That’s Not Anglican! – Part 1

Sometimes tight-knit communities with established traditions, communities like Christ Church Anglican, can unwittingly develop ways of speaking that are exclusive, unhelpful, and damaging to their own relational growth. One such way of speaking that I would love to see exercised with tremendous caution, both at Christ Church Anglican and within the broader Anglican Church, is the phrase, “that’s not Anglican” in its various forms. One of the reasons why I feel so strongly about this is that its use is almost always asymmetrical. I have yet to hear, and I can not imagine, a newer member of our Parish using this phrase as a rebuttal in response to a more established member of the Parish, even when the newer member may actually have a point. When something rubs us the wrong way during the Eucharist or in the way our church operates as an organization, using Anglican heritage as a club to defend our own preferences, preferences that may, in fact, have little or nothing to do with historic Anglicanism, is deeply damaging. However, this is not the only damaging and unhelpful way of having conversations about Anglican identity, and the effects of that identity on the day-to-day life of Christ Church Anglican.

Often the phrase, “that’s not Anglican,” is met with the response, “yes it is, I saw it in an Anglican Church one time,” or some other iteration of this. To put it another way, something can be “Anglican” simply because it happened in an Anglican Church. The logic behind this response would allow me, as Priest in Charge of the Parish, to decide that we will no longer recite the Nicene Creed because I was in a European Cathedral Church that did that once since the celebrant thought it was not true. I shudder at that possibility. Obviously, this kind of thinking simply will not do.

Tracing the logic of these two unhelpful ways to talk about Anglicanism reveals both their absurdity and their ironic similarity.  In both cases, it is the experiences and the preferences of the speaker that operate as a foundation for Anglican identity, so that these conversations rarely, if ever, actually have anything to do with Anglicanism. More importantly, these conversations never build up the body of Christ in the Anglican Church. Is there a better way for our growing church to speak about Anglicanism, as we continue to honor our great tradition as it leads us to Christ while welcoming new people from outside of our tradition?

This is a guiding question for our church in the coming year and, no doubt, beyond. I’ll tell you now that I firmly believe the answer to this question is, “yes!” One of the first ways we are beginning to answer this question is the setting aside of time to study the Book of Common Prayer, the defining feature of Anglican Christianity since the time of the Reformation that continues to unite Anglicans globally, in adult education. This is just one example of many to come, as we undertake the exciting task of living as a community of Christians united in their love for Christ, and expressing that love by receiving Him in Word and Sacrament.

In Christ,

Fr. Matt