SMK Confirmation Class 2006-2007

SMK Confirmation Class 2006-2007

Unit 3 Assignment 2

What is Anglicanism?

Before Christmas this year, I was looking for a computer to use at home. There were some features that I wanted included in the package, but like most other computer “newbies” I didn’t really even know how to ask the right questions. When I went to the store – I was blown away by the choices. There were choices in style, size, content and purpose … but they were all computers!

I thought that perhaps there would be maybe 2 or 3 choices to be made, but no – depending on me, my computer requirements and my knowledge base, there were many, many decisions to be made.

So, let me draw this parallel to the question at hand.

The Christian Church is a world wide association of people who believe that “God is One: Father, Son and Holy Spirit”. So in my analogy, that’s the “Computer”.

The kinds of computer, whether lap-top or hard drive or palm-sized or… - well that coordinates to the branches of it – only one branch being the Anglican Church. So the many choices are what we call “denominations” but all belong to the Christian family.

Here’s another visual – think of a tree … the root and trunk of the tree is the Christian Church with it’s teaching of “One God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit” – and the branches all stem from the central trunk and all having the same root.

So, what are the other branches of the Christian Church called? Some of them include: Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Baptist, Pentecostal, and United, just to name a few. We are all called Christians and all share a faith in Jesus Christ as God’s Son – but the way in which we choose to express our worship or arrange our church structure is what makes us different.

Let me give you a “for example”! On November 30, 2006, the Anglican Church of Canada celebrated an Anniversary – that of the ordination of Women to the Priesthood. Thirty years ago there was a great and heated debate about whether or not to allow women to become ordained. As a young girl, I had never seen a woman at the altar – or near it – and girls were not permitted to serve as “Acolytes” (ie. carry the cross or serve at the altar). I also remember a conversation that we had around the dining room table when my Uncle was there for a visit. Uncle Walter was the Bishop of South Dakota at the time and later became the Bishop of Rupert’s Land and later Archbishop of Rupert’s Land. His comment was that women should not be allowed to be ordained because they were far too fragile and too emotional and would never be able to deal with the “difficult” situations which would arise from ministry from time to time.

The decision was made, much to my Uncle’s dismay, that women would be ordained as Priests in the Anglican Church. Many were angry at this decision and left the church to find another Christian community where they would share more closely an understanding of gender roles. But in the Anglican Church – we have now ordained many women, from all ages and stages of life, and have recently consecrated three women Bishop’s.

Following his work with women, my uncle soon changed his mind radically about woman’s ordination and soon came to realize that it wasn’t a person’s gender that made them a Priest – but whether or not they were called by God for the particular work in the church. The last chapter of this story was that Uncle Walter ordained me in 1991 in Saint John, New Brunswick.

So, in some branches of the Christian church there are women in positions of authority as “priest” or “minister”, while other branches do not allow for women to be priests.

In some branches of the Christian Church the emphasis in worship is on bible study, while in others it is focused on the Communion or “Mass”. In the Anglican Church we are in our worship somewhere in the middle.

As a matter of fact, the Anglican Church has often been given the title “via media” or “middle ground”, because in so many matters we walk the middle ground on many issues of debate. A good example is the current debate about the “Blessing of Same Sex Unions” – at the present time we are in discussion with each other about how to celebrate life-long relationships while recognizing that not all who would enter this debate see any homosexual relationship as being acceptable.

• Being an Anglican is being a Christian.
• Being an Anglican is having an open mind and heart to the debates and discussions of the church.
• Being an Anglican calls us to engage with our faith and learn daily how God moves in and through our lives. A daily prayer discipline is also suggested for all Christians, not just Anglicans. That’s where the Prayer Book comes in to the story of the Anglican Church.

Questions:

Take a copy of the Book of Common Prayer and list the names of the services of worship. For example, in the table of Contents you’ll find the list which includes Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer …

Find the Articles of Faith, how many are there? Check out #32 – so, can Anglican Priest marry?

Check out #22 – have you ever heard of “purgatory” before?

Find the Order of Confirmation in the green “Book of Alternate Services” and read through it, (page 625). What question is asked of you – what are you “confirming”?