I understand what you are saying. Thank you for that clarification. So you would consider me an Anglo-Catholic that is in communion with Canterbury then? Our particular parish holds to Anglican church teaching and may even seek a primacial vicar over our current liberal bishop of our diocese.
Is your parish a member of the Episcopal Church?
To the contrary, most conservative Episcopalians are evangelical Protestants as opposed to Anglo-Catholics. The number of Anglo-Catholics in the Episcopal Church is small and growing smaller. In the Anglican Communion at large, especially in the Global South, I’d also hazard a guess and say that evangelical Protestantism is predominate over the Anglo-Catholics.
It is. But, we are very disenfranchised over the direction of TEC.
Actually, since I was an Anglican for 25 years and a postulant for ordination, it’s not exactly mere rhetoric, but personal experience. Many, if not most conservative Anglicans are differentiated from their evangelical protestant brethren only in the few Anglican particulars I enumerated above. Otherwise, they’re indistinguishable (and for the most part quite content to be so). This isn’t something I celebrate at all, since Anglicanism has a rich liturgical and theological heritage of its own, but it seems like that via media is being abandoned by Anglicans at both ends of the theological spectrum.
Thank you for your charitable post. I am familiar with StandFirm (my priest turned me on to it). I appreciate your (name removed by moderator)ut here, thank you.Actually, since I was an Anglican for 25 years and a postulant for ordination, it’s not exactly mere rhetoric, but personal experience. Many, if not most conservative Anglicans are differentiated from their evangelical protestant brethren only in the few Anglican particulars I enumerated above. Otherwise, they’re indistinguishable (and for the most part quite content to be so). This isn’t something I celebrate at all, since Anglicanism has a rich liturgical and theological heritage of its own, but it seems like that via media is being abandoned by Anglicans at both ends of the theological spectrum.
As for the neo-pagan eucharist… well… The individual responsible for TEC’s womens’ ministry who ok’d the travesty is actually a candidate for Bishop in Chicago now.
Here’s a link to the story about the “liturgy” in question:
mcj.bloghorn.com/1217
So, I guess I’m not a garbage peddling liar after all, am I?
Oh, and thanks GKC for clearing up the confusion about the term “Anglo-Catholics” (as opposed to Catholic Anglicans, who would be the lucky folks to have an Anglican Use Catholic parish)
and Nella, I know you weren’t asking me, but I’ll put my 2p into it anyway. From what I’ve seen of your writing on the forums, you’re a pretty mainstream orthodox Anglican (leaning more towards the Reformed tradition) who will be right at home once the whole realignment is over and done with. (Anglo-Catholics are the guys who generally have Marian devotions, prayers to the Saints, and other more “Roman” practices)
If you really love Anglicanism and are bound and determined to remain there, I’d highly recommend some of the better Anglican blogs out there like TitusOneNine, StandFirm, and Midwest Conservative Journal. It’s a good way to keep connections open during this awful crisis and keep up on what’s going on with other orthodox Anglicans here in the US and abroad.
How are you defining “evangelical Protestants”? What are the differences between Anglicans and evangelical Protestants? It’s hard for me to think that your statement here does not proceed from profound ignorance of Anglicanism as a whole, but it’s possible that you are simply defining terms differently from most people.
I think GKC has cleared this up, so I’ll say no more.
No, it’s not. This does happen, though more rarely than many critics of the Episcopal Church claim.
I know what you mean. It’s why I left the Episcopal Church.
do you lean more toward Catholicism or a parish firmly adhering to Anglican church teaching rejecting TEC liberalism?
The Parish I left was a conservative evangelical one. At first, I’d have been interested in something similar outside of the Episcopal Church, but there are no such parishes in my area…at least ones that are viable for my family. I am currently worshipping at a LCMS congregation. Nonetheless, I’ve drifted closer to Catholicism since I left the Episcopal Church two years ago so I don’t know where I’ll end up at this point.
I’ve always wondered, which branch of Lutheranism is most conservative. ELCA, LCMS or WELS?? I know ELCA doesn’t enter into the conservative conversation so it is between the other two.
WELS
How so? I am curious.
There are no doubt a number of differences between WELS and LCMS, but one of the more well known differences is that of prayer fellowship. WELS generally believes that you should not pray with anyone who is not in WELS or in a Church that is in communion with WELS. So, you have one branch of conservative Lutheranism in the US (WELS) that won’t even pray with another (LCMS).
To answer that, I’d need to know more. There are a couple of dimensions along whiich Anglicanism can be measured. Historically, there has been a range of doctrine, from more or less reformed evangelical, to more or less Anglo-Catholic, all Anglican. This is a range, and one would need to know where you stand with respect to the sacraments, Marian questions, Tradition, the ECFs and some similar points, to place you on the spectrum.