I’m back–hope your holidays were good. I’ll post on mine in a bit but this has been bugging me…

Over on Thinking Anglicans a commenter going by “Raspberry Rabbit” made the observation in the ongoing discussion about Truro/Falls Church that many who protest so loudly about Anglican identity may not be terrible well informed in it themselves. Rabbit mentioned one such vociferous “Anglican” who used to come to seminary classes in a Savlation Army uniform… One of the central topics in the current debate revolves around the notion of Anglican Identity. Everybody is sure that they have it and that the other side doesn’t. several things come to my mind including the reognition and realization that few in the debate in this corner of the web, at least, are cradle Anglicans. I’m a fairly recent convert myself. So how do we decide what is really Anglican and what isn’t without distorting things? It’s hard and the danger as to always before our eyes especially when we engage in polemics on who’s in and who’s out, who’s authentically Anglican and who’s not.

Personally, I have my own recommendation and criteria. It’s not really about formal theology since Anglicans have been all over the map on that one. Ditto on purity tests like the 39 Articles which were useful at a certain time and place for locating the English Church in the face of Rome, Geneva, and Wittenburg–and whose current application is one of the ongoing topics of debate. No, I go back to the prayerbook. Feel free to lecture me about Anglican identity–after you’ve spent at least a year living with the prayerbook Offices every morning and night and making it to Mass at least most of the Sundays and Holy Days. And for the record the edition doesn’t matter–’28, ’79, hell, I don’t care if you’re using the 1662 book. What is important is that Anglicans are people whose lives and thoughts about life (ergo, theology) are shaped in the context of these liturgies. The twice-daily recitation of the creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the versicles; the daily recitation of the canticles; the weekly celebration of the Mass; the monthly recitation of the Psalter; the yearly reading of the Scriptures, this is fundamentally what makes classic Anglicans in my book (literally…). Try that–then come back and harangue me about Anglican Identity.