What is an Anglican?
What is an Anglican?
Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher once wrote:
“Anglicanism has no peculiar thought, practice, creed or confession of its own. It has only the Catholic Faith of the ancient Catholic Church, as preserved in the Catholic Creeds and maintained in the Catholic and Apostolic constitution of Christ’s Church from the beginning.” It may licitly teach as necessary for salvation nothing but what is read in the Holy Scriptures as God’s Word written or may be proved thereby. It therefore embraces and affirms such teachings of the ancient Fathers and Councils of the Church as are agreeable to the Scriptures, and thus to be counted apostolic. The Church has no authority to innovate: it is obliged continually, and particularly in times of renewal or reformation, to return to “the faith once delivered to the saints.”
To be an Anglican, then, is not to embrace a distinct version of Christianity, but a distinct way of being a “Mere Christian,” at the same time evangelical, apostolic, catholic, reformed, and Spirit-filled.
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A Letter From The Presiding Bishop:
As the Anglican Province of America, we have a special calling in the often confusing world of Anglicanism. We have been called to provide a home for those who are no longer able to support the establishment church as it continues its novel agenda begun a generation ago. We are not called, nor do we wish, to create something new.
We call ourselves Prayer Book Catholics in the Anglican tradition. There is latitude in the expression of our worship. We have always had those who have been more high church and those who hold to a more low church tradition. Some have more ceremonial than others, but when comes down to it, we all use the same Prayer Book that serves to keep us Traditional Anglicans.
The primary purpose of all that we do is to honor and glorify our Lord Jesus Christ and to proclaim His saving Gospel to a lost world. If we falter in this by allowing secondary issues to cloud our duty, then we will have failed to honor our Lord’s calling.
There is talk from time to time that as we engage ourselves in dialogue with others who believe the Gospel and call themselves Anglicans, we risk the loss of our identity as an orthodox Traditional Anglican Church. Let me say without hesitation that as long as I serve as your Bishop, we all will remain faithful to our calling to provide a life boat for those who have escaped the “establishment ship” that has shipwrecked on the rocks of secular culture. We will ever continue to do this as Traditional Prayer Book Anglicans. But it is important always to bear in mind that what we do is not to provide a liturgical museum of nostalgia for those who wish to recall some glorious day of yesteryear, but it is to worship God rightly and proclaim the reality that Christ has come, that Christ has died and risen again, and that salvation has come to fallen mankind. If that message does not ring through loud and clear, then we will have failed to communicate the primary purpose of why we exist.
God bless each of you as we together ponder the great mysteries of our faith.
The Most Rev. Walter H. Grundorf
Office of the Presiding Bishop
Anglican Province of America3348 West State Road 426
Oviedo (Orlando), Florida 32765
800.480.1087
www.anglicanprovince.org
