Why Anglicanism? Why start an Anglican church? Why in a world with so many denominational (and non-denominational) options, would one choose to call themselves Anglican or attend an Anglican church?
While I am not so out-of-touch as to believe that these are besetting questions for many, they may be at least interesting for some:)
Therefore, in the first in a continuing series, I will offer a few thoughts, some banal, some (hopefully) not, on Anglicanism as a viable Christian option.
Reason #1: Anglicanism is the bedrock Christianity of the English-speaking world.
Though we may not realize it, whenever we speak the language of the Bible, consciously or not, we are almost always speaking in Anglican terms. That is to say, when we say "the spirit is willing..." or "Our Father, which art in heaven..." or "you shall know the truth..." or simply "let there be light," we are quoting the King James Bible (and William Tyndale), which sprung out of the Anglican church. And this is no accident.
Anglicanism was the first arm of Christianity to bring the faith to the English-speaking world in the vernacular, and with such a clarity, power and beauty so as to be ingrained in the collective consciousness. Beyond the church, Anglicanism, in the words of Yale Scholar David Daniell, "gave England (and English) in the middle of the sixteenth century its first disseminated plain style."
Simply put, Anglicanism is the original English Christianity and has had a profound, positive and enduring effect on the English language.
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