What is Anglicanism? - Urban T. Holmes III

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      What is ANGLICANISM?

       by

      URBAN T. HOLMES III

       For Gale D. Webbe

       In Gratitude

      “Something far greater than Jonah is There,” by Robert M. Cooper, is quoted with permission from The Anglican Theological Review, LVI, 4 (October, 1974), 440-441.

       Thirteenth Printing, 2007

      Copyright © 1982 Jane Neighbors Holmes

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright holder.

       Morehouse Publishing

      4775 Linglestown Road

      Harrisburg, PA 17112

       Morehouse Publishing is an imprint of Church Publishing Incorporated.

       Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Holmes, Urban Tigner

      What is Anglicanism? / Urban T. Holmes III

      p. cm

      ISBN 10 : 0-8192-1295-4 (pbk.)

      ISBN 13 : 978-0-8192-1295-5 (pbk.)

      1. Anglican Communion. I. Title

BX5006.H64 1982 81-084715
283—dc19 CIP

       Printed in the United States of America

      Table of Contents

       Foreword

       Preface

       The Anglican Consciousness

       Authority in the Church

       The Bible

       The Incarnation

       Church and Sacraments

       The Liturgy

       The Episcopacy

       Pastoral Care

       Spirituality

       Mission

       Church and State

       Prophetic Witness

      Foreword

      During the last year of his life, Dean Urban T. Holmes, III devoted a major portion of his time, including a sabbatical leave, to writing this book. The subject was of utmost interest and concern to him and in numerous conversations between us as author and editor, his clear convictions and steadfast principles were carefully enunciated. The results of that reflection are presented in this his last book completed approximately three months before his untimely death on August 6, 1981. Had he lived we had plans well under way for successive volumes that would have examined anew the scope of Anglican theology and the broad historical traditions of doctrinal development.

      The Episcopal Church, Anglicanism, and the “Via Media” were ever close to Terry Holmes’ care and concern as a person, a priest and an educator. It is important to remember his distress with some current trends and developments in the church. Terry Holmes was particularly concerned with and acutely aware of those trends that were oblivious to the rich and inviolate historical traditions of the church. With a clear eye and a sharply developed mind he was impatient with such careless ways and sought to recall the church and its leadership to the great truths of its heritage. In this book that heritage is clearly depicted and then directly related to contemporary life. All of us shall be enriched by this his last endeavor even as we are impoverished without his presence among us.

      The proofing for this book was handled by Dean Holmes’ daughter, Jane Teresa Holmes. No changes have been made in the text as completed but not revised.

      Theodore A. McConnell

      Editorial Director

      Morehouse-Barlow Co.

      Preface

      This book is a response to a suggestion made by a friend, who read a report of an interview with me in the Professional Supplement of the October 1980, issue of The Episcopalian. In that interview, I had expressed the opinion that many Episcopalians seem to be speaking these days to important matters with little knowledge of our Anglican heritage. His point was that one reason for this is that there is next to no material available to help people know that heritage. He went on to advise that I might try to do something about that lack.

      His suggestion fell on fertile ground. In my own evolving life in the church a renewed concern for our Anglican outlook has been awakened. I am convinced that most of us, if not all, are members of this communion for important reasons that we hold dear, but often find difficult to express. A symptom of this is the resistance of many of us to an unthinking appropriation of other styles of belief and practice, which resistance may appear to others as a mere perverse obstinacy. What may be happening is that we cannot verbalize a threatened loss to what we sense very deeply as intrinsic to our Anglican way.

      In pursuing this line of thought I have written a book which is necessarily personal. It describes frankly my understanding of what it means to be an Anglican. I can claim for that fifty-one years of active and thoughtful participation in the Episcopal Church, but certainly not an absence of a bias. I have never known two Episcopalians to agree totally, and the fact that we can admit our disagreements is only indicative of our Anglican freedom to acknowledge the polymorphous nature of all human knowing, something not every Christian body is comfortable admitting.

      I would argue that my approach is reasonable. I am not saying that it is always analytical or that I have sought to prove my position. This is not what I think Anglicanism intends by being reasonable. By “reasonable” I mean that the argument does not violate in any obvious way a reflective, balanced examination of experience by one who believes himself in love with God.

      I am aware that not everyone likes the name for our communion of “Anglican,” and may find the title and subsequent discussion irritating. There are those who have taken the title Anglican unto themselves to name their own schismatic groups. Obviously, this is not a practice that can be supported. Occasionally someone comes up with the notion that “Anglican” is the equivalent of “high church,” which is wrong. There are others within the Episcopal Church who believe that because Anglican means

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