Why would someone join the Anglican( Episcopalian Church)?

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The Book of Common Prayer is a liturgical book as well isn’t it? It’s somewhat comparable to the Roman Missal?
I’ve never used it for that purpose. I just like the morning and evening prayers in the beginning it’s a really nice collection.
 
Yes, that is what I like about it as well. It is pretty much a missal, the daily office, and some other important things arranged in one convenient book.
 
dallas_r said:
As for the 1979 BCP, it is pretty stupid, even Anglicans think this. Most Anglicans use the 1928 because it is more traditional and not influenced by recent problems like gays and woman ordination. 1979 BCP is not used by any other diocese of the Episcopal Church (TEC for short) which tells you something already. Plus TEC is suspended from meeting with all of the other Bishops in the Anglican communion because of heresies like woman ordination, gay marriage, etc.
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Goodness, where are you getting your information? There is not one thing in this particular paragraph that is accurate. The 1979 Book of Common Prayer is not ‘stupid’ and I have never heard one Anglican refer to it as such. It is in the pews of virtually every Episcopal church in the US. It is the authorized Book of Common Prayer, and the 1928 is not. There are very few churches that use/or even HAVE copies of the 1928 version these days - certainly not ‘most’ by any means. And influenced by ‘gays and women’?? What do you mean by that? The liturgical texts of the '79 Prayer Book are gender neutral and have nothing to say about ‘gays and women’.

I don’t know what you mean by ‘1979 BCP is not used by any other diocese of the Episcopal Church (TEC for short)’. The BCP is used in EVERY diocese of the Episcopal Church in the US.

And ‘suspended from meeting with all the other Bishops in the Anglican communion because of heresies like women ordination, gay marriage, etc.’ No clue what you are referring to. Bishops meet all the time, and the Episcopal Church is represented in the wider Anglican Communion on many committees. Additionally, other branches of the Communion have women priests and bishops, as well as gay marriage. There are difficulties, as many RCs know and understand, between the theology of those in more conservative African and Asian provinces, and those in the more liberal western provinces. It’s the way of politics and it’s the way of religion.

But to go back to the post, dallas_r, perhaps you might focus on accuracy next time.
 
For moderns, it can be contraception/divorce-remarriage/sexual issues and other moral teachings that make the Episcopal assembly attractive. It '“looks” Catholic. It may even “feel” Catholic, but feelings lie. And, after all, it’s been around almost 500 years!
 
dallas_r said:
Yes, that is what I like about it as well. It is pretty much a missal, the daily office, and some other important things arranged in one convenient book.
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The Book of Common Prayer is so much more than that, all based on Thomas Cramner’s beautiful composition. It, along with Shakespeare and the King James Bible, is the foundation for modern English. Every sacramental liturgy is in the BCP, every major and minor office, the pastoral offices, the complete Psalter to be prayed daily, the Lectionary, and prayers for individuals to use in their person devotions.

When you hear centuries old phrases such as ‘Dearly beloved, we gathered here in the sight of God…’ and ‘earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, in sure and certain hope of the resurrection…’ you are hearing the words of Cramner’s Book of Common Prayer. It is a magnificent book, and one which has contributed to our English-speaking history.
 
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Didn’t mean to offend you by calling it stupid, but my friends, two of them are priests, in the REC and the ACNA constantly gripe about it and how its errors are so plentiful. Yeah the 1979 BCP is used only in TEC and no other diocese in the world like African diocese and others. Its supposed to fit the liberal church it has become and other diocese worldwide recognize this, hence the suspension. TEC wants to basically become their own church, why else would you modify a perfectly sound prayer book, one of the binders of Anglican faith?

As for the suspension itself you may read about it here. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ne...uspended-anglican-communion-gay-marriage.html

The title is literally “Episcopal Church Suspended from Anglican Communion over Same-Sex Marriage” They are simply observers and have no power or say in the Anglican communion. I think the suspension ends in 2019 or 2020. I’m aware other diocese have fallen into error but not as badly as TEC, who would guess the guys supporting an abortion clinic, literally calling it holy were Christian? Thank God that there is still some sense of tradition in the communion and poor people in africa have to guide liberals to back to traditional ways of the Church.
 
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dallas_r said:
Yeah the 1979 BCP is used only in TEC and no other diocese in the world like African diocese and others.
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Every province in the Anglican Communion has their own version of the Book of Common Prayer. The Canadians have theirs, the Scots have theirs, the South Africans have theirs, the New Zealanders have theirs (and it’s one of my favorites). They are all variations on the same BCP. So of course the US church (TEC) has theirs. And incidentally, revisions are underway as we speak. I think that if you are getting all this information from 2 priests and their opinions, you might want to expand your base.
 
dallas_r said:
The title is literally “Episcopal Church Suspended from Anglican Communion over Same-Sex Marriage” They are simply observers and have no power or say in the Anglican communion.
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They were suspended from the Council, not the Communion. We are doing just fine in the Communion.
 
jas84173 said:
I am so confused. How on earth do Anglicans believe they are the true Church? England wasn’t Christian for 200 years after Christ.
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Mexico wasn’t Christian until 1500 years after Christ. I do not see why either is relevant.
jas84173 said:
And why would anyone say that it is true but the Catholic Church is not? As in if I talked to an Episcopalian priest how would he tell me the Anglican church is the true Church?
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Anglicans believe any church that practices the sacraments is the true Church, even the Catholic Church. They only deny the Catholic Church’s claim of exclusivity.
jas84173 said:
Seeing it was basically founded over a denied divorce I can’t see how anyone can stay with that church.
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They believed Rome was corrupt, and denied the annulment to consolidate power in the Pope. They broke with Rome to create a purer church.
jas84173 said:
Not intending to be rude but the history of King Henry Vlll is almost comical is it not?
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I am sure the Defender of the Faith, King Henry, found it hilarious that the Pope denied his annulment, but granted other dubious but politically useful annulments.
 
2 priests and a site called Anglican forums. I guess BBC needs to change the title of their article before people think that TEC got kicked out or something.
 
Also if you are a Catholic woman or married male wishing to be ordained it’s probably the closest option. Many Anglican churches have Catholic names, use Catholic language and even have Virgin Mary statues. I could see how you might think, meh close enough.
 
I am passionate about unity, we are all created by the same God, and the same God hears all our prayers despite our differences. There is only ‘one Jesus Christ’, we should act towards each other with charity.

I witness Anglicans bringing people to Christ in ways that Catholics can’t, I see Catholics bringing people to Christ in ways that Anglicans can’t. Christian Unity week starts in a week, it is a reminder that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ.

If we are passionate about truth, then it is better that we use our truth to change ourselves, rather than against others, we are all sinners.
 
I have to admit I’ve had all the same thoughts as the OP given that the Anglican Church did not seem to be founded on a strong doctrinal difference. I can much better understand the people who went off to be Lutherans, Methodists and Presbyterians.

As far as I can tell, many people in UK were Anglican because it was what they were born into and there were also feelings of nationalism involved. Anglican was 'their church". And obviously in some parts of the UK in past eras, being an Anglican got you access to jobs and social position. Catholics were looked down on and shut out.

With respect to the US Episcopal church, for many decades it was essentially the church of the prosperous people. If you wanted to go up the social ladder, the Episcopal church is where you wanted to end up, to worship with other rich people, similar to Trump’s “prosperity gospel” church.

In more recent decades, the Episcopal Church in US has been framing itself as the super-liberal church where they ordain women, ordain gay people, march in support of abortion clinics, etc. so it is also getting members from the groups associated with those kinds of activities. I have also seen some of this with the Anglican Church in UK but have been told by some people affiliated with Anglican Church in UK that not every Anglican is on board with the liberalism or supports it and that the Anglican Church in UK is really different from Episcopal Church in USA…oooooook, whatever.
 
Some of my Anglican friends use the phrase, “in the middle in a muddle” as you do get both very high and very low Anglican churches and you never really know what to expect when you walk into one.
 
Where they really lost me is when I realized there was a group of them called “Anglo-Catholic” who apparently try to do things like the Catholic Church but stay Anglican. Why not just become Catholics, sheesh, ridiculous.
 
I think it’s because some want to be married and the Catholic Church doesn’t allow that. I suppose Henry VIII was Anglo-Catholic when you think about it.

It’s awfully confusing when you are in an unfamiliar part of the UK trying to find a Catholic mass, I could see how even a native English speaker could go to an Anglo-Catholic service by mistake.
 
I got very confused in that way by one of their church websites once. It appeared to be a Catholic website. I had to really read the fine print to see that they were not Catholic.
 
There was an article a while back about Catholic international students not realizing that they hadn’t been attending Catholic mass for months, it even suggested some Anglican churches deliberately misled them (not sure about that myself). I’m a London born English speaker and get very confused so I can well imagine how hard it must be for someone who isn’t familiar with the religious make up of the UK and doesn’t have English as a first language.
 
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