Catholicity in Classical Anglicanism

Catholicity in Classical Anglicanism is the Anglican claim that the Church of England and its Prayer Book tradition confess the one apostolic faith of the universal Church while remaining governed by Holy Scripture, the ancient Creeds, the Gospel sacraments, and lawful common prayer. In the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer, catholicity is not presented as a party label or as simple imitation of Rome. It is confessed in the Creeds, taught in the Offices of Instruction, bounded by the Articles of Religion, and enacted in Baptism, Holy Communion, the Daily Office, and the Church's ordered prayer.

This makes classical Anglican catholicity both positive and restrained. It is positive because it receives the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, apostolic teaching, episcopal order, sacramental life, and the historic prayer of the Church. It is restrained because the Articles refuse to make any church, council, ceremony, or tradition independent of God's written Word.

Prayer Book Definition

The clearest 1928 BCP definition appears in the second Office of Instruction. After a collect built on the apostolic foundation of the Church, the office asks the people to define the Church and the four creedal marks:

What is the Church?

Answer. The Church is the Body of which Jesus Christ is the Head, and all baptized people are the members.

Question. How is the Church described in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds?

Answer. The Church is described in the Creeds as One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic.

Question. What do we mean by these words?

Answer. We mean that the Church is

One; because it is one Body under one Head;

Holy; because the Holy Spirit dwells in it, and sanctifies its members;

Catholic; because it is universal, holding earnestly the Faith for all time, in all countries, and for all people; and is sent to preach the Gospel to the whole world;

Apostolic; because it continues stedfastly in the Apostles' teaching and fellowship.

This passage controls the article's use of "catholic." It means universal in scope, continuous in faith, missionary in commission, and apostolic in teaching and fellowship. The definition begins with Christ as Head and Baptism as incorporation, so catholicity is ecclesial rather than merely cultural or aesthetic.

Creedal Catholicity

The 1928 BCP places catholicity on the lips of worshippers in Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, Holy Communion, the Catechism, and the Offices of Instruction. At Holy Communion the Nicene Creed joins catholicity directly to apostolicity and Baptism:

And I believe in the Holy Ghost, The Lord, and Giver of Life, Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; Who spake by the Prophets: And I believe one Catholic and Apostolic Church: I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins: And I look for the Resurrection of the dead: And the Life of the world to come. Amen.

The Apostles' Creed, as printed in the Catechism and Daily Office, gives the same doctrine in shorter form:

I believe in the Holy Ghost: The holy Catholic Church; The Communion of Saints: The Forgiveness of sins: The Resurrection of the body: And the Life everlasting. Amen.

Classical Anglicanism therefore treats catholicity as a confession before it treats it as a historical argument. The worshipper says "I believe" before debating boundaries. Yet the same confession also requires visible doctrine: one faith, one Baptism, forgiveness of sins, resurrection, and the life of the world to come.

Article Boundaries

The Articles of Religion printed in the 1928 BCP guard this catholicity from becoming either sectarian narrowness or unbounded ecclesiastical authority. Article XIX defines the visible Church by the preaching of the pure Word and the due administration of the Sacraments:

The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ's ordinance, in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same.

As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch, have erred; so also the Church of Rome hath erred, not only in their living and manner of Ceremonies, but also in matters of Faith.

Article XX then gives the Church real authority, but not unlimited authority:

The Church hath power to decree Rites or Ceremonies, and authority in Controversies of Faith: and yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain anything that is contrary to God's Word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another. Wherefore, although the Church be a witness and a keeper of Holy Writ, yet, as it ought not to decree any thing against the same, so besides the same ought not to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation.

Article XXXIV explains why Anglican catholicity can be liturgical without requiring every church to use identical ceremonies:

It is not necessary that the Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one, or utterly like; for at all times they have been divers, and may be changed according to the diversity of countries, times, and men's manners, so that nothing be ordained against God's Word.

Whosoever, through his private judgment, willingly and purposely, doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church, which be not repugnant to the Word of God, and be ordained and approved by common authority, ought to be rebuked openly, (that others may fear to do the like,) as he that offendeth against the common order of the Church, and hurteth the authority of the Magistrate, and woundeth the consciences of the weak brethren.

Every particular or national Church hath authority to ordain, change, and abolish, Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained only by man's authority, so that all things be done to edifying.

Together these Articles define a reformed catholic pattern. The Church is visible and sacramental, but fallible. It has authority to teach, order worship, and settle controversies, but it cannot bind consciences against Scripture or make human rites necessary to salvation.

Catholicity in Common Prayer

The Prayer Book gives this doctrine a worshipping form. In Holy Communion, the congregation prays not only for its own parish but for "the Universal Church" and for unity in truth:

Let us pray for the whole state of Christ's Church.

ALMIGHTY and everliving God, who by thy holy Apostle hast taught us to make prayers, and supplications, and to give thanks for all men; We humbly beseech thee most mercifully to accept our [alms and] oblations, and to receive these our prayers, which we offer unto thy Divine Majesty; beseeching thee to inspire continually the Universal Church with the spirit of truth, unity, and concord: And grant that all those who do confess thy holy Name may agree in the truth of thy holy Word, and live in unity and godly love.

This prayer shows the Anglican order of unity: truth, concord, holy confession, and godly love belong together. Catholicity is not produced by institutional vagueness. The Universal Church is prayed for as those who confess God's holy Name and agree in the truth of God's holy Word.

Anglican Historical Interpretation

Edward Harold Browne, whose Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles became a standard Anglican doctrinal commentary, argued that a national church needs breadth precisely because it ought to bear the marks of catholicity:

If we consider, how much variety of sentiment may prevail amongst persons, who are, in the main, sound in the faith; we can never wish that a national Church, which ought to have all the marks of catholicity, should enforce too rigid and uniform an interpretation of its formularies and terms of union. The Church should be not only Holy and Apostolic, but as well, One and Catholic.

Browne's principle is not doctrinal indifference. It is ordered comprehensiveness around "great catholic truths." His exposition of Article XIX also warns against turning the visible/invisible Church distinction into a substitute for the Article's actual language:

It is however certain, that the Article confines itself to the consideration of the visible Church, and gives us no authoritative statement concerning the invisible Church. And, indeed, the reformers themselves vary considerably in their statements on the subject.

Michael Ferrebee Sadler, writing catechetically from a High Church perspective, gives a complementary reading of the Creed's phrase "the Holy Catholic Church":

What is the Holy Catholic Church?

A body or society of persons united under Christ as their head.

You say that you believe in the Holy Catholic Church: what do you mean by Catholic?

I mean universal, for it is designed by God to gather into itself all nations, as distinguished from the Jewish Church, which was intended for but one nation.

Sadler also connects catholic worship with stable inherited forms:

The Catholic Church has always used certain prayers (with others, of course), such as the Lord's Prayer, certain hymns found in Scripture, and the entire Psalter, and above all, certain acts of devotion common to all her Communion offices, such as the Sursum Corda, the angelic Hymn (Holy, Holy, Holy), and the repetition of our Lord's words in the prayer of Consecration in the Eucharist.

John Jewel's Reformation apology shows the older Anglican claim: the Church of England was not rejecting catholicity, but appealing to Scripture, the primitive Church, and the fathers against later errors:

Further, if we do show it plainly that God's holy Gospel, the ancient bishops, and the primitive Church do make on our side, and that we have not without just cause left these men, and rather have returned to the Apostles and old Catholic fathers; and if we shall be found to do the same not colourably or craftily, but in good faith before God, truly, honestly, clearly, and plainly;

Jewel's apologetic is therefore neither novelty nor mere antiquarianism. It is a claim that true antiquity is tested by the Gospel, apostolic writings, primitive witness, and catholic fathers together.

Reformed Episcopal Reception

The Reformed Episcopal Church's founding Declaration of Principles illustrates one classical Anglican use of catholicity in an evangelical and episcopal key. It begins by receiving Scripture, the Apostles' Creed, Baptism, the Lord's Supper, and the doctrines of grace in the Articles:

The Reformed Episcopal Church, holding "the faith once delivered unto the saints," declares its belief in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the Word of God, as the sole rule of Faith and Practice; in the Creed "commonly called the Apostles' Creed;" in the Divine institution of the Sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper; and in the doctrines of grace substantially as they are set forth in the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion.

The same declaration also receives episcopacy without making one polity the sole form in which Christ's Church can exist:

This Church recognizes and adheres to Episcopacy, not as of Divine right, but as a very ancient and desirable form of Church polity.

From this perspective, catholicity does not mean narrowing Christ's Church to one polity, rite, or sacramental theory. It means holding the faith once delivered, receiving the creedal and sacramental center of the Prayer Book tradition, and preserving the substance of the faith while allowing lawful liturgical revision.

Theological Use

In classical Anglican teaching, catholicity should be handled through four connected claims:

• The Church is Christ's Body, not a voluntary religious association.
• The Church's catholicity is universal, missionary, creedal, and apostolic.
• The visible Church is recognized by the preaching of the pure Word and the due administration of the Sacraments.
• The Church has real authority in rites, ceremonies, and controversies, but only under God's written Word and for edification.

The 1928 BCP embodies this pattern by teaching the Creeds, praying for the Universal Church, catechizing baptized Christians into Church membership, preserving historic eucharistic forms, and printing the Articles as doctrinal boundaries. Its catholicity is therefore reformed, scriptural, liturgical, sacramental, and pastoral at once.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Theology of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer
• Thirty-Nine Articles
• Articles of Religion
• Catechism (1928 BCP)
• Offices of Instruction (1928 BCP)
• REC Declaration of Principles

External Links

• The 1928 Book of Common Prayer - Society of Archbishop Justus
• Articles of Religion in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer
• Offices of Instruction and Confirmation in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer
• Edward Harold Browne, An Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles
• Michael Ferrebee Sadler, The Church Teacher's Manual of Christian Instruction
• John Jewel, The Apology of the Church of England
• Declaration of Principles of 1873 - Reformed Episcopal Church