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What do Anglicans understand to be true? 

Every time that humans have lived has been turbulent, and the 1500’s were no different.  Many people were questioning the practices and beliefs of the church.  In England, King Henry the 8th wrote a book defending the catholic (“universal”) faith and was given the title “Fidei Defensor” [Defender of the Faith] by the Pope, which is still used by the English monarchy today.  In 1531, just ten years later, he had himself declared the supreme head of the Church of England (a good encapsulation of this is found at https://www.historyonthenet.com/henry-viii-and-the-break-with-rome-timeline). As a side note, Henry was not what you would call a “nice” man.  He was a tyrant, in every sense of the word).  

 

During all this turmoil, it was tasked to a man named Thomas Cranmer to define what the English church believed.  He wrote the original Book of Common Prayer including the articles which were finalized as 39 under the reign of Elizabeth I, in 1571 (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Thirty-nine-Articles). These are found starting on page 698 of our Book of Common Prayer, and we’ll look at them in the coming weeks.  Cranmer determined that the Anglican church (i.e.: “church of the English”) was separating politically, not apostolically, from the Roman church.  This means that  

  1. a.) it claimed descent from the original Apostles of Christ, and professed to believe and teach as they believed and taught;   

  1. b.) the church believed it was “sent out” just as the original Apostles were, to share the Good News of the Kingdom of God through Christ, to all people (“Apostle” could be translated as “Ambassador” or “Representative”.  The Apostles were the Ambassadors for Christ). 

 

Believing and teaching as the original Apostles did, especially those who sat at Christ’s feet, has been very important to the church since the beginning – there have been many controversies and arguments ever since Paul wrote the epistles we have in the New Testament, and there still are some today.  Why is it so important to teach what the original Apostles taught?  How can you understand, as best as possible, what Christ taught, and what the 1st disciples understood His teaching to be?

 

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+ David