Our fall sermon series on the church's mission statement began this past Sunday with us exploring what it means for us to be "an Anglican church."
Would you like to dig deeper and learn more about our Anglican identity? If so, here are some additional resources for the curious.
Note: there is a lot more to come in this sermon series, so you can keep checking back here for more resources as we go!
Defining Terms
Are you confused by a lot of Anglican terminology? Like: what on earth is Fr Steve talking about when he refers to the 'stage' as the 'chancel' and to the cup of wine on the LORD's table as a 'chalice'? Or when he wore that funny poncho called a 'chasuble'? In the spirit of a guide for the perplexed, let me recommend the Anglican Glossary at the Anglican Compass website. It provides a good reliable definition of terms.
General Resources
• The Word and Table podcast by Canon Stephen Gauthier and Fr Alex Wilgus covers a wide range of issues, past and present: Anglican liturgy, ecclesiology, spirituality, theology and biblical interpretation to name but a few. Canon Stephen is extremely knowledgable, insightful and witty. Fr Alex engages him in winsome discussion.
• Gerry McDermott's Deep Anglicanism: A Brief Guide and Our Anglican Heritage by John Howe and Sam Pascoe are contemporary surveys of Anglican belief and practice. You, like me, might not agree with everything in these books but they are still very useful. The authors have differing perspectives on some key issues--especially Howe, who remained in the Episcopal Church, and Pascoe and McDermott who left and are now a part of the ACNA.
Let's now get more into the nitty gritty...
Our Affiliations
Wonder about who in the church world we are connected with? Church of the Resurrection is a member of the Diocese of Christ Our Hope in the Anglican Church of North America (or ACNA). The ACNA is a member of the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (GAFCON). We are working together with other churches in north Texas northward to form the the Great Plains Mission Network.
Our Liturgy
The 2019 Book of Common Prayer (BCP) is the official liturgy of the ACNA. It is what we follow each Sunday morning. A key part of the Anglican life of worship and prayer is the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer. The liturgy of the Daily Office includes a regular cycle of Scripture readings so it can be a beautiful and effective devotional for individuals as well as the church. The Daily Office is contained in the BCP and is helpfully laid out online at: https://www.dailyoffice2019.com/. They do the work for you of lining up all the Scripture passages and occasional prayers so you don't have to! (There are really nice iOS and Android app versions of that website as well.)
Our Beliefs
We talked a bit about what we Anglicans believe...but what else? Well, we hold that the Scriptures are the inspired Word of God and the final authority in all matters pertaining to salvation. We Anglicans then articulate our specific stance on the teachings of Scripture in 5 key places:
1. Book of Common Prayer (BCP)
We hold that the 'rule of prayer is the rule of belief' (or in Latin: lex orandi, lex credendi). So the theology of the Book of Common Prayer is our theology. The historic BCP--and still the official Prayerbook of the Church of England--was ratified by an act of Parliament in 1662. Alan Jacobs narrates the sometimes dramatic history of the BCP in his The Book of Common Prayer: A Biography.
2. The Thirty-Nine Articles
In 1571, during the English Reformation, the Thiry-Nine Articles of Religion were issued, stating the Anglican Church's doctrinal stance on key disputes arising from the Reformation. They establish some clear boundaries to Anglican belief and practice, especially in relationship to Roman Catholicism.
3. The Anglican Catechism
If you want to know what Anglicans believe in more detail and in a more contemporary voice, grab yourself and your family a copy of To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism. The Catechism teaches all the major doctrines incarnated in our worship and articulated in the Thirty-Nine Articles but also provides a more complete picture of the entire Christian life. It focuses on the three major areas of catechesis: the Apostles Creed, the LORD's Prayer and the Ten Commandments.
4. The Books of Homilies
Though they have, sadly, fallen into disuse, the Books of Homilies were published during the reigns of Edward VI and Elizabeth I. They contain 33 authorized sermons originally intended to be preached regularly throughout England to help establish the authoritative Reformation teaching of the Anglican church. They deal with issues ranging from the authority of Scripture and the Sacraments to prayer and adultery. Here's also a blog post on the forgotten riches of the Homilies.
Orthodox Anglicans from around the world gathered in Jerusalem in 2008 and issued this Statement and Declaration. The Statement called for the founding of the ACNA. The Declaration articulates the key beliefs for the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (GAFCON)--a renewal movement within the Anglican Communion, of which we are a part.
Our History: Past and Present
On Sunday we talked about the riches of our Anglican heritage that reach far back into the second century. A History of the Church in England by J.R.H. Moorman goes all the way back to the earliest Christian mission to England through the 20th century. It has some limitations but is a classic and still quite useful.
• This video podcast with Alastair Roberts and Gerald McDermott offers a good overview of the state of contemporary Anglicanism. They address a growing division within the worldwide Anglican Communion between the more progressive provinces of the west and confessing Anglicans like GAFCON and the ACNA.
Our Theology: Its History
The history of Anglican theology is colorful to say the least! I have not read the book version (called The Heritage of Anglican Theology) but had the privilege of listening via Regent University podcast to these lectures on Anglican historical theology by the Rev. Dr. J.I. Packer. They are a rich and accessible guide by one of the most brilliant and godly Anglican theologians of the 20th century.
Our Spirituality
• Fr Charles Erlandson writes beautifully and movingly on the nature of Anglican spirituality at the North American Anglican (which is itself an excellent resource for further reading).
• The great classic on Anglican spirituality is Martin Thornton's English Spirituality: An Outline of Ascetical Theology according to the English Pastoral Tradition. Thornton traces the distinctive pre-Reformation influences on Anglican spirituality, then draws riches from figures as diverse as St Anselm to Julian of Norwich to the Caroline Divines.
• Glorious Companions: Five Centuries of Anglican Spirituality sketches profiles of key figures in Anglican spirituality from the 16th century to the present.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of resources but if you explore all of these and want more, just let me know!
Comments