The Anglican Tradition

This unit will enable you to take a look at the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican tradition from which it comes and of which it is a part. We’ll start with a brief look at the history of the Church of England from which the Episcopal Church came. This will be a very brief glimpse and is intended to help you understand why the Episcopal Church is structured in the way it is and why the Anglican tradition has a particular flavor and position in the Christian tradition.

First, let’s consider the term “Anglican”. The word means “English”, and it is in the history of the church in England that we begin. Before there was a Church of England, there had been a Christian church in England for a long time. As the followers of Jesus spread the Good News across the Roman world following his death and resurrection, Christian converts began to appear in the Roman province of Britain. We don’t know much about the very early church in Britain, but archeologists have found evidences of Christian worship pretty early on. Later, as the Roman Empire began to collapse, the British church was cut off from the rest of western Christianity. With the withdrawal of the last of the Roman legions in the 5th Century A.D., the Britons and their church were on their own. The result was the development of a vibrant and colorful church with its own unique pattern and practices. This tradition located primarily in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales has been called Celtic Christianity. Exploration of this tradition is beyond the scope of this unit, but the Celtic tradition is rich and fascinating and has regained importance and interest in recent years.

As the church centered in Rome began to regain its feet and to convert the new barbarian kingdoms in Western Europe, contact was restored with the church in Britain. In time, the primacy of the pope and of Roman Christian practice and dogma was recognized in Britain, and the British church reentered the western medieval Christian world. The Roman Catholic Church was then the church in England for centuries. Which brings us to Henry VIII. It is tempting to give you a blow-by-blow of the ends and outs of the personalities and politics of Henry’s time. If you are interested in reading more about all that, I can help you find interesting sources. But for our purposes here, suffice it to say that Henry was married to a woman who failed to produce for him a male heir, necessary to secure his throne. Henry tried to get the pope to grant him an annulment or divorce, but the pope refused. Henry then declared himself head of the church in England and cut off the English church from Rome. The new Church of England – surprise, surprise – granted him the divorce. In this inglorious mixture of lust, ego and power politics, the Anglican tradition was born.

It should be noted, however, that Henry’s political interests coincided with growing interest in England in the struggles on the European continent of figures like Martin Luther and John Calvin to reform the church, eventually breaking with Rome. So while Henry went his merry way, chopping heads off of old wives and marrying likely new ones, a growing body of English Christians hoped to reform the Church of England as well. As long as Henry lived, the Church of England, although under new management, kept most of the structure and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. The Church of England and its child the Episcopal Church have ever since straddled the two traditions: catholic and reformed. As such we are in a position to be a bridge between the two. We speak of many of our policies and traditions as via media: a middle way.

When Henry died, he left a pile of dead wives and three living children: Mary, Elizabeth, and Edward. Edward, born of one of the later marriages was a child when Henry died, but became king since he was the only male. The guardians who were appointed to rule until he became an adult were more Protestant-leaning. Under government protection and encouragement, the first Book of Common Prayer was created (1549). Under the leadership of Archbishop Thomas Cramner, this prayer book took ancient liturgies of the church and translated them into English, also creating the prayer services that we call the Daily Offices. A liturgy in the catholic tradition was made accessible to all and put into the hands of ordinary people ( see the Catholic/Protestant dichotomy?).

Edward was sickly from birth and died before reaching adulthood. His sister Mary became the first woman to rule over England. Mary was the daughter of the first wife. Her mother was Spanish, Catholic and bitter. Mary entered into marriage with the heir to the Spanish throne and began to work to restore Roman Catholicism in England. This involved, among other measures, burning heretics ranging from working class Protestants to Archbishop Cranmer and several other bishops. When you go to a brunch and have Bloody Mary’s, you’re remembering her. Mary died, childless and very unpopular. Her half-sister Elizabeth became queen. Elizabeth was the child of Ann Bolyn, the second wife. Mary hated her, and Elizabeth had survived by being very, very careful.

This Elizabeth is Elizabeth the first: the Spanish Armada, Shakespeare, the Elizabethan age, and a long stream of Hollywood movies. She restored peace and prosperity in England by being careful. In the church, her great work is known as the Elizabethan Settlement, a working compromise of Protestant and Catholic factions. A new Prayer Book (the ancestor of ours) was written, carefully balancing these elements. If you carefully read our Rite One Holy Eucharist you can see this balancing at work.

But the struggle was not over. The more fervent Protestants continued to press for change, gaining more prominence after her death. The two biggest factions on that side were the Puritans (who wanted to “purify” the Church of its “papist” errors) and the Presbyterians (who wanted to eliminate bishops and have the church governed by synods of clergy or “presbyters”). These two groups often overlap. Two kings later, there was an English Civil War fought over a variety of things, but with the shape of the church on the list. The upshot was a king with his head chopped off and a government run by hardline Protestants. The Book of Common Prayer was outlawed, bishops and archbishops were eliminated, and the new management followed an old tradition by persecuting those who disagreed with them. You may have noticed that England still today has a queen, so you won’t be surprised to learn that eventually the English people, sick of violence and also of interminable theological debate brought back the monarchy and restored the Church of England. All this part is mainly important to us as the foundation of the Anglican “broad church” tradition; that is, a view of the church as open to a pretty wide range or theologies and practices. We have since that time tended to focus on worship and the sacraments rather than highly detailed statements of doctrine. Having been persecuted by both sides, we have preferred to get along.

A final historical note: the Episcopal Church was born from the churches planted by the Church of England in the American colonies. After the Revolution, loyal Americans who wanted to continue that tradition in a democratic American context struggled for awhile. In Great Britain, the Queen is still the head of the Church of England and the bishops and clergy are government functionaries. We had to scramble to get a bishop consecrated in an orthodox way, but finally found some dissenting Scottish bishops who would do the job. Samuel Seabury was the first American bishop. The Episcopal Church in the USA (“ECUSA”) has bishops, but not archbishops. The head of the Episcopal Church (the “Primate”) is the Presiding Bishop. The current PB is Katharine Jefferts Shorrey (the first woman PB). She presides over a relatively loose association of bishops, all democratically elected.

Now, if you are a person whose eyes glaze over during history lessons, you can wake back up. As a final part of this unit, we’ll look at some of the common understandings of the Anglican approach to the Christian life. First, as noted above, we combine the Protestant emphasis on the freedom of each man and woman to work out his or her own understandings and relationships with the Catholic emphasis on corporate worship and understanding of the church as a unity reaching beyond the walls of the local congregation. We are united as one under a bishop. It is the office of the Bishop to personify that unity and to guard the faith and practice of the church.

A second feature of the Anglican middle way is an openness to a variety of views and practices, bound only by the Creeds and the Prayer Book. When at our best, we meet at the altar. This accords with a final and very important feature of Anglican Christianity: a sacramental understanding of life in this world. Look at the definition of the sacraments in the Catechism (BCP, 857). (For some reason, this seems to be the only thing that sticks with lots of people in regular confirmation classes. Kids who can’t tell you who Moses is know that a sacrament is an “outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual grace.”) Here the definition is applied to the formal sacraments of the Church. There are seven of those: Baptism, Holy Eucharist, Confirmation, Ordination, Holy Matrimony, Reconciliation of a Penitent, and Unction. When you are able, read the sections of the Catechism describing these. You may also want to find each in the Prayer Book and read the liturgies.

The idea is that in these services of the Church, using familiar objects from the Creation (bread, wine, water, oil, etc.) we meet God and in that meeting are fed, forgiven, healed and strengthened to do the work of God in the world. These formal sacraments have great power to those who receive them in faith. But they are also part of a broader understanding: that God is present in and meets us through the ordinary things of the world. In our tradition, we can never totally focus on heaven. We trust in God’s loving power to redeem us beyond the bonds of death and finding our place in the fuller presence of God is the great Christian hope. But we are also committed to this world, this creation, and find it also filled with the glory of God. If Anglicans are less shocked by having a glass of wine with friends, by the idea of finding wisdom and revelation in all sorts of places, by laughter and ideas, it is because we are world-affirming. The things of a broken and sinful world can certainly be wrongly used and often are. But God has not abandoned the creation and neither should we.

Again let me remind you that I am always available to answer questions, discuss ides, and help you find aids to further study and thought. Just ask.

God bless you in your journey.