What is an Anglican? Angelic or English?
The confusion around this name shows up as early as Pope St Gregory I. When he saw Anglo-Saxons sold as slaves in Rome, he asked, "Are these men angels?" His companion responded, "Not angels, but Angles." St Gregory wanted to bring these Angles into angelic worship in service to the living Christ, so he sent missionaries from Rome to England in 597 AD to rebuild the Church in Britain. As such, the Holy Catholic Church in Britain became known as the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church in England: Ecclesia Anglicana for short in Latin, or the Anglican Church in English.
Holy, Catholic, & Apostolic?
Anglicans prize our preserving the ancient traditions grounded in Scripture, both handed down by the apostles. We understand Catholic to mean, as St Vincent summarized, "The Faith held everywhere, always, by all." So, while locally adapted into English, we preserve the Christian Faith as understood by Christians from Britain to India from the very first generation. We worship like faithful Judeans would in the synagogue and Temple, combining the liturgies of the Word and Altar in a single service. We maintain the daily morning and evening prayers of the Temple and Apostles, recognizing how Christ taught us in the Gospel to pray corporately, 'Our Father...' To do so, we trust the faithful voices of martyrs and bishops who carried this way of life to us from the apostles themselves. This is what it means to live catholically and apostolically, rather than isolating the Gospel to our own understanding.
Angelic & English.
Just as the angels and saints worship together in St Paul's letter to the Hebrews and St John's Apocalypse, we embrace the divine liturgy where Angels and Saints join together around Christ's throne of grace. We pray, praise, and practice the way Christ lived in the Gospel, which truly renders the Father's will 'on earth as it is in heaven.' We have adopted these ancient practices of our Lord, and our Anglican missionaries adapted them for an English (and American) communities. We invite you to this heavenly feast as our neighbors, to walk out the spiritual life like the prophets and apostles before us.
English & All Nations.
The Anglican communion spans the globe, incorporating communities from varied languages. Just as our forefathers adapted the apostolic worship into English, Anglicans have translated the Book of Common Prayer for others and adapted ancient Christian practices to their cultures. We reconnected our Spanish-speaking neighbors to their first liturgies in the Mozarabic tradition, which continues to enrich Anglicanism in Latin American churches. Join us in praying to stir up faithful communities to praise the Lord of nations in all of our local languages.
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