That’s Not Anglican! – Part 2

One unusual blessing that I continue to be grateful for is the presence of refugees in our church, and I interpret their presence as a sign of health for our church in an increasingly conflicted world. Part of what I find so remarkable is the fact that people from every corner of the globe can feel so at home at Christ Church. I asked one of our refugee families how it was possible that they would feel so at home at CCA, given the many barriers that make such a connection so unlikely, and their response was essentially that, because it was recognizably Anglican, Christ Church was a place that felt familiar to them.

I begin with this anecdote as a picture of how God can use the Prayer Book tradition, that we at Christ Church Anglican are a part of, as a means of unifying His church. That a Christian tradition can point to Christ in its worship with such clarity, beauty, and in such a way that it is recognizably itself across cultural boundaries is indeed an act of God, and for that we are grateful. There is a gracious breadth to Anglicanism as it is outlined in the BCP and its traditions, a breadth that is held in tension with a clear order for worship and theology. When held in tension appropriately with a center in Christ, the BCP tradition has tremendous potential to shape and unify Christian communities in healthy ways.

This is so even for Christ Church Anglican in our life together. The prayer book tradition is one that began far before us, a tradition founded in the English Reformation, a movement deeply conscious of its own continuity with the earliest Christians. This is a tradition that we ourselves are not responsible for, but inherit, and so it provides a common language, theology, and collective memory for Christians who belong to it. In other words, none of us can really be called “founders” in this tradition, because Christ Church Anglican’s roots were planted far before the realignments of the 2000s. Even the backbone of Anglican worship, the proclamation of Scripture and the Eucharist, have roots that extend to pre-Christian Judaism, far before and beyond ourselves.

Is the point of remembering this to pat ourselves from the back, and congratulate one another for winning the denominational lottery, with gratitude that we do not have to worship like those other Christians? God forbid it! Instead, we stand with gratitude as humble recipients of this tradition because of its unique ability to draw people into a deeper life with Christ through the regular readings of prayer inflected with Scripture, arranged to tell the story of God’s saving grace for us, time and time again.

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore.” 2 Corinthians 13:14

In Christ,

Fr. Matt