Definition of Anglican?

[Naomi4Christ]

In light of being accused of heresy, being filled with a demonic spirit etc.

I'm looking for personal opinions - not any official statements, links, or the like. What is your definition of what it means to be Anglican? Please don't use religious language, and if you can't avoid it, please define any jargon.

So, to me, an Anglican church is one that is in full communion with and has a common heritage with the Church of England. By definition, the Church of England is an Anglican church. Anglican worship is what Anglican churches do; the Church of England has an extremely broad style of worship, therefore almost anything can be defined as Anglican. Anglican faith is the faith of the original, undivided church, taken from the bible and clarified in the 39 Articles of Faith (http://www.episcopalian.org/efac/39articles/39art.htm). There is no need to know anything other than what is written in the creeds.

full communion: I think this is a bit of redundancy given that Anglican churches typically have an open-table policy.

[SeenAndUnseen]

I think the main thing about being Anglican is the Book of Common Prayer (all versions) as a standard of our style of worship. I like the 39 articles, but I do not feel they clarify the "original, undivided" church. I personally believe the church has never been whole or fully united on earth.

[gtsecc]

the 39 are not part of ECUSA's teaching, thank God.

[gtsecc]

Tghis is a start:



As inherent parts of this sacred deposit, and therefore as essential to the restoration of unity among the divided branches of Christendom, we account the following, to wit:
The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the revealed Word of God.
The Nicene Creed as the sufficient statement of the Christian Faith.
The two Sacraments,--Baptism and the Supper of the Lord,--ministered with unfailing use of Christ's words of institution and of the elements ordained by Him.
The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the unity of His Church.

[AngCath]

The BCP, the Creeds, and the episcopacy

[TomUK]

In my view the Church of England is the Anglican church, and those churches which are in some sense derived from the Church of England are equally Anglican.

[AveMaria]

I'll add in, having a shared heritage which is reflected in the various Books of Common Prayer, which share a common ancestor.

The creeds.

The sacraments (7, IMHO).

Apostolic succession.

(I'm sure I'll think of more later!)

[trooper]

Actually, this is the BIG question facing our Church today. I can't define it. The Nigerian Church is trying to define it. The ABC is hesitant to define it. From previous posts, we can't define it. It's not the BCP, not univeral. It's not the ABC, see Nigeria. It's not episcocacy, or the order of apostolic succession, see lay presidency in Australia. I am at a loss to define it. I don't think that anyone can..

Thus the state of things.

[Rev. Smith]

full communion: I think this is a bit of redundancy given that Anglican churches typically have an open-table policy.

Jist a note, the word communion does double duty in church life. It refers to the sacrament of the eucharist. In addition it refers to accords or agreements between entities within the church.

To confuse the issues further - the Old Catholic Church is in communion with the Anglican Communion, but we are not - strictly speaking - Anglican. In your example, we are in communion - agree on most (but not all) matters of dogma (we reject predestination) but do not have a common heritage. Our churches came into communion out of a desire for fellowship. We brought an undisputed line of Apostolic sucession (that sort of thing was more important in the 1899's then it is now) to the party and The C.O.E. brought us an acceptable protestant liturgy for our english speaking minority (we were mostly Dutch and German until the middle of the last century)

We remain seperate, but in communion to this day.

Are we "Anglican" to you?

[SirTimothy]

I would say Anglicanism stands for:

Unity, not confirmity, liturgy, but not rigidity, biblically founded and based, but not my-interpretation-of-the-bible-is-the-only-way-or-burn-in-hell, freedom not legalism, a history and tradition, but not one that has the nature of "We've always done it this way, so we always will."

When any of these things, Unity, liturgy, a firm biblical foundation, freedom to be who we are and our long history and traditions are compromised, we're in deep trouble. Because the Anglican church is such a broad, open, church, which has such a diverse mix of people in it, we need to be prepared to accept one another--as the church has done historically--and pray for each other, not constantly disagree. How can we be salt and light to the nations if we're constantly bickering about minor theological points?

Timothy