What is an Anglican?

“Anglican” means English. We are des­cended from the Church of England, which dates back to the 16th century English Reformation. Like Luther and Calvin on the “Continent”, they “protested” what they felt was the departure of the Church from the supreme authority of Scripture and the improper primacy of one bishop above all others. They believed that anything that is required of Christians to be believed and practiced should provable from Holy Scripture.

So do we.

Thus, we are Protestant because we believe the Holy Scriptures to be “God’s Word written” (Article XX, Articles of Religion), containing all things necessary to salvation, and authoritative in all matters of faith and morals; we profess and teach that salvation is by grace through faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and in His unique and all-sufficient sacrifice, death, and resur­rection – and not through any works or merits of our own.

But we are also catholic (Greek katholikos = universal) in that we seek to hold and practice the whole faith “once delivered to the saints,” with neither addition nor dilution, as it has been believed “always, everywhere, and by all,” expressed in the Creeds, Councils, and Fathers of the early Church, and continued in the classical Anglican Formularies:
◦ The 1928 Book of Common Prayer
◦ The 39 Articles of Religion.
◦ The Ordinal (services for ordaining clergy)
◦ The Books of Homilies