mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate) (02/19/85)
>I am a member of the Episcopal church. For those unfamiliar with >it, the Episcopal church is the north american equivalent of the >Anglican church (also called the Church of England). We are catholic >(note small "c"), but not Roman Catholic. Episcopal liturgy and >theology is very close to the Roman church in a great many respects >(there are differences, but most of them are relatively minor). There >are problems with papal infallibility, transsubtantiation, and the >like, but we get along with each other pretty well. [Remainder of article quoted at bottom] Sigh. Trying to explain anglicanism. First of all, the Anglican church is NOT the Chruch of England, although the CofE IS an anglican church. Confused? The anglican communion is a group of national (in the sense that there is generally a independent church in each country) churches, almost all of which are descended from the CofE. They are all governed by bishops, headed by an archbishop (or presiding bishop, or prelate); nominally, the archbishop of Caterbury is accorded primacy, ut in fact his influence over the various churches is minimal. They tend to share a certain theological mindset, but to explain this would take many pages. If I get a pile of requests, I'll post an article on it. In general, they tend to tolerant of theological differences; ordination of women by the American church, for instance, has not caused its expulsion (although it took a lot of arguing to determine what women preists could do in other countries). Liturgy is considered very important, and each national church has its own _Book of Common Prayer_, which dictates the forms of the various services. Relations with the Roman church are seriously impaired by a number of (what we consider to be) doctrinal deviations by the Romans which most anglicans are not willing to accept. Take Papal Infallability or the Immaculate Conception or the Assumption of the Virgin (please). Also transubstantiation. Both Anglicans and the Eastern churches claim that the Roman, Eastern, Lutheran, and Anglican churches have maintained the Apostolic Succession, a fact disputed by the Romans, who claim that the anglican line passes through at least one irregular (and therefore, according to them, invalid) ordination. Similarities between Roman and Episcopal liturgy are largely due to (a) the large proportion of Roman material included in the anglican rites, and (b) the heavy use of ICET in the newer rites. ICET stands for Interdenominational Conference on Ecumenical Texts (I think that's right; anyway, you get the idea);this body convened to adopt phraseology for all the most common texts shared by the various Western denominations, such as the creeds, the Sanctus, etc. Charley Wingate umcp-cs!mangoe [Remainder of included article follows] >I am curious to know more about the problems the Roman church has >with the ordination of Episcopal priests. My guess would be that >the Anglican bishops were no longer considered duly ordained after the >beak with Rome during the reign of Henry VIII, but this strikes me >as a rather political decision. > >Also, the Roman and Episcopal celebrations of Eucharist are as far as >I can tell essentially identical (especially since Vatican II and the >Revised Book of Common Prayer). Granted, we pray for our Presiding Bishop >instead of the Pope, but aside from that I can think of no real difference >off hand. Even the wordings and order of events are incredibly close.
aeq@pucc-h (the practical mystic) (02/21/85)
Even though I'm nowhere near being an Anglican (the only service I've ever
attended in an Episcopal church was a funeral), I can no longer resist
posting the lyrics to the song "I Am an Anglican", which I received from
a friend who is very much an Episcopalian. (BTW, the initials "P.E." which
appear in the song stand for "Protestant Episcopal"; I did not know this
for a long time, so I include that for others who don't know.)
I AM AN ANGLICAN
(to the tune of "God Bless America")
I am an Anglican,
Church of England, P.E.
Neither High Church,
Nor Low Church,
I am catholic and Protestant and free.
Not a Luther,
Nor a Presby,
Nor a Baptist, white with foam;
I am an Anglican, one step from Rome;
I am an Anglican, one step from Rome!
--
-- Jeff Sargent
{decvax|harpo|ihnp4|inuxc|ucbvax}!pur-ee!pucc-h:aeq
When I could honestly say I hated God was when He could show me His love.