THE ANGLICAN WAY - A REFORMED CATHOLIC CHURCH

What is an 'Anglican'?

The word Anglican simply means 'of England' - the various Anglican Churches throughout the world all find their common descent from the Christian Church in England, which itself dates back to the time of the Apostles themselves
(Saint Aristibule, one of the Seventy-Two sent out in Luke 10,
brought Christianity to the British Isles).

What Do Anglicans Believe?

Anglicans are Christians (followers of Jesus) - we joyfully receive the forgiveness of sins, rescue from death and Hell, and the redeemed eternal life with God that is offered by faith in Christ's death and resurrection.

Anglicans are Catholic - we continue to teach, live out, and practice what Christians for thousands of years before us have, as long as those things do not conflict with what is contained in the Bible. Examples include liturgical worship, the threefold ministry of bishops, priests, and deacons, and the baptism of the children of Christian families.

Anglicans are Protestant - Anglicanism is influenced by The Reformation, which sought to restore the central authority of the Bible in all matters of faith (sola scriptura), and the doctrine of justification by faith alone (sola fide) - that all we receive is a gift from God out of his love for creation, that nothing we ever do can earn God's love or forgiveness, but that it is given to us by faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

"The Anglican Communion," Archbishop of Canterbury Geoffrey Fisher wrote, "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."