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Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising the Church of England and churches which are historically tied to it or have similar beliefs, worship practices and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English Church. Adherents of Anglicanism are called Anglicans. The great majority of Anglicans are members of churches which are part of the international Anglican Communion. There are, however, a number of churches outside of the Anglican Communion which also consider themselves to be Anglican, most notably those referred to as Continuing Anglican churches. The faith of Anglicans is founded in the scriptures, 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. Many of the new Anglican formularies of the mid-16th century corresponded closely to those of contemporary Reformed Protestantism. These reforms in the Church of England were understood by one of those most responsible for them, the then Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, as navigating a middle way between two of the emerging Protestant traditions, namely Lutheranism and Calvinism. By the end of the century, the retention in Anglicanism of many traditional liturgical forms and of the episcopate was already seen as unacceptable by those promoting the most developed Protestant principles. In the first half of the 17th century the Church of England and associated episcopal churches in Ireland (Church of Ireland) and in England's American colonies were presented by some Anglican divines as comprising a distinct Christian tradition, with theologies, structures and forms of worship representing a different kind of middle way, or via media, between Reformed Protestantism and Roman Catholicism — a perspective that came to be highly influential in later theories of Anglican identity, and was expressed in the description "Catholic and Reformed". Following the American Revolution, Anglican congregations in the United States and Canada were each reconstituted into autonomous churches 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 Book of Common Prayer 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 Churches of the
Anglican Communion are linked by affection and common loyalty. They
are in full communion with the See of Canterbury and thus the
Archbishop of Canterbury, in his person, is a unique focus of
Anglican unity. He calls the once-a-decade Lambeth Conference, chairs
the meeting of primates, and is President of the Anglican
Consultative Council. With a membership estimated at around 80
million members the Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian
communion in the world, after the Roman Catholic Church and the
Eastern Orthodox Churches.
Terminology For more details on the universal Church of which Anglicanism is a part, see Christian Church. The word Anglicanism came into being in the 19th century; constructed from the older word Anglican. The word originally referred only to the teachings and rites of Christians throughout the world in communion with the see of Canterbury, but has come to sometimes be extended to any church following those traditions rather than actual membership in the modern Anglican Communion. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a Medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 meaning the "English Church". 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. As a noun, an Anglican is a member of a church in the Anglican Communion. The word is also used by followers of separated groups which have left the communion or have been founded separately from it, though this is sometimes considered as a misuse. Although the term "Anglican" is found referring to the Church of England as far back as the 16th century, its use did not become general until the latter half of the 19th century. In British parliamentary legislation referring to the English Established Church, there is no need for a description; it is simply the Church of England, though the word "Protestant" is used in many Acts specifying the succession to the Crown and qualifications for office. When the Union with Ireland Act created the United Church of England and Ireland, it is specified that it shall be one "Protestant Episcopal Church", thereby distinguishing its form of church government from the Presbyterian polity that prevails in the Church of Scotland.
High Churchmen, who objected to
the term Protestant, initially promoted the term Reformed Episcopal
Church; and it remains the case that the 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, though the full name of the former is The Protestant
Episcopal Church of the United States of America. Outside the British
Isles, however, the term "Anglican Church" came to be
preferred; as it distinguished these churches from others that
maintain an episcopal polity; although some churches, in particular
the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Church of Ireland and the Church
in Wales continue to use the term only with reservations. Anglicanism, in its structures, theology and forms of worship, is commonly understood as a distinct Christian tradition representing a middle ground between what are perceived to be the extremes of the claims of 16th-century Roman Catholicism and the Lutheran and Reformed varieties of Protestantism of that era. As such, it 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 historical episcopate, the first seven 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 believe the catholic and apostolic faith 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 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, giving God thanks over the bread and wine for the innumerable benefits obtained through the passion of Christ, the breaking of the bread, and reception of the bread and wine as representing the body and blood of Christ as instituted at the Last Supper. While 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 (BCP), the collection of services that worshippers in most Anglican churches used for centuries. It was called common prayer originally because it was intended for use in all Church of England churches which had previously followed differing local liturgies. The term was kept when the church became international because all Anglicans used to share in its use around the world.
In 1549, the first Book of Common
Prayer was compiled by Thomas Cranmer, who was then Archbishop of
Canterbury. 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. By the Elizabethan Settlement, the Churches of England and Ireland had been established through legislation in their respective Parliaments; 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. On occasion this led to crises of identity, wherever secular and religious loyalties came into 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 body drawn purely from the established churches of Scotland, England and Ireland; but which nevertheless, over the following ten years, engaged in extensive reforming legislation affecting the interests of the English and Irish churches; which by the Acts of Union of 1800, had been reconstituted as the United Church of England and Ireland. The propriety of this legislation was bitterly contested by the Oxford Movement (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. 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. 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 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 Roman 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 forward 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 complementary, 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 was his belief that the collective elements of family, nation and church represented a divine order of structures through which God unfolds his continuing work of creation. Hence, for Maurice, the Protestant tradition had maintained the elements of national distinction which were amongst the marks of the true universal church, but which had been lost within contemporary Roman Catholicism in the internationalism of centralised Papal Authority. Within the coming universal church that Maurice foresaw, national churches would each maintain the six signs of Catholicity: baptism, Eucharist, the creeds, Scripture, an episcopally ordered ministry, and a fixed liturgy (which could take a variety of forms in accordance with divinely ordained distinctions in national characteristics). Not surprisingly, this vision of a becoming universal church as a congregation of autonomous national churches, proved highly congenial in Anglican circles; and Maurice's six signs were adapted to form the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral of 1888. 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 ecclesiastic identities unacceptable to those to whom the labels are applied. Hence, the Roman Catholic Church does not regard itself as a party or strand within the universal church – but rather identifies itself as the universal church. Moreover, Sykes criticises the proposition, implicit in theories of via media, that there is 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 emphasise the incompleteness of Anglicanism as a positive feature, and quotes with qualified approval the words of Michael Ramsey:
For while the
Anglican church is vindicated by its place in history, with a
strikingly balanced witness to Gospel and Church and sound learning,
its greater vindication lies in its pointing through its own history
to something of which it is a fragment. Its credentials are its
incompleteness, with the tension and the travail of its soul. It is
clumsy and untidy, it baffles neatness and logic. For it is not sent
to commend itself as ‘the best type of Christianity,’ but
by its very brokenness to point to the universal Church wherein all
have died.
See
also Anglican Doctrine 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 was to create a national church in legal continuity with its traditions, but inclusive of certain doctrinal and liturgical beliefs of the Reformers. 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 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
Catholicism. 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). For High Church Anglicans, doctrine is neither established by a magisterium, nor derived from the theology of an eponymous founder (such as Calvinism), nor summed up in a confession of faith beyond the ecumenical creeds (such as the Lutheran Book of Concord). 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
fundamentals of Anglican doctrine: the Apostles' and Nicene creeds,
the Athanasian Creed (now rarely used), the scriptures (via the
lectionary), the sacraments, daily prayer, the catechism and
apostolic succession in the context of the historic threefold
ministry. For some Low Church and Evangelical Anglicans, the
16th-century Reformed Thirty-Nine Articles form the basis of doctrine. The Thirty-Nine Articles initially played a significant role in Anglican doctrine and practice. Following the passing of the 1604 canons, all Anglican clergy had to formally subscribe to the articles. Today, however, the articles are no longer binding, but are seen as a historical document which has played a significant role in the shaping of Anglican identity. The degree to which each of the articles has remained influential varies. On the doctrine of justification, for example, there is a wide range of beliefs within the Anglican Communion, with some Anglo-Catholics arguing for a faith with good works and the sacraments. At the same time, however, some Evangelical Anglicans ascribe to the Reformed emphasis on sola fide ("faith alone") in their doctrine of justification (see Sydney Anglicanism.) Still other Anglicans adopt a nuanced view of justification, taking elements from the early Church Fathers, Catholicism, Protestantism, liberal theology and latitudinarian thought. Arguably, the most influential of the original articles has been Article VI on the "sufficiency of scripture" which says that "Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not 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 "standard divines" (see below). Historically, the most influential of these – apart from Cranmer – has been the 16th 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 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 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. Within the Anglican tradition, "divines" are clergy whose theological writings have been considered standards for faith, doctrine, worship and spirituality and whose influence has permeated the Anglican Communion in varying degrees through the years. While there is no authoritative list of these Anglican divines, there are some whose names would likely be found on most lists – those who are commemorated in lesser feasts of the Anglican churches and those whose works are frequently anthologised. The corpus produced by Anglican divines is diverse. What they have 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 as "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 16th and 17th centuries, the names of Thomas Cranmer, John Jewel, Matthew Parker, Richard Hooker, Lancelot Andrewes and Jeremy Taylor predominate. The influential character of Hooker's Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity cannot 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 18th 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 creating an Anglo-American movement called Methodism that would eventually break away, structurally, from the Anglican churches after the American Revolution. By the 19th century, there was a renewed interest in pre-Reformation English religious thought and practice. 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 Anglicanism. In contrast to this movement, clergy such as the Bishop of Liverpool, John Charles Ryle, sought to uphold the distinctly Reformed identity of the Church of England. He was not a servant of the status quo, but argued for a lively religion which emphasised grace, holy and charitable living and the plain use of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer without additional rituals. Frederick Denison Maurice, through such works as The Kingdom of Christ, 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 19th 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 earlier part of the 20th
century is marked by Charles Gore, with his emphasis on natural
revelation, and William Temple's focus on Christianity and society,
while from outside England, Robert Leighton, Archbishop of Glasgow,
and several clergy from the United States have been suggested, such
as William Porcher DuBose, John Henry Hobart (1775–1830, Bishop
of New York 1816–30), William Meade, Phillips Brooks and Charles
Henry Brent. "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 closely 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 are often used and incense may be used. Nowadays, in most Anglican churches, the Eucharist is celebrated in a manner similar to the usage of Roman Catholics and some Lutherans though, in many churches, more traditional, "pre-Vatican II", models of worship are common, (e.g. an "eastward orientation" at the altar). Whilst many Anglo-Catholics derive much of their liturgical practice from that of the pre-Reformation English church, others more closely follow traditional Roman Catholic practices. The Eucharist may sometimes be celebrated in the form known as High Mass, with a priest, deacon and subdeacon dressed in traditional vestments, with incense and sanctus bells and with prayers adapted from the Roman 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 17th century Puritans – being a Reformed interpretation of the Ornaments Rubric – no candles, no incense, no bells and a minimum of manual actions 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 is not 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. In accord with 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 Reformed church. 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, all
Anglicans recognise Baptism and the Eucharist as being directly
instituted by Christ. The other five — Confession and
absolution, Matrimony, Confirmation, Holy Orders (also called
Ordination) and Anointing of the Sick (also called Unction) —
are regarded variously as full sacraments by Anglo-Catholics, many
High Church and some Broad Church Anglicans, but merely as
"sacramental rites" by other Broad Church and Low Church
Anglicans, especially Evangelicals associated with Reform UK and the
Diocese of Sydney. Anglican eucharistic theology is divergent in practice, reflecting the essential comprehensiveness of the tradition. Some 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 fulfilment of the eucharistic promise. Other 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. The majority of Anglicans, however, have in common a belief in the Real Presence, defined in one way or another. To that extent, they are in the company of the continental reformer Martin Luther rather than Ulrich Zwingli. A famous Anglican aphorism regarding Christ's presence in the sacrament is found in a poem by John Donne: 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 had "substantial agreement on
the doctrine of the Eucharist" in the 'Windsor Statement on
Eucharistic Doctrine" from the Anglican-Roman Catholic
International Consultation (1971)] and the Elucidation of the ARCIC
Windsor Statement (1979). The final response (1991) to these
documents by the Vatican made it plain that it did not consider the
degree of agreement reached to be satisfactory. For more details on the daily Anglican morning office, see Morning Prayer (Anglican). See also: Evening Prayer (Anglican) and Prayer of Humble Access In Anglicanism there is 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[edit] The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) is the foundational prayer book of Anglicanism. The original book of 1549 (revised 1552) was one of the instruments of the English Reformation, replacing 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". Suppressed under Queen Mary I, it was revised in 1559, and then again in 1662, after the Restoration of Charles II. This version was made mandatory in England and Wales by the Act of Uniformity and was in standard use until the mid-20th century. With British colonial expansion from the 17th century onwards, the Anglican church was planted around the globe. These churches at first used and then revised the Book of Common Prayer, until they, like their parent church, produced prayer books which took into account the developments in liturgical study and practice in the 19th and 20th centuries, which come under the general heading of the Liturgical Movement. Worship[edit] See also: Church of England parish church 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 is not 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 non-Anglican 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 extemporised) 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 is 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. Other more traditional Anglicans tend to follow the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, and retain the use of the King James Bible. This is typical in many Anglican cathedrals and particularly in Royal Peculiars such as the Savoy Chapel and the Queen's Chapel. These services reflect the original Anglican doctrine and differ from the Traditional Anglican Communion in that they are in favour of women vicars and the ability of vicars to marry. These Anglican church services include classical music instead of songs, hymns from the New English Hymnal (usually excluding modern hymns such as Lord of the Dance), and are generally non-evangelical and formal in practice. Due to their association with royalty, these churches are generally host to staunch Anglicans who are strongly opposed to Catholicism. Until the mid-20th 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 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 pm 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 much of the 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 is 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, as well as extreme Anglo-Catholic ones, 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. Catholic devotions such as the Rosary, Angelus and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament are also common among Anglo-Catholics. Eucharistic discipline[edit] Only baptised persons are eligible to receive communion, although in many churches communion is restricted to those who have not 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 are confirmed. The discipline of fasting before communion is practised by some Anglicans. Most Anglican priests require the presence of at least one other person for the celebration of the Eucharist (referring back to Christ's statement in Math 18:20 "When two or more are gathered in my name, I will be in the midst of them"), though some Anglo-Catholic priests (like Roman Catholic priests) may say private Masses. As in the Roman Catholic Church, it is a canonical requirement to use fermented wine for the Communion. Unlike in mainstream Roman Catholicism, the consecrated bread and wine are always offered together to the congregation in a Eucharistic service ("Communion in Both Kinds"). This practice is gradually being adopted in the Roman Catholic Church too, especially through the Neocatechumenal Way. In some churches the sacrament is reserved in a tabernacle or aumbry with a lighted candle or lamp nearby. In Anglican churches, only a priest or a bishop may be the celebrant at the Eucharist. Divine office[edit] 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 19th century, which eventually restored the Holy Eucharist as the principal Sunday liturgy, and especially during the 18th 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 many 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 and Order of St Helena, editors, A Monastic Breviary (Wilton, Conn.: Morehouse-Barlow, 1976). The All Saints Sisters of the Poor, 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 contain four offices: * Morning Prayer, corresponding to Matins, Lauds and Prime. * Prayer During the Day, roughly corresponding to the combination of Terce, Sext and None (Noonday Prayer in the USA) * Evening Prayer, corresponding to Vespers (and Compline). * 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"[edit] Main article: Anglican church music 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 Matins 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. 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. 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 worldwide 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. Organisation of the Anglican Communion[edit] Main article: Anglican Communion Principles of governance[edit] Contrary to popular misconception, the British monarch is not 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. 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 is 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 autonomous, 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 20th 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-19th 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 is not congregational in its polity: It is the diocese, not the parish church, which is the smallest unit of authority in the church. (See Episcopal polity). Archbishop of Canterbury[edit] 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 does not exercise any direct authority in any province outside England, of which he is chief primate. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury from 2002 to 2012, was the first archbishop appointed from outside the Church of England since the Reformation: he was formerly the 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. Conferences[edit] The Anglican Communion has no international juridical organisation. All international bodies are consultative and collaborative, and their resolutions are not legally binding on the autonomous 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 biennially. 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[edit] For more details on the Anglican priesthood, see Anglican ministry. Like the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, the Anglican Communion maintains the threefold ministry of deacons, presbyters (usually called "priests") and bishops. Episcopate[edit] Main article: Bishop Bishops, who possess the fullness of Christian priesthood, are the successors of the Apostles. Primates, archbishops and metropolitans are all bishops and members of the historical episcopate who derive their authority through apostolic succession – an unbroken line of bishops that can be traced back to the 12 apostles of Jesus. Priesthood[edit] 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 are in charge of the spiritual life of parishes and 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, although employment by educational institutions or charitable organisations is most common. Priests also serve as chaplains of hospitals, schools, prisons, and in the armed forces. An archdeacon is a priest or deacon responsible for administration of an archdeaconry, which is often the name given to the principal subdivisions of a diocese. An archdeacon 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 cannot be ordained as priests or bishops but can be ordained as deacons, the position of archdeacon is effectively the most senior office an ordained woman can be appointed to. A dean is a priest who is the principal cleric of a cathedral or other collegiate church and the head of the chapter of canons. If the cathedral or collegiate church has its own parish, the dean is usually also rector of the parish. However, in the Church of Ireland the roles are often separated and most cathedrals in the Church of England do not have associated parishes. In the Church in Wales, however, most cathedrals are parish churches and their deans are now also vicars of their parishes. 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 Catholic Church and various Independent Catholic churches. Diaconate[edit] Main article: Deacon 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 most 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 so. Many provinces of the Anglican Communion ordain both men and women 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, in some dioceses, can be granted licences to solemnise matrimony, usually under the instruction of their parish priest and bishop. They sometimes officiate at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament in churches which 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. It is the prohibition against deacons pronouncing blessings that leads some to believe that deacons cannot solemnise matrimony. Laity[edit] All baptised members of the church are called Christian faithful, truly equal in dignity and in the work to build the church. Some non-ordained people also have a formal public ministry, often on a full-time and long-term basis – such as lay readers (also known as readers), churchwardens, vergers and sextons. Other lay positions include acolytes (male or female, often children), lay eucharistic ministers (also known as chalice bearers) and lay eucharistic visitors (who deliver consecrated bread and wine to "shut-ins" or members of the parish who are unable to leave home or hospital to attend the Eucharist). Lay people also serve on the parish altar guild (preparing the altar and caring for its candles, linens, flowers etc.), in the choir and as cantors, as ushers and greeters and on the church council (called the "vestry" in some countries) which is the governing body of a parish. Religious orders[edit] See also: Anglican religious order and Anglican devotions 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 Marian 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, Plymouth, 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 is 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[edit] 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 well over 85 million as of 2011. 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 17th 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 18th 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 19th 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 20th 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 21st 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 unchurched who do not actually wish to visit a bricks and mortar church there are Internet ministries such as the Diocese of Oxford's online Anglican i-Church which appeared on the web in 2005. Ecumenism[edit] For more details on the on-going dialogue between Anglicanism and the wider Church, see Anglican communion and 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 16th century. In the 19th 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 have frequently been taken as a non-negotiable bottom-line for any form of reunion. Theological diversity[edit] Anglicanism in general has always sought a balance between the emphases of Catholicism and Protestantism, while tolerating a range of expressions of evangelicalism and ceremony. Clergy and laity from all Anglican churchmanship traditions have been active in the formation of the Continuing movement. While there are high church, broad church, and low church Continuing Anglicans, many Continuing churches are Anglo-Catholic with highly ceremonial liturgical practices. Others belong to a more Evangelical or low church tradition and tend to support the Thirty-nine Articles and simpler worship services. Morning Prayer, for instance, is often used instead of the Holy Eucharist for Sunday worship services, although this is not necessarily true of all low church parishes. Most Continuing churches in the United States reject the 1979 revision of the Book of Common Prayer by the Episcopal Church and use the 1928 version for their services instead. In addition, Anglo-Catholic bodies may use the Anglican Missal or English Missal in celebrating the Eucharist. Social activism[edit] 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 18th century the influential Evangelical Anglican William Wilberforce, along with others, campaigned against the slave trade. In the 19th century, the dominant issues concerned the adverse effects of industrialisation. 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'. Working conditions and Christian socialism[edit] 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 was not 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 labour issues culminated in the work of William Temple in the 1930s and 1940s. Pacifism[edit] 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 organisation, 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 organisation 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. The principles of the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship are often formulated as a statement of belief that "Jesus' teaching is incompatible with the waging of war, that a Christian church should never support or justify war and that our Christian witness should include opposing the waging or justifying of war." 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[edit] 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 20th century compelled the church to examine issues of gender, sexuality and marriage. Split within Anglicanism[edit] 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 homosexuality and Anglicanism). More conservative elements within Anglicanism (primarily African churches and factions within North American Anglicanism) have opposed these proposals. Some liberal and moderate Anglicans see this opposition as representing a new fundamentalism within Anglicanism. Others see the advocacy for these proposals as representing a breakdown of Christian theology and commitment. 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. Others have, at various times, joined the Continuing Anglican movement.
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 is significantly greater cohesion among
Anglicans when they turn their attention outward. Anglicans worldwide
are active in many areas of social and environmental concern. Main article: Continuing Anglican movement The term "Continuing Anglicanism" refers to a number of church bodies which have formed outside of the Anglican Communion in the belief that traditional forms of Anglican faith, worship and order have been unacceptably revised or abandoned within some Anglican Communion churches in recent decades. They therefore claim that they are "continuing" traditional Anglicanism. The modern Continuing Anglican movement principally dates to the Congress of St. Louis, held in the United States in 1977, at which participants rejected changes that had been made in the Episcopal Church's Book of Common Prayer and also the Episcopal Church's approval of the ordination of women to the priesthood. More recent changes in the North American churches of the Anglican Communion, such as the introduction of same-sex marriage rites and the ordination of gay and lesbian people to the priesthood and episcopate, have created further separations. Continuing churches have generally been formed by people who have left the Anglican Communion. The original Anglican churches are charged by the Continuing Anglicans with being greatly compromised by secular cultural standards and liberal theology. Many Continuing Anglicans believe that the faith of some churches in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury has become either unorthodox or un-Christian and therefore have not sought to also be in communion with him. The original generation of continuing parishes in the United States were found mainly in metropolitan areas. Since the late 1990s a number have appeared in smaller communities, often as a result of a division in the town's existing Episcopal churches. The 2007–08 Directory of Traditional Anglican and Episcopal Parishes, published by the Fellowship of Concerned Churchmen, contained information on over 900 parishes affiliated with either the Continuing Anglican churches or the Anglican realignment movement, a more recent wave of Anglicans withdrawing from the Anglican Communion's North American provinces. Ordinariates within the Roman Catholic Church[edit] On 4 November 2009, Pope Benedict XVI issued an apostolic constitution, Anglicanorum Coetibus, to allow groups of former Anglicans to enter into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church as members of personal ordinariates. The announcement of the imminent constitution on 20 October 2009 mentioned: Today's announcement of the Apostolic Constitution is a response by Pope Benedict XVI to a number of requests over the past few years to the Holy See from groups of Anglicans who wish to enter into full visible communion with the Roman Catholic Church, and are willing to declare that they share a common Catholic faith and accept the Petrine ministry as willed by Christ for his Church. Pope Benedict XVI has approved, within the Apostolic Constitution, a canonical structure that provides for Personal Ordinariates, which will allow former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of distinctive Anglican spiritual patrimony. The announcement of this Apostolic Constitution brings to an end a period of uncertainty for such groups who have nurtured hopes of new ways of embracing unity with the Catholic Church. It will now be up to those who have made requests to the Holy See to respond to the Apostolic Constitution. —The Archbishop of Westminster and The Archbishop of Canterbury
For each personal ordinariate the
ordinary may be a former Anglican bishop or priest. It is expected
that provision will be made to allow the retention of aspects of
Anglican liturgy; cf. Anglican Use. History of the Anglican Communion
The history of the Anglican Communion may be attributed mainly to the worldwide spread of British culture associated with the British Empire. Among other things the Church of England spread around the world and, gradually developing autonomy in each region of the world, became the communion as it exists today. Contents of The history of the Anglican Communion Origins Anglicanism in the colonies America Provincial organization Freedom from state control Autonomy Lambeth Conferences Bonn Agreement Modern history
Origins[edit] The only provinces of the Anglican Communion with a direct and unbroken history stretching back to the pre-Reformation church are to be found in Great Britain and Ireland: the Church of England, the Church in Wales, the Church of Ireland and the Scottish Episcopal Church. As its name suggests, the Scottish situation is unique; the national Church of Scotland is Presbyterian and for some years in the late 17th and early 18th centuries the Scottish Episcopal Church, despite its similarities to the Church of England, was regarded with some suspicion because of its occasional associations with Jacobite opposition to the House of Hanover. Although Henry VIII broke with the Church of Rome in the 1530s, he strongly resisted thereafter associating the English Church with the Continental Protestant Reformation. Henry's position was however, reversed in the brief reign of his young son Edward VI 1547-1553, when the leaders of the Church of England, especially Thomas Cranmer, actively sought to establish England in the centre of evolving Reformed churches. Cranmer's ambitions, however, were not widely shared amongst the bulk of laity and clergy; and accordingly, the return to the religious forms of traditional Roman Catholicism under Queen Mary was widely welcomed. The Elizabethan Settlement in England was broken in 1570 with the excommunication of Elizabeth. Although few, if any, concessions were made to the Papacy or to Roman Catholic doctrine, a small number of changes were then made to the Articles of Religion and to the Prayer Book, especially in relation the Real Presence and to the continuation of worship in more traditional forms. Only one of Mary's English and Welsh bishops conformed to the Elizabethan settlement, though all save 300 of the parish clergy subscribed. In Ireland the position was reversed; all bishops save two accepted the Elizabethan Settlement, but the bulk of parish clergy and laity remained loyal to the pope. In the period since 1553, Continental Reformed Protestantism had itself continued to develop, especially in Geneva and Heidelberg, but English divines who wished the Elizabethan church to take part in these developments were to be bitterly disappointed; Elizabeth refused any further change to the forms or structures of religion established in 1559. In particular, Protestant controversialists began to attack the episcopal polity, and the defined liturgy of the Elizabethan Church as incompatible with the true Reformed tradition; and, in response, defenders of the established church began, from the early 17th Century onwards, to claim these specific features as positively desirable, or indeed essential. The attempt to impose in Scotland a Prayer Book on the English model, drove the three kingdoms into civil war. However, the Puritan sympathies of the victorious Parliamentary armies in the English Civil War, and the consequential abolition during the Commonwealth of English bishoprics and cathedral chapters with the suppression of the Book of Common Prayer, resulted in English churchmen beginning to recognise Anglican identity as being distinct from and incompatible with the traditions of Presbyterian Protestantism. This distinction was formalised at the Restoration of Charles II, when the proposals of Puritan divines for further reform of the Prayer Book were thoroughly rejected; and 1,760 clergymen were deprived of their livings for failing to subscribe to the 1662 Book. From this date onwards dissenting Protestant congregations were to be found throughout England, and the established church no longer claimed or sought to comprehend all traditions of Protestant belief. In Ireland and in many of England's American Colonies, the numbers who subscribed to Presbyterian congregations formed the majority of the Protestant population; while in Scotland from 1689, following the accession of William and Mary, Presbyterian church polity was revived, and constituted in that kingdom, the established church; so that those ministers and congregations who continued to subscribe to the Anglican Episcopalian traditions eventually became a dissenting minority. In the 18th and 19th centuries, divines of the Church of England increasingly differentiated their faith from that of the Protestant churches. Controversy broke out into the open after 1829, with the removal of religious restrictions on political rights in the United Kingdom, following which elected members of the UK Parliament (the legal authority in England for definitions of religious faith), might include both Roman Catholics and Dissenters. The Tractarians undertook a re-examination of Anglican traditions of the 17th century; developing these into the general principle that Anglicanism represented a via media between Protestantism and Catholicism; or otherwise, that the Church of England together with the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches, represented three 'branches' of the Universal Church, whose faith derived from Scripture and Tradition independent of legislative formulae. The issue was more pressing insofar as Anglican societies were engaging actively in missionary work, often in conjunction with Christians of other traditions; resulting in the foundation of new churches, especially in Africa. Anglican traditions implied an expectation that these churches should develop self-government and a locally-based episcopacy; but it was unclear who had legal power to create such bishoprics, who had the authority to appoint to them, and what discretion such bishops would have to define local statements of faith and forms of worship. Matters came to a head with the case of John William Colenso appointed to the Bishopric of Natal in 1853. When Bishop Colenso published commentaries on the Epistle to the Romans and on the Pentateuch that questioned traditional teachings, he was deprived of his see by the bishops of the South African church in 1863; but then re-instated on appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in 1866. Whatever the merits of the Colenso case, the implied action of a British court in constraining matters of faith and discipline in a church outside the United Kingdom was instrumental in the decision to summon the first Lambeth Conference in 1867. As Britain's worldwide colonial empire grew, the Church of England began to spread with it. But at first no bishops were sent overseas; all colonial churches reported back to the Bishop of London. At the time of the American Revolution, there had already been considerable American demand for a local bishop; and after that event the Church of England in the new United States certainly needed to organize itself on a local basis — after all, the earthly head of the Church of England was (and remains) the British monarch. Anglicanism in the colonies[edit] The first Anglican service in North America was conducted in California in 1579 by the chaplain accompanying Sir Francis Drake on his voyage around the globe. The first baptisms were held in Roanoke, North Carolina, by the ill-fated Roanoke colony. The continuous presence of Anglicanism in North America, however, begins in 1607 with the founding of Jamestown, Virginia. By 1700 there were more than 100 Anglican parishes in British colonies on the mainland of North America, the largest number in Virginia and Maryland. The American War for Independence resulted in the formation of the first independent national church in the Anglican tradition. The 1609 wreck of the flagship of the Virginia Company, the Sea Venture, resulted in the settlement of Bermuda by the Company. This was made official in 1612 when the town of St. George's, now the oldest surviving English settlement in the New World, was established. It is the location of St. Peter's Church, the oldest-surviving Anglican church outside of the British Isles (Britain and Ireland) and the oldest surviving non-Roman Catholic church in the New World, also established in 1612. It remained part of the Church of England until 1978 when the Anglican Church of Bermuda was formed. The Church of England was the state church in Bermuda and a system of parishes was set up for the religious and political subdivision of the colony (they survive, today, as both civil and religious parishes). The parish of St. John the Baptist in the city of St. John's, Newfoundland (part of the Diocese of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador) is the oldest in Canada, founded in 1699 in response to a petition drafted by the Anglican townsfolk of St. John's and sent to the Bishop of London, Henry Compton. In this petition the people also requested help in the rebuilding of their church, which had been destroyed, along with the rest of the city, in 1696 by the French under the command of General Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville. On August 12, 1787, Charles Inglis was consecrated Bishop of Nova Scotia with jurisdiction over all the British possessions in North America. In 1793 the see of Quebec was founded; Jamaica and Barbados followed in 1824 and Toronto and Newfoundland in 1839. Meanwhile the needs of India were met, on the urgent representations in Parliament of William Wilberforce and others, by the consecration of T. F. Middleton as Bishop of Calcutta, with three archdeacons to assist him. In 1829, on the nomination of the Duke of Wellington, William Broughton was sent out to work as the Archdeacon of Australia. The first Anglican church in Latin America, St. John's Cathedral (Belize City), was built in the colony of British Honduras (Belize)in 1812. Soon afterwards, in 1835 and 1837, the sees of Madras and Bombay were founded; whilst in 1836 Broughton himself was consecrated as the first Bishop of Australia. Thus down to 1840 there were but ten colonial bishops; and of these several were so hampered by civil regulations that they were little more than government chaplains in episcopal orders. In April of that year, however, Bishop Blomfield of London published his famous letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, declaring that "an episcopal church without a bishop is a contradiction in terms" and strenuously advocating a great effort for the extension of the episcopate. The plan was taken up with enthusiasm and, in 1841, the bishops of the United Kingdom met and issued a declaration which inaugurated the Colonial Bishoprics Council. Subsequent declarations in 1872 and 1891 have served both to record progress and to stimulate to new effort. The Diocese of New Zealand was founded in 1841, being endowed by the Church Missionary Society through the council, and George Augustus Selwyn was chosen as the first bishop. Moreover, in many cases bishops have been sent to inaugurate new missions, as in the cases of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa, Lebombo, Corea and New Guinea; and the missionary jurisdictions so founded develop in time into dioceses. It was only very gradually that these dioceses acquired legislative independence and a determinate organization. At first, sees were created and bishops were nominated by the crown by means of letters patent; and in some cases an income was assigned out of public funds. Moreover, for many years all bishops were consecrated in England, took the customary "oath of due obedience" to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and were regarded as his extraterritorial suffragans. But by degrees changes have been made on all these points. America[edit] In 1783 the parishes of Connecticut elected Samuel Seabury as their bishop and sent him to England for ordination. However John Moore, Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, found that he had the authority neither to create new bishops without legislation nor to dispense with the Oath of Allegiance to the Crown which formed part of the ordination ceremony. Seabury then went to Scotland where, free from such legal difficulties, he was ordained in 1784. Eventually, with new legislation in place, the Archbishop of Canterbury was able to consecrate William White and Samuel Provoost as bishops for the new Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America in 1787 and James Madison, Bishop of Virginia in 1790. The Protestant Episcopal Church held its first General Convention in 1785, and organized using a system of state conventions in place of dioceses. They adopted a constitution and canons and approved an American version of the Book of Common Prayer in 1789 in Philadelphia. William White, who had served as presiding officer of General Convention in 1785 and 1786, was also elected presiding officer of the 1789 convention. He was the first bishop to preside over the convention. When in a second session of the 1789 convention, Bishop Seabury was seated and the New England churches acceded to the constitution. The bishops then withdrew and Bishop Seabury became the first bishop to preside over a separate House of Bishops. The American church officially adopted the term "diocese" in 1839 with the formation of a second diocese in the state of New York. Provincial organization[edit] Local conditions soon made a provincial organization necessary, and it was gradually introduced. The bishop of Calcutta received letters patent as metropolitan of India when the sees of Madras and Bombay were founded; and fresh patents were issued to Bishop Broughton in 1847 and Bishop Gray in 1853, as metropolitans of Australia and South Africa respectively. Similar action was taken in 1858, when Bishop Selwyn became metropolitan of New Zealand; and again in 1860, when, on the petition of the Canadian bishops to the Crown and the colonial legislature for permission to elect a metropolitan, letters patent were issued appointing Bishop Fulford of Montreal to that office. Since then metropolitans have been chosen and provinces formed by regular synodical action, a process greatly encouraged by the resolutions of the Lambeth Conferences on the subject. The constitution of these provinces was not uniform. In some cases, as South Africa, New South Wales, and Queensland, the metropolitan see was fixed. Elsewhere, as in New Zealand, where no single city can claim pre-eminence, the metropolitan is either elected or else is the senior bishop by consecration. Two further developments must be mentioned: * The creation of diocesan and provincial synods, the first diocesan synod to meet being that of New Zealand in 1844, while the formation of a provincial synod was foreshadowed by a conference of Australasian bishops at Sydney in 1850; * Towards the close of the 19th century the title of archbishop began to be assumed by the metropolitans of several provinces. It was first assumed by the metropolitans of Canada and Rupert's Land, at the desire of the Canadian general synod in 1893; and subsequently, in accordance with a resolution of the Lambeth Conference of 1897, it was given by their synods to the bishop of Sydney as metropolitan of New South Wales and to the bishop of Cape Town as metropolitan of South Africa. Civil obstacles have hitherto delayed its adoption by the metropolitan of India. Freedom from state control[edit] By degrees, also, the colonial churches have been freed from their rather burdensome relations with the state. The Church of the West Indies was disestablished in 1868. Other colonial churches followed suit over the next few decades. In 1857 it was decided, in Regina v. Eton College, that the Crown could not claim the presentation to a living when it had appointed the former incumbent to a colonial bishopric, as it does in the case of an English bishopric. In 1861, after some protest from the crown lawyers, two missionary bishops were consecrated without letters patent for regions outside British territory: C. F. Mackenzie for the Zambezi region and J. C. Patteson for Melanesia, by the metropolitans of Cape Town and New Zealand respectively. In 1863 the privy council declared, in Long v. The Bishop of Cape Town, that "the Church of England, in places where there is no church established by law, is in the same situation with any other religious body." In 1865 it adjudged Bishop Gray's letters patent, as metropolitan of Cape Town, to be powerless to enable him "to exercise any coercive jurisdiction, or hold any court or tribunal for that purpose," since the Cape colony already possessed legislative institutions when they were issued; and his deposition of Bishop Colenso was declared to be "null and void in law" (re The Bishop of Natal). With the exception of Colenso the South African bishops forthwith surrendered their patents, and formally accepted Bishop Gray as their metropolitan, an example followed in 1865 in the province of New Zealand. In 1862, when the Diocese of Ontario was formed, the bishop was elected in Canada, and consecrated under a royal mandate, letters patent being by this time entirely discredited. And when, in 1867, a coadjutor was chosen for the bishop of Toronto, an application for a royal mandate produced the reply from the colonial secretary that "it was not the part of the Crown to interfere in the creation of a new bishop or bishopric, and not consistent with the dignity of the Crown that he should advise Her Majesty to issue a mandate which would not be worth the paper on which it was written, and which, having been sent out to Canada, might be disregarded in the most complete manner." And at the present day the colonial churches are entirely free in this matter. This, however, is not the case with the Church in India. Here the bishops of sees founded down to 1879 receive a stipend from the revenue (with the exception of the bishop of Ceylon, who no longer does so). They are not only nominated by the crown and consecrated under letters patent, but the appointment is expressly subjected "to such power of revocation and recall as is by law vested" in the crown; and where additional oversight was necessary for the Church in Tinnevelly, it could only be secured by the consecration of two assistant bishops, who worked under a commission for the Archbishop of Canterbury which was to expire on the death of the bishop of Madras. Since then, however, new sees have been founded which are under no such restrictions. Autonomy[edit] By degrees, also, the relations of colonial churches to the Archbishop of Canterbury have changed. Until 1855 no colonial bishop was consecrated outside the British Isles, the first instance being Bishop MacDougall of Labuan, consecrated in India under a commission from the Archbishop of Canterbury; and until 1874 it was held to be unlawful for a bishop to be consecrated in England without taking the suffragan's Oath of Due Obedience. This necessity was removed by the Colonial Clergy Act of 1874, which permits the Archbishop of Canterbury at his discretion to dispense with the oath. But the most complete autonomy does not involve isolation. The churches are in full communion with one another and act together in many ways; missionary jurisdictions and dioceses are mapped out by common arrangement and even transferred if it seems advisable; e.g., the Diocese of Honolulu (Hawaii), previously under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury, was transferred in 1900 to the Episcopal Church in the United States of America on account of political changes. Missionary activity of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America resulted in creation of other provinces of the communion, including Brazil, Mexico, Central America, the Philippines and Japan. In Brazil and Japan the Church of England also had a presence, but the Episcopal Church work was more extensive and the Episcopal Church consecrated the first bishops. Though the See of Canterbury claims no primacy over the Anglican Communion analogous to that exercised over the Roman Catholic Church by the Pope, it is regarded with a strong affection and deference, which shows itself by frequent consultation and interchange of greetings. By this the Archbishop of Canterbury is held as the titular and spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, but his role is strictly an honorary one. Lambeth Conferences[edit] The conference of Anglican bishops from all parts of the world, instituted by Archbishop Longley in 1867 and known as the Lambeth Conferences, though even for the Anglican Communion they have not the authority of an ecumenical synod and their decisions are rather of the nature of counsels than commands, have done much to promote the harmony and co-operation of the various churches within Anglicanism. An even more imposing manifestation of this common life was given by the great Pan-Anglican Congress held in London between June 12 and June 24, 1908, which preceded the Lambeth Conference opened on July 5. The idea of this originated with Bishop Montgomery, secretary to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and was endorsed by a resolution of the United Boards of Mission in 1903. As the result of negotiations and preparations extending over five years, 250 bishops, together with delegates, clerical and lay, from every diocese in the Anglican Communion, met at Lambeth Palace, the opening service of intercession being held in Westminster Abbey. In its general character the meeting was but a church congress on an enlarged scale and the subjects discussed, e.g. the attitude of churchmen towards the question of the marriage laws or that of socialism, followed much the same lines. The conference had no power to decide or to legislate for the church, its main value being in drawing its scattered members closer together, in bringing the newer and more isolated parts into consciousness of their contact with the parent stem, and in opening the eyes of the Church of England to the point of view and the peculiar problems of the daughter-churches. Bonn Agreement[edit] In 1931 the Anglican Communion and the Old Catholics of the Union of Utrecht enter into full communion in the Bonn Agreement. Both the Old Catholics and the Anglicans agree on several key points: 1. Each communion recognises the catholicity and independence of the other and maintains its own. 2. Each communion agrees to permit members of the other communion to participate in the sacraments. 3. Inter-communion does not require from either communion the acceptance of all doctrinal opinion, sacramental devotion or liturgical practice characteristic of the other, but implies that each believes the other to hold all the essentials of the Christian faith. With this new inter-communion cross-episcopal ordinations began, further endorsing the apostolic succession within Anglicanism. Modern history[edit]
Meetings began in 1937 about
inter-communion between the Episcopal Church and the Presbyterians.
After two years these talks arrived at no concrete conclusion because
the Episcopalians insisted on the historic episcopate. The
Presbyterians backed out of the talks in 1940. Anglican Doctrine Anglican doctrine (also called Episcopal doctrine in some countries) is the body of Christian teachings used to guide the religious and moral practices of Anglicans. Contents of Anglican Doctrine
Approach to doctrine
Approach to doctrine[edit] Anglicanism does not possess an agreed-upon confession of faith, such as the Presbyterian Westminster Confession, nor does it claim a founding theologian, such as John Calvin or Martin Luther, or a central authority, such as the Roman Catholic magisterium, to set the parameters of acceptable belief and practice. The universally agreed-upon foundations of Anglican doctrine are the three major creeds of the early ecumenical councils (the Apostles', Nicene and Athanasian creeds), the principles enshrined in the "Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral" and the dispersed authority of the four instruments of Communion of the Anglican Communion. Additionally, there are two parallel streams informing doctrinal development and understanding in Anglicanism. Firstly, there is an appeal to the historical formularies, prayer-books, ordinals and the "standard divines". Most prominent of the historical formularies are the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, principally authored by Thomas Cranmer. These are divided into four sections, moving from the general (the fundamentals of the faith) to the particular (the interpretation of scripture, the structure and authority of the church, and the relationship between church and society). Anglicans also take the principle of lex orandi, lex credendi seriously, regarding the content, form and rubrics of liturgy as an important element of doctrinal understanding, development and interpretation. Secondly, Anglicans cite the work of the standard divines, or foundational theologians, of Anglicanism as instructive. Such divines include Cranmer, Richard Hooker, Lancelot Andrewes and John Jewel. The second stream of doctrine is contained in the formally adopted doctrinal positions of the constitutions and canon law of various national churches and provinces of the Anglican Communion. These are usually formulated by general synods of national or regional churches and interpreted and enforced by a bishop-in-council structure, involving consultation between the bishops and delegated lay and clerical leadership, although the extent of the devolution of authority from the bishops varies from place to place. This stream is the only binding and enforceable expression of doctrine in Anglicanism, which can sometimes result in conflicting doctrinal understandings between and within national churches and provinces. Interpretation of doctrine[edit] The foundations and streams of doctrine are interpreted through the lenses of various Christian movements which have gained wide acceptance among clergy and laity. Prominent among those in the latter part of the 20th century and the early 21st century are Liberal Christianity, Anglo-Catholicism and Evangelicalism. These perspectives emphasise or supplement particular aspects of historical theological writings, canon law, formularies and prayer books. Because of this, these perspectives often conflict with each other and can conflict with the formal doctrines. Some of these differences help to define "parties" or "factions" within Anglicanism. However, with certain notable exceptions that led to schisms, Anglicans have grown a tradition of tolerating internal differences. This tradition of tolerance is sometimes known as "comprehensiveness". Origins[edit] Anglican doctrine emerged from the interweaving of two main strands of Christian doctrine during the English Reformation in the 16th and 17th centuries. The first strand comes from the Catholic doctrine taught by the established church in England in the early 16th century. The second strand represents a range of Protestant Reformed teachings brought to England from neighbouring countries in the same period, notably Calvinism[1] and Lutheranism. At the time of the English Reformation, the Church of England formed the local expression of the institutional Catholic Church in England. Canon law had documented the formal doctrines over the centuries and the Church of England still follows an unbroken tradition of canon law today[update]. The English Reformation did not dispense with all previous doctrines. The church not only retained the core Catholic beliefs common to Reformed doctrine in general, such as the Trinity, the virgin birth of Jesus, the nature of Jesus as fully human and fully divine, the resurrection of Jesus, original sin and excommunication (as affirmed by the Thirty-Nine Articles), but also retained some Catholic teachings which "true" Protestants rejected, such as the three orders of ministry and the apostolic succession of bishops. For this reason Anglican doctrine is often said to tread a middle path, or via media, between Roman Catholic and Protestant perspectives. Foundational elements[edit] Scripture, creeds and ecumenical councils[edit] Central to Anglican doctrine are the foundational documents of Christianity – all the books of the Old and New Testaments are accepted, but the books of the Apocrypha, while recommended as instructive by Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles, are declared not "to establish any doctrine". Article VIII of the Thirty-Nine Articles declared the three Catholic creeds – the Apostles', the Nicene and the Athanasian – to "be proved by most certain warrants of holy Scripture" and were included in the first and subsequent editions of The Book of Common Prayer. All Anglican prayer books continue to include the Apostles' and Nicene Creed. Some — such as the Church of England's Common Worship or A New Zealand Prayer Book — omit the Athanasian Creed, but include alternative "affirmations". This liturgical diversity suggests that the principles enunciated by the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds remain doctrinally unimpeachable. Nonetheless, metaphorical or spiritualised interpretations of some of the creedal declarations – for instance, the virgin birth of Jesus and his resurrection – have been commonplace in Anglicanism since the integration of biblical critical theory into theological discourse in the 19th century.[citation needed] The first four ecumenical councils of Nicea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon "have a special place in Anglican theology, secondary to the Scriptures themselves."[2] This authority is usually considered to pertain to questions of the nature of Christ (the hypostasis of divine and human) and the relationships between the Persons of the Holy Trinity, summarised chiefly in the creeds which emerged from those councils. Nonetheless, Article XXI of The Thirty-Nine Articles limit the authority of these and other ecumenical councils, noting that "they may err, and sometimes have erred." In other words, their authority being strictly derivative from and accountable to scripture. Thirty-Nine Articles[edit] Main article: Thirty-Nine Articles Wikisource has original text related to this article: Thirty-Nine Articles Thomas Cranmer Reformed doctrine and theology were developed into a distinctive English form by bishops and theologians led by Thomas Cranmer and Matthew Parker. Their doctrine was summarised in the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion which were adopted by the Parliament of England and the Church of England in 1571. The early English Reformers, like contemporaries on the European continent such as John Calvin, John Knox and Martin Luther, rejected many Roman Catholic teachings. The Thirty-Nine Articles list core Reformed doctrines such as the sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for salvation, the execution of Jesus as "the perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world", Predestination and Election. Some of the articles are simple statements of opposition to Roman Catholic doctrine, such as Article XIV which denies "Works of Supererogation", Article XV which implicitly excludes the Immaculate Conception, and XXII which explicitly rejects the concept of Purgatory. Catholic worship and teaching was at the time conducted in Latin, while the Articles required church services to use the vernacular. By the same token, the Articles show their Calvinist influence by rejecting other strands of Protestant teaching, such as those of the doctrine of common property of "certain Anabaptists". Unlike the Scottish Reformers the Articles hew out a via media between Roman Catholic and extreme Protestant views, alluded to above. For example, in contrast to Calvin, the Articles did not explicitly reject the Lutheran doctrine of consubstantiation. They also endorse an Episcopal polity, appointing the English monarch as Supreme Governor of the Church of England to replace the Bishop of Rome. The Articles can also be read as permitting the acceptance of the five so-called "non-dominical" sacraments as legitimately sacramental, in addition to Baptism and the Eucharist. Over the years, the Church of England has not amended the Thirty-Nine Articles. However, synodical legislators made changes to canon law to accommodate those who feel unable to adhere strictly to the Thirty-Nine Articles. The legal form of the declaration of assent required of clergy on their appointment, which was at its most rigid in 1689, was amended in 1865 and again in 1975 to allow more latitude. Outside of the Church of England, the Articles have an even less secure status and are generally treated as an edifying historical document not binding on doctrine or practice. Homilies[edit] Main article: Anglican Homilies The Homilies are two books of thirty-three sermons developing Reformed doctrines in greater depth and detail than in the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion. During the reigns of Edward VI and Elizabeth I, Thomas Cranmer and other English Reformers saw the need for local congregations to be taught Christian theology and practice. Sermons were appointed and required to be read each Sunday and holy day in English. Some are straightforward exhortations to read scripture daily and lead a life of faith; others are rather lengthy scholarly treatises directed at academic audiences on theology, church history, the fall of the Christian Empire and the heresies of Rome. The homilies are noteworthy for their beautiful and magisterial phrasing and the instances of historical terms. Each homily is heavily annotated with references to scripture, the church fathers, and other primary sources. The reading of the homilies in church is still directed under Article XXXV of the Thirty-Nine Articles. Prayer books[edit] Main article: Book of Common Prayer The original Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England was published in 1549, and its most recently approved successor was issued in 1662. It is this edition that national prayer-books (with the exception of Scotland's) used as a template as the Anglican Communion spread outside England. The foundational status of the 1662 edition has led to its being cited as an authority on doctrine. This status reflects a more pervasive element of Anglican doctrinal development, namely that of lex orandi, lex credendi, or "the law of prayer is the law of belief"[3] (see below). Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral[edit] Main article: Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral The Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral is a summation of the Anglican approach to theology, worship and church structure and is often cited as a basic summary of the essentials of Anglican identity. The four points are: 1. The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as "containing all things necessary to salvation," and as being the rule and ultimate standard of faith. 2. The Creeds (specifically, the Apostles' and Nicene) as the sufficient statement of Christian faith; 3. The dominical sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion; 4. The historic episcopate locally adapted. The four points originated in resolutions of the Episcopal Church in the United States of 1886 and were (more significantly) modified and finalized in the 1888 Lambeth Conference of bishops of the Anglican Communion. Primarily intended as a means of pursuing ecumenical dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church, the Quadrilateral soon became a "sine qua non" for essential Anglican identity. Standard divines[edit] As mentioned above, Anglicanism has no theologian comparable to the founding theologians of eponymous schools, like Lutheranism, Calvinism, or Thomism. Nonetheless, it has writers whose works are regarded as standards for faith and doctrine. While there is no definitive list, such individuals are implicitly recognised as authoritative by their inclusion in Anglican liturgical calendars or in anthologies of works on Anglican theology. These include such early figures as Lancelot Andrewes, John Cosin, Thomas Cranmer, Richard Hooker, John Jewel, Matthew Parker, and Jeremy Taylor; and later figures such as Joseph Butler, William Law, John Wesley, and George Whitefield. The 19th century produced several prominent Anglican thinkers, notably John Keble, Frederick Denison Maurice, John Henry Newman, Edward Pusey, and John Charles Ryle. More recently, Charles Gore, Michael Ramsey, and William Temple have been included among the pantheon. While this list gives a snapshot, it is not exhaustive. Doctrinal development[edit] Lancelot Andrewes Given that the foundational elements of Anglican doctrine are either not binding or are subject to local interpretation, methodology has tended to assume a place of key importance. Hence, it is not so much a body of doctrinal statements so much as the process of doctrinal development that is important in Anglican theological identity.[citation needed] Lex orandi, lex credendi[edit] Main article: Lex orandi, lex credendi Anglicanism has traditionally expressed its doctrinal convictions based on the prayer texts and liturgy of the church. In other words, appeal has typically been made to what Anglicans do and prescribe in common worship, enunciated in the texts of the Book of Common Prayer and other national prayer books, to guide theology and practice. Applying this axiom to doctrine, there are three venues for its expression in the worship of the Church: * The selection, arrangement, and composition of prayers and exhortations; * The selection and arrangement of the lectionary; and * The rubrics (regulations) for liturgical action and variations in the prayers and exhortations.[4] The principle of lex orandi, lex credendi functions according to the so-called "three-legged stool" of scripture, tradition, and reason attributed to Richard Hooker.[5] This doctrinal stance is intended to enable Anglicanism to construct a theology that is pragmatic, focused on the institution of the church, yet engaged with the world. It is, in short, a theology that places a high value on the traditions of the faith and the intellect of the faithful, acknowledging the primacy of the worshipping community in articulating, amending, and passing down the church's beliefs. In doing so, Anglican theology is inclined towards a comprehensive consensus concerning the principles of the tradition and the relationship between the church and society. In this sense, Anglicans have viewed their theology as strongly incarnational – expressing the conviction that God is revealed in the physical and temporal things of everyday life and the attributes of specific times and places. This approach has its hazards, however. For instance, there is a countervailing tendency to be "text-centric", that is, to focus on the technical, historical, and interpretative aspects of prayer books and their relationship to the institution of the church, rather than on the relationship between faith and life. Second, the emphasis on comprehensiveness often instead results in compromise or tolerance of every viewpoint. The effect that is created is that Anglicanism may appear to stand for nothing or for everything, and that an unstable and unsatisfactory middle-ground is staked while theological disputes wage interminably. Finally, while lex orandi, lex credendi helped solidify a uniform Anglican perspective when the 1662 Prayer Book and its successors predominated, and while expatriate bishops of the United Kingdom enforced its conformity in territories of the British Empire, this has long since ceased to be true. Liturgical reform and the post-colonial reorganisation of national churches has led to a growing diversity in common worship since the middle of the 20th century. Process of doctrinal development[edit] The principle of lex orandi, lex credendi discloses a larger theme in the approach of Anglicanism to doctrine, namely, that doctrine is considered a lived experience; since in living it, the community comes to understand its character. In this sense, doctrine is considered to be a dynamic, participatory enterprise rather than a static one. This inherent sense of dynamism was articulated by John Henry Newman a century and a half ago, when he asked how, given the passage of time, we can be sure that the Christianity of today is the same religion as that envisioned and developed by Jesus Christ and the apostles.[6] As indicated above, Anglicans look to the teaching of the Bible and of the undivided Church of the first five centuries as the sufficient criterion for an understanding of doctrine, as expressed in the creeds. Yet they are only a criterion: interpretation, and thus doctrinal development, is thoroughly contextual. The reason this is the case is chiefly due to three factors: 1. Differing theories of interpretation of scripture, developed as a result of the symbolic nature of language, the difficulty of translating its cultural and temporal aspects, and the particular perceptual lenses worn by authors; 2. The accumulation of knowledge through science and philosophy; and 3. The emerging necessity of giving some account of the relationship of Christ to distinct and evolving cultural realities throughout the world, as Christianity has spread to different places. Newman's suggestion of two criteria for the sound development of doctrine has permeated Anglican thinking. These are, first, that development must be open and accessible to the faithful at every stage; and second, that it must be subject to appeal to scripture and the precedents of antiquity through the process of sound scholarship. The method by which this is accomplished is by the distillation of doctrine through, and its subordination to a dominant Anglican ethos consisting of the maintenance of order through consensus, comprehensiveness, and contract; and a preference for pragmatism over speculation.[7] In other words, the former — experience — flows from the latter — method. Anglican doctrinal methodology means concurrence with a base structure of shared identity: An agreement on the fundamentals of the faith articulated in the creeds; the existence of Protestant and catholic elements creating both a via media as well as a "union of opposites";[8] and the conviction that there is development in understanding the truth, expressed more in practical terms rather than theoretical ones.[9] In short, the character of Anglicanism is that the church "contains in itself many elements regarded as mutually exclusive in other communions."[10] Formal doctrine[edit] Anglican churches in other countries generally inherited the doctrinal apparatus of the Church of England, consisting most commonly an adaptation of the Thirty-Nine Articles and the Quadrilateral into general principles. From the earliest times, they have adapted them to suit their local needs. Constitutions and canon law[edit] Canon law in the churches of the Anglican Communion stem from the law of the patristic and Medieval Western church which was received, along with the limiting conditions of the English Reformation. Canon law touches on several areas of church life: ecclesiology, that is, the governance and structure of the church as an institution; liturgy; relationships with secular institutions; and the doctrines which implicitly or explicitly touch on these matters. Such laws have varying degrees and means of enforcement, variability, and jurisdiction. The nature of canon law is complicated by the status of the Church of England as subordinate to the crown; a status which does not affect jurisdictions outside England, including those of the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Church of Ireland, and the Church in Wales. It is further complicated by the relationship between the autonomous churches of the Communion itself; since the canon law of one jurisdiction has no status in that of another. Moreover, there is — as mentioned above — no international juridical system which can formulate or enforce uniformity in any matter. This has led to conflict regarding certain issues (see below), leading to calls for a "covenant" specifying the parameters of Anglican doctrinal development (see Anglican realignment for discussion). Instruments of unity[edit] Main article: Anglican Communion As mentioned above, the Anglican Communion has no international juridical organisation. The Archbishop of Canterbury's role is strictly symbolic and unifying, and the Communion's three international bodies are consultative and collaborative, their resolutions having no legal effect on the independent provinces of the Communion. Taken together, however, the four do function as "instruments of unity", since all churches of the Communion participate in them. In order of antiquity, they are: 1. The Archbishop of Canterbury, as the spiritual head of the Communion, is the focus of unity, since no church claims membership in the Communion without being in communion with him. 2. The Lambeth Conference is a consultation of the bishops of the Communion, intended to reinforce unity and collegiality through manifesting the episcopate, to discuss matters of mutual concern, and to pass resolutions intended to act as guideposts. It is held roughly every ten years and invitation is by the Archbishop of Canterbury. 3. The Anglican Consultative Council meets usually at three year intervals. Consisting 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. 4. The Primates' Meeting is the most recent manifestation of international consultation and deliberation, having been first convened by Archbishop of Canterbury Donald Coggan as a forum for "leisurely thought, prayer and deep consultation."[11] Since there is no binding authority in the Communion, these international bodies are a vehicle for consultation and persuasion. In recent years, persuasion has tipped over into debates over conformity in certain areas of doctrine, discipline, worship, and ethics. Controversies[edit] Historical background[edit] The effect of nationalising the Christian faith in England inevitably led to conflict between factions wishing to remain obedient to the Pope, those wishing more radical reform, and those holding a middle ground. A range of Presbyterian, Congregational, Baptist and other Puritan views gained currency in the Church in England, Ireland, and Wales through the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Although the Pilgrim Fathers felt compelled to leave for New England, other Puritans gained increasing ecclesiastical and political authority, while Royalists advocated Arminianism and the Divine Right of Kings. This conflict was one of the ultimate causes of the English Civil War. The Church of England, with the assistance of Presbyterian Church of Scotland theologians and clergy, set down their newly developed Calvinist doctrines in the Westminster Confession of 1648, which was never formally adopted into church law. After the Restoration of 1660 and the 1662 Act of Uniformity reinforced Cranmer's Anglicanism, those wishing to hold to the stricter views set out at Westminster either emigrated or covertly founded non-conformist Presbyterian, Congregational, or Baptist churches at home. The 18th century saw the Great Awakening, the Methodist schism, and the identification of the Evangelical party among the many conservatives who remained in the Anglican churches. The schism with the Methodists in the 18th century had a theological aspect, particularly concerning the Methodist emphasis on personal salvation by faith alone, although John Wesley continued to regard himself as a member of the Church of England. The same period also saw the emergence of the High Church movement, which began to identify with the Catholic heritage of Anglicanism, and to emphasise the importance of the Eucharist and church tradition, while mostly rejecting the legitimacy of papal authority in England. The High Churchmen gave birth to the Oxford Movement and Anglo-Catholicism in the 19th century, which also saw the emergence of Liberal Christianity across the Protestant world. The mid-19th century saw doctrinal debate between adherents of the Oxford Movement and their Low Church or Evangelical opponents, though the most public conflict tended to involve more superficial matters such as the use of church ornaments, vestments, candles, and ceremonial (which were taken to indicate a sympathy with Roman Catholic doctrine), and the extent to which such matters ought to be restricted by the church authorities. These conflicts led to further schism, for example in the creation of the Reformed Episcopal Church in North America. Doctrinal controversies in the 20th century[edit] Beginning in the 16th century, Anglicanism came under the influence of Latitudinarianism, chiefly represented by the Cambridge Platonists, who held that doctrinal orthodoxy was less important than applying rational rigour to the examination of theological propositions. The increasing influence of German higher criticism of the Bible throughout the 19th century, however, resulted in growing doctrinal disagreement over the interpretation and application of scripture. This debate was intensified with the accumulation of insights derived from the natural and social sciences which tended to challenge literally read biblical accounts. Figures such as J.B. Lightfoot and Brooke Foss Westcott helped mediate the transition from the theology of Hooker, Andrewes, and Taylor to accommodate these developments. In the early 20th century, the liberal Catholicism of Charles Gore and William Temple attempted to fuse the insights of modern biblical criticism with the theology expressed in the creeds and by the Apostolic Fathers, but the following generations of scholars, such as E.G. Selwyn and John A.T. Robinson questioned what had hitherto been the sacrosanct status of these verities. As the century progressed, the conflict sharpened, chiefly finding its expression in the application of biblically derived doctrine to social issues. Anglicans have debated the relationship between doctrine and social issues since its origins, when the focus was chiefly on the church's proper relationship to the state. Later, in the 18th and early 19th centuries, the focus shifted to slavery. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Anglicans fiercely debated the use of artificial contraception by Christian couples, which was prohibited by church teaching. In 1930 the Lambeth Conference took a lone stand among major Christian denominations at the time and permitted its use in some circumstances[12](see also Christian views on contraception). The 20th century also saw an intense doctrinal debate among Anglicans over the ordination of women, which led to schism, as well as to the conversion of some Anglican clergy to Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy. Even today, there is no unanimity of doctrine or practice in the Anglican Communion as it relates to women's ordination. Finally, in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s Anglican churches wrestled with the issue of the remarriage of divorced persons, which was prohibited by dominical commandment. Once again, there is presently no unanimity of doctrine or practice. Current controversies[edit] The focus of doctrinal debate on issues of social theology has continued into the 21st century. Indeed, the total eclipse of issues of classical doctrine, such as confessions of faith, has been exemplified by the relatively non-controversial decisions by some Communion provinces to amend the Nicene Creed by dropping the filioque clause, or supplementing the historic creeds with other affirmations of faith.[13] As of 2006, the two prominent doctrinal issues being actively debated in Anglican synods and convocations across the world are the consecration of women as bishops and the place of gay and lesbian people in the life of the church — specifically with respect to same-sex unions and ordination (see Anglican views of homosexuality).
The consecration of bishops and
the extension of sacraments to individuals based on gender or sexual
orientation would ordinarily be matters of concern to the synods of
the autonomous provinces of the Communion. Insofar as they affect
other provinces, it is by association — either the physical
association between the individuals to whom the sacraments have been
extended and those who oppose such extension; or the perceptual
association of Anglicanism generally with such practices. Regardless,
these issues have incited debate over the parameters of domestic
autonomy in doctrinal matters in the absence of international
consensus. Some dioceses and provinces have moved further than others
can easily accept, and some conservative parishes within them have
sought pastoral oversight from bishops of other dioceses or
provinces, in contravention of traditional Anglican polity (see
Anglican realignment). These developments have led some to call for a
covenant to delimit the power of provinces to act on controversial
issues independently, while others have called for a renewed
commitment to comprehensiveness and tolerance of diverse practice. Anglican Sacraments In keeping with 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 a church in the Catholic tradition and a church of the Reformation. With respect to sacramental theology the Catholic tradition is perhaps most strongly asserted in the importance Anglicanism places on the sacraments as a means of grace, sanctification and forgiveness as expressed in the church's liturgy. When the Thirty-Nine Articles were accepted by Anglicans generally as a norm for Anglican teaching, they recognised two sacraments only – Baptism and the Eucharist – as having been ordained by Christ ("sacraments of the Gospel" ) as Article XXV of the Thirty-Nine Articles describes them) and as necessary for salvation. The status of the Articles today varies from Province to Province: Canon A5 of the Church of England defines them as a source for Anglican doctrine. Peter Toon names ten Provinces as having retained them. He goes on to suggest that they have become "one strategic lens of a multi-lens telescope through which to view tradition and approach Scripture". Five other acts are regarded variously as full sacraments by Anglo-Catholics or as "sacramental rites" by Evangelicals with varied opinions among broad church and liberal Anglicans. Article XXV states that these five "are not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel, being such as have grown partly of the corrupt following of the Apostles, partly are states of life allowed in the Scriptures; but yet have not like nature of Sacraments with Baptism, and the Lord's Supper, for that they have not any visible sign or ceremony ordained of God.") According to the Thirty-Nine Articles, the seven are divided as follows:
A wider range of opinions about the 'effectiveness' of the sacraments is found among Anglicans than in the Roman Catholic Church: some hold to a more Catholic view maintaining that the sacraments function "as a result of the act performed" (ex opere operato); others emphasise strongly the need for worthy reception and faith". Contents of Anglican Sacraments
Characteristics of sacraments Characteristics of sacraments[edit] As defined by the 16th century Anglican divine, Richard Hooker, the sacraments are "visible signs of invisible grace." However, their "efficacy resteth obscure to our understanding, except we search somewhat more distinctly what grace in particular that is whereunto they are referred and what manner of operation they have towards it". They thus serve to convey sanctification on the individual participating in the sacramental action, but Hooker expressly warns that that "all receive not the grace of God which receive the sacraments of his grace". To be considered a valid sacrament both the appropriate form and matter must be present and duly used. Form is the specific verbal and physical liturgical action associated with the sacrament while the matter refers to the essential material objects used (e.g. water in Baptism; bread and wine in the Eucharist, etc.). This in itself is not sufficient to ensure the 'validity' there must also be the right intention on the part of the minister and, when the sacrament is ministered to an adult, the minimal requirement is that the latter must not place an obstacle in the way of the grace to be received. The question as to who is to be considered the minister of a 'valid' sacrament has led to serious divergences of opinion within Anglicanism. It is clear that in emergency any layperson may administer baptism. Whether a deacon can celebrate marriage varies from Province to Province. The theory that to be validly ordained, Anglican clergy must be ordained and/or consecrated by bishops whose own consecration can be traced to one of the Apostles (see Apostolic succession) has always been a minority position. Bradshaw sums up the position as follows: ...Hooker and the great weight of representative Anglican theology did not unchurch continental non-episcopal churches. Anglican ecclesiology does not, classically, hold the view that the church and sacramental grace depend upon the episcopal succession from the apostles. Baptism[edit] See also: Baptismal Regeneration Baptism is the sacrament by which a person is initiated into the Christian faith. It has the effect of receiving the individual into the household of God, allowing him to receive the grace of the other sacraments. The matter consists of the water and the form are the words of Baptism (the Trinitarian formula). The intention of baptism is threefold: a renunciation of sin and of all that which is opposed to the will of God (articulated by vows); a statement of belief in God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (articulated by the recitation of the Apostles' Creed or Nicene Creed); and a commitment to follow Christ as Lord and Saviour (again, signified by vows). The effect of baptism is the reception of the Holy Spirit. Whilst infant baptism is the norm in Anglicanism, services of thanksgiving and dedication of children are sometimes celebrated, especially when baptism is being deferred. People baptised in other traditions will be confirmed without being baptised again unless there is doubt about the validity of their original Baptism. Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians who have previously been confirmed are simply received into the Anglican Church. In case of uncertainty about whether a person has received the sacrament of Baptism at an earlier time, he or she may receive the sacrament conditionally. In principle, no one can be baptised more than once. In a conditional baptism, the minister of the sacrament, rather than saying "I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," says "If you are not baptised, I baptise you" etc. Eucharist[edit] Main article: Anglican Eucharistic theology The Eucharist (Holy Communion, Mass, or the Lord's Supper), is the means by which Christ becomes present to the Christian community gathered in his name. It is the central act of gathered worship, renewing the Body of Christ as the Church through the reception of the Body of Christ as the Blessed Sacrament, his spiritual body and blood. The matter consists of bread and wine. Traditionally in the Western Church the form was located in the words "This is my body/blood" or at least in the repetition of the Institution Narrative as a whole, that is there was a moment of consecration. However, the modern trend is to understand the thanksgiving expressed in the whole Eucharistic Prayer as effecting the consecration. In 1995, the International Anglican Liturgical Consultation involving liturgists from over half the Provinces of the Anglican Communion unanimously agreed that: The fundamental character of the eucharistic prayer is thanksgiving, and the whole eucharistic prayer should be seen as consecratory. The elements of memorial and invocation are caught up within the movement of thanksgiving. In this sacrament, Christ is both encountered and incorporated. As such, the Eucharistic action looks backward as a memorial of Christ's sacrifice, forward as a foretaste of the heavenly banquet, and to the present as an Incarnation of Christ in the lives of the community and of individual believers. Rites not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel[edit] Confession and absolution[edit] Confession and absolution, sometimes called the Sacrament of Reconciliation, is the rite or sacrament by which one is restored to God when one's relationship with God has been broken by sin. The form is the words of absolution, which may be accompanied by the sign of the cross. Confession and absolution is normally done corporately (the congregation invited to confess their sins, a moment of silent prayer while the congregation does so, a spoken general confession, and the words of absolution). Individuals, however, can and do also participate in aural confession, privately meeting with a priest to confess their sins, during which time the priest can provide both counselling, urge reconciliation with parties that have been sinned against, and suggest certain spiritual disciplines (penance). There is no approved ceremony for a private confession of sins, the event being provided for in the Anglican tradition only in uncommon instances where an individual cannot quiet his conscience or find consolation in the General Confession that is part of the liturgy. Anglican clergy do not typically require acts of penance after receiving absolution; but such acts, if done, are intended to be healing and preventative. The phrase "all may, some should, none must" is often taken as the Anglican attitude towards the sacrament, though there are provinces and parishes where participation in the sacrament is expected for the forgiveness of post-baptismal sin. The priest is bound by the seal of confession. This binds the priest to never speak of what he or she has heard in the confessional to anyone. Confirmation[edit] Confirmation is derived from the Latin word confirmare - to strengthen. In this sense, Confirmation involves the reaffirmation of faith through the strengthening and renewal of one's baptismal vows accomplished through prayer and the laying on of hands by a bishop. Historically, Baptism and Confirmation once were a unified rite, with the bishop performing both activities. With the spread of the faith in Europe during the early Middle Ages, the rites became separated. In recent centuries, it has been seen as an opportunity for those Baptised as infants to make an adult profession of faith, and to reaffirm the vows made on their behalf by witnesses. Until very recently, it was also a precondition to participation in the Eucharist throughout the Communion. Some Anglican churches now view Baptism as sufficient for accessing the grace of all the sacraments, since it is the means of initiation into the faith. Many who have been baptised as adults still present themselves for Confirmation as a way of completing the ancient rite of initiation, or because they have been received into the Communion from other denominations. Matrimony[edit] Holy Matrimony is the blessing of a union between a man and woman, acknowledging the presence and grace of God in the life of the couple. The form is manifested as the vows (contrary to popular belief, the blessing and exchanging of rings is customary, and not necessary for the rite of matrimony to be valid). In marriage, the husband and wife seek God's blessing, and through the mediation of the priest, the prayer is answered. Although the couple are thus generally regarded as the ministers of the sacrament through their voluntary exchange of vows, the sacrament must be celebrated under the presidency of a clergyman, who witnesses and mediates the prayers. Matrimony was the last sacrament added, having arisen as a result of civil necessity in the Middle Ages in order to regularise intimate relationships and legitimize children. In many parts of the Anglican Communion, there is provision to bless civil marriages (on the understanding that a couple cannot be married twice). Although some Anglican Churches will marry divorced people, some will not or will require the permission of the bishop of the diocese. In some dioceses, particularly in the US Episcopal Church, there is approval for the blessing of same-sex marriage. In the Continuing Anglican churches of the world, such unions are not permitted. Holy Orders[edit] Ordination to Holy Orders is the setting aside of individuals to specific ministries in the Church, namely that of deacon, priest, and bishop. The matter and form are the laying on of hands by a bishop and prayers. From the beginning of the Church there were two orders recognised - that of bishop and deacon. Priests are essentially delegates of the bishop to minister to congregations in which the bishop cannot be physically present. Deacons have always had the role of being "the church in the world," ministering to the pastoral needs of the community and assisting the priest in worship (usually by proclaiming the Gospel and preparing the altar and credence table). The bishop is the chief pastor of a diocese. Appointment as an archbishop does not involve transition into a new order, but rather signifies the taking on of additional episcopal responsibilities as a metropolitan or primate. In the Anglican churches, as with Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, and unlike the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church, there is no requirement that priests observe clerical celibacy. Unlike priests in the Eastern Churches, Anglican priests may also marry after ordination, and married Anglican priests may be ordained as bishops. Additionally, in many provinces of the Anglican Communion, women are allowed to be ordained as priests; and in about a third of the provinces also consecrated as bishops. Because this is a recent and controversial development, there are few dioceses governed by female bishops. Some dioceses do not recognise the orders of female priests, or else limit the recognition to priests only and disallow female bishops. Anointing of the Sick (Holy Unction)[edit] The Anointing of the Sick is an act of healing through prayer and sacrament, conveyed on both the sick and the dying; the latter is classically called Extreme Unction. The matter consists of laying on of hands and anointing with oil; while the form consists of prayers. In this sacrament, the priest acts as a mediator of Christ's grace and will frequently also administer the consecrated bread (and sometimes wine) as a part of the sacramental action. The Anglican Guild of St Raphael, founded in 1915, is an organisation mostly within the Church of England, with a few branches elsewhere in the world, specifically dedicated to promoting, supporting and practicing Christ's ministry of healing as an integral part of the Church. There are many other similar organisations in other Anglican provinces, often dedicated to St Luke the physician and evangelist. Ordained ministry[edit] In the Anglican tradition, the celebration of the sacraments is reserved (apart from emergency baptism by laypeople) to the clergy: bishops, priests and deacons — this last may baptise and, in some Provinces, celebrate marriages. While there has been some discussion, notably in the Diocese of Sydney, Australia, about the possibility of lay presidency of the Eucharist, for most Anglicans this is inconsistent with the common understanding of sacramental theology. Ex opere operato[edit] Gabriel Biel, the last of the great medieval scholastics defined ex opere operato as follows: ...by the very act of receiving, grace is conferred, unless mortal sin stands in the way; that beyond the outward participation no inward preparation of the heart (bonus motus) is necessary.´´ However, Anglicans generally do not accept that the sacraments are effective without positive faith being operative in those who receive them or, in the case of infant baptism, the faith of those who bring the baby to baptism and undertake to provide Christian teaching as a preparation for confirmation. The Thirty-nine Articles clearly require positive faith (see Arts. XXV & XXVIII) as do the exhortations to prepare to receive the Holy Communion found in the communion rite of the BCP-1662.
It might be claimed that Anglicans
hold to the principle of ex opere operato with respect to the
efficacy of the sacraments vis-a-vis the presider and his or her
administration thereof. Article XXVI of the Thirty-nine Articles
(entitled Of the unworthiness of ministers which hinders not the
effect of the Sacrament) states that the "ministration of the
Word and Sacraments" is not done in the name of the one
performing the sacerdotal function but in Christ's, "neither is
the effect of Christ's ordinance taken away by their wickedness from
such as by faith and rightly do receive the Sacraments ministered
unto them" since the sacraments have their effect "because
of Christ's institution and promise, although they be ministered by
evil men.") The effectiveness of the sacrament is independent of
the one who presides over it. Anglican Eucharistic Theology Anglican eucharistic theology is diverse in practice, reflecting the comprehensiveness of Anglicanism particularly well in this area while being subject to its long-established rubrics, texts related to the sacrament, of the ecclesiastical province, principally being the Eucharistic Prayer or "Great Thanksgiving". Most broad church, low church and evangelical Anglicans adhere to the 28th Article of the 39 articles, finalised in 1571 and in accordance with almost all the Reformed churches, which is that for those who in faith receive the form or sign of the body and blood (bread and wine), receive also the spiritual body and blood of Christ, while as the 29th Article clarifies, for those who receive the form or sign without faith, or for those who are wicked, Christ is not present spiritually, and they consume only the physical signs of this holy presence, which further adds to their wickedness. Others hold beliefs identical with, or similar to, the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. It was first promulgated by Scholastic theologians in the Middle Ages and understands the Eucharist to be a re-presentation of Christ's atoning sacrifice whereby the bread and wine can transubstantiate into his physical and spiritual Body and Blood. In believing this, such Anglicans tend toward the High church or Anglo-Catholic spectrum of the faith and some of these adopt reservation and adoration of the sacrament, denounced in the Reformation as superstitious by all church reformists. The Thirty-nine Articles and the Homilies rejected the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation; however at the forty-first meeting of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue in the United States of America on January 6, 1994, the bishops assembled affirmed "that Christ in the eucharist makes himself present sacramentally and truly when under the species of bread and wine these earthy realities are changed into the reality of his body and blood. In English the terms substance, substantial, and substantially have such physical and material overtones that we, adhering to The Final Report, have substituted the word truly for the word substantially..." The bishops concluded "that the eucharist as sacrifice is not an issue that divides our two Churches." A third strand of Anglicans implicitly or explicitly adopt the eucharistic theology of consubstantiation, associated with the Lollards and, later, with Martin Luther. Luther's analogy of Christ's presence was that of the intensified heat of a horseshoe thrust into a fire until it is glowing. In the same way, Christ is considered present in the bread and the wine to those who permit their soul to be radiated at the time of the sacrament with the Holy Spirit. Contents * 1 Sacramental theology * 2 Varieties of eucharistic theology o 2.1 Transubstantiation o 2.2 Spiritual presence o 2.3 "Consubstantiation" or "sacramental union" o 2.4 Receptionism * 3 Shape of the rite * 4 Customary of the rite o 4.1 Low Church o 4.2 Broad Church/Central Churchmanship o 4.3 Anglo-Catholic * 5 Administration * 6 Reservation, consumption, disposal * 7 See also * 8 Notes and references * 9 Bibliography * 10 External links Sacramental theology[edit] With the Eucharist, as with other aspects of theology, Anglicans are largely directed by the principle of lex orandi, lex credendi. In other words, sacramental theology as it pertains to the Eucharist is sufficiently and fully articulated by the Book of Common Prayer of a given jurisdiction. As defined by the 16th century Anglican theologian, Richard Hooker, the sacraments are said to be "visible signs of invisible grace" similarly the Catechism of the 1662 version states that a sacrament is "an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given to us, ordained by Christ himself, as a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof." It thus has the effect of conveying sanctification in the individual participating in the sacrament. According to this, in the Eucharist the outward and visible sign is "Bread and Wine" and the "thing signified", the "Body and Blood of Christ", which are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper". Sacraments have both form and matter. Form is the verbal and physical liturgical action, while the matter refers to material objects used (bread and wine). In an Anglican Eucharist the form is contained in the rite and its rubrics, as articulated in the authorised prayer books of the ecclesiastical province. Central to the rite is the Eucharistic Prayer or "Great Thanksgiving". For the vast majority of Anglicans, the Eucharist (also called "Holy Communion", "Mass" or the "Lord's Supper"), is the central act of gathered worship: the appointed means by which Christ can become present to his church. For the majority of Anglicans this event constitutes the renewal of the Body of Christ as the Church through the reception of the Body of Christ as the Blessed Sacrament, his spiritual body and blood. In this sacrament, Christ is both encountered and incorporated. As such, the eucharistic action looks backward as a memorial of Christ's sacrifice, forward as a foretaste of the heavenly banquet and to the present as an incarnation of Christ in the lives of the community and of individual believers. Varieties of eucharistic theology[edit] Because of the various theological movements which have influenced Anglicanism throughout history, there is no one sacramental theory accepted by all Anglicans. Early Anglican theologians, such as Cranmer and Hooker held to a sacramental theology similar to French Reformer John Calvin. The 19th century Oxford Movement, and its reverence of medieval English Christianity brought a renewed interest in various practices and doctrines which had been ousted by the Reformation, including the doctrine of transubstantiation. Today, Anglicans hold to a variety of sacramental theologies, representing the full spectrum of theories held by all Christian traditions. Transubstantiation[edit] Article XXVIII of the Thirty-Nine Articles declares that "Transubstantiation ... cannot be proved by Holy Writ; but is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament, and hath given occasion to many superstitions." Nevertheless, some Anglo-Catholics adhere to a belief in transubstantiation and, in this respect, they subscribe more closely to the eucharistic theology of Roman Catholicism than with that of mainstream Anglicanism. Representatives of the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches declared that they had "substantial agreement on the doctrine of the Eucharist" in the Windsor Statement on Eucharistic Doctrine developed by the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, as well as the commission's Elucidation of the ARCIC Windsor Statement. On January 6, 1994, the ARC/USA bishops affirmed "that Christ in the eucharist makes himself present sacramentally and truly when under the species of bread and wine these earthy realities are changed into the reality of his body and blood," while stating "In English the terms substance, substantial, and substantially have such physical and material overtones that we, adhering to The Final Report, have substituted the word truly for the word substantially..." The bishops concluded "that the eucharist as sacrifice is not an issue that divides our two Churches." This amounts to an acceptance of the doctrine, with an expression of a reservation about the use of the name of the doctrine in English because the word is misunderstood by English speakers. Spiritual presence[edit] Low-church Anglicans reject belief in transubstantiation, and accordingly, usually any belief in the reservation and adoration of the sacrament. Reservation was eliminated in practice by the rubric at the end of the 1662 Communion service which ordered the reverent consumption of any consecrated bread and wine immediately after the blessing, and adoration by the "Declaration on kneeling" Instead, they hold to a "spiritual presence" view of the Eucharist similar to the views held by Reformed Protestant denominations. Low-church parishes and ministers tend to celebrate the Eucharist less frequently (e.g., monthly) and prefer the terms "Holy Communion" or "Lord's Supper". This view has historical precedent. During the seminal years of the English Reformation, Thomas Cranmer was in correspondence with many continental Reformers, several of whom came to England at his request to aid in reforms there. These included Martin Bucer, Paul Fagius, Peter Martyr, Bernardino Ochino and Jan ?aski. The views of these men were in line with the Reformed doctrine of the sacrament. Cranmer wrote on the Eucharist in his treatise On the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Lord's Supper that Christians truly receive Christ's "self-same" Body and Blood at Communion—but in "an heavenly and spiritual manner". This is in agreement with the continental Reformed view found in Chapter XXI of the Second Helvetic Confession: There is also a spiritual eating of Christ's body; not such that we think that thereby the food itself is to be changed into spirit, but whereby the body and blood of the Lord, while remaining in their own essence and property, are spiritually communicated to us, certainly not in a corporeal but in a spiritual way, by the Holy Spirit, who applies and bestows upon us these things which have been prepared for us by the sacrifice of the Lord's body and blood for us, namely, the remission of sins, deliverance, and eternal life; so that Christ lives in us and we live in him, and he causes us to receive him by true faith to this end that he may become for us such spiritual food and drink, that is, our life. But he who comes to this sacred Table of the Lord without faith, communicates only in the sacrament and does not receive the substance of the sacrament whence comes life and salvation; and such men unworthily eat of the Lord's Table. Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, and eats and drinks judgment upon himself (I Cor. 11:26-29). For when they do not approach with true faith, they dishonor the death of Christ, and therefore eat and drink condemnation to themselves. Likewise, Articles XXVIII and XXIX: The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves, one to another, but rather it is a sacrament of our redemption by Christ's death: insomuch that to such as rightly, worthily, and with faith receive the same, the bread which we break is a partaking of the body of Christ, and likewise the cup of blessing is a partaking of the blood of Christ. Transubstantiation (or the change of the substance of bread and wine) in the Supper of the Lord, cannot be proved by Holy Writ, but is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament, and hath given occasion to many superstitions. The body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual manner. And the mean whereby the body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was not by Christ's ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, or worshipped. The wicked and such as be void of a lively faith, although they do carnally and visibly press with their teeth (as S. Augustine saith) the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, yet in no wise are they partakers of Christ, but rather to their condemnation do eat and drink the sign or sacrament of so great a thing.Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England The Catechism of the Church of England also expresses this view: Question - What meanest thou by this word Sacrament? Answer - I mean an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us, ordained by Christ himself, as a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof. Question - How many parts are there in a Sacrament? Answer - Two: the outward visible sign, and the inward spiritual grace. Question - Why was the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper ordained? Answer - For the continual remembrance of the sacrifice of the death of Christ, and of the benefits which we receive thereby. Question - What is the outward part or sign of the Lord's Supper? Answer - Bread and Wine, which the Lord hath commanded to be received. Question - What is the inward part, or thing signified? Answer - The Body and Blood of Christ, which are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper. This emphasis on the faith of the receiver instead of the elements, common to both the Continental Reformed Churches and the Church of England, has also been called receptionism. "Consubstantiation" or "sacramental union"[edit] The word "consubstantiation" is sometimes used to denote the Lutheran view of the Eucharist, though improperly as Luther and the Lutheran Confession deny this teaching. "Sacramental union" is also used. It is sometimes confusing to differentiate the Lutheran view from the Reformed view on this sacrament since the term "sacramental union" is also used in some Reformed confessions. Nevertheless, some in the Anglican Communion propose that the historical view of the Church of England is more in line with Lutheran teaching on the Eucharist than Reformed teaching. Due to geography and the borrowed thoughts of both reformed churches, it is hard to classify the English Reformation as a Lutheran or Reformed movement. It is a uniquely English movement, influenced by, but separate from Continental movements. A maxim in Anglicanism concerning Christ's presence is that "it may not be about a change of substance, but it is about a substantial change." If substantial denotes spiritual only to the recipients then this is the Lutheran view. However if substantial denotes a spiritual property of the sacraments themselves this is the Reformed view, since, after consecration, the elements are only fit for holy use and may no longer be used as common bread and wine. This view is expressed in the allied but metaphysically different doctrines of consubstantiation and sacramental union. Both views hold that Christ is present in the eucharistic elements spiritually. Such spiritual presence may or may not be believed to be in bodily form, depending on the particular doctrinal position. It may in fact be a mystical, yet still physical, Body of Christ, as some Anglicans hold, or a superphysical reality "superimposed" in, with, and under the bread and wine. Although this is similar to consubstantiation, it is different as it has a decidedly mystical emphasis. Many contemporary Anglicans would concur with the views of the 19th century Anglo-Catholic divine Edward Bouverie Pusey (a leader of the Oxford Movement), who argued strongly for the idea of sacramental union. In this doctrine, the bread and wine do not disappear at the consecration, but that the Body and Blood become present without diminishing them. How the nature of the Body and Blood is to be defined remains to be addressed, however. Receptionism[edit] An imprecisely defined view common among 16th and 17th-century Anglican theologians is known as receptionism, a term not found before 1867. According to this view, although in the Eucharist the bread and wine remain unchanged, the faithful communicant receives together with them the body and blood of Christ. Shape of the rite[edit] Main articles: Eucharist and Book of Common Prayer As mentioned above, the liturgy for Eucharist is important in Anglican Eucharistic theology because of the principle of lex orandi, lex credendi. The liturgy is defined in the authorised prayer books of the various national churches and ecclesiastical provinces of the Communion. Their communion rites follow one or other of two main sources, either the First English Prayer Book of 1549 or the Second of 1552 which with minor modifications became the 1662 BCP which is still today the liturgical legal reference-point for the Church of England. The author of both rites was Thomas Cranmer who maintained that there was no theological difference between the two, but was forced to make its Protestantism more obvious when traditionalists claimed that they could still find the doctrine of the Mass in the earlier version. Some or all of the following elements may be altered, transposed, or absent depending on the rite used by the province or national church. In modern liturgies whichever source (1549 or 1552) they follow for the Sacrament, the Liturgy of the Word has, with variations, a fairly standard pattern: * The Liturgy of The Word o The Gathering of the Community: Beginning with a Trinitarian-based greeting or seasonal acclamation; followed by the Prayer of Humble Access; the Gloria in Excelsis Deo, Kyrie eleison, and/or Trisagion; and then the Collect of the day. During Lent and/or Advent especially, this part of the service may begin or end with a penitential rite. o The Proclamation of the Word: Usually two to three readings of Scripture, one of which is always from the Gospels, plus a psalm (or portion thereof) or canticle. This is followed by a sermon or homily; the recitation of the Apostles' or Nicene Creed; o The Prayers of the People: Very varied in form. The passing of the peace may be placed here. * The Liturgy of Sacrament (1549 style) o The Celebration of the Eucharist: The gifts of bread and wine are received, along with other gifts (such as money and/or food for a food bank, etc.), and an offertory prayer is recited. Following this, a Eucharistic Prayer (called "The Great Thanksgiving") is offered. This prayer consists of a dialogue (the Sursum Corda), a preface, the sanctus and benedictus, the Words of Institution, the anamnesis, and the epiclesis. The Lord's Prayer usually follows, followed by the fraction (the breaking of the bread), the Prayer of Humble Access, the Agnus Dei, and the distribution of the sacred elements (the bread and wine). o Dismissal there is a post-Communion prayer. A doxology or general prayer of thanksgiving may follow. The service concludes with a Trinitarian blessing and the dismissal. * The Liturgy of Sacrament (1552/1662 style): o The priest prepares the table. Invitation to examine oneself, confession, absolution, "comfortable words". The Sursum Corda, preface, the sanctus, Prayer of Humble Access, Words of Institution. Then comes the distribution of the elements, the Lord's Prayer, concluding prayer of thanksgiving, the Gloria in Excelsis Deo and blessing. Customary of the rite[edit] The rubrics of a given prayer book outline the parameters of acceptable practice with regard to ritual, vestments, ornaments and method and means of distribution of the sacrament. The communal piety of a given parish or diocese will determine the expression of these rubrics and the implicit eucharist theology. Until the latter part of the 19th century, the so-called "Ornaments Rubric" of the 1662 Prayer Book was interpreted to inhibit much of the ceremonial contemporary Anglicans take for granted. Priests were directed to stand at the north side or north end of the altar and candles on the altar were considered forbidden, as was the wearing of a chasuble or maniple. The Ritualist controversies of the late 19th century solidified the ascendancy of the Catholic Revival in the United Kingdom and many other parts of the Anglican Communion, introducing a much greater diversity of practice. Low Church[edit] William White celebrating communion in choir dress in the 19th century. Such practice is still typical of low church clergy, who object to the use of sacramental vestments. In Low Church parishes ceremonial is generally kept at a minimum, according to the rubrics of historical Anglican prayer books. The service is more often called Holy Communion than the Eucharist. The priest is typically attired simply in a cassock, surplice and a black scarf (called a tippet). This is a priest's "choir habit", but may also be worn as eucharistic vestments as was commonly done in earlier years. Manual action is kept to the standards of the rubrics found in the Book of Common Prayer (often confined to placing one's hands on the elements during the words of institution). The altar is usually referred to as the "Lord's table", the "holy table", or simply the "table". Candles are either absent or two in number. The material on the table may be limited to the chalice and paten, a cloth covering and, in some instances, the prayer book. The celebration of Holy Communion may be weekly or monthly. This frequency is in keeping with the Anglican practice that predominated prior to the 20th century. After the service, and following historical rubrics, the unconsumed bread and wine are reverently eaten by the priest and other ministers. If there is more than the clergy can finish, lay persons are called to help eat the remaining elements. In accordance with the Articles of Religion, the remaining bread and wine are not reserved in a tabernacle or aumbry. Broad Church/Central Churchmanship[edit] In most Broad Church parishes there is slightly more elaboration. Attending the Eucharist at a Broad Church parish nowadays is likely to be similar in many respects to a contemporary Roman Catholic Mass. Priests will generally be vested in an alb and stole and also, in many instances, a chasuble. They may make use of a lavabo in preparation for the celebration and the chalice and paten may be initially concealed by a burse and ornamental veil. Candles will almost always be present on the altar. Broad Church Anglicans typically celebrate the Eucharist every Sunday, or at least most Sundays. The rite may also be celebrated once or twice at other times during the week. The sacrament is often reserved in an aumbry or consumed. Broad Church Anglicans may not reverence the sacrament, as such, but will frequently bow when passing the altar. Anglo-Catholic[edit] Anglo-Catholic worship involves further elaboration. The priest will often be joined by a deacon and subdeacon (the deacon being ordained in Holy Orders and the subdeacon a lay person) dressed in the historic Eucharistic vestments specific to their office (chasuble, dalmatic and tunicle, respectively). They will sometimes wear maniples and ornamented amices. In many churches the altar will be fixed against the "east wall" and the sacred ministers will celebrate Mass facing the tabernacle (often surmounted by a crucifix) above the altar, i.e., the sacred ministers and the congregation will all be facing the same direction. Apart from the tabernacle (containing the reserved sacrament) the altar is often adorned with six candles. Incense and sanctus bells are often used during the liturgy and the Eucharist itself is often supplemented by a number of prayers from earlier liturgies prayed by the priest, sacred ministers, and servers and sometimes the people as well. Anglo-Catholic eucharistic theology places an emphasis on frequent communion, ideally daily. The unconsumed elements are typically reserved in a tabernacle, either attached to a fixed altar or placed behind or to one side of a free-standing altar. When the sacrament is present, Anglo-Catholics will often genuflect when passing in front of it. When absent they will bow to the altar. Often an aumbry is dignified in the same way. Many Anglo-Catholics practice eucharistic adoration and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, either informally or through a corporate liturgical rite. Administration[edit] While the matter is always bread and wine, there is some variation. The bread may be in the form of individual wafers or an actual loaf from which pieces are torn off and distributed. Wine is typically red, but may be white (to avoid staining of the linens). In some instances, fortified wine, such as sherry or port wine, is used. In still others, the option of juice is offered, usually in consideration of recipients who may be alcoholic (although it is considered acceptable and valid to receive the sacrament in only in one kind, i.e., the bread, pace the rubrics of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer). The manner of administration varies. Many Anglican parishes retain the use of an altar rail, separating the area around the altar from the rest of the church. This practice is meant to convey the sanctity associated with the altar. In such churches, those who wish to receive communion will come forward and kneel at the altar rail, sometimes making the sign of the cross and cupping their hands (right over left) to receive the bread, then crossing themselves again to receive the chalice. Anglo-Catholics are often careful not to chew the bread (hence the overwhelming use of wafers in these parishes) or touch the chalice. Some prefer to have the bread placed directly on their tongue. In other parishes recipients stand before the administrators to receive Communion, while in still others participants may pass the sacrament from one to the next, often standing in a circle around the altar. The practice of using individual cups and handing out individual wafers or pieces of bread to be consumed simultaneously by the whole congregation is extremely uncommon in Anglicanism, but not unheard of. Anglican practice is that those who administer the sacrament must be licensed by the diocesan bishop. Traditionally, priests and deacons were the only ones authorised to administer; however, many provinces now permit the licensing of lay administrators. In some localities, a lay person is restricted to distributing the wine, while the clergy administer the bread. The question of who may receive communion likewise varies. In historic Anglican practice, the altar was "fenced" from those whose manner of living was considered to be unrepentantly sinful. As parishes grew and the private lives of individuals became less accessible to public knowledge, this practice receded — although priests will, on occasion, refuse to admit to the altar those whom they know to be actively engaged in notoriously sinful behaviour, such as criminal activity. Most Anglican provinces keep an "open table", meaning that all baptised Christians are welcome to receive communion. In many others, access to the sacrament is reserved for those who have been both baptised and confirmed, either in the Anglican or another tradition. Those who are ineligible or do not wish to receive are frequently encouraged to come forward and cross their arms to form a sign of the cross to indicate that they wish to receive a blessing. Reservation, consumption, disposal[edit] Historically, reservation has been expressly forbidden in the Anglican tradition: in Article XXVIII of the Articles of Religion, it reads: The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was not by Christ’s ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, or worshipped. A rubric following the Order of Holy Communion in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer instructs that any remaining bread and wine should be consumed as soon as the service concludes: And if any of the Bread and Wine remain unconsecrated, the Curate shall have it to his own use: but if any remain of that which was consecrated, it shall not be carried out of the Church, but the Priest, and such other of the Communicants as he shall then call unto him, shall, immediately after the Blessing, reverently eat and drink the same. In American Prayer Books (until 1979), the rubric read thus: And if any of the consecrated Bread and Wine remain after the Communion, it shall not be carried out of the Church; but the Minister and other Communicants shall, immediately after the Blessing, reverently eat and drink the same. Today, only a minority of Anglican dioceses do not authorize their individual churches to reserve the sacrament between services. In these churches, reverent consumption or disposal is often practised. When disposed, the elements may be finely broken/poured over the earth or placed down a "piscina" in the sacristy, a sink with a pipe that leads underground to a pit or into the earth. What is done with the remaining elements is often reflective of churchmanship.
Where reservation is permissible
parishes will place the sacrament (along with holy oils) in an aumbry
- a cupboard inserted in the wall of the chancel. As mentioned above,
Anglo-Catholic parishes believing in transubstantiation of properly
blessed sacraments make use of a tabernacle or hanging pyx, with
which is associated various acts of reverence and adoration.
Morning Prayer
This piece
is about the Mattins service in the Anglican tradition. Morning Prayer (also Matins or Mattins), is one of the two main Daily Offices in the churches of the Anglican Communion, prescribed in the various editions of the Book of Common Prayer and other Anglican liturgical texts. Like Evening Prayer (and in contrast to the Eucharist), it may be led by a layperson and is recited by some Anglicans daily in private (clergy in many Anglican jurisdictions are required to do so).
Contents of Morning Prayer
History In its classic form, in the 1662 version of the Prayer Book, the Morning Prayer is essentially unchanged from Archbishop Thomas Cranmer’s Second Prayer Book of Edward VI, published in 1552. It draws on the monastic offices of Matins, Lauds and Prime, beginning with opening versicles and responses, continuing with the invitatory "Venite" (Psalm 95), the "Te Deum" and "Benedictus", interspersed with Bible readings, as well as recitation of the Apostles’ Creed, and ending with closing versicles adapted from the Breviary. The Prayer Book lectionary provides for a virtually complete reading of the Bible in the course of a year.
The usual practice in medieval
parish worship was for the congregation to attend the office of
Matins, followed by the Latin Mass according to the Roman Rite,
followed by the Litany of the Saints, sung in procession. Following
the Reformation, the usual Sunday Service followed a similar pattern,
but with the English Litany said between Morning Prayer and Holy
Communion. On Sundays when there was no celebration of Communion
(i.e. most of them), only the ante-Communion would be said. Even so
— and taking into account the legal requirement to read one from
the specified set of printed Homilies — the post-Reformation
service lasted more than twice as long as its pre-Reformation
equivalent. Historically, Morning Prayer was the main Sunday morning
service on most Sundays in all Anglican parishes, with Holy Communion
being celebrated after Morning or Evening Prayer (typically once a
month, on the first Sunday). In the twentieth century, Holy Communion
became the main Sunday morning service once or twice per month. With
the revival of the Eucharist as the principal Sunday service during
the second half of the twentieth century, Morning Prayer has been the
principal Sunday service less frequently. The Breviary in its original monastic context contemplated recitation by two alternating groups of monks or nuns. This evolved into a recitation between parson and clerk on behalf of the congregation; in the 19th century the role of the clerk was increasingly given over to the whole congregation and choirs and congregations began singing the psalms and canticles to a musical setting known as Anglican chant. With the development of the Oxford Movement and increasing liturgicalism among high church-inclined clergy and parishes, Anglican chant was replaced by plainchant in some Anglo-Catholic constituencies, where Morning Prayer on Sundays became a devotional exercise prior to the celebration of the eucharist.
The daily recitation of Morning
and Evening Prayer, canonically required of Anglican clergy, has
sustained the spiritual life of Anglican communities. Nicholas
Ferrar’s 17th century religious community at Little Gidding,
commemorated in T.S. Eliot’s eponymous poem, required daily
recitation of Morning and Evening Prayer. In the 18th century, the
daily office of Morning and Evening Prayer as set out in the Book of
Common Prayer was the essence of John and Charles Wesley's
"method", which also included scriptural study, fasting and
regular reception of Holy Communion. The same "method" also
informed the 19th-century revival of monastic life within the
Anglican Church. In classical Anglican prayer books (such as the 1662 English, 1959 Canadian and 1928 American editions), the rite consists of the following elements:
On Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays Morning Prayer was to be followed by the Litany, though in practice it was usually followed by a collection, hymn, sermon, more prayers and a final hymn on Sundays.
Other than in some cathedrals and
college chapels, usually only one psalm is said or sung. A sermon or
homily may be preached at the end on Sundays or other special
occasions, such as important feast days, but does not form a set part
of the liturgy. However, when Mattins has been the principal Sunday
morning service, the sermon has been of central importance and indeed
in Samuel Pepys's Diary, documenting domestic habits of the 1660s in
the London professional class and nobility, the reference is to going
to hear a particular preacher. Common Worship: Daily Prayers offers a contemporary form of the liturgy. After the opening versicle, a hymn, prayer, and/or canticle are said or sung. A prayer is followed by psalms, canticles, and readings. The service concludes with intercessions, the collect, and the Lord's Prayer. Provision is also made for the continued use of the rite found in the Alternative Service Book. This rite is largely a contemporary rendering of the Prayer Book rite. The structure is: Preparation:
One or more of the following:
One of the following may replace the Preparation:
The Word of God:
Prayers:
Conclusion:
In the Episcopal Church, like Evening Prayer and the Eucharist, Morning Prayer in the Book of Common Prayer (1979) is provided in two forms. Both are substantially similar, but one retains some concessions to traditional Elizabethan "Prayer Book" language.
After a sentence of scripture a
General Confession is made. A priest, if present, absolves the
people. Then follows the opening versicle, an antiphon and the Venite
or another psalm or canticle. The appointed psalms are then said or
sung, one or two lessons are read, each with a canticle. The
Apostles' Creed and Lord's Prayer follow, then the suffrages, and
various prayers. The service concludes with the grace.
The Book of Alternative Services
of the Anglican Church of Canada provides a simple form for Morning
Prayer. The service may begin with the Penitential Rite or proceed
directly to the preces. The Venite is said or sung, followed by
additional psalms, one to three readings and one or more canticles.
The Apostle's Creed or the Summary of the Law is said before the
intercessions. The service concludes with the Lord's Prayer and dismissal.
In Morning Prayer according to the
Book of Common Prayer, the first canticle of Mattins is always the
Venite, Psalm 95 ("O come let us sing unto the Lord: let us
heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation..."). The Te
Deum — not, strictly speaking, a canticle as such —
("We praise thee O God, we acknowledge thee to be the Lord: all
the earth doth worship thee, the Father everlasting...") usually
follows, but may be replaced by the Benedicite, particularly in Lent.
The Benedictus ("Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath
visited and redeemed his people: and hath raised up a might salvation
for us, in the house of his servant David...") may be replaced
with the Jubilate (Psalm 100, "O be joyful in the Lord all ye
lands: serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with
a psalm..."), Salvator Mundi ("O Saviour of the world who
by thy cross and precious blood hath redeemed us, save us and help us
we humbly beseech thee O Lord: thou didst save thy disciples when
ready to perish; save us and help us we humbly beseech thee..."),
Surge illuminare ("Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the
glory of the Lord is risen upon thee: for behold, gross darkness
shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people..."),
Benedicite omnia opera ("O all ye works of the Lord, bless ye
the Lord...") or other canticles as the liturgical year proceeds. See above regarding Anglican chant, used for psalms and canticles. Throughout post-Reformation English history significant events in national life have been commemorated with specially commissioned church services. Traditionally these have been services of Morning Prayer and thus the famous Te Deums and Jubilates of Purcell, Handel and others. Handel's Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate (as with many other settings of the Mattins canticles, though the Te Deum is not strictly speaking a canticle), is of course a festal setting of Morning Prayer. "In quires and places where they sing, here followeth the anthem," it says after the Third Collect in the 1662 Prayer Book, and the vast majority of church anthems composed prior to the latter part of the 20th century were contemplated as complying with that rubric. These anthems were also sung, from the second half of the nineteenth century onwards, in British Nonconformist churches.
As a principal Sunday church
service Morning Prayer includes several congregational hymns. Anglican Marian theology is the summation of the doctrines and beliefs of Anglicanism concerning the Blessed Virgin Mary. As Anglicans believe that Jesus was both human and God the Son, the second Person of the Trinity, within the Anglican Communion and Continuing Anglican churches, Mary is accorded honour as the theotokos, literally the "God-bearer" or "one who gives birth to God". Anglicans of evangelical or low church tradition tend to avoid honouring Mary. Other Anglicans respect and honour Mary because of the special religious significance that she has within Christianity as the mother of Jesus Christ. This honour and respect is termed veneration.
Mary always held a place of honour
within the English Church, but many of the doctrines surrounding her
have been called into question over the centuries, most as the result
of the Protestant Reformation. While Protestantism is based upon
interpretation of scripture by a variety of 16th century reformers,
who mostly rejected the practice of speaking directly to Mary and
other saints (except in certain hymns, e.g. Ye Watchers and Ye Holy
Ones, canticles, e.g. the Benedicite, and psalms, e.g. Psalm 148),
Anglicanism has allowed for Mary and the saints to be addressed. According to legend, Joseph of Arimathea first brought Christianity to England and established the first Celtic Christian church at Glastonbury, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, in AD 65. By the High Middle Ages, Marian piety was so widespread throughout the country that England had become known as the Dowry of Mary. England was the first country to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption, in 1060.
Many of the great English saints
were devoted to Mary and wrote prayers about her. The Carmelite Saint
Simon Stock is said to have received the Brown Scapular from her in
the city of Cambridge on Sunday, July 16, 1251. Saint Edmund of
Canterbury wrote many prayers addressed to her. Saint Richard of
Chichester and Saint Thomas Becket were also especially devoted to
Mary, but the English saint best known for his devotion was Saint
Anselm of Canterbury, who wrote many prayers and books about and
dedicated to "the spotless Ever-Virgin Mother of Christ". One aspect of the English Reformation was a widespread reaction against Mary as a mediatrix alongside Christ, or sometimes even in his place. Such exaggerated devotions, in part inspired by presentations of Christ as an inaccessible Judge as well as Redeemer, were criticized by Erasmus and Thomas More and rejected by the Church of England. Together with a new emphasis on Scripture as the fundamental standard of faith, there was a renewed devotion by the Reformers to the belief that Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God the Father and humanity. This rejected any overt devotion to Mary and diminished her place in the life of the Church. The English Reformers' positive teaching about Mary concentrated on her role in the Incarnation. It is summed up in their acceptance of her as the Mother of God, because this was seen to be both scriptural and traditional. Following the traditions of the Early Church and other Reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin, the English Reformers such as Hugh Latimer, Thomas Cranmer and John Jewel accepted the perpetual virginity of Mary. They neither affirmed nor denied the possibility of Mary having been preserved by grace from participation in original sin. The Book of Common Prayer in the Christmas collect and preface refers to Mary as "a pure Virgin". From 1561, the calendar of the Church of England contained five feasts associated with Mary: The Conception of Mary, Nativity of Mary, Annunciation, Visitation, and Purification. There was, however, no longer a feast of the Assumption (August 15): not only was it not found in the Bible, but was also seen as exalting Mary to a level above Christ. Scottish and Canadian revisions of the Prayer Book restored August 15 as the Falling Asleep of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Despite the novel lack of devotion to Mary, starting in the 16th century, reverence for her continued in the use of the Magnificat in Evening Prayer, and the naming and dedication of ancient churches and Lady Chapels. In the 17th century writers such as Lancelot Andrewes, Jeremy Taylor, and Thomas Ken took from catholic tradition a fuller appreciation of the place of Mary in the prayers of the Church. Andrewes in his Preces Privatae borrowed from Eastern liturgies to deepen his Marian devotion. This re-appropriation can be traced into the next century, and into the Oxford Movement of the 19th century.
In 1922 the creation of a new
statue of Our Lady of Walsingham under the aegis of Father Alfred
Hope Patten, reignited Anglican interest in a revival of the
pre-Reformation pilgrimage. From the early 1930s Walsingham became a
centre of Anglican as well as Catholic Marian pilgrimage. Mary has a new prominence in Anglican worship through the liturgical renewals of the 20th century. In most Anglican prayer books, Mary is again mentioned by name in the liturgical prayers. Further, August 15 has come to be widely celebrated as a principal feast in honour of Saint Mary the Virgin with Scripture readings, collect, and proper preface. Other ancient feasts associated with Mary have also been renewed, and liturgical resources offered for use on these festivals. Marian devotions such as the Rosary, Angelus, and Regina Coeli are most commonly associated with the Anglo-Catholic and High Church movements within Anglicanism. An Anglo-Catholic manual, Saint Augustine's Prayer Book: A Book of Devotion for members of the Episcopal Church, first published in 1947, includes a section containing devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary. This includes the Rosary, the four seasonal Marian antiphons, the Memorare, and litanies of the Blessed Virgin and Our Lady of Sorrows. A Revised Edition was published in 1967, and the book remains in print with Holy Cross Publications. The Anglo-Catholic Prayer book, a classic, was published in an entirely new edition in 2000, and it also includes a section of prayers to the Blessed Virgin, including to her Immaculate Conception and Assumption.
Anglican theologian Hugh
Montefiore, former Bishop of Birmingham, while denying the immaculate
conception and the bodily assumption of Mary into heaven, says
"Christians rightly honour and venerate her as one of the great
saints of God. God had signally honoured her by choosing her to be
the mother of Jesus." Some of the most famous chapels dedicated to Mary have been Lady chapels. Since the end of the 6th century Lady Chapels have existed in most English cathedrals, where they often form part of the apse. Traditionally, a Lady chapel is the largest chapel of a cathedral. Generally, the chapel was built east of the high altar and formed a projection from the main building. The earliest Lady Chapel built was that in the Anglo-Saxon cathedral at Canterbury. Other English cathedrals with Lady Chapels include: Winchester, Salisbury, Exeter, Wells, St Albans, Chichester, Rochester, and Ely. Unusually, at Ely the Lady Chapel is an almost separate building to the north of the Choir. The Lady Chapels at Norwich and Peterborough (in a similar position to Ely's) cathedrals were destroyed during the English Reformation.
Probably the most famous
Lady-chapel was the Chapel of Our Lady of the Pew, built by Henry III
in 1220 at Westminster Abbey. The Abbey also contains Henry VII's
Lady Chapel. To encourage ecumenical cooperation despite differences over other matters, the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches issued a joint statement, "Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ" (also known as the Seattle Statement) on the role of the Virgin Mary in Christianity. The document was released May 16, 2005 in Seattle, Washington, by Alexander Brunett, the local Catholic Archbishop, and Peter Carnley, Anglican Archbishop of Perth, Western Australia, co-chairmen of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC). Much has been made of the difference between the Mariology of Anglicans and that of Roman Catholics. Because Anglicanism does not have an official view about these doctrines, it can be difficult to say with precision what Anglicans believe. The description here attempts to sketch out the areas where Anglicans are in agreement that there is no official binding doctrine. Roman Catholic Mariology contends that a higher veneration (hyperdulia) is given to Mary than the dulia given to the other saints. Worship (latria) is properly given only to God. While Anglicans can agree that God alone is to be worshipped, many do not agree that Mary should receive a degree of veneration above the other saints. Some Anglicans agree with the Eastern Orthodox, that Mary is simply the greatest of all the Saints, and that she should be venerated as such.
Anglicanism also does not accept
the doctrines of the Assumption or the Immaculate Conception as
binding, though some Anglicans do accept these doctrines,
particularly the former. Even then, they are not held to the
particular forms used by the Roman Catholic Church to define them.
Many agree with the Eastern Orthodox rejection of the Immaculate
Conception, while agreeing that Mary was without actual sin during
her life. Many also are more in agreement with the Dormition of Mary
as understood by the Orthodox.
Saint Mary the Virgin, or the
"Falling Asleep of the Blessed Virgin Mary" - (August 15) Annunciation - (March 25) Presentation of Jesus at the Temple also the "Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary" or Candlemas - (February 2)
Visitation of the Blessed Virgin
Mary - (May 31 or July 2) The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary - (September 8)
Conception of the Blessed Virgin
Mary - (December 8) This section is written like a manual or guidebook. Please help rewrite this section from a descriptive, neutral point of view, and remove advice or instruction. (September 2010) Anglicans recognize only one dogma about Mary: that she is the Theotokos, the Mother of God. All other doctrines, beliefs, or legends about Mary are secondary to her role as Mother of God. Some Anglicans agree that the doctrine of the Perpetual Virginity of Mary is sound and logical, but without more scriptural proof it cannot be considered dogmatic. Most Anglicans reject the idea of Mary as Co-Redemptrix and any interpretation of the role of Mary that obscures the unique mediation of Christ. Anglicans typically believe that all doctrines concerning Mary must be linked with the doctrines of Christ and the Church. Most Anglicans generally believe that the Roman Catholic dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of Mary are merely pious beliefs or legends, since there is no clear reference in Scripture to support them, although some Anglo-Catholics follow these dogmas. Anglicans recognize Mary as an example of holiness, faith and obedience for all Christians; and that Mary can be seen as a prophetic figure of the Church. As the Gospel of Luke (1.48) states "henceforth all nations shall call me blessed," she is often considered to have a unique place of importance within the Communion of Saints The Anglican Communion observes all the traditional Marian festivals of the ancient Catholic Church.
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