The unashamed Anglican: Stephen Sykes, 1939–2014
Do Anglicans have doctrines? Or is Anglicanism an empty container, into which one can pour whatever one likes?
The Anglican way
I shall seek to write down that which I believe to be the essence of Anglicanism. None of the elements I note are in themselves the exclusive property of our tradition, but taken together they express what our church—with a small c—has sought be at its best.
Anglicans and confession
You can confess to an Anglican priest.
Why be an Anglican?
William writes: “Might you have some encouraging words for someone who is recently converted to Anglicanism / Episcopalianism — who does not want to join ACNA, AMiA, or, for example, the Reformed Episcopal Church — who wants to enter TEC but is frightened because of its current, tragic state?”
Worship as acting
“Isn’t it unnatural to do all that standing and kneeling and unfamiliar singing?” A parishioner asks as we meet for coffee one morning. “Why do we have to do all those strange things?”
Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones
How worship with the saints reflects to us the image of God
Demons are beloved; you’re not
One does not "listen deeply" to those in the same category as child murderers and terrorists.
Return to your first love
I would like to think that we have not become so warped by our passions and by a reliance on our controversies to sustain our interest in one another, in Anglican forms of Christian faith, and, ultimately, in Christ. But I fear we may have. And so I must recall to us all, those resonant words from Christ: “I have this against you, that you have abandoned your first love.”