A N O U T L I N E OF AN ANGLICAN LIFE Lessons in the Faith and Practice of the Anglican Church LOUIS R. TARSITANO Used by permission Introduction LESSON ONE: The Church LESSON TWO: The Doctrine of God LESSON THREE: Sin, Salvation & Grace LESSON FOUR: The Dominical Sacraments LESSON FIVE: The Minor Sacraments LESSON Six: The Holy Scriptures LESSON SEVEN: The Book of Common Prayer LESSON EIGHT: The Polity of the Church LESSON NINE: Moral Theology LESSON TEN: A Church Miscellany APPENDIX I: Participation in an Anglican Service APPENDIX II: The Via Media APPENDIX III: The "Textus Receptus" APPENDIX IV: Canon Law APPENDIX V: A Final Examination Notes 1 INTRODUCTION What follows is a "survey course" on the general Faith and Practice of the Anglican Church that began as a series of questions and answers for use in preparing and conducting Confirmation and Inquirers' Classes in Anglican churches—a purpose I have by no means abandoned. No written outline can replace the personal contributions of the pastors and teachers charged with educating the people of God. They must teach the classes, and they must select what portions of these lessons are appropriate to the ages and educational levels of their students. All I have attempted to do is to make their important job easier: to give them a place to begin. Anyone who has tried to teach others for any amount of time will know exactly what I mean. I have used my notes and earlier versions of this course for a number of years, and so I have included here articles based on questions my students have actually asked, as well as those things I am convinced a Christian ought to know (whether he asks or not). I have found that providing a written, as well as an oral, lesson stimulates questions and conversation in the long run, since it gives students a chance to review what was taught in their spare time, and to write down their specific questions. I have also discovered that sending a lesson home with children, to be reviewed with their parents, does them, their families, and their parents' knowledge of the Faith no harm. My historical and theological method in these pages has been based on this belief: that the Anglican Church is a living example of the Scriptural Church. Anglicanism is not a pastiche of private or borrowed customs. Our Faith is not a compromise among religious traditions. Our Faith is the effort of the members of this branch of Jesus Christ's Church, by the power of the Holy Ghost, to walk the path mapped-out in the Holy Scriptures that leads through and around the obstacles of life to mankind s full communion with God in his Christ. This is the original and only true meaning of the Anglican via media. The "middle way" is not "the middle of the road"; it is the one sure highway our King has provided for our salvation, for the pilgrimage that all must make who would come to him 2 (see Appendix II). The Anglican Church does not "own" the Middle Way to Christ; but we maintain it for his honor and for the sake of salvation. We are a mission, not only to the world, but to the rest of the Church: not that all men should imitate us and be ours, but that all mankind should imitate Christ and be his. We can take no pride in this, since all we offer, all we stand for, is the catholic Faith of the Bible, the Apostles, and the Undivided Church, and the evangelical zeal of the Great Commission to teach all nations. These are God's gifts, and not our own. I certainly have no right to speak for the rest of Anglicanism, nor do I intend or claim to. What follows is simply one Anglican priest's understanding of the outline of our Anglican heritage. I have included a number of Biblical warrants and backgrounds for our teaching and practice, in the hope that "our own" will understand the Scriptural basis of what we do and believe, and that the "stranger" who may read these pages, however devoted to his own branch of Christ's Church, will recognize us as his brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. Then, there will be no strangers. A Note on Educational Method I have usually covered this material in ten or twelve sessions, scheduled once a week, due to time considerations and conflicts in schedules. I heartily recommend that no fewer than ten weeks be given to this study. It is more or less indispensable that every student have a Bible and a copy of our Church's Prayer Book, the Book of Common Prayer (BCP). I have always explained to my students, whether young people or adults, that this course is meant to supplement the Church's requirement that they know before Confirmation the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, and be instructed in the contents of the Offices of Instruction or the Church Catechism (see BCP 283-295 and 577-583). Appendix V is a sample final examination, which I distribute on the first day of class, including the references to the places in the Prayer Book where the answers may be found. I always require that children pass this exam, either in writing or orally, before Confirmation. I find that it is enough with adults to provide them with a copy, discussing the matter privately, if necessary, in a final interview to determine if they are ready to be confirmed. 3 The individual lessons are more or less self-contained, so that they can be used for a one time class, or as a handy reference, on their topics. LESSON ONE THE CHURCH What is the Church? "The Church is the Body of which Jesus Christ is the Head, and all baptized people are the members" (BCP 290).' I am a member of the Church because I was called by the grace of God, in the power of the Holy Ghost, to faith in Jesus Christ and baptized in water, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. See John 3:1-8; Matthew 28:18-20; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Ephesians 2:8- 10; and Romans 6:3-12, especially: Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life (Romans 6:3-4).2 Why is the Church called the Body of Christ? All human beings are members ("organs," "cells," "integral parts") of one of two bodies of humanity. The first body, the body of the first man Adam, is dead because of Adam's sin. The second body, the Body of Jesus Christ, is resurrected from death by the power of God and is alive forever.3 The word "church" (perhaps originating as a Germanic corruption of the Greek for "the Lord's House": Oxford English Dictionary) is used in English to translate the Greek word in the original of the New Testament that means "those who have been called out" (ekklesia) .4 The Church is made up of all those people who have been called out of the dead body of Adam, by the grace of God, and have been transplanted into the Living Body of Jesus Christ. St. Paul explains in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, Chapter 12, that because the Church is the living, breathing Body of Christ, each one of us who is baptized into Christ 4 is a member of that Body with his own particular job to do for the welfare of the rest of the Body. Don't make the mistake of thinking of "membership" in political or institutional terms. "Member" is a physical term, as well. Insurance policies still speak of the loss of an eye or a leg as "dismemberment." The members of the Church are the "flesh and bones" of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:30). What is the Catholic Church? The Catholic Church is the Church of the Holy Scriptures (promised in the Old Testament and established in the New), the only Church founded by Jesus Christ himself to be his Body.5 The Catholic Church is the Church of the Gospels: the historic Church announced by Christ in his preaching; instituted by the Last Supper, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension; and confirmed by the anointing of the Holy Ghost on Pentecost. One working definition of the Catholic Church is found in the XlXth Article of Religion (BCP 606): The visible Church of Christ [that is, on earth] is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ's ordinance [commandment], in all those things that of necessity are requisite [required] to the same.6 Another working definition is found in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds (BCP 15). It is called "The Four Notes of the Church."7 The Four Notes agree exactly with our previous definition because they state that the Church is "one," "holy," "catholic," and "apostolic" (see the Second Office of Instruction, BCP 291). The Church is one because there is only one Body under one Head, namely Jesus Christ. Christ only started one Church. We are members of it, or we are not (see Ephesians 4:4-6).