What Anglican Catholic Means
Anglican Catholicism is the historic Catholic Faith received, worshipped, and lived within the Anglican tradition.
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The word Anglican points to our inheritance through the historic Church of England—its worship, spirituality, theological tradition, and especially the Book of Common Prayer.
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The word Catholic means that we understand ourselves as belonging to the one historic Church founded by Jesus Christ and continued through the Apostles. The Catholic Faith did not begin with any one modern denomination, nor does the word Catholic belong exclusively to the Roman Catholic Church.
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Anglican Catholics therefore seek to preserve and hand on the faith, worship, Sacraments, and Apostolic ministry of the ancient and undivided Church, expressed through the distinctive heritage of historic Anglicanism.
Neither a Compromise nor a New Church
Anglican Catholicism is sometimes described as a middle way between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. It is, but that can easily be misunderstood.
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We do not understand our faith as an attempt to take a little from one side and a little from the other. Nor do we believe Christianity must continually be reconstructed according to the preferences of each generation.
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Rather, we seek to receive what the Church has been given: Holy Scripture, the ancient Creeds, the Sacraments, Apostolic ministry, and the worship and moral teaching handed down through the historic Church.
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The Anglican tradition provides the particular spiritual and liturgical inheritance through which we have received and continue to live that Catholic Faith.
Catholic & Anglican
Catholic
To call ourselves Catholic is to confess that Christianity is larger than any individual congregation, denomination, culture, or period of history.
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We believe in the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church confessed in the Nicene Creed.
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That conviction shapes our life in several important ways. We receive the ancient Creeds as authoritative expressions of the Christian Faith; we live a sacramental life centered upon the Holy Eucharist; we maintain the historic ministry of bishops, priests, and deacons in Apostolic Succession; and we read Holy Scripture within the living faith and worship of the Church.
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We also recognize that the Church extends across both time and place. Christians today do not begin the Faith again from the beginning. We worship the same God, confess the same Lord Jesus Christ, and share the Faith with generations of Christians who came before us.
Anglican
To call ourselves Anglican identifies the particular tradition through which that Catholic Faith has been handed down to us.
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Historic Anglican Christianity grew from the life of the Church in England and developed a distinctive pattern of worship, prayer, theological reflection, and pastoral life.
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Central to that inheritance is the Book of Common Prayer, which places Holy Scripture at the heart of the Church's daily and sacramental worship. Through Morning and Evening Prayer, the Holy Communion, the Church Year, the Psalms, Collects, and the other rites of the Church, generations of Christians have been formed in a deeply biblical and sacramental pattern of prayer.
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Anglicanism also possesses a rich tradition of sacred music, preaching, theological scholarship, devotion, and pastoral care.
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At Ascension, this inheritance is expressed particularly through the American 1928 Book of Common Prayer together with the historic Catholic liturgical tradition preserved within Anglicanism.
Word, Sacrament & Worship
Word and Sacrament
Worship with the Whole Church
Anglican Catholic worship holds together two things that should never be separated: the proclamation of God's Word and the sacramental life of the Church.
Holy Scripture is read extensively in our worship. The Psalms are prayed, the lessons are proclaimed, the Gospel is preached, and the words of Scripture permeate the Prayer Book.
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At the same time, our worship is centered upon the Holy Eucharist, in which Christ truly gives His Body and Blood to His faithful people.
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This is why Anglican Catholic worship may appear both strongly biblical and strongly sacramental. We do not see those as competing approaches to Christianity. Both belong to the life Christ has given His Church.
Anglican Catholic worship follows the Church Year, carrying Christians through the great events of our salvation year after year.
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We prepare for Christ's coming in Advent, celebrate His Nativity at Christmas, follow His ministry through Epiphany, enter with Him into the wilderness and toward the Cross during Lent, rejoice in His Resurrection at Easter, celebrate His Ascension and the coming of the Holy Ghost at Whitsunday, and continue through the long season after Trinity.
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We also remember the saints—not because they replace Christ, but because God's grace is revealed in the lives of those who have faithfully followed Him.
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The Church Year reminds us that Christian worship is not organized primarily around our moods or interests. We enter into a pattern of prayer shared with the wider Church and handed down through generations.
Beauty, Reverence, and Tradition
Anglican Catholic worship is intentionally reverent.
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Vestments, candles, sacred music, ceremonial, architecture, and other outward forms are not ends in themselves. At their best, they direct our attention beyond ourselves toward the holiness and majesty of God.
Living the Tradition
Tradition likewise does not mean keeping something merely because it is old.
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For us, Tradition is an inheritance—something of enduring value that we have received, are called to live faithfully in our own time, and hope to hand on to those who come after us.
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That principle applies not only to worship but to Christian doctrine and moral teaching as well.
Catholic Faith · Apostolic Order · Orthodox Worship · Evangelical Witness
These four phrases summarize much of what Anglican Catholicism seeks to preserve.
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Catholic Faith — the historic Christian Faith revealed in Scripture and received by the Church.
Apostolic Order — the ministry of bishops, priests, and deacons continued through historic Apostolic Succession.
Orthodox Worship — reverent, biblical, sacramental worship centered upon Almighty God rather than ourselves.
Evangelical Witness — the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the call of every Christian to repentance, faith, holiness, and discipleship.
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Anglican Catholicism is therefore not simply about preserving an old form of worship. It is about receiving the historic Christian Faith and living it faithfully in the present day.
Come and Experience It
Anglican Catholicism is perhaps best understood not merely by reading about it, but by worshipping with us.
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Visitors are welcome to come, listen to the Scriptures, join in the prayers, hear the Gospel preached, and experience the rhythm and reverence of historic Anglican worship.
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Holy Communion is celebrated every Sunday at 10:00 a.m.