About Anglicanism
Anglicans are the world's third largest Christian group, and we are growing everyday, especially in the countries south of the Equator. The Anglican Church in North America, founded in 2009 to preserve and perpetuate the Apostolic Faith, has already grown to more than 130,000 members in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. We are in full communion with other Anglican churches representing 80 million believers worldwide.
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We know ourselves to be a part of God's one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church that the Apostles and their followers built at Jesus' command. We like to say that Anglicanism is where would arrive should you travel all the way back to the Early Church, and if you yourself were to believe what the Church has always believed, at all times, and in all places, down through the millennia. People nowadays yearn for a sense of connection with the Early Church--a footbridge that Anglicanism richly provides. It is why Billy Graham saw "spiritual beauty in Anglican order," and told his final biographer that if he were starting all over again, "I would be an evangelical Anglican."
Anglicanism is Biblical, generous, and beautiful. Not that Anglicans can believe anything they want to believe, because God seeks people who worship him in spirit and in truth. For Anglicans, that truth is the Bible as the final authority and unchangeable standard for Christian faith and life. It has been well said that our Book of Common Prayer, and its liturgy, is simply the Bible arranged for public and private worship. Anglicanism generously embraces three historic worship traditions. The Evangelical movement, consistent from the time of the Great Reformation of the 16th century, stresses the primacy of the Bible to be read, marked, learned, and inwardly contemplated. The Anglo-Catholic moment of the 17th and 19th centuries renewed the Church's commitment to the sacramental life of worship. The Charismatic renewal of the 20th century centered on life in the Holy Spirit as a present day experience. Common to all is worship that exalts the supremacy of Scripture.
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To consider Anglican order one need look no further than the liturgical seasons of the year. Everyone knows Christmas and Easter. The others are Advent, Lent, Epiphany, Eastertide, Pentecost, and Trinity, each centering on a particular chapter in the story of God and His people. By our own retelling of the story of Jesus and His love, arranged in this way, we ourselves become participants in the story of Christ our Lord. When we worship and pray, because the Book of Common Prayer is used by more than 80 million Anglicans worldwide, we're engaging in real tine with millions of other Christians whose collective praise never ceases, in a global family on which the sun never sets.
About the Prayer Book
We are "a people of two books." The Bible is the central source of our knowledge of God and what He expects of us; and our highly participatory Book of Common Prayer is quite simply "the Bible arranged for public and private worship." More than ninety percent of the Prayer Book is directly quoted from Scripture, and the rest of it includes prayers and songs (called canticles) that have been in-use by Christians for fifteen hundred years.
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The beloved Christian teacher C.S. Lewis puts it this way: Anglicans "don't go to church to be entertained. They go to use the service, or, if you prefer, to enact it. Every service is a structure of acts and words through which we receive a sacrament, or repent, or supplicate, or adore. And it enables us to do these things best--if you like, it 'works' best--when, through long familiarity, we don't have to think about it. As long as you notice, and have to count steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance ... The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God ... but every novelty prevents this. It fixes our attention on the service itself, and thinking about worship is a different thing from worshiping."
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Our Book of Common Prayer (2019 edition) takes what is good from the modern liturgical renewal movement while recovering what had been lost from tradition. Its form of prayers and praises is thoroughly Biblical, catholic in the manner of the early centuries, highly participatory in delivery, peculiarly Anglican and English in its roots, culturally adaptive and missional in a most remarkable way, utterly accessible to the people, and whose repetitions are intended to catechetically inform the faith and give them a doxological voice.
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But don't worry! You're not expected to read the Book of Common Prayer (2019 edition) cover-to-cover! Think of the Prayer book as resource for you to use, not only during Sunday worship services but also as an aid to your private prayers and devotions. Many Anglicans keep their copy bedside or on the meal table to use on a daily basis, including for family prayer. The important thing to know is that the Prayer Book is a guide for our transformation in Christ. Everything in it is about communication with God, because we know God longs to speak to use and dwell in us. Our job is to be open to whatever means God uses to engage with us.
Common Questions About Anglican Worship
Why Do We Use Liturgy?
The early Church devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers (Acts 2:42). The book of Psalms was ancient Israel’s congregational prayer and songbook, and the early Church continued to use it for prayer and singing in their own worship. Based on these practices of the early Church, we believe worship should involve the entire congregation. Therefore, we affirm our faith, confess our sins, and offer our prayers together.
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Can I Take Communion?
Yes, we welcome all baptized Christians who are walking in repentance and faith with God and their neighbor to receive communion with us. When you take communion, you are confessing Jesus as your Savior and the Church as your spiritual family. If you are not yet ready to be baptized and follow Jesus, or cannot take communion for some other reason, we welcome you to come forward with your arms crossed on your chest, which signifies your desire to receive a blessing instead of communion.
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Why Do We Wear Robes?
The robe (or alb) was historically worn by servants and represents the Church’s belief that ordained leaders, called deacons and priests, are first and foremost servants of Jesus. The white robe and colored stole worn around a deacon or priest’s shoulders also depicts symbols and events from the life of Christ.