The New ACNA Archbishop’s Take on the Anglican Tradition: Three Observations

By Robin G. Jordan

In his sermon at his investiture earlier this month ACNA Archbishop Foley Beech made a number of remarks that deserve comment.

Archbishop Beech made this rather sweeping statement, “You know, Anglicanism has never been uniform – it is actually always been one of our strengths as a movement and as a Tradition of Christian Faith.”

This statement is not entirely accurate. It represents a particular interpretation of Anglican Church history, one that makes selective use of primary and secondary sources and concludes from this cherry-picked evidence that Anglicanism historically has been quite diverse in its beliefs and practices. This interpretation of Anglican Church history is then used to justify a wide diversity of opinion and creed in the present day Anglican Church. It is associated with theological liberalism.

Uniformity in belief and practice was a major concern in the reigns of Elizabeth I, James I, and Charles I and would also be at the Restoration. A number of Acts of Parliament imposing such uniformity were passed during this period. The same period produced the 1559 Book of Common Prayer, the 1604 Book of Common Prayer, and the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. It would also produced Alexander Nowell’s Catechism of 1563, Archbishop Mathhew Parker’s Advertisements of 1566, the Articles of Religion of 1571, also known as the Thirty-Nine Articles, the proposed Canons of 1571, the Canons of 1604, the Royal Declaration of 1628, and the abortive Canons Ecclesiastical of 1640. It also produced the Second Book of Homilies, which was fully published in 1571 and which, along with the First Book of Homilies of 1547, was appointed to be read on every Sunday and holy day.

Even when latitudinarianism with its relaxed attitude toward belief and practice may have been the dominant philosophy in the Church of England, it did not enjoy official sanction. While variances in belief and practice did exist in the Church of England during this period, it is a bit of a stretch to claim that a characteristic of historic Anglicanism is its diversity, or lack of uniformity.

It is even more of a stretch to assert that it is one of Anglicanism’s strengths. The nineteenth century Tractarian movement’s departure from the official teaching of the Church of England and its reinterpretation of the Church’s formularies would cause divisions in the Church of England, which persist to this day. The Protestant Episcopal Church would experience similar divisions over the Tractarian movement’s revival of pre-Reformation Medieval Catholic beliefs and practices and its introduction of post-Tridentian Roman Catholic doctrinal and worship innovations. Theological liberalism made serious inroads in a number of Anglican provinces in the twentieth century, including Beech’s former province, leading to a major split in the Anglican Communion in the twenty-first century.

While Archbishop Beech may claim that uniformity is not a characteristic of Anglicanism, this is certainly not the position of Anglican Church in North America as evidenced in its doctrinal statements to date. These doctrinal statements include its fundamental declarations, its canons, Texts for Common Prayer, To Be A Christian: An Anglican Catechism, and its proposed rites for admission of catechumens, baptism, and confirmation. What latitude they offer is unidirectional. It is decidedly biased toward unreformed Catholic belief and practice and against Protestant.

The larger part of the sermon was devoted to expounding what Archbishop Beech described as “Four Marks of Continuing a Spirit-filled Movement” or “Four Marks of Modern Anglicanism.” They were repentance, reconciliation, reproduction, and relentless compassion. It should be noted that these marks are among the distinguishing characteristics of any spiritually healthy believing Christian, church, denomination or network of churches. They are not particularly to any one movement or faith tradition. Here again, Beech is not making an entirely accurate statement.