Our Parish Identity

The Strategy Team that is working on our Parish Identity recently asked me if I could write something on how the Episcopal Church is different from other religions.  The following is a summary of my response to them.

I agreed to do so, but took the approach that our Anglican identity rests in a common identity with other Christian denominations – this was certainly the case in the early church, and much of what St. Paul did in his early ministry was to forge that common identity.

From this came a basic truth, and this is that we have one identity in Jesus Christ.  We have one future, at the end of time, in Jesus Christ.  We touch this future, and share in this identity, in our worship, in particular, in the Eucharist.

Current ecumenical thought, as the various religious denominations try to understand commonalities and differences, is that such conversations should not begin with traditions, or governance, or even dogma, but with worship.  We believe because we worship – belief is experiential.  Start with the eucharist and work down from there, with one’s eyes more on heaven and less on difference.  It is common to define ourselves by difference.  It is better to define ourselves in God.

With the Reformation, regional or national Protestant religions emerged, among them, the Church of England.  Henry VIII, an able theologian, with Thomas Cranmer at his right hand, instituted the Church of England, and Cranmer created the Book of Common Prayer.  This book, containing the most beautiful passages in the English language, IS OUR IDENTITY.  There have been changes through the years, but it is our defining document.

Close to this time, the Lambeth Quadrilateral was held, helping to address the question of, “Are we Protestant or are we Roman Catholic?”  These principles were the result:

• The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as “containing all things necessary to salvation,” and as being the rule and ultimate standard of faith.

• The Apostles’ Creed, as the Baptismal Symbol; and The Nicene Creed, as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith.

• The two Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself—Baptism and the Supper of the Lord—ministered with unfailing use of Christ’s words of Institution, and of the elements ordained by Him.

• The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the Unity of His Church.

We have a hierarchy of Bishops in the Episcopal Church, as clergy in each diocese rests in obedience to the Bishop Dioscesan, and a Parish rests in ecclesiastical obedience to and in support of, its Rector, and the Vestry governance in support of the Rector, as defined by Canon Law.  We are, again, defined by the Book of Common Prayer.

Lastly, from where comes authority in the Episcopal Church?  It comes from Scripture, Tradition, and Human Reason.  Some denominations hold Scripture as absolute and scientific fact, Episcopalians interpret Scripture, as, W.H. Auden wrote, “Though written by Thy servants with a smudged and crooked line, Thy Word is ever legible, its meaning unequivocal, and for Thy goodness, even sin, is valid as a sign.”   Which demonstrates that Anglican theologians are in fact poets.

I think that Episcopalians long for tradition, but recognize that growth only happens with considered change.

As for human reason, let our God-given minds begin and end their reasoning in the Eucharist.

Persons coming from other traditions can find comfort in High Church echoes in our liturgy, or comfort in the silence and unstated meaning immanent in moments of liturgical prayer.

But I end where I began: We have one identity in Jesus Christ.  We have one future, at the end of time, in Jesus Christ.  We touch this future, and share in this identity, in our worship, in particular, in the Eucharist.