When Did We Become Anglican?

The Venerable Canon Jason Constantine

At what point in history did the Anglican Church come about? Often, we think of the Anglican Church as being a product of the 16^th century Reformation or finally forming in the colonial era to describe Church of England communities in the various colonies (and ex-colonies) of the British Empire. Yet historically, the 13^th century Magna Carta mentions the Anglican Church (Anglicana eccelesia). When we look at the Anglican Church today, we find anything but a single, unified church. We find a fractured worldwide Anglican Communion; not every Anglican is a member of the world-wide Anglican Communion. We find the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (GAFCON); but again, not every Anglican is a member. The same goes for the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans as well as various Continuing Anglican groups. We even find three Anglican Ordinariates in the Roman Catholic Church! As I look across this ecclesiastical landscape, I ask myself, “Is there an Anglican Church or are there churches that call themselves Anglican?”  As to be expected by such a literary device, I argue for the latter.

            So, what separates and unites these different churches that happen to carry the name “Anglican?” At a cursory look, it seems simply a matter of comparing practices and then judging the exercise of the practices by an “Anglican” standard. Of course, this can be fraught with superficiality. One can find, in many cities, two Anglican parishes of the same province, or even diocese, have differing practices to the extent that it may seem improbable that they would be in the same communion. For instance, a high church verses low church expression or a contemporary verses traditional paradigm. Although such differences seem most striking, the real concern is revealed in comparisons where Anglican parishes and clergy hold to vastly differing theologies and ecclesiologies. Simply noting differences is not enough. First, we must determine the standard by which Anglicanism of a community is to be judged. Is the standard a strict reading and adherence to the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion and the Book of Common Prayer? Historically speaking, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer is understood to be the standard.

            I am not convinced that assessing a community’s measure of ‘Anglicanism’ is the correct course. The analysis we should make regarding theology, ecclesiology, orthodoxy and liturgical faithfulness is not to what extent a church practices “Anglicanism,” but instead should be measured by its adherence to historic Christian catholicity. This catholicity is the ancient Church theology, ecclesiology, liturgy, and practices of the undivided Church of the first 1,000 years, East and West. Jesus desires his Church to be one. In John 17:20-23, Jesus prayed that those who believe in him would be one. He did not declare a desire that his Church speak Greek, Latin, Hebrew or English, have a Book of Common Prayer or dress a certain way. More importantly, their worth is not in that they are distinctly Anglican, but that every Church point beyond themselves to a rich and faithful catholicity. Anglicanism, as a specific form of enculturated expression, starting in the 3^rd century with Romanized Celtic Christians in Britain, grew and developed over time. Thus, the uniqueness of Anglicanism is its faithful adherence to holding and expressing the one, true, holy, catholic and apostolic Church throughout the ages. “Catholicity” is a description of how near or far a parish church or province is from being the Church catholic, and thus how far from or near to Jesus himself. Anglicanism is a specific enculturation of this catholicity; it is not the whole measure of the Church itself.

            So, when did this specific form of enculturation called “Anglican” come about? When St. Augustine of Canterbury arrived in Kent in 597, he brought a Roman enculturation of catholicity. However, he did not find a clean canvas on which to paint a Romanized Christian community. Instead, he found an Anglicized Christian community that developed through the infusion of Celtic, Britain, and Anglo-Saxon cultural elements. Augustine sought guidance from Pope Gregory the Great. Gregory directed Augustine not to rigidly force Roman practices upon the Anglo-Saxon Christians, but instead to choose the best and most edifying practices from either tradition. In this direction, Pope Gregory was more concerned about the breadth and width of catholicity than about “Roman” enculturation. The unity of the Church catholic is found in catholicity, not in a specific enculturation of it. It is within this focus of catholicity and its enculturation that we see not an Anglican Church, but churches that call themselves “Anglican.” What divides the various churches that are named “Anglican,” is not so much their differences in enculturated Anglicanism, but their varying measure of adherence to catholicity. Christian church communities of differing cultural traditions (be they British, Polish, American, Syrian, et cetera) but of deep catholicity, may be better suited for one another than communities of similar cultural traditions who differ in their adherence to true catholicity. Churches with differing cultures but sharing a deep and faithful catholicity are truly “one” as Jesus prayed for and desires for his Church.