What is Anglicanism?

Roots

Literally, an Anglican church is a church whose roots are in the Church of England. Those roots reach back much further, ultimately to the early centuries of the Christian Church. Prayers found in our worship service date back to the fourth century. Anglicans are deeply grounded in Christian history.

In the 16th century Anglicanism grew out of the Roman Catholic church as part of the Reformation. However, we retained that which was good in the Catholic church and see ourselves as Reformed Catholics. The "Via Media" identifies us as a church which avoids extremism and maintains that which is good from our Catholic heritage and our Protestant roots. As such, we are a church which welcomes people from diverse backgrounds and traditions, bringing them together as one in Jesus Christ

Beliefs

Anglicans believe in:

The Trinity - God is one God who exists in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
The divinity of Jesus Christ - Jesus is both fully divine and fully human
The authority of Scripture - The bible contains everything we need to know for our salvation and holds authority over our lives.
The historic creeds - Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian
Two gospel sacraments: Baptism and the Lord's Supper (or Eucharist)
The fact that no one is saved by their works but is saved by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ

Worship

An Anglican worship service is structured, Scripture-centered, and reverent, while also being warm and welcoming.

We follow a set order of prayers from the Book of Common Prayer. This means:

There are printed prayers and responses which the congregation speaks together
The worship is participatory - prayers are read aloud in unison
The service follows a consistent pattern each week - you won’t have to memorize anything — everything is in a bulletin.

We place an emphasis on the importance of:

Biblical Preaching
Scripture Reading
Confession
Absolution
Holy Communion.