What is the History of Anglicanism?

Written by Bishop Dave Bena and excerpted for parish distribution.

The Church In England has been around for almost two thousand years. It's always had a love-hate relationship with The Church of Rome, wrestling with it until officially coming under Rome's authority in the 6th Century, then wrestling with it while under its authority for a thousand years, and finally departing its authority in the 16th Century. Because England was a colonial power, its church, now called the Church OF England, became the missionary church in its colonies around the world. Today, about thirty-eight autonomous Anglican Churches exist throughout the world, all with historic connections to the Church of England.

How do Anglicans worship and what do they believe?

What about the similar beliefs, worship, and church structures? While some of these similarities are eroding, it can be said that the Anglican Church in one country is always similar to the Anglican Church in another. Every Anglican Church throughout the world holds to, or is supposed to hold to, the following:

1. The Holy Scriptures as the Word of God, containing all things necessary for salvation, and as the final authority.
2. The Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, locally adapted. This document is as close to a "Confession" as we get and it's found in the Prayer Book.
3. The historic Creeds. You say the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed regularly. The third, the Athanasian Creed, is not as well known.
4. Common worship. We all use a Book of Common Prayer styled from the 1662 English Book of Common Prayer, with some adaptations.
5. Sacramental Life. We practice use of the two Gospel Sacraments - Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, as well as five sacramental acts - Healing, Confession, Confirmation, Matrimony, and Holy Orders (Ordination).
6. The Apostolic Succession, whereby all our deacons, priests, and bishops are in the Apostolic line dating back from the original Apostles.

What are some of the issues today?

Those similarities are what hold Anglicans together, and that's why we are in such an Anglican uproar today. Some Anglican Churches want to move away from those historic moorings and still claim to be Anglican. That's a problem, folks. "We either is or we ain't." If you view Holy Scripture as just an old history book "which we wrote and we can change," you have left Anglicanism. If you say something to the effect that Anglicanism rests on a three-legged stool, with legs of equal authority - scripture, tradition, reason - you have left Anglicanism after misinterpreting Richard Hooker, who put scripture first and interpreted tradition and reason in light of scripture. If you say something to the effect that Jesus was a good guy but not the way to salvation, you have left Anglicanism because you have denied the historic Creeds.

Well, you get the picture. If Anglicanism is going to hold together in this strange age in which we live, all its churches must agree on a common belief and practice structure. And that's what we're trying to iron out in the Anglican world today.

I didn't know much about Anglicanism growing up. Ninety percent of my village was Roman Catholic and I was one of them. The little Episcopal church sat on the edge of town, a beautiful stone church where a few of my classmates attended. I just never thought much about it, although I did date an Episcopalian and she was fun to be with. It was before Vatican Two, so we were still using Latin in the Mass. Barbara told me that Episcopalians were just Catholics who flunked Latin. She tried to describe what went on in her church on Sunday morning, and by golly, it sounded a lot like what went on in my church, except in English rather than Latin. And then I got a new, Catholic girlfriend and didn't think about it anymore.

Years later, when I was looking for a church for my Protestant wife and me, I remembered Barbara's words. We tried the Episcopal Church and joined it. But it was several years after that that I realized the Anglican Communion connection. You might say I grew into an understanding of Anglicanism because for me, the church was the local parish, not some worldwide entity. I think many of us look at it that way. We think locally, not globally. So, for instance, when one of our diocesan, denominational, or Communion leaders says something we consider to be embarrassing or even wacky, we kind of whisper to our friends at coffee hour, "What the heck is wrong with him/her? Is he/she a heretic or just stupid?" But unless our own parish starts to say embarrassing or wacky things, we don't get greatly exorcised about it. Which is why we're in the trouble we're in today.

So Anglicanism today is fragmented. Most of us just sort of watched it happen in the newspaper, and we're not sure how to fix it and not sure how it will affect us. That's one reason I am happy about the orthodox Anglican entities cropping up around the country. Finally somebody is taking

a stand to ensure a traditional Anglicanism in America, one that brings people to a saving faith in Jesus Christ and empowers them with the Holy Spirit to be disciples of Jesus with a passion to make disciples for Jesus - all within the beautiful context of Anglicanism.

Written by Bishop Bena  
Excerpts from the ADV Newsletter for October 23, 2009.  For the full text, please see www.anglicandistrictofvirginia.org

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