Anglicanism

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Organization
Anglican Communion its 'instruments of unity': Archbishop of Canterbury Lambeth Conferences Primates' Meeting Anglican Consultative Council
Background
Christianity Catholicism Apostolic Succession English Reformation
People
Henry VIII Thomas Cranmer Thomas Cromwell Elizabeth I Richard Hooker Charles I William Laud
Liturgy and Worship
Book of Common Prayer High Church · Low Church Broad Church Oxford Movement Thirty-Nine Articles Doctrine · Ministry Sacraments Saints in Anglicanism This box: view • talk • edit

Anglicanism commonly refers to the beliefs and practices of the Anglican Communion, the churches that are in full communion with the see of Canterbury.^[1]

Contents 1 Terminology 1.1 Anglicanism defined 2 Origins and history 2.1 Origins 2.2 Reformation 2.2.1 King Henry VIII of England 2.2.2 Cranmer, Parker, and Hooker 2.2.3 King James Bible 2.2.4 English Civil War 2.3 Restoration and beyond 2.3.1 Act of Toleration 2.3.2 Spread of Anglicanism outside England 3 Doctrine 3.1 Catholic and Reformed 3.2 Guiding principles 3.3 Anglican divines 3.4 Churchmanship 4 Practices: prayer and worship 4.1 Anglican worship: an overview 4.2 Book of Common Prayer 4.2.1 Holy Eucharist 4.2.2 Sacraments 4.2.3 Liturgy of the Hours 5 Organization and mission of the Church 5.1 Principles of governance 5.2 Focus of Unity: The Archbishop of Canterbury 5.3 Instruments of unity 5.4 Ordained ministry 5.4.1 Episcopate 5.4.2 Presbyterate (Priesthood) 5.4.3 Diaconate 5.5 Laity 5.6 Religious life 5.7 Worldwide distribution 5.8 Ecumenism 6 Role of the Church in civilization 6.1 Pacifism 6.2 After World War II 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links

[edit] Terminology

For more details on the universal Church of which Anglicanism is a part, see Christian Church.

The word Anglicanism was a neologism in the 19th century, being constructed from the much older word Anglican.^[1] The word refers to the teachings and rites of Christians in communion with the see of Canterbury. It has come to be used to refer to the claim of those Churches to a unique religious and theological tradition apart from all other Christian churches, be they Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, or Protestant.^[1]

The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a Medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 meaning "the English Church".^[2] 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.^[1] As a noun, an Anglican is a member of a church in the Anglican Communion but not all member churches of the Anglican Communion use the word Anglican in their names; some use the word Episcopal: for example, the Episcopal Church in the United States of America and the Scottish Episcopal Church. Though the use is disputed by the Anglican Communion, the word is claimed by followers of dissenting groups which have left the Communion or have been founded separately from it.

[edit] Anglicanism defined

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Anglicanism, in its structures, theology and forms of worship, is understood as a distinct Christian tradition representing a middle ground between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism and, as such, is often referred to as being a via media (or middle way) between these traditions. The faith of Anglicans is founded in the Scriptures and the Gospels, the traditions of the Apostolic Church, the historic episcopate, 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 celebrate the traditional sacraments, with special emphasis being given to the Holy Eucharist, also called Holy Communion 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 recalled through prayer, reading of the Bible, singing, and the consecration of bread and wine as instituted at the Last Supper. Whilst many Anglicans celebrate the Eucharist in similar ways to the Roman Catholic tradition a considerable degree of liturgical freedom is permitted and worship styles vary from simple to elaborate.

Unique to Anglicanism is the Book of Common Prayer, the collection of services that worshippers in most Anglican churches used for centuries. It was called "common prayer" because all Anglicans used to use it around the world. In 1549 the first Book of Common Prayer (BCP) was compiled by Thomas Cranmer, who was then Archbishop of Canterbury. Whilst it has since undergone many revisions and Anglican churches in different countries have developed other service books, the Prayer Book is still acknowledged as one of the ties that bind the Anglican Communion together.

Anglicans uphold the Catholic and Apostolic faith and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. In practice Anglicans believe this is revealed in Holy Scripture and the catholic creeds, and interpret these in light of Christian tradition, scholarship, reason, and experience.

[edit] Origins and history

See also: History of the Church of England, History of the Scottish Episcopal Church, and Church of Ireland#History

[edit] Origins

Anglicans traditionally date the origins of their Church to the arrival in the Kingdom of Kent of the first Archbishop of Canterbury, St Augustine, at the end of the 6th century. However, the origin of the Church in the British Isles extends farther back. Christianity first gained a foothold during the Roman occupation of Britannia, possibly as early as the 1st century. The first recorded Christian martyr in Britain, St Alban, is thought to have lived in the early 4th century, and his prominence in Anglican hagiography is reflected in the number of parish churches of which he is patron. Restitutus (fl. 314) is known to have been the metropolitan bishop of London and he is named as having attended the Council of Arles. Irish Anglicans trace their origins back to the founding saint of Irish Christianity (St Patrick) who was a Roman Briton and pre-dated Anglo-Saxon Christianity. Some Anglicans consider Celtic Christianity a forerunner of their church, since the re-establishment of Christianity in some areas in the early sixth century came via Irish and Scottish missionaries, notably Patrick and St Columba.^[3]

[edit] Reformation

Main article: English Reformation

While Anglicans acknowledge that the repudiation of papal authority by Henry VIII of England led to the Church of England existing as a separate entity, they believe that it is in continuity with the pre-Reformation Church of England. Quite apart from its distinct customs and liturgies (such as the Sarum rite), the organizational machinery of the Church of England was in place by the time of the Synod of Hertford in 672–673 when the English bishops were for the first time able to act as one body under the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Henry's Act in Restraint of Appeals (1533) and the Acts of Supremacy (1534) declared that the English crown was "the only Supreme Head in earth of the Church of England, called Ecclesia Anglicana," in order "to repress and extirpate all errors, heresies, and other enormities and abuses heretofore used in the same." The development of the Thirty-Nine Articles of religion and the passage of the Acts of Uniformity culminating in the Elizabethan Religious Settlement resulted by the end of the seventeenth century in a Church that described itself as both Catholic and Reformed with the English monarch as its Supreme Governor.^[1] MacCulloch commenting on this situation says that it "has never subsequently dared to define its identity decisively as Protestant or Catholic, and has decided in the end that this is a virtue rather than a handicap." ^[4]

[edit] King Henry VIII of England

The English Reformation was initially driven by the dynastic goals of Henry VIII, who, in his quest for a consort who would bear him a male heir, found it expedient to replace papal authority with the supremacy of the English crown. The early legislation focused primarily on questions of temporal and spiritual supremacy. The introduction of the Great Bible in 1538 brought a vernacular translation of the Scriptures into churches. The Dissolution of the Monasteries and the seizure of their assets by 1540 brought huge amounts of church land and property under the jurisdiction of the Crown, and ultimately into the hands of the English nobility. This simultaneously removed the greatest centres of loyalty to the pope and created vested interests which made a powerful material incentive to support a separate Christian church in England under the rule of the Crown.

[edit] Cranmer, Parker, and Hooker

By 1549, the process of reforming the ancient national church was fully spurred on by the publication of the first vernacular prayer book, the Book of Common Prayer, and the enforcement of the Acts of Uniformity, establishing English as the language of public worship. The theological justification for Anglican distinctiveness was begun by the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, the principal author of the first Prayer Book, and continued by other thinkers such as Matthew Parker, Richard Hooker and Lancelot Andrewes. Cranmer had worked as a diplomat in Europe and was aware of the ideas of the Reformers Andreas Osiander, Friedrich Myconius, as well as the Roman Catholic theologian Desiderius Erasmus.

During the short reign of Edward VI, Henry's son, Cranmer and others moved the Church of England significantly towards a more reformed position, which was reflected in the development of the second Prayer Book (1552) and in the Forty-Two Articles of Religion. This reform was reversed abruptly in the subsequent reign of Queen Mary, a Roman Catholic who re-established communion with Rome.

In the 16th century, religious life was an important part of the cement which held society together and formed an important basis for extending and consolidating political power. Differences in religion were likely to lead to civil unrest at the very least, with treason and foreign invasion acting as real threats. When Queen Elizabeth came to the throne, a solution was thought to have been found. To minimise bloodshed over religion in her dominions, the religious settlement between factions of Rome and Geneva was brought about. It was compellingly articulated in the development of the 1559 Book of Common Prayer, the Thirty-Nine Articles, the Ordinal, and the two Books of Homilies. These works, issued under Archbishop Matthew Parker, were to become the basis of all subsequent Anglican doctrine and self-identification.^[1]

The new version of the prayer book was substantially the same as Cranmer's earlier versions. It would become a source of great argument during the 17th century, but later revisions were not of great theological importance.^[1] The Thirty-Nine Articles were based on the earlier work of Cranmer, being modelled after the Forty-Two Articles.

The bulk of the population acceded to Elizabeth's religious settlement with varying degrees of enthusiasm or resignation. It was imposed by law, and secured Parliamentary approval only by a narrow vote in which all the Roman Catholic bishops who were not imprisoned voted against. As well as those who continued to recognise papal supremacy, the more militant Protestants, or Puritans as they became known, opposed it. Both groups were punished and disenfranchised in various ways and cracks in the façade of religious unity in England appeared.

[edit] King James Bible

Shortly, after coming to the throne James I attempted to bring unity to the Church of England by instituting a commission consisting of scholars from all views within the Church to produce a unified and new translation of the bible free of Calvinist and Popish influence. The project was begun in 1604 and completed in 1611 becoming de facto the Authorised Version in the Church of England and Anglican churches throughout the communion until the mid-20th century. The New Testament was translated from the Textus Receptus (Received Text) edition of the Greek texts, so called because most extant texts of the time were in agreement with it.

The Old Testament was translated from the Masoretic Hebrew text, while the Apocrypha was translated from the Greek Septuagint (LXX). The work was done by 47 scholars working in six committees, two based in each of the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, and Westminster. They worked on certain parts separately; then the drafts produced by each committee were compared and revised for harmony with each other.

This translation had a profound effect on English literature. The works of famous authors such as John Milton, Herman Melville, John Dryden and William Wordsworth are deeply inspired by it.

The Authorised Version is often referred to as the King James Version, particularly in the United States. This despite the fact that King James was not personally involved in the translation, though his authorization was legally necessary for the translation to begin, and he set out guidelines for the translation process, such as prohibiting footnotes and ensuring that Anglican positions were recognised on various points.

[edit] English Civil War

For the next century, through the reigns of James I and Charles I, and culminating in the English Civil War and the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, there were significant swings back and forth between two factions: the Puritans (and other radicals) who sought more far-reaching reform, and the more conservative churchmen who aimed to keep closer to traditional beliefs and practices. The failure of political and ecclesiastical authorities to submit to Puritan demands for more extensive reform was one of the causes of open warfare. By continental standards the level of violence over religion was not high, but the casualties included a king, Charles I and an Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud. For about a decade (1647-1660), Christmas was another casualty as Cromwell abolished all feasts and festivals of the Church to rid England of outward signs of Popishness. Under the Protectorate of the Commonwealth of England from 1649 to 1660, Anglicanism was disestablished, presbyterian ecclesiology was introduced as an adjunct to the Episcopal system, the Articles were replaced with the Westminster Confession, and the Book of Common Prayer was replaced by the Directory of Public Worship.

Despite this, about one quarter of English clergy refused to conform. In the midst of the apparent triumph of Calvinism, the 17th century brought forth a Golden Age of Anglicanism.^[1] The Caroline Divines, such as Andrews, Laud, Herbert Thorndike, Jeremy Taylor, John Cosin, Thomas Ken and others rejected Roman claims and refused to adopt the ways and beliefs of the Continental Protestants.^[1] The historic episcopate was preserved. Truth was to be found in Scripture and the bishops and archbishops, which were to be bound to the traditions of the first four centuries of the Church's history. The role of reason in theology was affirmed.^[1]

[edit] Restoration and beyond

Main article: English Restoration

[edit] Act of Toleration

With the Restoration of Charles II, Anglicanism too was restored in a form not far removed from the Elizabethan version. One difference was that the ideal of encompassing all the people of England in one religious organization, taken for granted by the Tudors, had to be abandoned.

The 1662 revision of the Book of Common Prayer became the unifying text of the ruptured and repaired Church after the disaster that was the civil war.

With the Act of Toleration enacted on 24 May 1689, Nonconformists had freedom of worship. That is, those Protestants who dissented from the Church of England such as Baptists, Congregationalists and Quakers but not Roman Catholics were allowed their own places of worship and their own teachers and preachers, subject to acceptance of certain oaths of allegiance. It deliberately did not apply to Catholics and Unitarians and continued the existing social and political disabilities for dissenters, including their exclusion from political office. The religious landscape of England assumed its present form, with an Anglican established church occupying the middle ground, and Roman Catholics and those Puritans who dissented from the establishment, too strong to be suppressed altogether, having to continue their existence outside the national church rather than controlling it. Restrictions and continuing official suspicion and legal restrictions continued well into the nineteenth century.

The Elizabethan Settlement failed in that it was never able to win the assent of the entire English people, let alone the other peoples of the British Isles, yet it experienced enormous success as this model of Anglican Christianity spread overseas.

[edit] Spread of Anglicanism outside England

See also: History of the Anglican Communion

The history of Anglicanism since the 17th century has been one of greater geographical and cultural expansion and diversity, accompanied by a concomitant diversity of liturgical and theological profession and practice.

At the same time as the English reformation, the Church of Ireland was separated from Rome and adopted articles of faith similar to England's Thirty-Nine Articles. However, unlike England, the Anglican church there was never able to capture the loyalty of the majority of the population (who still adhered to Roman Catholicism). As early as 1582, the Scottish Episcopal Church was inaugurated when James VI of Scotland sought to reintroduce bishops when the Church of Scotland became fully presbyterian (see Scottish reformation). The Scottish Episcopal Church enabled the creation of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America after the American Revolution, by consecrating in Aberdeen the first American bishop, Samuel Seabury, who had been refused consecration by bishops in England, due to his inability to take the oath of allegiance to the English crown prescribed in the Order for the Consecration of Bishops. The polity and ecclesiology of the Scottish and American churches, as well as their daughter churches, thus tends to be distinct from those spawned by the English church - reflected, for example, in their looser conception of provincial government, and their leadership by a presiding bishop or primus rather than by a metropolitan or archbishop. The names of the Scottish and American churches inspire the customary term Episcopalian for an Anglican; the term being used in these and other parts of the world. See also: American Episcopalians, Scottish Episcopalians

At the time of the Reformation the four (now six) Welsh dioceses were all part of the Province of Canterbury, and remained so until 1920 when the Church in Wales was created as a province of the Anglican Communion. The intense interest in the Christian faith which characterised the Welsh in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was not present in the sixteenth, and most Welsh people went along with the Reformation more because the English government was strong enough to impose its wishes in Wales, rather than out of any real conviction.

Anglicanism spread outside of the British Isles by means of emigration as well as missionary effort. English missionary organizations such as USPG - then known as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge (SPCK) and the Church Missionary Society (CMS) were established in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to bring Anglican Christianity to the British colonies. By the nineteenth century, such missions were extended to other areas of the world. The liturgical and theological orientations of these missionary organizations were diverse. The SPG, for example, was influenced by the Catholic Revival in the Church of England, while CMS was influenced by the Evangelicalism of the earlier Evangelical Revival. As a result, the piety, liturgy, and polity of the indigenous churches they established came to reflect these diverse orientations.

The growth of the twin "revivals" in nineteenth century Anglicanism — Evangelical and Catholic — were hugely influential. The Evangelical Revival informed important social movements such as the abolition of slavery, child welfare legislation, prohibition of alcohol, the development of public health and public education. It led to the creation of the Church Army, an evangelical and social welfare association and informed piety and liturgy, most notably in the development of Methodism. The Catholic Revival, arguably, had a more penetrating impact. It succeeded in transforming the liturgy of the Anglican Church, repositioning the Eucharist as the central act of worship in place of the daily offices, and reintroducing the use of vestments, ceremonial, and acts of piety (such as Eucharistic adoration) that had long been prohibited in the English church and (to a certain extent) in its daughter churches. It had an impact on Anglican theology, through such Oxford Movement figures as John Henry Newman, Edward Pusey, as well as the Christian socialism of Charles Gore Frederick Maurice.

[edit] Doctrine

Main article: Anglican doctrine

[edit] Catholic and Reformed

In the time of Henry VIII rather than theological disagreement, the nature of Anglicanism was based on questions of jurisdiction - namely, the belief of the Crown that national churches should be autonomous. The effort to create a national church in legal continuity with its traditions, but inclusive of the doctrinal and liturgical belief of the Reformers, was joined by a real concern to make the institution as hospitable as possible to people of different theological inclinations, so as to maintain social peace and cohesion. The result has been a movement with a distinctive self-image among Christian movements. The question often arises 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 Protestant 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 embraced and extended liturgical and pastoral practices dissimilar to most Reformed Protestant theology. This extends beyond the ceremony of High Church services to even more theologically significant territory, such as sacramental theology (see Anglican sacraments). While Anglo-Catholic practices, particularly liturgical ones, have become more common within the tradition over the last century, there remain many places where practices and beliefs remain on the more Protestant or Evangelical side.

[edit] Guiding principles

Unlike other Christian movements, Anglican doctrine is neither established by a magisterium, nor derived from the theology of an eponymous founder (such as Lutheranism or Calvinism), nor summed up in a confession of faith (beyond those of the creeds). Instead, the earliest Anglican theological documents are its prayer books, which were themselves the products of profound theological reflection and compromise. It is within the Book of Common Prayer that Anglican doctrine was originally expressed in the selection, arrangement, and composition of prayers and exhortations, the selection and arrangement of daily scripture readings (the lectionary), and in the stipulation of the rubrics for permissible liturgical action and any variations in the prayers and exhortations. The principle of looking to the prayer books as a guide to the parameters of belief and practice is called by the Latin name lex orandi, lex credendi ("the law of prayer is the law of belief"). Within the prayer books are the so-called fundamentals of Anglican doctrine: The Apostles' and Nicene Creeds, the scriptures (via the lectionary), the sacraments, daily prayer, the catechism, and apostolic succession in the context of the historic threefold ministry.

Beyond the prayer books of various provinces, however, there are other important principles that have had an impact on Anglican belief. The earliest are contained within the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, as they appear in their final, 1604 form. Historically, Anglican clergy had to take an oath of subscription to the Articles, although the practice has become uncommon. Despite this, they have never been considered binding, but rather advisory. The degree to which each of the articles has remained influential varies. Arguably, the most influential of them has been Article VI on the "sufficiency of Scripture," which states that "Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever 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 so-called "standard divines" (see below). Historically, the most influential of these - apart from Cranmer - has been the sixteenth century cleric and theologian Richard Hooker. 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 Holy Scriptures, as containing all things necessary to salvation; the Creeds (specifically, the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds), as the sufficient statement of Christian faith; the dominical sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion; and the historic episcopate.

[edit] Anglican divines

See also: John Donne, George Herbert, and William Laud

William Laud

Within the Anglican tradition, there have been certain theological writers whose works have been considered standards for faith, doctrine, worship, and spirituality. 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 Church, and those whose works are frequently anthologised.^[5]

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.^[6] On the whole, Anglican divines view the via media of Anglicanism, not as a compromise, but "a positive position, witnessing to the universality of God and God's kingdom working through the fallible, earthly ecclesia Anglicana."^[7] These theologians regard Scripture as interpreted through tradition and reason as authoritative in matters concerning salvation. Reason and tradition, indeed, is extant in and presupposed by Scripture, thus implying co-operation between God and humanity, God and nature, and between the sacred and secular. Faith is thus regarded as incarnational, and authority as dispersed.

Among the early Anglican divines of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the names of Thomas Cranmer, John Jewel, Richard Hooker, Lancelot Andrewes, and Jeremy Taylor predominate. The influential character of Hooker's Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity 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 eighteenth century saw the rise of two important movements in Anglicanism: Cambridge Platonism, with its mystical understanding of reason as the "candle of the Lord," and the Evangelical Revival, with its emphasis on the personal experience of the Holy Spirit. The Cambridge Platonist movement evolved into a school called Latitudinarianism, which emphasised reason as the barometer of discernment and took a stance of indifference towards doctrinal and ecclesiological differences. The Evangelical Revival, influenced by such figures as John Wesley and Charles Simeon, re-emphasised the importance of justification through faith and the consequent importance of personal conversion. Some in this movement, such as Wesley and George Whitefield, took the message to the United States, influencing the First Great Awakening, and created an Anglo-American movement called Methodism that would eventually break away, structurally, from the Anglican churches after the American Revolution.

By the nineteenth century, there was a renewed emphasis on the teachings of the earlier Anglican divines: Theologians such as John Keble, Edward Bouverie Pusey, and John Henry Newman had widespread influence in the realm of polemics, homiletics, and theological and devotional works, not least because they largely repudiated the Old High Church tradition and replaced it with a dynamic appeal to antiquity which looked beyond the Reformers and Anglican formularies.^[8] Their work is largely credited with the development of the Oxford Movement, which sought to reassert Catholic identity and practice in the Anglican Church. Through such works as The Kingdom of Christ, Frederick Denison Maurice played a pivotal role in inaugurating another movement, Christian socialism. In this, Maurice transformed Hooker's emphasis on the incarnational nature of Anglican spirituality to an imperative for social justice. In the nineteenth century, Anglican biblical scholarship began to assume a distinct character, represented by the so-called "Cambridge triumvirate" of Joseph Lightfoot, F. J. A. Hort, and Brooke Foss Westcott. Their orientation is best summed up by Lightfoot's observation that "Life which Christ is and which Christ communicates, the life which fills our whole beings as we realise its capacities, is active fellowship with God."

The twentieth century is marked by figures such as Charles Gore, with his emphasis on natural revelation, William Temple's focus on Christianity and societyJ.A.T. Robinson's provocative discussions of deism and theism, Darwell Stone's and E L Mascall's thomism and defence of Catholic orthodoxy, and Kenneth Kirk's Moral Theology.^[9] Outside England, one sees such figures as William Porcher DuBose, William Meade, and Charles Henry Brent in the United States. More recently, theologians such as Henry Chadwick. John Macquarrie and Don Cupitt, who rejected all the doctrines of historic Christianity in favour of a "Christian Buddism",^[10] Jeffrey John, N.T. Wright, and Rowan Williams have added to the mix.

[edit] Churchmanship

.

"Churchmanship" can be defined as the manifestation of theology in the realms of liturgy, piety and — to some extent — spirituality. Anglicanism diversity in this respect has tended to reflect the diversity in the tradition's Protestant and Catholic identity. Different individuals, groups, parishes, dioceses and provinces may identify more with one or the other, or some balance 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 ritualism 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 a fashion that resembles that of the contemporary Roman Catholic Church, sometimes in an even more traditional manner (e.g., an "eastward orientation" at the altar). The Eucharist may be conducted by priest, deacon and subdeacon dressed in their traditional vestments, using incense and sanctus bells and with "secret prayers" said by the presiding celebrant. Such churches may practice 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 ministers attired in choir habit, or more regular clothes, rather than Eucharistic vestments. Ceremony may be in keeping with their view of the provisions of the controversial Ornaments Rubric of the historic English prayer books — no candles, no incense, no bells and a minimum of manual action by the presiding celebrant (such as touching the elements at the Words of Institution).

In recent decades there has been a growth of charismatic worship among Anglicans. Both Anglo-Catholics and Evangelicals have been affected by this movement such that it 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. Via media may be understood as underscoring Anglicanism's preference for a communitarian and methodological approach to theological issues rather than relativism.

[edit] Practices: prayer and worship

For more details on on the daily Anglican morning office, see Morning Prayer.

see also Evensong 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. The Liturgy is regulated by the prayer books and consists of the Holy Eucharist (some call it Holy Communion or Mass), the other Sacraments, and the Liturgy of the Hours.

[edit] Anglican worship: an overview

See also: Church of England parish church

Anglican worship services are open to all visitors. Many Christians of other churches would find much that is familiar in Anglican worship (though some would find elements of it strange or even objectionable).

A distinctive feature of Anglican worship which sets it apart from Protestant traditions is the use of a set order of worship, traditionally the Book of Common Prayer. Although many Anglican churches now use a wide range of modern service books, the structures of the Book of Common Prayer are largely retained, and 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 services. A visitor from most mainline Protestant churches might find little difference from their own worship in a contemporary low church Anglican service, but would find that a broad church or high church Anglican service departs from the norms of a Protestant service in the formality of the liturgy. Especially, the use of vestments will seem unusual to some Protestants; although this distinction will be absent in low church Anglican services. The presence of wine in the Eucharist and the frequent celebration of the Eucharist would be of notice; although, again, low church Anglicans may offer Holy Communion less frequently and may offer grape juice. And until the mid-twentieth century, this difference was not as acute as the main Sunday service was morning prayer as opposed to the Eucharist which has slowly became the standard form of worship in Anglican churches from the late nineteenth century onwards. And while only baptised persons are eligible to receive communion^[11], in many Anglican Provinces all baptised Christians whether or not they have been baptised or confirmed in the Anglican church may receive communion. Unlike some Protestant churches, infant baptism is the norm in Anglican churches although adults can be baptised as well. Anglicans only baptise once. Protestants baptised as Christians outside of the Anglican church can be confirmed within the Anglican church but need not (nor would be) baptised again. An Anglican service will have readings from the Bible that are pre-set, standardised and unified throughout the Anglican Communion with readings following a common lectionary that insures the entire Bible is read out loud in the church over a three year cycle: this is a practice not all Protestants follow. The Bible readings include the Apocrypha. The sermon or homily may appear very short (even absent in some Anglican services such as compline) to the ears of some Protestants: an Anglican sermon is typically about ten to twenty minutes in length. Set prayers are read in Anglican churches, which to some Protestants used to extemporaneous prayer may seem formal. During intercessory prayer - which may be unusual for some Protestants - there may be prayers for the dead in some Anglican churches. The observing feasts, fasts, and the lives of the saints will surprise some Protestants. The presence of figurative stained glass or painting or illustration including plaques and memorials on the walls of an Anglican church may surprise some Protestants. The hierarchical threefold order of ordained ministers (deacons, priests, and bishops) which Anglicans view as connecting their Church to the early apostolic Church via an unbroken apostolic succession is unusual for Protestants. As is the system of Anglican Church administration where the diocese is the primary unit of governance and not the individual parish or denomination as a whole, while most Protestant forms of church governance and administration is congregational. The practice of monasticism and the presence of Anglican monks and Anglican nuns would seem odd to most Protestant visitors.

A visitor from a Roman Catholic or Orthodox church would view a low church Anglican service as very different but even the broad church and high church Anglican church services would have jarring anomalies to such a visitor. The number one difference would be the likely presence of female Anglican clergy; although women's ordination is not universal in the Anglican Communion. Throughout the Anglican Communion though is the presence of married clergy: all clergy including bishops can marry and celibacy is not a requirement for Holy Orders. The service - especially the high church Anglican service would not appear too strange to the Roman Catholic visitor although parishioners during the service may sit on chairs or pews unlike some Orthodox services. Parishioners kneel, sit and stand much like they do in a Roman Catholic mass although genuflection and crossing one-self is less frequent. But Anglicans - especially broad church and high church Anglicans - do cross themselves and in much the same way as Roman Catholics. Unlike the Roman Catholic mass where the priest may say the mass alone without the presence of anyone else (a quorum of one), an Anglican priest requires the presence of at least one other (a quorum of two). The sacraments of bread and wine may be reserved and a presence candle will be lit in some Anglican churches. Unlike the Roman Catholic church, both bread and wine are always offered during communion in Anglican Eucharist services. In some provinces the Eucharist is inclusive (open) to all baptised Christians - inside and outside the Anglican Communion- which is a practice that may surprise a Roman Catholic or Orthodox visitor. Some Anglican churches will have confessionals and the priests will take the Sacrament of Reconcilation. However, Anglicans focus heavily on two Dominical Sacraments, Baptism and Holy Communion, above the other five. To the Roman Catholic visitor, the collegiate structure of the church in contrast with Roman Catholic centralization may seem unusual. There is almost never reference to the Bishop of Rome in an Anglican mass. The loose structure of the Anglican Communion -unlike the pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury has no authority outside his province but is regarded as "first among equals" among bishops in the Anglican Communion - may seem strange to a Roman Catholic visitor.

[edit] Book of Common Prayer

The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) is the foundational prayer book of Anglicanism. The original was one of the instruments of the English Reformation and was later to be adapted and revised in other countries where Anglicanism became established. The BCP replaced the various 'uses' or rites in Latin that had been used in different parts of the country with a single compact volume in the language of the people so that "now from henceforth all the Realm shall have but one use".

With British colonial expansion from the seventeenth century onwards, the Anglican church was planted across the globe. These churches at first used and then revised the use of the Prayer Book, until they, like their parent, produced prayer books which took into account the developments in liturgical study and practice in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which come under the general heading of the Liturgical Movement.

[edit] Holy Eucharist

Anglicanism officially teaches the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, but the specifics of that belief range from transubstantiation, sometimes with Eucharistic adoration, to something akin to a belief in a "pneumatic" presence, which may or may not be tied to the Eucharistic elements themselves. The normal range of Anglican belief ranges from Objective Reality to Pious Silence, depending on the individual Anglican's theology.

The classic Anglican aphorism with regard to this debate is found in a poem by John Donne:

He was the Word that spake it;

He took the bread and brake it;

and what that Word did make it;

I do believe and take it.^[12]

Anglican belief in the Eucharistic Sacrifice ("Sacrifice of the Mass") is set forth in the response Saepius officio of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to Pope Leo XIII's Papal Encyclical Apostolicae curae. Anglicans and Roman Catholics 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 and the Elucidation of the ARCIC Windsor Statement.

[edit] Sacraments

As befits its prevailing self-identity as a via media or "middle path" of Western Christianity, Anglican sacramental theology expresses elements in keeping with its status as a church in the Catholic tradition, and a church of the Reformation. With respect to sacramental theology, that 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.

Of the seven sacraments, Anglicans recognise two as having been ordained by Christ and the five other acts are regarded variously as full sacraments by Anglo-Catholic Anglicans or as "sacramental rites" by evangelical Anglicans.

Altogether, the seven are: Baptism, Confession and absolution, Holy Matrimony, Holy Eucharist (also called Holy Communion or Mass), Confirmation, Holy Orders (also called Ordination), and Anointing of the Sick (also called Unction.)

[edit] Liturgy of the Hours

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. In many, if not most Anglican formularies, these offices are supplemented by forms of the Little Hours, viz. Prime and prayer during the day e.g. (Terce, Sext, None, and Compline).

In England, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and other Anglican provinces, the modern prayer book contains four offices:

• Morning Prayer, corresponding to Matins and Lauds
• Prayer During the Day, roughly corresponding to the combination of Terce, Sext and None (Noonday Prayer in the USA)
• Evening Prayer, corresponding to Vespers
• Compline

In addition, most prayer books include a section of prayers and devotions for family use. In the US, these offices are further supplemented by an "Order of Worship for the Evening," a prelude to or an abbreviated form of Evensong, partly taken from a Jewish Lucernaria service. 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." The 1989 A New Zealand Prayer Book provides different outlines for Matins and Evensong on each day of the week, as well as "Midday Prayer," "Night Prayer," and "Family Prayer."

The prayer offices have an important place in Anglican history. Prior to the Catholic revival of the nineteenth century, which eventually restored Holy Eucharist as the principle Sunday liturgy, Matins and Evensong were the usual expressions of common worship. 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).

Some Anglican monastic communities have a Daily Office based on that of the Book of Common Prayer but with additional antiphons, canticles, etc., for specific days of the week, specific Psalms, etc. See, for example, Order of the Holy Cross [1] and Order of St. Helena, editors, A Monastic Breviary (Wilton, Conn.: Morehouse-Barlow, 1976). The All Saints Sisters of the Poor [2], with convents in Catonsville, Md., 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.

Some Anglo-Catholic groups use the Anglican Breviary, which is an adaptation 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. It contains all eight historic offices in one volume, rather than the traditional four, but does not contain the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was bound along with many editions of the Breviarium Romanum.

[edit] Organization and mission of the Church

[edit] Principles of governance

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 and Wales. The role of the crown in the Church of England is practically limited to the appointment of bishops, including the Archbishop of Canterbury. 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 independent, each with their own primate and governing structure. These provinces may take the form of national churches (such as in Canada, Uganda, or Japan) or a collection of nations (such as the West Indies, Central Africa, or South Asia), or geographical regions (such as Vanuatu and Solomon Islands) etc. Within these Communion provinces may exist subdivisions called ecclesiastical provinces, under the jurisdiction of a metropolitan. 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 and 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 since the mid-nineteenth century, and now have an international presence and influence.

Government in the Anglican Communion is synodical, consisting of three houses of laity (usually elected parish representatives), clergy, and bishops. National, provincial, and diocesan synods maintain different scopes of authority, depending on their canons and constitutions. Anglicanism is not congregational in its polity: It is the diocese, not the parish church, which is the smallest unit of authority in the church, and bishops must give their assent to resolutions passed by synods. (See Episcopal polity).

[edit] Focus of Unity: The Archbishop of Canterbury

The Archbishop of Canterbury has a precedence of honor 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 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. The current Archbishop of Canterbury as of 2007, Rowan Williams is the first appointed from outside the Church of England since the Reformation: he was the former Archbishop of Wales, .

As "spiritual head" of the Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury maintains a certain moral authority, and has the right to determine which churches will be in communion with his See. He hosts and chairs the Lambeth Conferences of Anglican Communion bishops, and decides who will be invited to it. 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.

[edit] Instruments of unity

The Anglican Communion has no international juridical organization. All international bodies are consultative and collaborative, and their resolutions are not legally binding on the independent provinces of the Communion. There are three international bodies of note.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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."

[edit] Ordained ministry

For more details on on the Anglican priesthood, see Anglican ministry.

Like the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches (but unlike most Protestant churches), the Anglican Communion maintains the threefold ministry of deacons, priests, and bishops.

[edit] Episcopate

The bishops, who possess the fullness of Christian priesthood, are the successors of the Apostles. The primates, archbishops and metropolitans are all bishops and members of the historical episcopate, and derive their authority through apostolic succession — an unbroken line of bishops that can be traced back to the apostles of Jesus.

[edit] Presbyterate (Priesthood)

Bishops are assisted by the clergy. The "clergy" is a term applied widely across many religions. While a priest might be Roman Catholic, Anglican, or Orthodox Christian and a minister might belong to any Protestant church, both terms are used in Anglicanism to refer to those who have taken Holy Orders.

An archdeacon is a priest responsible for administration of an archdeaconry, which is the principal subdivision of a diocese. In the Church of England the position of Archdeacon can only be held by an ordained Priest who has been practicing for 6 years; in some other parts of the Anglican Communion the position can be held by a deacon as well. In parts of the Anglican Communion where women cannot be ordained as priests or bishops, the position of Archdeacon is effectively the most senior office a clergywoman can be promoted to.

Parishes within a diocese are normally in the charge of a priest, known as the parish priest, pastor, rector, or in some cases, vicar. A curate may assist the rector at a parish. Priests may perform many functions not directly connected with ordinary pastoral activity, such as study, research, teaching or office work. They may serve as a chaplain, a canon (a priest who is specifically attached to a cathedral), prebendary (a type of canon), dean (a head canon), or subdean (a dean's deputy).

The Roman Catholic and most Eastern Orthodox Churches do not recognise the validity of Anglican ordinations and treat convert clergy as laypeople. In contrast, the Anglican Communion recognises Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox ordinations as valid. Outside the Anglican Communion, Anglican ordinations (at least of male priests) are recognised by the Old Catholics and various Independent Catholic Churches.

[edit] Diaconate

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 Roman Catholic deacons who may be married only before ordination, deacons are permitted to marry freely both before and after ordination, as are priests. Most deacons are preparing for priesthood, and usually only remain as deacons for about a year before being ordained priests. However, there are some deacons who remain deacons. Many provinces of the Anglican Communion ordain both women and men as deacons. Many of those provinces that ordain women to the priesthood previously allowed them to be ordained only to the diaconate. The effect of this was the creation of a large and overwhelmingly female diaconate for a time, as most men proceeded to be ordained priest after a short time as a deacon.

Deacons may baptise and in some dioceses are granted licenses to solemnize matrimony, usually under the instruction of their parish priest and bishop. They commonly officiate at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Deacons are not permitted to preside at the eucharist (but can lead worship with the distribution of already-consecrated Communion where this is permitted), absolve sins or pronounce a blessing in the name of the Church [3], (however, these last two are often permitted in an indirect form). It is the prohibition against deacons pronouncing a blessing in the Church's name that leads some in the church to believe that a deacon cannot properly solemnize matrimony. In most cases, deacons minister alongside other clergy.

[edit] Laity

All baptised members of the Church are called Christian faithful, truly equal in dignity and in the work to build the Church. Some of the non-ordained exercise formal, public ministry in the name of the church, often on a full time and life-long basis. readers, churchwardens, vergers and sextons are auxiliaries who do not hold holy orders.

[edit] Religious life

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 Marion Rebecca Hughes became the first woman to take the vows of religion in communion with the Province of Canterbury since the Reformation. In 1848, Priscilla Lydia Sellon became the superior of the Society of the Most Holy Trinity at Devonport, the first organised religious order. Sellon is called "the restorer, after three centuries, of the religious life in the Church of England."^[13] 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 comprised 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 several thousand 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.

[edit] Worldwide distribution

Anglicanism represents the third largest Christian communion in the world, after the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches. The number of Anglicans in the world is approximately 77 million.^[14] 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 the work of missionaries.

The Church of England has been a church of missionaries since the seventeenth century when the Church first left English shores with colonists who founded what would become the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa and established Anglican churches. For example, an Anglican chaplain -Robert Wolfall - with Martin Frobisher's Arctic expedition celebrated the Eucharist in 1578 in Frobisher Bay. The first Anglican church in the Americas was built at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. By the eighteenth century, missionaries worked to establish Anglican churches in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The great Church of England missionary societies were founded; for example the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) in 1698. Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG) in 1701, and the Church Mission Society (CMS) in 1799. The nineteenth century saw the founding and expansion of social oriented evangelism with societies such as the Church Pastoral Aid Society (CPAS) in 1836, Mission to Seafarers in 1856, Mothers' Union in 1876 and Church Army in 1882 all carrying out a personal form of evangelism. The twentieth century saw the Church of England developing new forms of evangelism such as the Alpha course in 1990 which was developed and propagated from Holy Trinity Brompton Church in London. In the twenty-first century, there has been renewed effort to reach children and youth. Fresh expressions is a Church of England missionary initiative to youth begun in 2005, and has ministries at a skate park^[15] through the efforts of St George's Church, Benfleet, Essex - Diocese of Chelmsford - or youth groups with evocative names, like the C.L.A.W (Christ Little Angels - Whatever!) youth group at Coventry Cathedral. And, for the un-churched who don't actually wish to visit a bricks and mortar church there are Internet ministries such as the Diocese of Oxford's on-line Anglican i-Church which appeared on the web in 2005.

[edit] Ecumenism

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 sixteenth century. In the nineteenth century, with the rise of the Oxford Movement, there arose greater concern for reunion of the churches of "Catholic confession." This desire to work towards full communion with other denominations led to the development of the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral, approved by the Third Lambeth Conference of 1888. The four points (the sufficiency of scripture, the historic creeds, the two dominical sacraments, and the historic episcopate) were proposed as a basis for discussion, although they have frequently been taken as a non-negotiable bottom-line for reunion.

[edit] Role of the Church in civilization

Anglican concern with broader issues of social justice can be traced to its earliest divines. Richard Hooker, for instance, wrote that "God hath created nothing simply for itself, but each thing in all things, and of every thing each part in other have such interest, that in the whole world nothing is found whereunto any thing created can say, 'I need thee not.'" This, and related statements, reflect the deep thread of incarnational theology running through Anglican social thought - a theology which sees God, nature, and humanity in dynamic interaction, and the interpenetration of the secular and the sacred in the make-up of the cosmos. Such theology is informed by a traditional English spiritual ethos, rooted in Celtic Christianity and reinforced by Anglicanism's origins as an established church, bound up by its structure in the life and interests of civil society.

Repeatedly, throughout Anglican history, this principle has reasserted itself in movements of social justice. For instance, in the eighteenth century the influential Evangelical Anglican William Wilberforce, along with others, campaigned against the slave trade. In the nineteenth century, the dominant issues concerned the adverse effects of industrialization. The usual Anglican response was to focus on education and give support to 'The National Society for the Education of the Children of the Poor in the principles of the Church of England'.^[16] 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",^[17] influenced Anglo-Catholics such as Charles Gore, who wrote that, "the principle of the incarnation is denied unless the Christian spirit can be allowed to concern itself with everything that interests and touches human life." Anglican focus on labor issues culminated in the work of William Temple in the 1930s and 1940s.

[edit] Pacifism

A question of whether or not Christianity is a pacifist religion has remained a matter of debate for Anglicans. In 1937, the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship emerged as a distinct reform organization, seeking to make pacifism a clearly defined part of Anglican theology. The group rapidly gained popularity amongst Anglican intellectuals, including Vera Brittain, Evelyn Underhill and former British political leader George Lansbury. Furthermore, the Reverend Dick Sheppard, who during the 1930s was one of Britain's most famous Anglican priests due to his landmark sermon broadcasts for BBC radio, founded the Peace Pledge Union a secular pacifist organization for the non-religious that gained considerable support throughout the 1930s.

Whilst never actively endorsed by the Anglican Church, many Anglicans unofficially have adopted the Augustinian "Just War" doctrine. The Anglican Pacifist Fellowship remain highly active throughout the Anglican world. It rejects this doctrine of "just war" and seeks to reform the Church by reintroducing the pacifism inherent in the beliefs of many of the earliest Christians and present in their interpretation of Christ's Sermon on the Mount.

Confusing the matter was the fact that the 37th Article of Religion in the Book of Common Prayer states that "it is lawful for Christian men, at the commandment of the Magistrate, to wear weapons, and serve in the wars." Therefore, the Lambeth Council in the modern era has sought to provide a clearer position by repudiating modern war and developed a statement that has been affirmed at each subsequent meeting of the Council. This statement was strongly reasserted when "the 67th General Convention of the Episcopal Church reaffirms the statement made by the Anglican Bishops assembled at Lambeth in 1978 and adopted by the 66th General Convention of the Episcopal Church in 1979, calling "Christian people everywhere ... to engage themselves in non-violent action for justice and peace and to support others so engaged, recognizing that such action will be controversial and may be personally very costly... this General Convention, in obedience to this call, urges all members of this Church to support by prayer and by such other means as they deem appropriate, those who engaged in such non-violent action, and particularly those who suffer for conscience' sake as a result; and be it further Resolved, that this General Convention calls upon all members of this Church seriously to consider the implications for their own lives of this call to resist war and work for peace for their own lives."

[edit] After World War II

The focus on other social issues became increasingly diffuse after the Second World War. On the one hand, the growing independence and strength of Anglican churches in the global south brought new emphasis to issues of global poverty, the inequitable distribution of resources, and the lingering effects of colonialism. In this regard, figures such as Desmond Tutu and Ted Scott were instrumental in mobilizing Anglicans worldwide against the apartheid policies of South Africa. Rapid social change in the industrialised world during the twentieth century compelled the church to examine issues of gender, sexuality and marriage.

These changes led to Lambeth Conference resolutions countenancing contraception and the remarriage of divorced persons. They led to most provinces approving the ordination of women. In more recent years it has led some jurisdictions to permit the ordination of people in same-sex relationships and to authorise rites for the blessing of same-sex unions (see Anglican views of homosexuality). More conservative elements within Anglicanism (primarily African churches and factions within North American Anglicanism) are opposed to these changes. Some liberal and moderate Anglicans see this opposition as representing a new fundamentalism within Anglicanism. The lack of social consensus among and within provinces of diverse cultural traditions has resulted in considerable conflict and even schism concerning some or all of these developments (see Anglican realignment).

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.

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church by F. L. Cross (Editor), E. A. Livingstone (Editor) Oxford University Press, USA; 3 edition p.65 (March 13, 1997)
2. ^ "Anglicanism". Catholic Encyclopedia. 
3. ^ González, Justo L. (1984). The History of Christianity, Volume I: "The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation". San Francisco: Harper. 
4. ^ MacCulloch, Diarmaid (1990). The Later Reformation in England 1547-1603. Macmillan, 172. 
5. ^ Booty, John. "Standard Divines", The Study of Anglicanism, 163 ff. 
6. ^ Booty, John. "Standard Divines", The Study of Anglicanism, 163. 
7. ^ Booty, John. "Standard Divines", The Study of Anglicanism, 164. 
8. ^ Nockles, P.B. (1994). The Oxford Movement in Context - Anglican High Churchmanship, 1760 – 1857. CUP, pp 7–8, 113, 125, 127. 
9. ^ Nichols, A (1993). The Panther and the Hind — A Theological History of Anglicanism. Clark, dedication page and p. 128. 
10. ^ Nichols, A (1993). The Panther and the Hind — A Theological History of Anglicanism. Clark, p. 167. 
11. ^ "Upholding Communion of the Baptized", ECUSA, June 22, 2006. 
12. ^ Donne, John. Divine Poems—On the Sacrament, (Flesher's Edition) http://www.giga-usa.com/quotes/topics/doctrine_t001.htm
13. ^ Williams, Thomas J. (1950). Pricilla Lydia Sellon. London: SPCK. 
14. ^ Major Branches of Religions
15. ^ Legacy XS Youth Centre & Skatepark, St. George's, Benfleet
16. ^ Kitson Clark, G (1973). Churchmen and the Condition of England 1832–1885. Methuen, p100. 
17. ^ Norman, E R (1976). Church and Society in England 1770 – 1970. Clarendon Press, pp. 171–172. 

[edit] Further reading

• Anson, Peter F (1955). The Call to the Cloister: Religious Communities and kindred bodies in the Anglican Communion. SPCK. 
• Hein, David, ed. (1991) Readings in Anglican Spirituality. Cincinnati: Forward Movement.
• Hein, David, and Gardiner H. Shattuck Jr. (2005). The Episcopalians. New York: Church Publishing. 
• Jasper, R.C.D. (1989). The development of the Anglican Liturgy, 1662-1980. London: SPCK. 
• More and Cross. Anglicanism. 
• Neill, Stephen. Anglicanism. 
• Nichols, Aidan (1993). The Panther and the Hind: A Theological History fo Anglicanism. T&T Clark. 
• Norman, Edward (2004). Anglican Difficulties: A New Syllabus of Errors. Morehouse. 
• Sachs, William L. (1993). The Transformation of Anglicanism: From State Church to Global Community. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 
• Sykes, Stephen, Booty, John, & Knight, Jonathan, (eds.). The Study of Anglicanism. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press. 
• Temple, William. Doctrine in the Church of England. 

[edit] External links

• Anglican Communion - The official site of the Anglican Communion.
• What it means to be an Anglican: Official Church of England site
• Anglican Historical Texts
• Anglicans Online - An unofficial site of the Anglican Communion. One of the biggest resources of Anglicanism in the world.
• Anglicanism: ReligionFacts.com - Articles on Anglican history, ritual, and organization, plus an image gallery of people and places.

v • d • e Churches in the Anglican Communion

Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia · Australia · Bangladesh · Brazil · Burundi · Canada · Central Africa · Central America · Congo · England · Hong Kong · India, North · India, South · Indian Ocean · Ireland · Japan · Jerusalem and the Middle East · Kenya · Korea · Melanesia · Mexico · Myanmar · Nigeria · Pakistan · Papua New Guinea · Philippines · Rwanda · Scotland · South East Asia · Southern Africa · Southern Cone · Sudan · Tanzania · Uganda · USA · Wales · West Africa · West Indies — extra-provincial churches Churches in full communion: Mar Thoma Syrian Church · Old Catholic Church · Philippine Independent Church