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 It is
sometimes said that people prefer to define themselves as “Christian”
first and name their church allegiance second. There may be reasons
for that, but despite what people may say it does matter which
denomination you belong to - because they each have different
structures, priorities, governance and ways of understanding the
scriptures and authority.
It helps to know what it means to say that you are an Anglican
Christian!
Again there are many different starting points to explain this.
Perhaps a rather simplistic bottom line is to say that Anglican
Christians are those who look to the See of Canterbury and have the
Archbishop of Canterbury as their figure head, the "first among
equals".
If we start from the global perspective we can say that there are
approximate 78 million Anglican Christians world wide - the fourth
largest international religious group on the planet! (First are the
Roman Catholics [1,050,000,000], second Sunni Musims [875,000,000],
third Eastern Orthodox [225,000,000], fourth us. See www.adherents.com)
 There are 38 self-governing anglican churches (or “Provinces”) around
the globe (for example the Church of the Province of Kenya; the
Episcopal Church of the United States of America, etc.) spread across
161 countries. Located on every continent, Anglicans speak many
languages and come from different races and cultures. Although the
churches are autonomous, they are also uniquely unified through their
history, their theology, their worship and their relationship to the
ancient See of Canterbury.
Anglicans share many of their beliefs and practices with Christians
from other denominations, but as well as the nature of worship and
theology it is the relationship to Canterbury which makes an Anglican
an Anglican.
Foundations
The Scriptures and the Gospels, the Apostolic Church and the early
Church Fathers, are the foundation of Anglican faith and worship.
The Church of England (the branch of the Anglican church in this
country) claims to be both Catholic and Reformed. “Protestant” is a
description you will not find in any official documents of the Church
of England (although we are “protestant” in the sense that we are not
Roman Catholic: but then according to the Church of England the Roman
Catholics are technically nonconformists! So labels are not always
terribly helpful in capturing the essence of a denomination...)
Whenever a worker in the Church of England (bishop, priest, deacon,
lay worker etc.) takes on a new post they have to make what is called
the Declaration of Assent, and the preface to this promise helps
express something of what Anglicans believe:
The Church of England is part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic
Church worshipping the one true God, Father Son and Holy Spirit. It
professes the faith uniquely revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set
forth in the catholic creeds, which faith the Church is called upon to
proclaim afresh in each generation. Led by the Holy Spirit, it has
borne witness to Christian truth in its historic formularies, the
Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, The Book of Common Prayer and the
Ordering of Bishops, Priests and Deacons. In the declaration you are
about to make, will you affirm your loyalty to this inheritance of
faith as your inspiration and guidance under God in bringing the grace
and truth of Christ to this generation and making him known to those
in your care?
History
 Although the Church of England claims that it’s roots go back to the
very earliest days of the Church, and of course beyond that to the
historical Jesus, the Anglicans broke away from the Roman Catholic
church during the Reformation of the sixteenth century. The Church of
England kept its Catholic tradition, practice and the ordination of
its clergy, but it was also firmly rooted in the scriptures.
Today Anglicanism is well known for it’s wide divergence of practice
and theology: although labels are not always helpful people have
distinguished between styles of worship and approaches to theology as
being “high” church; “low” church and “broad” church.
Those who worship in the High Church tradition talk of themselves as
being Catholic Anglicans (or sometimes Anglo-Catholics). St John’s
stands in this tradition.
Those who worship in the Low Church tradition talk of themselves as
being Evangelicals.
Those who worship somewhere in between might describe themselves as
“broad” church, or middle of the road, or liberal.
However all are united in their looking to the Archbishop of
Canterbury, and sharing the same basic principles set out in the
Preface to the Declaration of Assent - they would vary according to
how these are understood or the relative importance given to each
aspect, but we are all Anglicans!
The
organisation of the Church of England.
 The Church of England is divided into two Provinces: the Province of
Canterbury and the Province of York. Each Province has an Archbishop.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the Rt. Rev Dr Rowan Williams; the
Archbishop of York is the Rt. Rev Dr David Hope.
Within the Provinces are Dioceses. Each diocese if overseen by a
Bishop. There are 44 diocese in the Church of England.
The Diocese of Chichester is within the Province of Canterbury and the
Bishop of Chichester is the Rt. Rev John Hind. (The boundaries cover
almost exactly the counties of East & West Sussex.)
 There are 21 Deaneries in the Diocese. A deanery is a smaller
gathering of local anglican churches. Each Deanery is overseen by a
Rural Dean.
The Deanery of Hastings contains 16 parishes and the (Acting) Rural
Dean is Rev Chris Key (who is also the Rector of St Helen’s church),
and the boundaries cover almost exactly the municipal district of
Hastings with St Leonard’s.
One of those 16 parishes is St John the Evangelist, Upper St
Leonard's!
 (To complicate things further the Diocese of Chichester, because it is
so big, is divided into three areas and there are two Area Bishops
responsible to Bishop John. Here in Hastings Deanery we fall within
the Lewes & Hastings Episcopal area, and our Area Bishop of the Rt.
Rev Wallace Benn. His “right hand” man is the Archdeacon, who is the
Venerable Philip Jones.)
...And
finally...
There is lots more to say about what it means to be an Anglican
Christian, or part of the Church of England, (we’ve not touched on the
General Synod, or Apostolic Succession, or Ecumenism etc.) and the
best place to continue exploration of what it means to be Anglican is
on the Church of England website...!
To be an Anglican is to be on a journey of faith to God supported by a
fellowship of co-believers who are dedicated to finding Him by prayer
and service.
See also
www.anglicancommunion.org .
See also Canon James Rosenthal The Essential Guide to the Anglican
Communion Morehouse Publishing, Harrisburg, Penn, USA ISBN
0-8192-1743-3 containing several excellent articles on what Anglicans
believe in and other elements of the faith and The Revd. Richard
Giles, How to be an Anglican ... Canterbury Press, Norwich, UK ISBN
1-85311-560-6. See also Church House Bookshop.
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