation, having been first convened by Archbishop Donald Coggan in 1978 as a forum for "leisurely thought, prayer and deep consultation."
Ordained ministry
Like the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches (but unlike most Protestant churches), the Anglican Communion maintains the threefold ministry of deacons, priests, and bishops.
Episcopate
The bishops, who possess the fullness of Christian priesthood, are the successors of the Apostles. The primates, archbishops and metropolitans are all bishops and members of the historical episcopate, and derive their authority through apostolic succession — an unbroken line of bishops that can be traced back to the apostles of Jesus.
Priesthood (Presbyterate)
Bishops are assisted by priests and deacons. Most ordained ministers in the Anglican Communion are priests, who usually work in parishes within a diocese. Priests in charge of the spiritual life of parishes are usually called the rector or vicar.
A curate (or, more correctly, an 'assistant curate') is a term often used for a priest (or deacon) who assists the parish priest.
Non-parochial priests may earn their living by any vocation, though these are usually related to the educational, social service or healing professions. Many other non-stipendiary priests will work in Christian-related fields such as chaplains of hospitals, schools, prisons and the armed forces.
An archdeacon is a priest responsible for administration of an archdeaconry, which is often the name given to the principal subdivisions of a diocese. An archdeacon is an episcopal vicar who represents the diocesan bishop in his or her archdeaconry. In the Church of England the position of archdeacon can only be held by someone in priestly orders who has been ordained for at least six years. In some other parts of the Anglican Communion the position can also be held by deacons. In parts of the Anglican Communion where women can't be ordained as priests or bishops, the position of archdeacon is effectively the most senior office an ordained woman can be appointed to.
The Anglican Communion recognises Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox ordinations as valid. Outside the Anglican Communion, Anglican ordinations (at least of male priests) are recognised by the Old Catholics and various Independent Catholic Churches.
Diaconate
In Anglican churches, deacons often work directly in ministry to the marginalised inside and outside the church: the poor, the sick, the hungry, the imprisoned. Unlike Orthodox and Roman Catholic deacons who may be married only before ordination, deacons are permitted to marry freely both before and after ordination, as are priests. Most deacons are preparing for priesthood, and usually only remain as deacons for about a year before being ordained priests. However, there are some deacons who remain deacons. Many provinces of the Anglican Communion ordain both women and men as deacons. Many of those provinces that ordain women to the priesthood previously allowed them to be ordained only to the diaconate. The effect of this was the creation of a large and overwhelmingly female diaconate for a time, as most men proceeded to be ordained priest after a short time as a deacon.
Deacons may baptise and in some dioceses are granted licenses to solemnize matrimony, usually under the instruction of their parish priest and bishop. They sometimes officiate at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, in the churches that have this service. Deacons are not permitted to preside at the eucharist (but can lead worship with the distribution of already-consecrated Communion where this is permitted), absolve sins or pronounce a blessing in the name of the Church (External Link), (however, these last two are sometimes permitted in an indirect form). It is the prohibition against deacons pronouncing a blessing in the Church's name that leads some in the church to believe that a deacon can't properly solemnize matrimony. In most cases, deacons minister alongside other clergy.
Laity
All baptised members of the Church are called Christian faithful, truly equal in dignity and in the work to build the Church. Some of the non-ordained exercise formal, public ministry in the name of the church, often on a full time and life-long basis. Lay Readers, also known as Readers, churchwardens, vergers and sextons are auxiliaries who don't hold holy orders.
Religious life
A small yet influential aspect of Anglicanism is its religious orders and communities. Shortly after the beginning of the Catholic Revival in the Church of England, there was a renewal of interest in re-establishing religious and monastic orders and communities. One of Henry VIII's earliest acts was their dissolution and seizure of their assets. In 1841 Marion Rebecca Hughes became the first woman to take the vows of religion in communion with the Province of Canterbury since the Reformation. In 1848, Priscilla Lydia Sellon became the superior of the Society of the Most Holy Trinity at Devonport, the first organised religious order. Sellon is called "the restorer, after three centuries, of the religious life in the Church of England." For the next one hundred years, religious orders for both men and women proliferated throughout the world, becoming a numerically small but disproportionately influential feature of global Anglicanism.
Anglican religious life at one time boasted hundreds of orders and communities, and thousands of religious. An important aspect of Anglican religious life is that most communities of both men and women lived their lives consecrated to God under the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience (or in Benedictine communities, Stability, Conversion of Life, and Obedience) by practicing a mixed life of reciting the full eight services of the Breviary in choir, along with a daily Eucharist, plus service to the poor. The mixed life, combining aspects of the contemplative orders and the active orders remains to this day a hallmark of Anglican religious life. Another distinctive feature of Anglican religious life is the existence of some mixed-gender communities.
Since the 1960s there has been a sharp decline in the number of professed religious in most parts of the Anglican Communion, especially in North America, Europe, and Australia. Many once large and international communities have been reduced to a single convent or monastery with memberships of elderly men or women. In the last few decades of the 20th century, novices have for most communities been few and far between. Some orders and communities have already become extinct. There are however, still thousands of Anglican religious working today in approximately 200 communities around the world, and religious life in many parts of the Communion - especially in developing nations - flourishes.
The most significant growth has been in the Melanesian countries of the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. The Melanesian Brotherhood, founded at Tabalia, Guadalcanal, in 1925 by Ini Kopuria, is now the largest Anglican Community in the world with over 450 brothers in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and the United Kingdom. The Sisters of the Church, started by Mother Emily Ayckbowm in England in 1870, has more sisters in the Solomons than all their other communities. The Community of the Sisters of Melanesia, started in 1980 by Sister Nesta Tiboe, is a growing community of women throughout the Solomon Islands. The Society of Saint Francis, founded as a union of various Franciscan orders in the 1920s, has experienced great growth in the Solomon Islands. Other communities of religious have been started by Anglicans in Papua New Guinea and in Vanuatu. Most Melanesian Anglican religious are in their early to mid 20s — vows may be temporary and it's generally assumed that brothers, at least, will leave and marry in due course — making the average age 40 to 50 years younger than their brothers and sisters in other countries. Growth of religious orders, especially for women, is marked in certain parts of Africa.
Worldwide distribution
Anglicanism represents the third largest Christian communion in the world, after the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches. The number of Anglicans in the world is slightly over 77 million. The 11 provinces in Africa saw explosive growth in the last two decades. They now include 36.7 million members, more Anglicans than there are in England. England remains the largest single Anglican province, with 26 million members. In most industrialised countries, church attendance has decreased since the 19th century. Anglicanism's presence in the rest of the world is due to large-scale emigration, the establishment of expatriate communities or the work of missionaries.
The Church of England has been a church of missionaries since the seventeenth century when the Church first left English shores with colonists who founded what would become the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa and established Anglican churches. For example, an Anglican chaplain -Robert Wolfall - with Martin Frobisher's Arctic expedition celebrated the Eucharist in 1578 in Frobisher Bay.
The first Anglican church in the Americas was built at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. By the eighteenth century, missionaries worked to establish Anglican churches in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The great Church of England missionary societies were founded; for example the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) in 1698. Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG) in 1701, and the Church Mission Society (CMS) in 1799. The nineteenth century saw the founding and expansion of social oriented evangelism with societies such as the Church Pastoral Aid Society (CPAS) in 1836, Mission to Seafarers in 1856, Mothers' Union in 1876 and Church Army in 1882 all carrying out a personal form of evangelism. The twentieth century saw the Church of England developing new forms of evangelism such as the Alpha course in 1990 which was developed and propagated from Holy Trinity Brompton Church in London. In the twenty-first century, there has been renewed effort to reach children and youth. Fresh expressions is a Church of England missionary initiative to youth begun in 2005, and has ministries at a skate park through the efforts of St George's Church, Benfleet, Essex - Diocese of Chelmsford - or youth groups with evocative names, like the C.L.A.W (Christ Little Angels - Whatever!) youth group at Coventry Cathedral. And, for the un-churched who don't actually wish to visit a bricks and mortar church there are Internet ministries such as the Diocese of Oxford's on-line Anglican i-Church which appeared on the web in 2005.
Ecumenism
Anglican interest in ecumenical dialogue can be traced back to the time of the Reformation and dialogues with both Orthodox and Lutheran churches in the sixteenth century. In the nineteenth century, with the rise of the Oxford Movement, there arose greater concern for reunion of the churches of "Catholic confession." This desire to work towards full communion with other denominations led to the development of the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral, approved by the Third Lambeth Conference of 1888. The four points (the sufficiency of scripture, the historic creeds, the two dominical sacraments, and the historic episcopate) were proposed as a basis for discussion, although they've frequently been taken as a non-negotiable bottom-line for any form of reunion.
Role of the Church in civilization
Anglican concern with broader issues of social justice can be traced to its earliest divines. Richard Hooker, for instance, wrote that "God hath created nothing simply for itself, but each thing in all things, and of every thing each part in other have such interest, that in the whole world nothing is found whereunto any thing created can say, 'I need thee not.'" This, and related statements, reflect the deep thread of incarnational theology running through Anglican social thought - a theology which sees God, nature, and humanity in dynamic interaction, and the interpenetration of the secular and the sacred in the make-up of the cosmos. Such theology is informed by a traditional English spiritual ethos, rooted in Celtic Christianity and reinforced by Anglicanism's origins as an established church, bound up by its structure in the life and interests of civil society.
Repeatedly, throughout Anglican history, this principle has reasserted itself in movements of social justice. For instance, in the eighteenth century the influential Evangelical Anglican William Wilberforce, along with others, campaigned against the slave trade. In the nineteenth century, the dominant issues concerned the adverse effects of industrialization. The usual Anglican response was to focus on education and give support to 'The National Society for the Education of the Children of the Poor in the principles of the Church of England'. Lord Shaftesbury, a devout Evangelical, campaigned to improve the conditions in factories, in mines, for chimney sweeps, and for the education of the very poor. For years he was chairman of the Ragged School Board. Frederick Denison Maurice was a leading figure advocating reform, founding so-called "producer's co-operatives" and the Working Men's College. His work was instrumental in the establishment of the Christian socialist movement, although he himself wasn't in any real sense a socialist but, "a Tory paternalist with the unusual desire to theories his acceptance of the traditional obligation to help the poor", influenced Anglo-Catholics such as Charles Gore, who wrote that, "the principle of the incarnation is denied unless the Christian spirit can be allowed to concern itself with everything that interests and touches human life." Anglican focus on labor issues culminated in the work of William Temple in the 1930s and 1940s.
Pacifism
A question of whether or not Christianity is a pacifist religion has remained a matter of debate for Anglicans. In 1937, the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship emerged as a distinct reform organization, seeking to make pacifism a clearly defined part of Anglican theology. The group rapidly gained popularity amongst Anglican intellectuals, including Vera Brittain, Evelyn Underhill and former British political leader George Lansbury. Furthermore, the Reverend Dick Sheppard, who during the 1930s was one of Britain's most famous Anglican priests due to his landmark sermon broadcasts for BBC radio, founded the Peace Pledge Union a secular pacifist organization for the non-religious that gained considerable support throughout the 1930s.
Whilst never actively endorsed by the Anglican Church, many Anglicans unofficially have adopted the Augustinian "Just War" doctrine. The Anglican Pacifist Fellowship remain highly active throughout the Anglican world. It rejects this doctrine of "just war" and seeks to reform the Church by reintroducing the pacifism inherent in the beliefs of many of the earliest Christians and present in their interpretation of Christ's Sermon on the Mount.
Confusing the matter was the fact that the 37th Article of Religion in the Book of Common Prayer states that "it is lawful for Christian men, at the commandment of the Magistrate, to wear weapons, and serve in the wars." Therefore, the Lambeth Council in the modern era has sought to provide a clearer position by repudiating modern war and developed a statement that has been affirmed at each subsequent meeting of the Council. This statement was strongly reasserted when "the 67th General Convention of the Episcopal Church reaffirms the statement made by the Anglican Bishops assembled at Lambeth in 1978 and adopted by the 66th General Convention of the Episcopal Church in 1979, calling "Christian people everywhere ... to engage themselves in non-violent action for justice and peace and to support others so engaged, recognizing that such action will be controversial and may be personally very costly... this General Convention, in obedience to this call, urges all members of this Church to support by prayer and by such other means as they deem appropriate, those who engaged in such non-violent action, and particularly those who suffer for conscience' sake as a result; and be it further Resolved, that this General Convention calls upon all members of this Church seriously to consider the implications for their own lives of this call to resist war and work for peace for their own lives."
After World War II
The focus on other social issues became increasingly diffuse after the Second World War. On the one hand, the growing independence and strength of Anglican churches in the global south brought new emphasis to issues of global poverty, the inequitable distribution of resources, and the lingering effects of colonialism. In this regard, figures such as Desmond Tutu and Ted Scott were instrumental in mobilizing Anglicans worldwide against the apartheid policies of South Africa. Rapid social change in the industrialised world during the twentieth century compelled the church to examine issues of gender, sexuality and marriage.
These changes led to Lambeth Conference resolutions countenancing contraception and the remarriage of divorced persons. They led to most provinces approving the ordination of women. In more recent years it has led some jurisdictions to permit the ordination of people in same-sex relationships and to authorise rites for the blessing of same-sex unions (see Anglican views of homosexuality). More conservative elements within Anglicanism (primarily African churches and factions within North American Anglicanism) are opposed to these changes. Some liberal and moderate Anglicans see this opposition as representing a new fundamentalism within Anglicanism. The lack of social consensus among and within provinces of diverse cultural traditions has resulted in considerable conflict and even schism concerning some or all of these developments (see Anglican realignment). Some Anglicans opposed to various liberalising changes, in particular the ordination of women, have converted to Roman Catholicism.
These latter trends reflect a countervailing tendency in Anglicanism towards insularity, reinforced perhaps by the "big tent" nature of the movement, which seeks to be comprehensive of various views and tendencies. The insularity and complacency of the early established Church of England has tended to influence Anglican self-identity, and inhibit engagement with the broader society in favour of internal debate and dialogue. Nonetheless, there's significantly greater cohesion among Anglicans when they turn their attention outward. Anglicans worldwide are active in many areas of social and environmental concern.
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