Anglicanism is a basic way of being Christian, not an ideology. It seeks to give the faithful the minimum necessary that each requires in order to follow Christ. We do not claim to hold the fullness of the faith, as opposed to all others. I can savor the whole of Christianity, Reformed, Orthodox, and Roman, from within my church. But most importantly, I can “work out my salvation with fear and trembling,” as Paul told the Philippians. It is not necessary that I hold every single opinion of the church, only that I can worship God with conviction and integrity through the liturgies of the Book of Common Prayer. With the Bible, the Prayer Book has the minimum necessary for any Christian’s life.
That fragment of the sermon preached in Cracow by the bishop-in-charge of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe , the Rt. Rev. Pierre Whalon , came to my mind after today’s said Service of Holy Communion at St. John and St. Philip Anglican Church in the Hague. The Anglicans from the Hague probably have the most developed congregational and liturgical life of all the Anglican parishes in the Netherlands. It’s enough to visit their website to see it (and if you happen to be in the Hague some time, it’s worthwhile to come to Ary van der Spuyweg 1 and take part in one of the services). The first Sunday morning service is meant to be “a quiet and reflective start to the day”. Relatively few people come, there are no hymns and the liturgy can be described as “basic” ( Common Worship Order One ). Moreover, the celebrant, the Rev. Ronald Price, in everyday life Professor at the Delft University of Technology (specializing in Hydro-Informatics; whoever knows what that is may explain it to me, because I’m too shy to admit my ignorance and ask him ;)), represents the Evangelical “wing” of Anglicanism, whose members are not known for particular devotion for the liturgy, and that can indeed be seen from the way he celebrates the Eucharist. Despite this, however (or perhaps BECAUSE OF THIS) the service is a consistent whole that can be seen as a great expression of the BASIC character of Anglicanism. What we do and say during the liturgy is a certain minimum, which should make everyone realize that he or she is at a Holy Communion Service of a church representing the legacy of “reformed Catholicism” (this time I’m referring to one of the main motives of Prof. Dan Joslyn-Siemiatkoski’s Cracow presentation ). At the same time every participant can ADD to this basis forms that come from his own type of piety: at the right moment she can make the sign of the cross (not afraid of confronting the look of surprise on the faces of people around her), kneel, bow her head – even if the celebrant (at least that concrete celebrant) doesn’t do that. That is why, even though my liturgical ideal is definitely more “Catholic” (or “high church”, if you want), I come to these services with great pleasure and I don’t experience their – in a sense “ascetic” – form as a sign of liturgical poverty. The said Holy Communion Service at St. John and St. Philip’s in the Hague is for me not only “a quiet and reflective start to the day”, but also a starting point in experiencing what Sunday liturgy (in my opinion EVERY Sunday liturgy) should be in any case: a unity of Word and Sacrament. At the same time, even though I appreciate the liturgical abundance of Anglicanism and I like to take part in more “high church” celebrations, it is for me a sort of quintessence of Anglicanism as a form of Christianity which “seeks to give the faithful the minimum necessary that each requires in order to follow Christ”…
At my own small parish, you see people sit, stand and kneel as we move through the Mass. Some people pray with their hands folded, some raise their hands in supplication and some merely bow their heads. One of the things, I love about Anglican/Episcopalian is that the church is open to many ideas. But the thing I also love about Rite 1 and Rite 2 is that every step of each Mass means something. Each step is part of a larger prayer. We move through all these steps in preparation for the Great Thanksgiving and then to our prayer of gratitude for the Eucharist. I also love the Book of Common Prayer because it is 2000 years of religious tradition, form and reflection edited down to one book. The Bible and the BCP are the cornerstones of an active Anglican/Episcopal life, but we can always add so much more from other denominations, traditions and even other faiths.
From the liturgy in my small Anglican parish in Adelaide, Australia I feel I have gained the experience and knowledge that allows me to appreciate the theology and liturgy of other christians. I am always amazed at how much we have in common and seek to find the connections. I am over awed by our diversity but look forward to our unity.