Churchmanship

Last updated

Churchmanship (also churchpersonship, or tradition in most official contexts) is a way of talking about and labelling different tendencies, parties, or schools of thought within the Church of England and the sister churches of the Anglican Communion. The term has been used in Lutheranism in a similar fashion.

Contents

Anglicanism

In Anglicanism parties can include, from highest to lowest, Anglo-Papist, Anglo-Catholic, Prayer Book Catholic, Old High/Center, Broad, Low/Evangelical.

The term is derived from the older noun churchman, which originally meant an ecclesiastic or clergyman but, some while before 1677, it was extended to people who were strong supporters of the Church of England and, by the nineteenth century, was used to distinguish between Anglicans and Dissenters. The word "churchmanship" itself was first used in 1680 to refer to the attitude of these supporters but later acquired its modern meaning. While many Anglicans are content to label their own churchmanship, not all Anglicans would feel happy to be described as anything but "Anglican". [1] Today, in official contexts, the term "tradition" is sometimes preferred.

"High" and "Low", the oldest labels, date from the late seventeenth century and originally described opposing political attitudes to the relation between the Church of England and the civil power. Their meaning shifted as historical settings changed and, towards the end of the nineteenth century, they had come to be used to describe different views on the ceremonies to be used in worship. Shortly after the introduction of the "High/Low" distinction a section of the "Low" Church was nicknamed Latitudinarian because of its relative indifference to doctrinal definition. In the nineteenth century this group gave birth to the Broad Church which, in turn, produced the "Modernist" movement of the first half of the twentieth century. Today, the "parties" are usually thought of as Anglo-Catholics, evangelical Anglicans, and Liberals and, with the exception of "High Church", the remaining terms are mainly used to refer to past history. The precise shades of meaning of any term vary from user to user and mixed descriptions such as liberal-catholic are found. Today "Broad Church" may be used in a sense that differs from the historical one mentioned above and identifies Anglicans who are neither markedly high, nor low/evangelical nor liberal. [2]

It is an Anglican commonplace to say that authority in the church has three sources: Scripture, Reason and Tradition. In general, the Low churchman and the Evangelical tends to put more emphasis upon Scripture, the Broad churchman and the Liberal upon reason and the High churchman and/or Anglo-Catholic upon tradition. [3] [4] The emphasis on "parties" and differences is necessary but in itself gives an incomplete picture. Cyril Garbett (later Archbishop of York) wrote of his coming to the Diocese of Southwark:

I found the different parties strongly represented with their own organizations and federations... But where there was true reverence and devotion I never felt any difficulty in worshipping and preaching in an Anglo-Catholic church in the morning and in an Evangelical church in the evening"... and when there was a call for united action... the clergy and laity without distinction of party were ready to join in prayer, work and sacrifice.

— Garbett, [5]

and William Gibson commented that

the historical attention given to the fleeting moments of controversy in the eighteenth century has masked the widespread and profound commitment to peace and tranquility among both the clergy and the laity.... High Church and Low Church were not exclusive categories of thought and churchmanship. They were blurred and broad streams within Anglicanism that often merged, overlapped and coincided.

— Gibson, [6]

A traditional poem to describe churchmanship is "Low and Lazy, Broad and Hazy, and High and Crazy." Lazy refers to simpler worship, hazy to unclear tradition or beliefs, and crazy to excessive ceremonialism; but the author of the poem may have been a humorist.

In the United States a "churchman" is a member of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA). Usage of the term began in the nineteenth century and has been modified in the twentieth century. [7]

Lutheranism

The concept of churchmanship is used in Lutheranism. In Lutheran churches churchmanship can be liberal, pietist, confessional, high church or evangelical Catholic. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the largest branches of Christianity, with around 110 million adherents worldwide as of 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglo-Catholicism</span> Anglicanism that emphasises its Catholic heritage

Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasize the Catholic heritage and identity of the Church of England and various churches within the Anglican Communion. Anglo-Catholics are primarily concerned with restoring the liturgical and devotional expression of the Christian faith in the life of the Anglican Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nonconformist (Protestantism)</span> Protestant Christians in Wales and England who did not follow the Church of England

Nonconformists were Protestant Christians who did not "conform" to the governance and usages of the state church in England, and in Wales until 1914, the Church of England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oxford Movement</span> 19th-century English religious movement

The Oxford Movement was a movement of high church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the University of Oxford, argued for the reinstatement of some older Christian traditions of faith and their inclusion into Anglican liturgy and theology. They thought of Anglicanism as one of three branches of the "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic" Christian church. Many key participants subsequently converted to Roman Catholicism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Popery</span> Archaic derogatory term for Roman Catholicism

The words Popery and Papism are mainly historical pejorative words in the English language for Roman Catholicism, once frequently used by Protestants and Eastern Orthodox Christians to label their Roman Catholic opponents, who differed from them in accepting the authority of the Pope over the Christian Church. The words were popularised during the English Reformation (1532–1559), when the Church of England broke away from the Roman Catholic Church and divisions emerged between those who rejected papal authority and those who continued to follow Rome. The words are recognised as pejorative; they have been in widespread use in Protestant writings until the mid-nineteenth century, including use in some laws that remain in force in the United Kingdom.

The term high church refers to beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, liturgy, and theology that emphasize "ritual, priestly authority, [and] sacraments". Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term originated in and has been principally associated with the Anglican tradition, where it describes churches using a number of ritual practices associated in the popular mind with Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. The opposite tradition is low church. Contemporary media discussing Anglican churches often prefer the terms evangelical to low church and Anglo-Catholic to high church, even though their meanings do not exactly correspond. Other contemporary denominations that contain high church wings include some Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Methodist churches.

Broad church is latitudinarian churchmanship in the Church of England in particular and Anglicanism in general, meaning that the church permits a broad range of opinion on various issues of Anglican doctrine.

In Anglican Christianity, low church refers to those who give little emphasis to ritual, often having an emphasis on preaching, individual salvation and personal conversion. The term is most often used in a liturgical sense, denoting a Protestant emphasis, whereas "high church" denotes an emphasis on ritual, often Anglo-Catholic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ritualism in the Church of England</span> Emphasis on the rituals and liturgical ceremony of the church

Ritualism, in the history of Christianity, refers to an emphasis on the rituals and liturgical ceremonies of the Church, specifically the Christian practice of Holy Communion.

Christian liturgy is a pattern for worship used by a Christian congregation or denomination on a regular basis. The term liturgy comes from Greek and means "public work". Within Christianity, liturgies descending from the same region, denomination, or culture are described as ritual families.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyril Garbett</span> Archbishop of York 1942-1955

Cyril Forster Garbett was an Anglican bishop and author. He was successively Bishop of Southwark (1919–32), Bishop of Winchester (1932–42) and Archbishop of York (1942–55).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evangelical Catholic</span> Lutheranism that emphasizes its Catholic heritage

The term Evangelical Catholic is used in Lutheranism, alongside the terms Augsburg Catholic or Augustana Catholic, with those calling themselves Evangelical Catholic Lutherans or Lutherans of Evangelical Catholic churchmanship stressing the catholicity of historic Lutheranism in liturgy, beliefs, practices, and doctrines. Evangelical Catholics teach that Lutheranism at its core "is deeply and fundamentally catholic". The majority of Evangelical Catholic Lutheran clergy and parishes are members of mainstream Lutheran denominations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">High church Lutheranism</span> Movement in Lutheranism

High church Lutheranism is a movement that began in 20th-century Europe and emphasizes worship practices and doctrines that are similar to those found within Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Anglo-Catholicism. In the more general usage of the term, it describes the general high church characteristics of Lutheranism in Nordic and Baltic countries such as Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Latvia. The mentioned countries, once a part of the Swedish Empire, have more markedly preserved Catholic traditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eucharist in Anglicanism</span> Holy sacrament of the Eucharist in Anglicanism, a major branch of Protestantism

Anglican eucharistic theology is diverse in thought and practice. Its sources include prayer book rubrics, writings on sacramental theology by Anglican divines, and the regulations and orientations of ecclesiastical provinces. The principal source material is the Book of Common Prayer, specifically its eucharistic prayers and Article XXVIII of the Thirty-Nine Articles. Article XXVIII comprises the foundational Anglican doctrinal statement about the Eucharist, although its interpretation varies among churches of the Anglican Communion and in different traditions of churchmanship such as Anglo-Catholicism and Evangelical Anglicanism.

Branch theory is an ecclesiological proposition that the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church includes various different Christian denominations whether in formal communion or not. The theory is often incorporated in the Protestant notion of an invisible Christian Church structure binding them together.

Anglican doctrine is the body of Christian teachings used to guide the religious and moral practices of Anglicanism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglican Communion and ecumenism</span> Relationships between the Anglican church and other denominations

Anglican interest in ecumenical dialogue can be traced back to the time of the Reformation and dialogues with both Orthodox and Lutheran churches in the sixteenth century. In the nineteenth century, with the rise of the Oxford Movement, there arose greater concern for reunion of the churches of "Catholic confession". This desire to work towards full communion with other denominations led to the development of the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral, approved by the Third Lambeth Conference of 1888. The four points were stipulated as the basis for church unity, "a basis on which approach may be by God's blessing made towards Home Reunion":

Central churchmanship describes those who adhere to a middle way in the Anglican Communion of the Christian religion and other Anglican church bodies, being neither Anglo-Catholic nor low church in their doctrinal views and liturgical preferences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evangelical Anglicanism</span> Tradition within Anglicanism

Evangelical Anglicanism, Evangelical Episcopalianism or Reformed Anglicanism is a tradition or church party within Anglicanism that shares affinity with broader evangelicalism. Evangelical Anglicans share with other evangelicals the attributes of "conversionism, activism, biblicism and crucicentrism" identified by historian David Bebbington as central to evangelical identity. The emergence of evangelical churchmanship can be traced back to the First Great Awakening in America and the Evangelical Revival in Britain in the 18th century. In the 20th century, prominent figures have included John Stott and J. I. Packer.

References

  1. ↑ Neill, Stephen (1960). Anglicanism. London: Pelican. p. 398.
  2. ↑ Hylson-Smith, Kenneth (1993). High Churchmanship in the Church of England. Edinburgh: T&T Clark. p. 340.
  3. ↑ Holmes III, Urban T. (1982). What is Anglicanism?. Wilton, Connecticut: Moorehouse-Barlow Co. p. 11.
  4. ↑ Carey, George (1996). "Celebrating the Anglican Way". In Bunting, Ian (ed.). Celebrating the Anglican Way. London: Hodder & Stoughton. pp. 14–16.
  5. ↑ Garbett, Cyril (1947). The Claims of the Church of England. London: Hodder & Stoughton. p. 27.
  6. ↑ Gibson, William (2001). The Church of England: 1688-1832. London: Routledge. pp. 1, 2.
  7. ↑ The Churchman's Human Quest (1995–1996). ISSN   0897-8786 & ISSN   0009-6628 – is one of the titles of a periodical which has changed many times.
  8. ↑ Rawlyk, George A. (17 February 1997). Aspects of the Canadian Evangelical Experience. McGill-Queen's Press. p. 248. ISBN   978-0-7735-6648-4.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.