What We Believe
We are a traditional Anglican church. This means a lot more than that our worship is not led by a rock band. To be traditional means that what we believe and how we worship God are based on what the church has always believed and how the church has always worshiped God. We practice the faith we have received. What we believe and how we worship is not captive to the current moment.
A half-century ago, in the Vietnam War era of the 1960's, the counter-cultural people were those who challenged the status quo of the traditional structures of church and society. Things have changed dramatically since then. Our culture no longer clings to the old ways, but, instead, clings to the idea that what is new and exciting is always better. Today, the counter-culture consists of those who question this current cultural assumption.
The chief problem in contemporary American Christianity is the unwitting acceptance of the values of the consumer and marketing culture. Even churches that view themselves as conservative tend to present the faith, and are assessed, on the same basis as products purchased at the mall or online. Consequently, churches tend to change in the same manner as consumer goods, to adapt to the tastes of the religious consumer.
Preaching the gospel in a given place and time has always meant entering into a culture in manner like unto the Incarnation. Yet, this incarnate presence must challenge the culture, as Jesus challenged his culture. When the church fully embraces the assumptions of a culture it cannot provide a prophetic witness.
This issue is highlighted by worship. There is an increasing variety of types and forms of worship. The variety of worship mirrors the multiplicity of consumer products. Worship is created to meet a perceived need. Then it is marketed as “relevant” or “life changing” or “cutting edge,” words that are associated with other products in the market place. Consumer oriented worship tends to be subjected to the same opinion poll assessment as every other cultural thing.
In contrast, the authentic worship of God has always been according to the pattern revealed by God to his people. The first revelation was given by God to Moses on Mt. Sinai. He said, “See that you make everything according the pattern shown to you on the mountain” (Exodus 25:40). God gave specific instructions for how Israel was to worship him. The death of Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament sacrifices. The church continued the authentic worship of God in the light of this fulfillment, chiefly by gathering on the Lord’s Day to celebrate the Eucharist.
From the beginning, the church worshiped universally according to a revealed pattern of word and sacrament (cf. Luke 24:13-31). In worship, the church is called “come up hither” (Revelation 4:1) and enter into the eternal worship of God that is revealed in Revelation 4 and 5. The church offers herself to God through the symbols of bread and wine. The church remembers before God the one sacrifice offered for sin. As the bread and wine becomes the body and blood of Jesus, the church beholds “the lamb as though it has been slain” (Rev. 4:5). And the church receives Christ and is changed into his image by grace.
Genuine worship is focused on God. Through worship, we commune with God, who is holy and other than us. Through worship, we are changed so that we become more like him. The contemporary error in worship runs in the other direction. Worship that based on our subjective feelings and opinions presents to us a God who, increasingly, looks like us. We create a god in our image. This is idolatry.
To be a traditional Anglican, then, is not merely to prefer, as a consumer choice, things that are old over things that are new. It is, rather, as St. Paul says, to “hold fast to the traditions you were taught” (2 Thessalonians 2:15). It is to “contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude 3) so as to avoid the characteristic errors of any given age.
Anglican Essentials
The essentials of the Anglican tradition can be summarized under four headings:
1. The Bible. The early church, guided by the Holy Spirit, selected the writings that were inspired and placed them together to form the Bible. We believe that the Bible is the Word of God.
2. The Creeds and Tradition. When issues of biblical interpretation arose in the early church, the church met to decide the issues under the guidance of the Holy Spirit (cf. John 16:13). These meetings are called The Ecumenical Councils. Seven councils of the undivided church were held between AD 325 and 787. They produced definitive statements of the church's faith. The teaching of the councils is summarized in the creeds. We accept the teachings of the Ecumenical Councils and the three ancient creeds: the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed and the Creed of St. Athanasius.
3. The Apostolic Ministry. Before the apostles died, they appointed men in the church to succeed them in their apostolic ministry. These men were called bishops. The New Testament also mentions elders or presbyters (who came to be known as priests) and deacons. We maintain the apostolic ministry of bishops, priests and deacons, standing in succession from the apostles.
4. The Sacraments. The Word was made flesh in the person of Jesus Christ (John 1:1f). Jesus continues to be present to his church through visible signs called sacraments which are means of grace. We become members of the body of Christ through the water of baptism (Romans 6:3f., Galatians 3:27). The church gathers together each Sunday to celebrate the Lord's Supper, in which we feed on "the bread of life" (John 6:48:51). The sacraments provide an objective means of grace for various states of life.
A Reformed Tradition
The Anglican tradition is also a reformed tradition. At issue in the Reformation of the sixteenth century were various teachings and practices that had crept into the church in the Middle Ages that were not a part of the ancient and catholic tradition. These included the implication that salvation came through works rather than through faith; the selling of indulgences (i.e., paying money to have sins forgiven); the doctrine that the saints of the church had earned merits which could be applied to the accounts of other Christians; and the notion that what the church did in the Lord's Supper or the Mass added something to what Jesus had done on the cross. The ancient and universal tradition guides us where the Bible is unclear. However, the tradition is never is conflict with the Bible. Traditions that conflict with Scriptures are errors to be rejected.
The English Reformation reformed an existing church. The Church of England maintained its apostolic ministry of bishops, priests and deacons. Its form of worship, though translated into English and reformed, nonetheless stood in continuity with the church's historical worship. The goal of the English Reformation was to reform the practice of the church by the teachings of the Bible and return to the ancient and universal faith.
Our tradition of worship is rooted in The Book of Common Prayer. The Book of Common Prayer reformed and simplified the medieval services and placed a renewed emphasis on the Bible. Before the Prayer Book, the standard form of worship in England was the Latin Mass. The Book of was composed with the idea that the people should be able to understand and participate in corporate worship. The language of the Book of Common Prayer reflects the “beauty of holiness” (Psalm 29:2).
Modern Developments
Lamentably, the Episcopal Church in America abandoned both the ancient and catholic faith and the emphasis on the Bible that came out of the Reformation. The presenting issues that have received publicity are the ordination of women as bishops, priests and deacons, the marriage and ordination of practicing homosexuals and various other issues of gender, morality and doctrine. Underlying these issues is a rejection of the received faith. The Episcopal Church mirrored the trajectory of most of what were formerly called the “mainline” churches in America.
Consequently, in 1976, faithful Anglicans gathered in St. Louis, Missouri, for an event known as the St. Louis Congress. A document called The Affirmation of St. Louis was composed, which expressed our commitment to the ancient and universal faith of the church. In 1978, in Denver, Colorado, Bishop Albert Chambers, retired bishop of Springfield, Illinois, consecrated the first faithful bishops of the Anglican Catholic Church. Since that time, faithful Anglicans have continued to believe and practice the faith in the Anglican Catholic Church.