SCM Studyguide: Anglicanism: 2nd Edition

By Stephen Spencer

The SCM Studyguide to Anglicanism offers a comprehensive introduction to the many different facets of Anglicanism. Aimed at students preparing for ministry, it presumes no prior knowledge of the subject and offers helpful overviews of Anglican history, liturgy, theology, Canon Law, mission and global Anglicanism.

As well as offering updated and improved lists of further reading, this second edition brings a greater emphasis on worldwide expressions of Anglicanism, with more examples taken from Asian and African contexts, and a brand new section which considers the rise of the global communion alongside issues of inculturation and indigenisation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SCM Press
• Release date: Feb 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9780334060192

Stephen Spencer

Stephen Spencer is Director for Theological Education at the Anglican Communion Office, London.

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SCM STUDYGUIDE TO ANGLICANISM 2nd Edition

SCM STUDYGUIDE TO ANGLICANISM

2nd Edition

Stephen Spencer

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© Stephen Spencer 2021

Published in 2021 by SCM Press

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Contents

Preface

Introduction: Voices from Across the World

Part 1 Anglican Faith

1. Basis of Faith

1.1 Grace Rediscovered: Martin Luther’s Theological Revolution

1.2 Grace and Sanctification: Archbishop Cranmer’s Founding Documents

1.3 Grace and Salvation: George Herbert and the Life of Prayer

2. Forming of Faith

2.1 Scripture Before All: William Tyndale’s English Bible

2.2 Tradition in Play: Liturgical Synthesis in the Book of Common Prayer

2.3 Reason at Work: Richard Hooker’s Integrative Theology

3. Expressions of Faith

3.1 Of the Mind: Joseph Butler and his Successors

3.2 Of the Heart: The Wesleys and their Successors

3.3 Of the Imagination: Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Evelyn Underhill

Part 2 Anglican Community

4. Sacramental Communities

4.1 Roots: Catholic Continuities in the BCP

4.2 Recoveries: The High Church Party

4.3 Propagation: Jeremy Taylor and the Scottish Liturgy

5. Distinct Communities

5.1 Becoming Self-governing Churches: America to Australasia

5.2 Recovering Apostolic Authority: The Oxford Movement

5.3 Including the Excluded: From Hampshire to New York

6. Communities of Place

6.1 Settler Churches: North America

6.2 Minority Churches: India

6.3 Majority Churches: West and East Africa

Part 3 Anglican Mission

7. Proclaiming the Gospel

7.1 Nurture Evangelism: From John Wesley to East Africa

7.2 Temple Worship: The Anglo-Catholics

7.3 Ecumenical Witness: F. D. Maurice and Lambeth 1920

8. Responding to Human Need

8.1 Housing: Octavia Hill in Victorian London

8.2 Empowering Women: The Mothers’ Union

8.3 Care for the Abused: Religious Sisters in the Solomon Islands

9. Transforming the World

9.1 Education: Thomas Bray, Hannah More and their Successors

9.2 Social Structures: Christian Socialism and William Temple

9.3 The Earth as a Whole: The Five Marks of Mission

Part 4 The Anglican Communion

10. What Kind of Communion?

10.1 A Common Core: W. R. Huntington and the Quadrilateral

10.2 Corporate Connections: The Instruments of Communion

10.3 Voluntary Links: All Kinds of Networks

10.4 Future Convergence: The Polestar of Mission

Conclusion: Continuing the Study

Appendix: Churches of the Anglican Communion

Bibliography

Preface

The first edition of the SCM Studyguide to Anglicanism concentrated on English Anglicanism and presented the development of three ‘ways of discipleship’ based on three historic ecclesial traditions found within the Church of England. This approach has been revised in two significant respects for this second edition. With a Lambeth Conference to take place in 2022, the focus has been shifted to global Anglicanism in all its breadth and richness. As far as possible the content of chapters has been drawn from across the Anglican Communion, reflecting the fact that the Church of England is now only one of over 40 independent churches that make up this body (though earlier chapters on the origins of the faith of Anglicans still need to draw predominantly from its history). This has led to around half of the book being new. Second, the neat division of Anglicanism into three ways of discipleship has had to be abandoned. The breadth and complexity of the subject, with Evangelical, Catholic and Liberal ways of discipleship often mingling in different parts of the world, means that it is more accurate to describe Anglicanism as a broad and complex movement of church traditions, with a range of dimensions that come to the fore in different ways in different places.

This raises the question of whose point of view should be adopted to approach the subject as a whole. Should it be of those who lead these church communities, of the bishops, archbishops and leading laity who have presided over Anglican churches in the past and present? Or should it be from an institutional point of view, concentrating on the growth and development of Anglicanism’s structures, buildings, agencies and educational bodies and including current divisions, a corporate perspective? Or should it be from the perspective of the ordinary Anglican, lay and ordained and their faith and practice in everyday life? This studyguide opts for the last of these, an approach not found in other recent introductory literature on Anglicanism. It does this in order to approach the subject in a grounded way, to study the nature of this movement for those who constitute its membership at grassroots level, to study ordinary Anglicanism. This does not mean the contributions of leaders and institutions will be ignored: they must be included at many points where they have helped to form the faith and life of these Anglicans. But the overall approach and content of the studyguide is determined by the outlook of the latter.

Anglican Christians from across the world therefore set the scene and the tone in the Introduction, describing Anglican experience in their own words: a selection of voices that highlight a number of dimensions to the subject. These dimensions are then put into three groups: those that describe the nature of faith itself among Anglicans, those that describe the nature of the community life among Anglicans, and those that describe how Anglicans engage in mission within the wider society of which they are part. This scheme does not provide an exhaustive description of Anglican experience, but it covers many of its most widespread features. It also provides the framework and subject matter for the rest of the book, which tells the stories of the people and movements that have given definitive expression to each dimension.

This approach can be challenged by pointing out that a different set of voices would produce a different description of the topic. This is true, but in the end, as will be seen, Anglicanism is a subject too vast to be encompassed within any one scheme. Instead this studyguide limits its ambitions by claiming to make only one run at the subject, to provide orientation, like an atlas with a series of maps and images from across the centuries and across the continents, and with some discussion questions that point the way to applying and refining the mapping in the reader’s own context. It is presented as an invitation to the reader to add their own perspectives and insights. It presents one view which needs other views from other points of view to add to the richness and range of our understanding. My hope is that the pages that follow do this in an informative and engaging way.

Another reason for publishing a second edition is the need to update the reading lists. Since 2010 there has been a string of important publications on Anglicanism hugely enriching the literature on the subject. Pride of place must go to the five volumes of The Oxford History of Anglicanism (edited by Rowan Strong 2017–18), an exceptional achievement that has become a standard reference point for further study and research (not least its bibliographies). Other recent volumes have enriched our understanding of contemporary Anglicanism across the globe, such as The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to the Anglican Communion (Markham et al. 2013), Jesse Zink’s Backpacking Through the Anglican Communion (2014) and David Goodhew’s edited collection Growth and Decline in the Anglican Communion: 1980 to the Present (2017). Another impressive volume has provided a comprehensive overview of critical issues in the study of Anglicanism, The Oxford Handbook of Anglican Studies (edited by Chapman, Clarke and Percy 2016). Rich surveys of Anglican theology have been provided by Mark Chapman (2012) and an edited collection from Ralph McMichael (2014). Paul Avis has provided an updated overview of Anglican ecclesiology in The Vocation of Anglicanism (2016), and edited, with Benjamin M. Guyer, an informative collection of essays on the Lambeth Conference (2017). Most recently, studies by Christopher Craig Brittain and Andrew McKinnon (2018) and William L. Sachs and Robert S. Heaney (2019) have provided hopeful perspectives on the current state of Anglicanism. As well as these books there have been a host of new studies on many of the topics mentioned in this book, many of which are included in the Further Reading lists at the end of each chapter. A wide range of relevant journal articles have also been published, not least in the Journal of Anglican Studies, the Anglican Theological Review and Anglican and Episcopal History, some of which are mentioned below. Finally, the range of official texts available on the internet has grown dramatically and many of these are now listed below. The Further Reading lists are intended to provide samples of all this.

It is my hope that this second edition of the SCM Studyguide to Anglicanism may capture the interest of readers in a complicated and intriguing subject, the nature of worldwide Anglicanism. My own interest has arisen from the experience of being theologically educated in two of its churches (the Church of England and the Episcopal Church of the United States), trained for ministry in another (the Scottish Episcopal Church), and then of having served as a priest in the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe as well as in a variety of urban and rural contexts in England. It has also been encouraged by being a link officer for a longstanding link between dioceses in England and Tanzania (Wakefield and Leeds with Mara Region), and now through my work of supporting theological education across the Anglican Communion from the Anglican Communion Office in London. This experience of Anglicanism has not generally tallied with the popular image of Anglicanism, of vexacious dispute and polarization, but has been one of being in solidarity with lay people and clergy from different continents who pull together in the service of Christ. It has been a privilege to be part of this global movement and the chapters of this book are offered to encourage the study, appreciation and fostering of its life.

It is important to add that while this book at many points draws on official statements from the Anglican Communion, and while it is a contribution to the educational work of the department for Theological Education at the Anglican Communion Office, the conclusions it draws are not official conclusions but just my own.

I am very grateful to the students of the Northern Ordination Course, the Yorkshire Ministry Course and St Hild College, Mirfield, for the opportunity to explore this subject over the years and develop this studyguide. I am also grateful to my colleagues at the Anglican Communion Office and in theological education across the Anglican Communion who have provided a rich array of insights into worldwide Anglicanism’s highways and byways. The chapters in this book build on the work of numerous scholars cited at many points, and with appreciation I acknowledge my debt to them. I also wish to thank David Shervington and the team at SCM Press for producing this second edition in a warmly supportive and efficient way.

As mentioned in the first edition, my interest in Anglicanism was first awakened as a teenager by the enthused teaching and ministry of Alan Charters. In deep gratitude this book is dedicated to him.

Introduction: Voices from Across the World

It is said that truth can be stranger than fiction. The growth of Anglicanism is a case in point. Who could have predicted that a home-made church from a small nation on the edge of Europe would grow to become the second largest of the world’s global communions,¹ and yet this is what has happened. The Church of England, out of which Anglicanism developed, was formed as a local and pragmatic response by a sixteenth-century monarch and his advisers to a complicated set of theological, political and economic pressures. There was no thought of exporting this kind of Christianity around the world. Yet, today, Anglican churches are found in over 165 countries of the world with an estimated membership of around 86 million people (Johnson and Zurlo in Goodhew 2017, p. 38). The Anglican Communion links 41 of these provincial and national churches together, including four united churches from the Indian subcontinent, with some independent churches and dioceses across the world (see Appendix). There are also a number of other churches describing themselves as Anglican that are not members of the Anglican Communion, such as the Anglican Church of North America. Anglicans speak a wide range of languages, including the international languages of French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Arabic and Kiswahili. It has a public presence in most of the capital cities of the world and a growing representation at the United Nations.

All this raises some big questions, including one that this studyguide concentrates on: what is the nature of this phenomenon?

Any student of Anglicanism will quickly learn that it has a long and complex history, stretching back through missionary movements, industrialization and scientific endeavours, colonialism and slavery, revivals of various kinds, to the European Reformation and, behind that, to the medieval Catholic Church and, behind that, to the Hellenistic and Apostolic churches of the ancient world. There have been multiple centres of renewal and growth. For example, many global South provinces do not look to the Church of England for their origins but to the Episcopal Church of the United States, such as the provinces of the Philippines, Mexico, Brazil and Central America, while the dioceses of Haiti, Honduras, Cuba and Puerto Rico (among others) are within its structures. Furthermore, there have been and continue to be a range of disagreements and divisions in different parts of the world. Recent publications show that the history of Anglicanism is extensive and richly textured, with much that is yet to be researched (see, for example, the dense and multi-threaded five volumes of The Oxford History of Anglicanism, 2017–18).

Gaining some understanding of this phenomenon is therefore a challenge. Rowan Williams has commented that the question of what exactly we mean by ‘Anglicanism’ is one that is ‘almost unanswerable’ (Williams 2012). Bruce Kaye, the author of a recent survey of world Anglicanism, has written that ‘the sheer magnitude of the material encompassed by world Anglicanism renders it completely impossible to be aware of, let alone cover, everything’ (Kaye 2008, p. vii).

This obviously presents a huge challenge for a book attempting to introduce the subject. How are we to get a handle on something so vast and complex? How are we to avoid ending up with a one-sided approach? This is especially pressing for a subject that in the past has often been presented in a very hierarchy-dominated way, focusing on the manoeuvrings of monarchs (beginning with Henry VIII’s divorce), continuing through the actions of archbishops and bishops in the Reformation and Restoration periods, to heroic figures of the missionary era and the creation of worldwide ecclesiastical institutions. But in a democratic and postcolonial age this kind of narrative will not do. It does not give an account of the ordinary Anglicanism, as it were, of the experience of those men and women who received, owned, formed and propagated Anglican faith around the world. While monarchs and bishops have often made important contributions to this experience, they are not the ones who generally have handed on that life and faith at local level and who have brought about global growth. It is the people of God, laity and clergy in village and neighbourhood churches, homes and workplaces, who have done this and who need to determine the way in which we approach the subject. Fundamentally, Anglicanism is constituted by its membership, those communities of men and women in communion with Christ and with each other across history and across the world, and it is to those people and their faith and practice that we turn for an approach and structure for this studyguide.

This will be done by drawing on some interviews I conducted with Anglicans from different regions of the world, lay and ordained, who give short testimonies on what being an Anglican means to them, including in terms of what they have received and of what lies ahead. The interviews provide an opportunity to hear from different voices in different places. They all come from contexts where Anglicans are in a minority (which is the case for most Anglicans today) and where their churches face sharp challenges, either from Islam, secularism or authoritarian politics. They reveal keen awareness of what it means to be Anglican and express this in vivid and thoughtful ways, each with their own authentic voice. Importantly, they come out of different ecclesial traditions – Evangelical, Catholic and Liberal – and so are broadly representative of historic Anglicanism.

Each testimony is followed by a short commentary that draws out the underlying features within them, these features then being carried forward to provide the structure for the rest of the book.

A Voice from Malaysia

The first testimony is from Steven Abbarow, an Anglican of South Indian (Tamil) heritage from the multiracial, multicultural and Muslim-majority nation of Malaysia. This is a society where there is increasing pressure from Islam and discrimination against non-Muslims and so is one where Anglicans need to know who they are and what they believe in order to sustain and grow their faith. In conversation, Abbarow described what being an Anglican meant to him (interviewed in Kuala Lumpur, 10 December 2019).

My personal testimony is that I was from a Seventh Day Adventist background and was raised in a Brethren of Christ Sunday school and was only initiated into Anglicanism when a teenager. My parish priest came and visited me and said, ‘Young man, I haven’t seen you in my parish. You’d better come to our youth fellowship.’ I went for the first service and, lo and behold, what really attracted me was the Eucharist: I saw Christ and I saw the reality of Christ. Reflecting now on my background as a Seventh Day Adventist, raised from parents who were Seventh Day Adventist, and sent to a Brethren Sunday school, and finding myself for the first time in what seemed like a very Roman Catholic kind of church, what really got to my heart was the holy Eucharist [and that] every prayer was from scripture. As I had already read the Bible five times through in three different languages (because we were so poor the only textbook my parents could afford to educate me was the Bible), as a young teenager going to my first Anglican service I saw that the word of God was so real in this service, so much of it was from the word of God. So for me being an Anglican is all about the worship and the prayers and how it encapsulates God’s word and God’s love and God’s promises for me. And from then on I was sold on being an Anglican.

Second, what had Abbarow received by being an Anglican?

One of the greatest gifts I have received by being an Anglican is a heart that is open to Reformed theology and a grace that is open … What I have really received is a heart of grace, from the liturgy and the Anglican Church. I feel comfortable going to an Evangelical service, I feel comfortable going to a Charismatic or Pentecostal service, I feel very comfortable going even to a Brethren or a Roman Catholic service or even an Eastern Orthodox service. I have realized that it is primarily because of the gift of the Anglican liturgy and what that liturgy has done to me as a person. It is the greatest gift that the Anglican Church has given to me.

Third, as an Anglican what did Abbarow hope for and work for?

I hope for the universal church, for denominations coming together to be able to worship and to say that we are one body. I am not talking so much in terms of organization but in terms of spirit, and this is primarily from my experience in ecumenical bodies that I have been involved with. I have been a youth work coordinator in a council of churches for three years. Right now I am the acting principal for an ecumenical seminary (the Theological Seminary of Malaysia) and in all these things I find that my Anglican background has made my heart open, and I also feel that people are able to look at me as a focus of unity because they feel that here is one person who has space to agree to disagree and yet stay in loving relationship with one another. This is what I would like to give, I hope for, in my being, praying and relating with all these people.

In these heartfelt answers it is possible to see four underlying features of Anglican experience come to the fore: an emphasis on God’s grace, known above all in the heart, which inspires and encourages the life of faith; second, the high importance given to scripture in the life of the church, as reflected in the way that worship is thoroughly based on words from the Bible; third, the importance of eucharistic liturgy to Anglicans, and in particular a liturgy that blends Catholic and Protestants elements, which also allows Anglicans to feel at home in a wide range of traditions of worship; and related to this, an ecumenical calling, to be a source of unity for different denominations locally and globally, to draw a broad range of Christians together in spiritual unity.

A French Voice

The second testimony is from Stéphanie Burette, coming from a strongly secular background in France and at the time of the interview working for the church in Jerusalem, itself a uniquely pressurized environment for churches (interviewed in Jerusalem, 24 January 2020). She began by answering the question of what being an Anglican meant to her.

I was raised as an atheist in France and was converted in England in the Church of England and then joined an American Episcopal community in Paris and went to an Episcopal seminary in the US. So for me to be an Anglican is to be connected to the rest of the world. I always feel I belong somewhere in between the Church of England and the American Episcopal Church. A lot of it has to do with aesthetics: I went to church because of the music, because of the arts, the poetry, the literature, the painting, and I loved the way in the Anglican tradition there was the beauty of the liturgy, the beauty of Choral Evensong (from the Book of Common Prayer), for example, and how I would as an atheist (at first) encounter something mysterious through the arts, and how this was articulated often by preachers and involved in worship. The music itself was worship, and the arts in general were like a window to the divine, to God. So here was a good bridge for me.

Burette then described what she has received by being an Anglican:

Even though I was raised as an atheist I was given an image of God who was a judgemental God, and in the Anglican Church I was given a completely different image which was of a loving God, a God we never know fully and who ‘colours outside the lines’, not a being I would imagine as a human being but as broader and bigger and wider and deeper than I could ever imagine. So it was this other representation of God, a loving God who is with us, and it takes a whole life to know more about God and there is always something new to say about God. I was also given a community, not specifically in a particular place but more broadly of people who are asking questions, who are given opportunities to challenge easy answers. I loved the fact that especially in the first community I joined there were scholars and this was a new thing for me, to see scholars who were also believers, and that space was made for questions, for doubt, for enquiries. I felt very welcome and that my resistance was also welcome and was given space. I could explore, I could articulate that sometimes I was uncomfortable with what I thought was the teaching of the church and was certainly not rejected for that. I was something like, ‘let’s have coffee and talk about this more’, and not thinking that the clergy person or lay person I was with had all the answers but that we were on the same path and walking together while some of us are ahead of us, and some are just walking alongside and we learn from each other – this idea that we are all learning from each other.

Finally, Burette described what, as an Anglican, she hopes for and works for:

I am very international given my path – where I grew up, where I studied, where I went to seminary and where I serve (here in Jerusalem). I am hoping for two things: to bring together people who believe they have nothing to do with each other because of cultural differences. I am thinking of global warming and that our generation will face migrations due to disasters that are happening in the world, and this triggers strong reactions in people as humans who wish to be secure and not to mix with people we do not know whose cultures may seem threatening. Instead I think there is room in the Anglican Church for this capacity to welcome the other, show curiosity towards something that feels very different, with willingness to be the body of Christ together even if we believe at first we have nothing in common: there is the generosity, the openness. So I think the Anglican Church has something very beautiful, strong and powerful to offer for our generation. Another is the place of women in the church: I am serving in a place where it is not always easy to be a female clergy person, so I am hoping that as a woman I can participate in showing that we are not only very competent but have a lot to offer to the church and to show people who do not believe that it is possible and a very good thing. It is a theological issue – we can reflect God in a way that has not yet been reflected, and again showing that nothing is impossible with God – a beautiful message of hope we can share all around the world.

This is a rich and suggestive testimony. It draws our attention to the international dimension of Anglicanism and that Anglican experience includes being connected to a worldwide community of churches. It highlights the importance of music and other kinds of artistic expression as a bridge to faith and to the divine: that the aesthetic expression of beauty can be evangelistic, embodying and expressing the reality of God to those exploring faith. Many would add church and cathedral architecture to this. It also vividly describes an understanding of God as beyond our comprehension, found through the imagination and with always more to discover, a lifetime’s journey, with a church community committed to asking questions and exploring this mystery through scholarship and interactive learning. It draws our attention to an outward-facing dimension of Anglican experience, one that is committed to addressing the structural issues of our time such as racism and the consequences of climate change, especially through bringing different people together in dialogue to be open and generous with each other. Finally, it describes a specific concern to raise up the place of women in society and the church, especially through their ordination in parts of the world that do not yet recognize this possibility.

A Chinese Voice

The third testimony comes from Hong Kong, a city facing deep political and social challenges from the authoritarian Chinese state, with painful division running through the local population. Rachel Pong, a member of St Paul’s Church, began by describing what being an Anglican means to her (interviewed in Hong Kong, February 2020).

Being an Anglican means that I am privileged in a good sense of the word. Hong Kong is an ex-British colony. The Anglican Church, having been the Church of England, played and still plays a unique and important role in the everyday lives of Hong Kong. The Anglican Church has built many schools to help raise the educational standards of Hong Kong. The Anglican Church has established many social welfare services to help the poor and the needy. These schools and services are not just for Anglicans only but are open to everyone who has the need. So being Anglican means we are anchored in tradition but we are also very progressive