God Touching Lives
What is the Anglican Church?
The Anglican Church is the spiritual mother of all English speaking Christians. In the first century, about the time that St. Paul was writing his epistles, missionaries brought the Christian faith to Britain. The British (or Celtic) Church founded by these missionaries of the Apostolic era was an integral part of the ancient and undivided Church of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Later, after the Angles and Saxons migrated to Britain, claiming it as “Angle-land,” missionaries from the native British Church and the Roman Church (which arrived with St. Augustine in A.D. 597) worked to evangelize the new inhabitants. These efforts were unified at the Synod of Whitby in A.D. 664, so that in the seventh century of her life and work, the Anglican or English Church associated herself with the Church on the continent for the sake of Christian unity.
Towards the end of the Middle Ages, after erroneous teachings and practices had crept into the life of the Christian Church, it became clear that the Church needed reforming. Faithful Christians believed the Church needed to be restored to the faith and doctrine taught in the Bible and by the ancient Fathers who had succeeded Christ’s Apostles as leaders in the Church.
From the 1520’s, Anglican reformers took on the dangerous task of restoring the Church of England to a completely Biblical faith and practice. Men like Tyndale, Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley (all of whom were eventually burned at the stake) seized the opportunity of Henry VIII’s dynastic and political problems to achieve the only truly successful reformation of an entire national church. Their principles were a return to Biblical doctrine and the unified teaching and practice of the undivided Church of the first ten centuries. They did not seek division or discord within the Church, but were firm in their resolve to separate from Rome’s
The Anglican Church is the spiritual mother of all English speaking Christians. In the first century, about the time that St. Paul was writing his epistles, missionaries brought the Christian faith to Britain. The British (or Celtic) Church founded by these missionaries of the Apostolic era was an integral part of the ancient and undivided Church of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Later, after the Angles and Saxons migrated to Britain, claiming it as “Angle-
Towards the end of the Middle Ages, after erroneous teachings and practices had crept into the life of the Christian Church, it became clear that the Church needed reforming. Faithful Christians believed the Church needed to be restored to the faith and doctrine taught in the Bible and by the ancient Fathers who had succeeded Christ’s Apostles as leaders in the Church.
From the 1520’s, Anglican reformers took on the dangerous task of restoring the Church of England to a completely Biblical faith and practice. Men like Tyndale, Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley (all of whom were eventually burned at the stake) seized the opportunity of Henry VIII’s dynastic and political problems to achieve the only truly successful reformation of an entire national church. Their principles were a return to Biblical doctrine and the unified teaching and practice of the undivided Church of the first ten centuries. They did not seek division or discord within the Church, but were firm in their resolve to separate from Rome’s