WEEK 6: A Brief Survey of Christian History

The Catechetical lectures are given to those who are to be enlightened in baptism or confirmation and also to believers who are already baptized for edification.

1. Why Church History Matters?

a. Question: Why is it important to have a basic understanding of Church History?

i. Story

1. History reveals the Christian faith to be Historical, founded upon an Historical Jesus who was before all things and present throughout all of redemptive history (Col 1:16; Jn 8:58/Ex 3; 1 Cor 10:4; Neh 9:15/Ps 105:40/Jn 6:51-58; Rev 5:8/Jn 1:29)... T ypes participate in the Archetype, the original and true.

ii. Continuity

1. One People of God (Gal 6:16-18; Eph 4:4-6);

2. Continuity with Holy Scripture (2 Tim 3:16) , Tradition (2 Ths 2:15), and Doctrine (Jude 1:3) Apostolic Fellowship is fellowship with the Church (1 John 1:1-4).

iii. Stability

1. Rooted (Prov 22:28), Orthodoxy (2 Tim 2:2), Belonging (John 1:13; Eph 2:19-20), Assurance (2 Peter 1:10).

2. The Grand Arch of History

a. The Incarnation (Advent/Christmas/Epiphany)

b. The Giving of the Spirit (Pentecost)

c. The Church in Britain (175)

i. Early as 175AD Christian presence in Glastonbury (Joseph of Arimithea);

ii. 200Ad Both Tertullian and Origen write of Christianity existing in Britain;

iii. 305 St Alban martyred;

iv. 314 Council of Arles lists 3 Brittish Bishops in attendance.

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d. Council of Nicea (325)

i. Athanasius and Arian controversy: “There was a time when he was not”;

ii. British Bishops most likely there, attended Council of Rimini Italy (359).

e. Council of Whitby (665)

i. 597 Gregory sends Augustine of Canterbury to Brittain Encounters Christian church (Patrick’s missionary efforts);

ii. Settles differences between Celtic and Roman traditions (Easter)= Unity of Western Christianity.

f. The Great Schism (1054)

i. Break of communion between Western and Eastern Churches.

g. Magna Carta (1215)

i. “Declared the s overeign to be subject to the r ule of law and documenting the liberties held by “free men,” the Magna Carta would provide the foundation for individual rights in Anglo-American j urisprudence. ”

ii. Begins shift from eclesial to regal power. Sets stage for Regal and National separation from a foreign Pope (Reformation).

h. The Reformation (1517)

i. Anti-Papal sentiments began much earlier than the 16th century;

1. eg. 14th century legislation under Edward I, curbing Papal authority and reach into England;

2. 14th century John Wycliff, priest, railing against wealth and abuses of the Church;

3. 1517 Martin Luther 95 Thesis, indulgences under Pope Leo X;

i. The English Church

i. 1529 under Henry’s reign, English parliament extinguishes papal authority establishing a sovereign English Church;

ii. Legislation of the English Reformation declared the King’s Majesty “to be the only supreme head in earth of the Church of England”;

iii. 1549 Cranmner’s first Book of Common Prayer in vernacular.

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iv. Only catholic church to remain a church post-reformation.

v. Puritans and Radical Reformers (Anabaptists=one who baptizes again)

1. 1536 Menno Simons, Anglican priest rebaptized founds Mennonites (Netherlands);

2. 1609 John Smyth, former Anglican priest exiled to Amsterdam, as Mennonite makes profession of faith and re-baptizes himself by full immersion; disciples found Baptists in London (1662 first Colonial congregation, 1689 London Baptist Confession).

j. The First Great Awakening (1730-50)

i. Evangelical revival in Britain and 13 Colonies;

ii. George Whitfield Anglican Deacon, John Wesley, Anglican Priest died an Anglican.

k. American Independence (1776)

l. Ordination of the First Protestant Episcopal Church Bishop (1784)

i. The Most Rev. Samuel Seabury ordained by Scottish Anglican Bishops;

ii. 1789 Book of Common Prayer patterned after 1662 but brings epiclesis back).

m. Organization of the Reformed Episcopal Church (1873)

i. 1873 The Reformed Episcopal Church was organized in New York City in by eight clergymen and twenty laymen who were formerly presbyters and members of the Protestant Episcopal Church. ii. Some in the latter quarter of the 19th Century concluded that their beloved Protestant Episcopal Church had so dramatically changed that they had no alternative but to preserve the old Church through reorganization. iii. The immediate cause of the division lay in the participation of The Rt. Rev. George David Cummins, Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of Kentucky in the Protestant Episcopal Church, (pictured) at a Communion Service held in the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City. iv. In the face of criticism and with the conviction that the evangelical and catholic nature and mission of the Protestant Episcopal Church were being lost, Bishop Cummins issued a call to re-form the church.

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v. He became the founding Bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church, thereby maintaining historic succession of orders to this very day in the Reformed Episcopal Church.

n. The Anglican Church in North America (2009)

i. Unites over 100K Anglicans in North America

ii. Recognized and in Communion with Global Anglican Future Conference (Leaders of Global Anglican Communion representing some 80 million Anglicans worldwide;

iii. REC founding member of the ACNA, Bishop Sutton Ecumenical Representative for the ACNA.

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