This fifth and final contribution seeks to describe Anglican reality from an overall perspective, and the assumption that guides is that change in the Anglican Church is likely only if consistent with the perceived 'Anglican Way'. So, what is that 'Way'?
THE ANGLICAN Church perceives itself as the Church most faithful to the biblical concept of church. All other groups are perceived as faulty in some critical area, such as the Roman Church in regard to papal rule and Protestant groups generally, in regard to schism. The 'newer' groups are considered negatively, in regard to unbalanced doctrinal emphasis, skewed eschatology, and excessive literalism. Of course, some Protestant groups are seen as blatantly heretical.
Anglicans see themselves as holding true 'Catholic' teaching, established from the early centuries when the Church was one. As Anglicans see the historical development of the Church, the universal or Catholic Church at the time of the 16th century was confronted with the need for reform, and the Anglicans made necessary reforms.
This was in contrast to the Roman Church branch denied all the serious doctrinal charges of Luther (Council of Trent) and the evident excesses of some Protestants, notably the Anabaptists. However, the Anglican Church, deeply regretful of the resulting divisions of the Body of Christ, in terms of both East and West branches and the splintering of the West, is committed to unity, with doctrinal purity.
Doctrinal purity is what Anglicans perceive to be preserved in the ancient Creeds, formulated by the leaders of the undivided Church. Significantly, the Anglican Church is the only one that makes use of all of the three historic Creeds - the Nicene Creed, the Apostles' Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. In addition, to make the teaching of the Church readily accessible, the Book of Common Prayer guides. In Jamaica, which belongs in the Province of the Church in the West Indies and the Cayman Islands, the Revised Version used omits the traditional 'Prayers for Her Majesty the Queen and all the Royal Family'.
HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE
Bishops rule. That is what Church hierarchy is about. Chief bishops or archbishops, also recognised as presiding bishops, rule as equals, or as traditional wisdom states it 'first among equals' (primus inter pares). Episcopal rule is maintained in all three branches of the historic churches Orthodox, Roman, and Anglican. In 1662, this form of rule was legally imposed in England. The Act of Uniformity compelled acceptance of the 39 Articles and use of the Book of Common Prayer. Approximately 2,000 Protestant Ministers refused and were dismissed from Office, many going over to Presbyterian churches and others forming Congregational and Independent churches. The Episcopal system of Church Government is one in which bishops are perceived as successors to the Apostles. However, Anglicans recognise only Bishops duly enthroned, consistent with historic tracing; not to maverick claims. In this sense, then, the Anglican Church is apostolic. The claim to be apostolic relates to a particular understanding of what is termed 'apostolic succession'.
RENEWAL INTERIORITY
The Anglican Church believes that each person brought into relationship with Christ must go through a process of spiritual transformation. For Anglicans, being a Christian is perceived more as a process that is begun at baptism, and continued for life. Hence, Anglican calls for 'renewal' experiences tend to be persistent rather than sporadic; and so not marked by crusades and conferences. Instead, Anglicans press for daily commitment and constant church connection, marked particularly by participation in Holy Communion.
Intensive contemplative prayer, focusing on Christ, nurtures that process individually. This kind of prayer is considered the highest and the most profound. Anglicans cling to the dictum that 'the law of prayer is the law of practice'. Therefore, for Anglicans, prayer is the most forceful and fastest way to cleansing and strengthening the 'interior' life, without which outward conduct is empty. Of course, this is because, for Anglicans, 'The law of praying is the law of belief' (Lex orandi, lex credendi).
The big idea here is the practice of constant and contemplative prayer as a means of transformation human personalities into Christlikeness. Lenten reflections, fasting, and prayer are all designed to this end, at least annually, to better purge and prepare the individual Christian for reflecting in our living the life of Christlikeness, in community.
INCARNATIONAL THEOLOGY
The Anglican Church sees Christ, the head of the Church, founded by the God who became human for our redemption, as truth that dictates the heart of the Church's theology. For Anglicans, this truth is supremely expressed in the Sacrament of Holy Communion, and so the Anglican Church sees the celebration of Holy Communion as crucial to the expression of faith. Through Holy Communion, the person of Christ is encountered. Through the Word, we are challenged, to take Christ with us in every place we go. At the end of Anglican services members are encouraged to "Go in peace and love and serve the Lord." For Anglo-Catholic Anglicans in particular, the proclamation of the Word and the celebration of Communion are kept in 'dynamic tension'; with the aim that none is placed above the other, even though precision is impossible to measure, and perhaps to achieve. But more problematic is the conviction that the altar represents the throne of God, and so would tend to concede superiority. At the altar, Christ is 'made present' through the priestly work of consecrating, and so transforming in some mysterious sense, ordinary bread and wine, into extraordinary channels of divine grace.
However, in more evangelical-oriented Anglican churches (Low Church), the pulpit has tended to emerge higher, in terms of emphasis on the quality of the sermons. Preaching tends in low churches to be more than hortatory homilies. Their essential character becomes more expository and challenging, particularly a message for the faithless, that they might receive the faith.
Another dimension to the incarnation theology facet of Anglican Faith is interaction with culture. The issues involved in making Christ relevant in culture, and as well presenting Him as standing above culture are issues that require constant and creative theologising. In this regard 'progressive' Anglicans, whether High or Low, strive to 'decolonise' the Church.
SOCIAL SERVICE
The Anglican Church sees every Christian as called to a life of service. Therefore, structured opportunity is afforded, within the 'Orders' of the Church, for engagement in missions to the poor, oppressed, and needy, as well as the spiritually decadent who need to be converted to Christ. Also, positive effort is made not merely to render relief, but to affect social structures in every social sphere political, economic, and cultural. It is this broad, undifferentiated concept of witness that lays basis for the charge that Anglicans are not sufficiently 'evangelistic'. Service by example in living and doing for Christ supercedes, in the Anglican concept of evangelism, service by one means primarily, even though noble, such as preaching that demands a verdict for Christ. Hence, the Anglican Order of the 'Church Army'.
TEMPERED ORDER
The Anglican Church is not given to sudden pursuance of every new wind of doctrine and fancy of practice. The Church believes in ordered, transformational change - personally, ecclesiastically, and socially and so is not easily swayed by religious zeal in particular directions. Canon law governs the church, and problematic issues are put to systematic and timely discussion and decision. Whatever is agreed on is voluntarily accepted. The church permits individuality and so accommodates varying positions, but not on issues considered to be contrary to the Holy Scriptures. The celebrated Dr. Edward Pusey of the Tractarian or Oxford Movement, in explaining the Anglican Rule of Faith, said that such "must be capable of being proved out of Holy Scripture." He went on to say, perhaps prophetically anticipating today's many aberrant groups, "not according to the private sense of individuals, but according to the uniform teaching of the Church" (p. 36).
It is this commitment to the "uniform teaching of the Church" that makes Anglicans shun the 'health and wealth' or 'success' Gospel popularly televised, and which Anglicans speak of as representing an 'Entertainment Jesus'. The bishops are responsible for doctrines of the church, and so will not readily surrender their authority to un-trained or non-ordained preachers, hence, ingrained reluctance to have their pulpits occupied by various miracle workers and magnificent orators of some slice of truth, however biblical.
