About Anglicanism

Why the Anglican Tradition?

Those who worship in the Anglican tradition can be found globally. In the US, there has been a resurgence in the interest of liturgy, prayer, and sacraments as part of worship and life of the Church which has brought many new worshippers to the Anglican way.

Here are some reasons people have come to Christ Church:

  • Liturgy is a participatory form of worship versus performative

  • Looking for a church with historical roots

  • Sunday worship holds esteem for sacramental and embodied forms of worship that offer healing

  • A hunger for a slower pace of worship and service rooted in community, prayer, liturgy, and tradition

  • A desire for elements of Catholic tradition, but within a reformed context

  • Healing from spiritual hurt and a safe place to make meaning of faith

  • Variety of people coming together from various traditions, discovering something that feels new, yet is old

  • An equal emphasis on Scripture and the teaching of God’s word, with various forms of prayer as part of life

What is Anglicanism?

Anglicanism is a polymorphous tradition of the Church developed out of the reformation of the English Catholic church. The English church wished to keep itself rooted in the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic church while embracing much needed reform. It is historically identified by persons and forms of worship, rather than a system or governance.

Anglicans are most easily identified by how they worship. Their guide to common prayer and worship, is marked by Holy Scriptures and the Book of Common Prayer.

“Anglicanism is a mode of making sense of the experience of God disclosed in the person of Christ. When Anglicanism is at its best its liturgy, its poetry, its music, and its life can create a world of wonder in which is it is very easy to fall in love with God.” Urban T. Holmes III, What is Anglicanism?

(More on the Anglican tradition in can be found in the Preface of the Book of Common Prayer, pages 1-5)

Anglican Distinctives

  • The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) is our prayer book. Early Anglican faith is rooted in monastic rhythms of prayer called the Daily Office or Divine Hours of Prayer. The BCP has guides for morning, afternoon, evening, family, and compline prayers. It also has collections of prayers, lectionary (or Bible reading) cycles, sacramental and special services, and a guide for the  liturgical calendar. The best way to get to know Anglicanism is to spend time engaging with the rhythms of the BCP in personal and corporate devotion. It is the primary formation tool in conjunction with the Bible.

  • Anglican Sunday worship is a celebration of Word & Table. Our reformed roots are reflected in the first portion of worship where we praise God, confess, corporately read scriptures and have a sermon or homily reflecting on lectionary readings. The second half of worship reflects our Catholic roots by emphasizing the sacrament of the Eucharist where we corporately participate in the Lord’s Supper each Sunday. Each element of Sunday worship is wrapped in prayer.

    Both prayer and worship are written in forms of liturgy. Liturgy merely means the work of the people, or public service. When we pray and worship, we do so in service to the Lord and the world for the sake of God’s Kingdom here as it is in heaven.

  • Being Catholic, Anglicans observe the sacraments of Holy Baptism and Eucharist, both commended by Christ himself. We also honor the sacraments of confession (reconciliation), confirmation, holy orders, anointing the sick, and marriage. These are incorporated in various ways through the liturgy and life of the church.


    Sacraments, as defined in the BCP, are the “outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace, given by Christ as sure and certain means by which we receive that grace.”

  • Though reformed, Anglicans remained creedal rather than developing their own confession of  faith. Therefore, Anglican’s profess the Nicene, Apostle’s, and, Athanasian Creeds established by the early church. These creeds are foundational to the church’s teachings about the essential doctrines of the Christian faith; Trinity, the Incarnation, and the presence of the Holy Spirit in the church and the life of individuals. The creeds guide us in interpreting Scripture and the Christian life.

  • Outlined in the back of the Book of Common Prayer, the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion were part of the process of bringing order during the Reformation. The Articles set forth basic Christian doctrine set by the Church of England (Trinity, the Incarnation, and the work of the Holy Spirit) and teachings that were highly controversial at the time (authority of the church and ministry, justification, good works, and predestination.) The Articles can be found on page 772 of the BCP.

  • The Church calendar, also known as the  liturgical calendar, holds the full arc of salvation history within human time. Rather than living in culture’s secular time, Anglican’s follow a timeline throughout the year that developed over centuries of the church that centers around the life, death, resurrection of Christ and the birth of Church. The Church Calendar should be viewed as a formation tool aiding Christians in what it means to walk in step with the Spirit and be made in the image of Christ. 

    Within the calendar, we observe seasonal times of worship, feasting, fasting, and prayer. We call these liturgical seasons. Primary seasons are Advent, Lent, Easter, and Trinity-tide (Ordinary Time).

    The church year also signifies Principal Feasts, notable Sundays, Holy Days, Days of Special Devotion, Days of Optional Observance, lectionary (Scripture) readings, devotional emphasis, and saint days. Each liturgical season is marked by symbolic colors and particular devotions that draw us into deeper worship and devotion of Christ and life in the Spirit.  More on the Church Calendar can be found in the Book of Common Prayer. (BCP, pp. 687-712)