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From The Anglican Way">

Other Descriptions of Episcopal Spirituality & Ethos

From The Anglican Way, James Fenhagen -- Order from Forward Movement 412 Sycamore Street; Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-4195 Phone: 513- 721-6659; toll free: (800) 543-1813 (in the USA and Canada)

1. Comprehensiveness -- "rather than doctrinal uniformity ...being able to hold together seeming opposites"

2. Personal Holiness -- "emerging from the inter-relationship between liturgical participation, solitude and compassion ... weaves together a concern for personal freedom with an emphasis on beauty and joyfulness and awe"

3. Holy Worldliness -- "life affirming rather than pleasure denying...; calls people to faith not out of guilt or fear, but of a vision of God.."

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From A People Called Episcopalians, John Westerhoff Order from St. Luke’s Press; 435 Peachtree Street, NE; Atlanta, Georgia, 30365 Phone: 404-873-7618

Describes Anglican Spirituality as having these characteristics:

1. Liturgical/Biblical -- "rooted in communal daily prayer ... intended to shape our relationship to God"

2. Communal -- "communal prayer always comes before personal prayer, which is to be shaped by communal prayer ... before decisions are made ..the community gathers in the context of communal prayer and meditation on the Scriptures so that the Holy Spirit might inform and influence our decisions"

3. Sacramental -- "outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace ...informs our conviction that just as Christ was the sacrament of God, the church is called to be the sacrament of Christ in the world ...implies that our spirituality is political, combining both the contemplative and the active"

4. Pastoral -- "our relationship to God is measured by our relationship to our true self, all people, and the natural world"

5. Incarnational -- "emphasis on God’s entry into human life .. has resulted in an earthy spirituality ... affirm life in this world and believe that the body, pleasure, and material reality are fundamentally good"

6. Mystical -- "emphasizes a long slow journey into union with God"

Describes Anglican temperament with these characteristics:

7. Comprehensive -- "truth is known and guarded by maintaining the tension between counter-opposite statements concerning truth ...personal freedom and communal responsibility, ...sacred and secular"

8. Ambiguous -- "living with what may appear to be irreconcilable differences ... tolerate theological and ethical messiness ... wait patiently ... pray with a discerning heart, and to listen with an open mind"

9. Open-minded -- "encourage a searching, questioning, reasonable mind always open to new insights and change"

10. Intuitive -- "prefer art to philosophy and are more at home in the world of symbol, myth and ritual than systematic theology"

11. Aesthetic -- "Truth, goodness, and beauty are related to each other in that the presence of one is judged by the presence of the other two"

12. Moderate -- "model a temperate, balanced, reasonable approach to life. It is a life in which prayer, work, study and play have a rhythm"

13. Naturalistic -- "reverence for and take delight in the natural earthy rhythm of life ... contributions of natural sciences... using live flowers, real candles"

14. Historical -- "learn from a careful reflection on the past ... strive to maintain our roots"

15. Political -- "affirm free, peaceful, public debate as a basis for political unity ... church should influence social, political, and economic life"

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From What is Anglicanism?, Urban Holmes, -- Order from Morehouse Publ.

Holmes sees Anglicanism as "a unique way of looking, making sense and acting in the experience of God .. At its best in liturgy, poetry, music and its life" not in writing great theology. Note characteristics such as:

Sensibility -- taking into account the whole of experience, ambiguity and all

Mystery of the ordinary -- in that the extraordinary shines through in the ordinary

Feminine -- comprehensiveness, darkness and light

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In The Anglican Vision, James Griffiss, --Order from Cowley Publications

He speaks of -

Tension of continuity and change

Incarnational

Roomiest church -- tolerant of doctrinal differences and a diversity of practice

In The Future of Anglicanism, Robert Hannaford, ed., Gracewing, Leominster, Herefordshire Paul Avis notes -

Affirmation (of central truths) and restraint

Practical not speculative faith

Liturgical rehearsing of faith

In The Renewal of Anglicanism, Alister McGrath, Morehouse He notes -

Live with differences

Dynamics among:

Mainline: Apologetics -- to make Christianity credible and relevant

Evangelical: Evangelism -- vitality of the Gospel

Catholic: Spirituality -- resources needed to grow in faith

An Anglican Ethos

by The Rev. Tony Clavier frtony@dakota.netI was recently asked to defend the proposition that there is an Anglican ethos, or that if there is, it is merely a form of elite snobbery. I granted that it was often just that, but then went on to say:

I'd identify a few aspects, perhaps with my tongue in my cheek, in this manner:

A non-defensive orthodoxy
A respect for scholarship
An insistence on freedom to debate, to discuss
Undemonstrative spirituality
Liturgical excellence trimmed to suit the surroundings
A sense of proportion and of humour
A patient sense of time and a realization that the "moment" is not all there is.
A pastoral emphasis
Respect for the ordained ministry in itself
A mistrust of those who are ordained and particularly bishops
Dislike of fanaticism
A belief that opposites can attract and can be "comprehended"

Historically it is impossible to divorce our tradition of theology and spirituality from our ethos or to decide which came first...there's a long line of chickens and eggs.

Fr. Tony Clavier
Trinity Episcopal Church, Watertown, SD 57201

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