An Anglican. Who is one? and What makes one?

A discussion Starter

Perhaps we should be clear as to who is an Anglican before we speak too much about Anglican unity within the USA or anywhere else.

If we begin from the reality of churches in the USA, the commonly-accepted approach is to say that anyone who belongs to a congregation, outside whose building is the name “Anglican” or “Episcopalian”, and whose services are in the historical Anglican mould – that is based upon the Book of Common Prayer or a Prayer Book related to it – is an Anglican (or Episcopalian).

Others would add to this definition by liturgical use some kind of doctrinal statement such as accepting the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral or The Thirty-Nine Articles or the Dogma of the Ecumenical Councils, together with some relation of the congregation to a bishop.

BUT if we begin outside of the USA with the Church of England, from which emerged what we now call the Anglican Communion of Churches, and ask in this context [i.e., of the thirty-eight Provinces (National Churches or Churches of a region)] what is an Anglican we get a different answer.

Here, an Anglican is a member in good standing of a parish which is in a diocese which is in a province, which is in the Anglican Communion of Churches. And we are told that there are about 75 millions worldwide.

Working from this standpoint, we could call those who are in “Anglican” congregations outside this world-wide Family by a name such as “Anglican in exile” or “potential Anglican” or something similar – a name that is respectful, but which indicates that this person and his congregation are not in the Anglican Family as such, even though their liturgical life is Anglican in style.

But there is a problem!

Where a National Province/Church that belongs to the Anglican Communion is judged by the rest to have departed from, or to be departing from, the Common Faith and Order, then of course the situation on the ground in that country where the apostasy is exhibited becomes complicated. And that is essentially what is the case in the USA where the situation is most complicated and has been getting more so since the 1970s – since the imposition of women’s ordination, of the prayer book of 1976/79 and major changes in worship, doctrine and discipline within ECUSA. It is the case that, outside the National Province, the ECUSA, there is an ever growing number of congregations and groups claiming the name of Anglican, and, as time goes by, each of these creates its own organizational, denominational structures, and these make it more difficult for it to see itself as “Anglicans in exile” – rather, it sees itself as a valid “Anglican” denomination. And right now there are a lot of these – perhaps forty -- in the USA.

But what about a credible Anglican presence and witness in the USA?

It would seem that the only way to create and preserve a credible & Christian Anglican presence and witness in the USA is (a) for ECUSA to be thoroughly reformed and renewed so that “Anglicans in exile” can return and recognize the true Anglican Way there; OR (b) for all the “Anglicans in exile” & “potential Anglicans” to be united together with “the remnant” from ECUSA into a new comprehensive body that can painfully emerge and be recognized by the world-wide Anglican Family as the National Province of America. If this occurred then ECUSA would be left to drift alone into the radically liberal end of the supermarket of religion in the USA.

The alternative to either (a) or (b) seems to be the persistence of a variety of groups, large and small, who in some way or another have “Anglican” characteristics but in all other ways are simply modern American denominations. Of these some may have associations with Anglican Churches abroad.

So what is an Anglican? It depends whether you define from the basis of the American denominational scene or whether you begin from the existence of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion of Churches.

Then, of course, we have most seriously and devoutly to bear in mind the great emphasis in sacred Scripture on the unity of the Church of God and the definition in the Creed of “one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church”. Competitive denominations do not seem to fit the bill!

Visit www.american-anglican.fsnet.co.uk

The Rev’d Dr Peter Toon, November 7, 2003.