In our recent RFTG Ministry Update I shared that my family has made the decision to join the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), which is part of the global Anglican tradition. This may prompt questions from some who may wonder why I would leave the Baptist tradition considering it was the tradition in which I was raised, was nurtured in, and had ministered in for over three decades. That is a fair question, why? Why would I leave the Baptist tradition and join the Anglican tradition? Before we get to the question at hand, however, I think it is important to point out that as I have been on this journey I discovered that many of my favorite historical figures were Anglican such as William Tyndale, John Newton, William Wilberforce, and George Whitfield. Even a few of my favorite U. S. Presidents were Anglican including: George Washington, James Madison, FDR, and George H. W. Bush. Some of my favorite writers and thinkers were/are Anglican as well including: C. S. Lewis, N. T. Wright, Malcolm Guite, and J. I. Packer, among others. So I have been and around Anglicans for decades and didn’t know it.
Now to the question of why Anglicanism. This question is best answered in three parts: the history, the doctrine, and the formation. Each of these will be addressed in three separate articles. Today I will address the historical draw of the Anglican tradition.
If you’ve known me for any length of time, you’d know that I have a deep love of and respect for history. I’m a firm believer that if we don’t know where we’ve been, we can’t know where we are going. This includes nations, religions, communities, churches, families, and individuals. We live in a moment, in Western society, that has largely forgotten its history. Even many individuals don’t know their own family or national history well, or at all. I felt the same way about the Christian tradition. I grew up, as I mentioned in a Baptist context, a faith tradition that prides itself on holding to a strict reading of the Bible. For this reason, the Baptist tradition takes the position that it seeks to be as close to the New Testament church as possible. I realized, however, as I started to better understand the history of the early church that, much to my chagrine, early Christians were not Baptist.
As a seminary graduate and one who considers himself a lay historian and theologian, I know that the best place to start a research project is with the primary sources. For a study of the early church this would include the New Testament and the writings of the early church fathers known as the Apostolic Fathers. These include men such as Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, and Polycarp. It includes writings such as the Didache and the Shepherd of Hermas. Most of the writings of the Apostolic Fathers comes in the late first and into the early second centuries AD. This was the generation that was discipled by the original Apostles. So, we would be safe in assuming that what these early church leaders wrote was taught to them by the Apostles. In fact they are writing to many of the same churches that appear in the book of Acts such as Corinth, Ephesus, and Philippi, to name a few. Reading through these writings was eye opening and convicting to me.
As I went through a deeper study of the writings of the Apostolic and Nicene fathers, I discovered that the early church was, in fact, not a Protestant church. Much to my surprise, the early church was indeed catholic (universal). And what I mean by catholic is not merely Roman Catholic, but a tradition that holds to a practice of the Christian faith that is seen worldwide. Features of the early church that make it catholic include sacramental centrality, liturgical rhythms of worship, and episcopal structure of governance, and apostolic succession in ministry. Let’s look at each of these four in turn.
1. Sacramental Centrality
During my upbringing in the Baptist tradition, I was taught that the institution of both the Lord supper and baptism were what is known as an ordinance rather than a sacrament. What’s the difference? An ordinance is simply an outward symbol or sign of an internal reality. The two ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper symbolize a reality that Jesus instituted, but nothing more. A sacrament, on the other hand, by definition is a bestowal of God’s grace through material means. When we are baptized, or when we receive communion, we are not merely remembering Jesus’ death and resurrection, we receive God‘s grace through the means of water, bread, and wine. In fact, Anglicans hold to a view of the Lord’s Supper known as the “real presence”, which means that Jesus is present in the bread and wine. For Anglicans, this is a mystery. Anglicans do not believe in transubstantiation, as do Catholics, who teach that the bread and wine become the actual flesh and blood of Jesus when the priest prays the prayer of consecration. However, Anglicans do believe that Jesus is present in the bread and wine, even if we cannot explain how. This idea of the sacraments are seen both in the New Testament and in the early church fathers. For further reading, please see John 6 as well as Ignatius of Antioch’s letter to the Smyrnians.
2. Liturgical Worship
If you’ve had any exposure to a higher liturgical form of worship, you’ve experience the beauty of this style and how it draws you into the transcendence of the presence of God. Simply put, liturgy refers to the form or style of worship. In truth all churches are liturgical. Some are less liturgical, and others are more liturgical. The early church was more liturgical, in that worship was structured around a form that did not change much over time. Included in ancient Christian worship was prayer, Scripture, proclamation, singing, and the Eucharist (Communion). In fact many of the ancient prayers of the church are still prayed every Sunday such as the Lord’s Prayer, the Gloria Patri, the Kyrie, Te Deum, the Sanctus, the Jesus Prayer, and one of the creeds (Apostles or Nicene). This liturgical style of worship is highly formational (the topic of our third article in this series). Liturgy encourages memorization of Scripture, prayers, and the creeds.
Participating in a traditional liturgy draws the worshipper into communion with the ancient church and the saints that have departed. It also draws one into the worship that is continually happening around the throne of God in heaven. Liturgy is a beautiful reminder that we don’t come to church for our own pleasure, but to give ourselves fully to the Lord in worship. The focus is not on our own needs or preferences, but on Jesus. This is seen through the weekly emphasis on communion. The sacramental meal of the Eucharist is the climax of ancient liturgical worship. Each week during communion, we are reminded of the gospel, and our desperate need for God’s grace through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Anglicans participate in liturgical worship through the Book of Common Prayer, which has served as a guide for personal and corporate worship for nearly 500 years. We will have a deeper discussion of the BCP in our article on the formational practices of Anglicanism.
3. Episcopal Structure
Church governance and structure is an important aspect of any local church and denomination. There are a few in practice among Protestants such as local church autonomy, which can take various forms from a business structure with a board of directors, or even to a council of elders, etc. There is also the Presbyterian structure that holds to an elder led model with a body of elders from a group of church called the presbytery that over see that group of churches. Finally, there is the episcopal structure that is led by the three fold offices of the bishop, priest, and deacon. The episcopal structure is the form of governance of the early church seen in the writings of the New Testament, as well as the Apostolic Fathers. The threefold ministry piscopal structure of church government is not merely practical, but is also theological. It shows the dispensation of apostolic authority through the bishops, to the priests, and ultimately to each local parish (congregation). While not perfect, the episcopal structure provides safeguards for the church that help bring stability and longevity. And for the first 1500 years of church history, up until the Reformation, Christian churches were episcopal in nature. This is not the structure of the Baptist tradition, which prides itself in the autonomy of the local church. In this model, each Baptist church gets to decide it’s ministry focus and only has to work with other churches with whom it chooses to fellowship. Local church autonomy, however, is not the vision cast in both the New Testament and writings of the early church. Much of the New Testament consists of the writings of the Apostles to churches in other parts of the world, providing oversight, instruction, correction, rebuke, and exhortation. The writings of the early apostolic fathers are much the same in nature. Clement (bishop of Rome) writes to the church in Corinth, and Ignatius (bishop of Antioch) writes to many of the same churches that the Apostle Paul writes in his letters found in the New Testament. By definition this oversight from the Apostles seen in the New Testament and the bishops of the early apostolic fathers indicates that they were responsible for several churches rather than just one.
4. Apostolic Succession
Lastly, this brings us to the importance of apostolic succession. The early churches belief that the ministry of the Apostles would continue was firmly believed and held by the early church. This is seen in both the New Testament and the writing of the early church fathers. The belief in apostolic succession goes hand in hand with adherence to an episcopal structure of church goverance. The structure matters, not only as a practical matter but also theologically. The episcopal structure allows for the apostolic ministry to passed on from bishop to bishop through ordination.
As a Baptist, I did believe in apostolic ministry, however this did not come from one’s ordination, but rather ones belief in the teachings of the apostles as seen in the New Testament. For the early church, however, the ministry of the apostles was not only passed down through the teaching of the New Testament, it was passed down through ordination to the present day. Apostolic succession was crucial for the survival of the early church. It was the primary way to safe guard the church from heresy. Bishops are called to protect the flocks under their charge. This call, however, is not one that is taken lightly but one that is taken through the line of apostolic succession.
Conclusion
As I considered each of these four aspects of early church structure, I came to the realization that there were only three main traditions that held to these traditions: the Roman Catholic tradition, the Eastern Orthodox tradition, and the Anglican tradition. Our family considered each of these traditions, but ultimately found our home in Anglicanism. From a historical perspective, Anglicanism has deep roots in both Catholic and Protestant tradition. On one hand, the Anglican tradition is connected to the ancient church through the four ways we discussed above. On the other hand, the Anglican tradition is also Protestant in that it came out of the Catholic tradition during the Reformation during the sixteenth century. For this reason Anglicanism is called the Via Media (Middle Way) between the two. While I have grown to appreciate our Christian brothers and sisters in both the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions, one of the main draws, for us, to Anglicanism was also doctrinal, which leads us to the subject of the second reason that I am now an Anglican. This will be the subject of our next discussion.
Recommended Reading
- The Apostolic Fathers: A New Translation by Rick Brannan
- The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Vol. 1: The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition by Jorslav Pelikan
- The Anglican Way: A Guidebook by Thomas McKenszie
- Simply Anglican by Winfield Bevins
- Anglicanism: A Reformed Catholic Tradition by Gerald Bray
- The Book of Common Prayer (1662)
- The Book of Common Prayer: ACNA Edition (2019)
Photo credit: Steve Doig, courtesy of Unsplash.
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