What Can a First-Time Visitor Expect During Sunday Mass?
God-focused Worship : We “face East” for prayer, which is the deepest Christian tradition. Also, our traditional “Rite I” language is designed to lift our hearts and minds towards God.
Corporate Worship : Every worshiper participates in offering the Liturgy; there is no “audience”. We offer ourselves personally in the prayers of the Body of Christ, rather than in individual statements, praying with “angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven”.
Catholic Worship, Gospel Preaching : We use the ancient and central act of Christian Worship: the Holy Eucharist, also called the Mass, the Lord's Supper, the Holy Communion, and the Divine Liturgy. In it, the faithful offer and receive the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. Also, the preacher is answering the call to “tell God's story in Scripture and make sure the worshipers are in it.”
Formal Worship and Informal People : Although we are formal in our form of worship and the traditions of the Anglican Church, we are very informal in our fellowship with each other and "expected" dress within the church.
Corporate Worship : Every worshiper participates in offering the Liturgy; there is no “audience”. We offer ourselves personally in the prayers of the Body of Christ, rather than in individual statements, praying with “angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven”.
Catholic Worship, Gospel Preaching : We use the ancient and central act of Christian Worship: the Holy Eucharist, also called the Mass, the Lord's Supper, the Holy Communion, and the Divine Liturgy. In it, the faithful offer and receive the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. Also, the preacher is answering the call to “tell God's story in Scripture and make sure the worshipers are in it.”
Formal Worship and Informal People : Although we are formal in our form of worship and the traditions of the Anglican Church, we are very informal in our fellowship with each other and "expected" dress within the church.
What does it mean to be an Anglican?
We believe and confess Jesus Christ to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no one comes to the Father but by Him. Therefore, the Anglican Church in North America identifies the following seven elements as characteristic of the Anglican Way, and essential for membership:
In all these things, the Anglican Church in North America is determined by the help of God to hold and maintain as the Anglican Way has received them the doctrine, discipline and worship of Christ.
"The Anglican Communion," Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher wrote, "has no peculiar thought, practice, creed or confession of its own. It has only the Catholic Faith of the ancient Catholic Church, as preserved in the Catholic Creeds and maintained in the Catholic and Apostolic constitution of Christ's Church from the beginning." It may licitly teach as necessary for salvation nothing but what is read in the Holy Scriptures as God's Word written or may be proved thereby. It therefore embraces and affirms such teachings of the ancient Fathers and Councils of the Church as are agreeable to the Scriptures, and thus to be counted apostolic. The Church has no authority to innovate: it is obliged continually, and particularly in times of renewal or reformation, to return to "the faith once delivered to the saints."
To be an Anglican, then, is not to embrace a distinct version of Christianity, but a distinct way of being a "Mere Christian," at the same time evangelical, apostolic, catholic, reformed, and Spirit-filled.
Taken from http://anglicanchurch.net/?/main/page/about-acna
- We confess the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments to be the inspired Word of God, containing all things necessary for salvation, and to be the final authority and unchangeable standard for Christian faith and life.
- We confess Baptism and the Supper of the Lord to be Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself in the Gospel, and thus to be ministered with unfailing use of His words of institution and of the elements ordained by Him.
- We confess the godly historic Episcopate as an inherent part of the apostolic faith and practice, and therefore as integral to the fullness and unity of the Body of Christ.
- We confess as proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture the historic faith of the undivided church as declared in the three Catholic Creeds: the Apostles', the Nicene, and the Athanasian.
- Concerning the seven Councils of the undivided Church, we affirm the teaching of the first four Councils and the Christological clarifications of the fifth, sixth and seventh Councils, in so far as they are agreeable to the Holy Scriptures.
- We receive The Book of Common Prayer as set forth by the Church of England in 1662, together with the Ordinal attached to the same, as a standard for Anglican doctrine and discipline, and, with the Books which preceded it, as the standard for the Anglican tradition of worship.
- We receive the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion of 1571, taken in their literal and grammatical sense, as expressing the Anglican response to certain doctrinal issues controverted at that time, and as expressing the fundamental principles of authentic Anglican belief.
In all these things, the Anglican Church in North America is determined by the help of God to hold and maintain as the Anglican Way has received them the doctrine, discipline and worship of Christ.
"The Anglican Communion," Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher wrote, "has no peculiar thought, practice, creed or confession of its own. It has only the Catholic Faith of the ancient Catholic Church, as preserved in the Catholic Creeds and maintained in the Catholic and Apostolic constitution of Christ's Church from the beginning." It may licitly teach as necessary for salvation nothing but what is read in the Holy Scriptures as God's Word written or may be proved thereby. It therefore embraces and affirms such teachings of the ancient Fathers and Councils of the Church as are agreeable to the Scriptures, and thus to be counted apostolic. The Church has no authority to innovate: it is obliged continually, and particularly in times of renewal or reformation, to return to "the faith once delivered to the saints."
To be an Anglican, then, is not to embrace a distinct version of Christianity, but a distinct way of being a "Mere Christian," at the same time evangelical, apostolic, catholic, reformed, and Spirit-filled.
Taken from http://anglicanchurch.net/?/main/page/about-acna
