The North American Anglican Journal | Volume 1 Issue 1 | Spring/Summer, 2024 NORTH AMERICAN ANGLICANISM: English Roots in American Soil
Publisher’s Letter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Editor’s Letter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Charles Mcilvaine And American Anglican Irenicism – Miles Smith IV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 TRINITYTIDE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Jackson Kemper: First Missionary Bishop in the United States, 1870 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 The Legacy of the Anglican Reformers – Chris Findley. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 The Sword And The Keys: The Relationship Between The Church And The State Since The Reformation – Jared Lovell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Bishop William White: Anglican Patriot – Cal Crucis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 SAINT BARNABAS THE APOSTLE. . . . . . . . 17 Bishop White’s Reading List – Introduction by Peter Robinson. . . . . . . . . . 19 INDEPENDENCE DAY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Edmund Burke: Speech before Perliament, Nov. 6, 1776. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 William Augustus Muhlenberg Priest, 1877. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Book Review: “The Case For Christian Nationalism” – James Clark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 SAINT JOHN BAPTIST. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 SAINT JAMES THE APOSTLE . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 A Case for Local Prayer: The Civics of the American BCP – Isaac J. Rehberg. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 The Hope Of Evangelical Union: The Telos Of Anglicanism – Cal Crucis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 T. S. Eliot Little Gidding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Formulating Orthodoxy: The Centrality of Canon Law for Common Prayer and Doctrine – Andrew Brashier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 SAINT PETER THE APOSTLE . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Anglicans Shouldn’t Be Building New Colleges – Jack Waters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Editor-in-Chief: Jesse Nigro Publisher: CJay Engel Editors: James Clark The Ven. Isaac Rehberg The Ven. Andrew Brashier Lue-Yee Tsang The Rev. Jared Lovell Contributors: Chris Findley Cal Crucis Peter Robinson Isaac Rehberg Miles Smith IV Jared Lovell Andrew Brashier Jack Waters Design and Layout by Daniel van Straaten www.danielvanstraaten.com
One of the dogmas of modern civil life in America—and the now secular West at large— is an understanding of religion that is ruthlessly private and subjective. Not only are we taught that all religion is a matter of the individual soul, but we are also taught that it has no tangible relation to the social good as a whole. It is therefore private also in the sense that it does not belong to the whole, but is in fact reaching outside its boundaries when it pervades the civil and juridical institutions of political society. There is certainly an historical explanation for this, but in reading the contents of this issue of The North American Anglican, one is reminded how distant we are from our own religious past. As we operate in a world that has rejected the public-orientedness of the Christian faith, it is no surprise that we have concomitantly lost our relationship to our religious history as well. Religion, for the mainstream of the Anglo-American experience in both Old and New World, was in almost every respect publicly oriented; its purpose was not merely to get saints into heaven (as tends to be the present evangelical instinct), but to be for society a spring of constant refreshment and meaning. Certainly this included involvement in the realm of political significance; yet the Christian religion went beyond this into the deep rhythms of daily life and labor, touching the very soul of a people who saw themselves as being anchored in the Church as a cultural life-source. Yet the significance of the Christian faith and the Church as a cultural repository of that faith lies deeper still. There is gravity in the subtitle of this issue: “English roots in American soil.” The English cultural expression of the universal faith has had such an integrated presence in our past that it once formed between generations a bond so strong that it remains almost unimaginable today. What strikes the reader in the present volume is the extent to which the English faith was not merely a faith situated for the unrooted present, but was rather a bridge that was always bringing forward the religion of our fathers unto the living. A faith that functions to tie past to present, and therefore to future as well, is necessarily publicly oriented. After all, the individuals that presently populate our society were not there in the past to infuse it with significance. The significance comes from without; it is anterior to the individual, and therefore pertains to the whole. The power of a historically-rooted faith is that it checks the hubris of religious individualism, and in doing so it offers an alternative to the siloed religionism of present Western society. The present TNAA volume offers a glimpse into a world that cherished the function of religion as a tie between generations. America was a deeply religious society because it was steeped in the rich backdrop of a culturally-saturated Christian faith. The Christian religion for the early Americans was not just a matter of the individual soul; it was the conduit of an entire way of life. The English cultural expression of the Christian faith provided the bedrock for American institutions, mannerisms, aesthetic standards, customs, mores, priorities, and instincts. These are among the themes of our first quarterly issue. We do hope you cherish the essays and other writings herein. CJay Engel The North American Anglican | Volume 1 Issue 1 | Spring/Summer, 20243
We serve a God who is concerned with individuals and nations across the globe and throughout eternity. That’s good news for those of us living in North America, where His Heavenly Kingdom was made manifest in this land centuries ago by our Nation’s fathers. The Body of Christ still claims active and faithful members here, and the Anglican heritage of faith is no exception. As recent movements and new growth in North American Anglicanism take root—largely as efforts to recover and repair the ruinous legacy of the 20th-century church—this journal highlights many of the early lights in our Nation’s Anglican past. Only God can ultimately bring about renewal in formerly Christian nations, but it is undeniable that forgetting the faithfulness of our forebears weakens us against the enemy’s attacks and diminishes our effectiveness in evangelistic work today. I hope our readers will be blessed by the content of this edition of The North American Anglican journal. While there is a strong emphasis on looking to the past, it is not as mere nostalgic contemplation of a world we may rightly miss. Rather, our past triumphs are upheld as a treasury of inspiration and insight for the Kingdom work of the present, as we strive toward a hopeful future. This volume directs our attention to early American Anglicanism, but I hope our readers will also gain a sense for the spiritual debt our church and Nation owe to the ecclesiastical and cultural patrimony of England. I hope this volume will inspire a new appreciation for the cultural, social, and civic inheritance of the particularly English norms and civilizational triumphs that our Nation’s founders took for granted as well. The King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer represent two pillars of an enduring and living legacy of piety and culture, bridging the transatlantic gap. As the faith of our fathers increasingly earns Christians the resentment and disdain of our neighbors in a declining society, I believe that retrieving the common heritage of all Americans, especially the faith once delivered to the saints, is essential to the North American Anglican mission. God will not forget His people, and we can turn to the Scriptures to see our Lord’s track record of faithfulness. We can also turn to the history of our church—from its Apostolic origins, through the heights of Christendom, the purifying fires of the Reformation, and its expansion and growth in the present soil where we live and work. God has been with His people throughout it all, and we are at our best when our minds and mouths are filled with stories of the Spirit’s work in ordinary men and women. With such a rich heritage, Anglicans, especially those in North America, have no excuse to be forgetful. Jesse Nigro Editor-in-Chief 4 Volume 1 Issue 1 | Spring/Summer, 2024 | The North American Anglican
Trinity-Sunday A The Collect. LMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hast given unto us thy servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of the Divine Majesty to worship the Unity; We beseech thee that thou wouldest keep us stedfast in this faith, and evermore defend us from all adversities, who livest and reignest, one God, world without end. Amen. The North American Anglican | Volume 1 Issue 1 | Spring/Summer, 20245
Reformers Chris Findley Introduction When I was growing up I never heard the Reformation referenced in church. I had no idea why the Reformation even mattered. It wasn’t until many years later, through seminary and after, that I began to see the contributions of the Reformers and began to understand why the Reformation was important to be remembered and appreciated. In his paper, “What do we owe to the Reformation?” J.C. Ryle says, “There is a widely-spread disposition to undervalue the Protestant Reformation. Time has a wonderful way of dimming men’s eyes, and deadening their recollection of benefits. The whole result is that few people seem to understand either the evils from which the Reformation 6 delivered us, or the blessings which the Reformation brought in.”1 The Reformation is part and parcel of Anglicanism itself. You can hardly read a sentence in the Book of Common Prayer without hearing the voice of the great Reformers of the Anglican Church. Brief History of Anglicanism The truth is that we are a church of the Reformation. While Christianity certainly existed in the British Isles as early as the 2nd Century, it was not the Anglicanism of today. When Pope Gregory the Great sent Augustine to England in 595, it marked the beginning of the English Roman Catholic Church. With the Reformation in the 16th century, what emerges is a Volume 1 Issue 1 | Spring/Summer, 2024 | The North American Anglican
church of the Protestant Reformation—the Anglican Church. For over 300 years this was how Anglicans understood themselves and their Church. There were of course degrees and variations, but the 39 Articles, the Books of Homilies, and the Book of Common Prayer rooted the theology of the Anglican Church firmly in the English Reformation. But as Bishop Ryle said, “Time has a wonderful way of dimming men’s eyes…” So, what I’d like for us to consider are a few of the specific things that are ours by way of their work and witness. And by way of their sacrifice. Most of them had to spend time in exile, preaching and writing in secret. Many of them were imprisoned. Many of them were burned alive, including Thomas Cranmer, who gave us the first Book of Common Prayer. Do we even have a category to place this type of conviction? To be willing to die for someone, seems praiseworthy and noble. But to die for your beliefs? To be willing to die for your convictions? Martyrdom is something very foreign to modern men and women. Do we believe anything that strongly? Consider two of the most famous Anglican Reformation martyrs, Bishop Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley. These men were burned at the stake on the 16th of October 1555. They were burned for their convictions regarding the authority of Scripture, justification by faith alone, baptism and communion. They were tied back to back on a stake in Oxford. Ridley’s last words were a prayer, “Heavenly Father, I give thee most hearty thanks that thou hast called me to a profession of thee even unto death. I beseech thee, Lord God, have mercy on this realm of England, and deliver the same from all her enemies.”2 But it is the final words of his friend Bishop Hugh Latimer that are perhaps the bestknown final words of any reformer. As the fire was lit on the wood where they were tied, Latimer’s words rang out for all to hear. He said, “Be of good comfort Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day, by God’s grace, light such a candle in England as I trust shall never be put out.”3 And so they did. While there are many things we have to thank the Reformers for, I’d like to focus on three. The English Bible and Authority of Scripture The first thing I believe we can thank our Reformers for is the English Bible. Most of us think nothing of having the Scriptures in our own language. We can easily order as many copies as we like. We can read it online or on our phones. We can listen to it on Audible. But have you ever thought about the fact that there was a time when this was not possible? When members of the Church could not hear the scriptures being read in their own language? When translating the Bible into English would get you imprisoned or executed? For example, in 1519 six men and a woman were executed by burning in Coventry for teaching children the Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Commandments in English and possessing an early copy of an English Bible.4 The systematic opposition by Roman Catholic authorities in league with the King was brutal. The champion of this cause was William Tyndale. He was a brilliant linguist and theologian who studied at Oxford and Cambridge and was fluent in French, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Latin, and Spanish. Tyndale was opposed and hunted. He fled from England to Germany and worked in secret, having various sympathizers smuggle Bibles back into England. But why? Why was this so crucial? Here’s Tyndale in his own words: “It was in the language of Israel that the Psalms were sung in the temple of Jehovah and shall not the gospel speak the language of England among us? Christians must read the New Testament in their mother-tongue…Without the Bible it is impossible to establish the laity in the truth.”5 The Reformers were committed to the cause of the Scriptures so that all of us, the entire Body of Christ, may be established in the truth. Reading the Word of the Lord for ourselves allows us to hear God speaking to our own minds and hearts for the salvation and encouragement of our souls. The unique and primary authority of the Bible, as well as the need for all to read it, was Tyndale’s conviction and the conviction of the rest of our Anglican Reformers. The North American Anglican | Volume 1 Issue 1 | Spring/Summer, 20247
Tyndale was burned at the stake in 1536. As he was burning his voice could be heard, “O Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.”6 Within 3 years, they would be. In 1539 King Henry VIII allowed an English Bible to be placed in every parish church in England. And in 1611, the King James Version of the Bible was published. Let us never take for granted the great cost paid for our English Bibles. Justification by Faith Alone Secondly, we turn to the principal doctrine of the Reformation, Justification by Faith Alone. This is the principal doctrine of the Reformation because it addresses that crucial question of “How are we, a sinful and rebellious people, made right with a holy and sinless God?” Is it faith? Is it doing good works? Is it by being purified in purgatory? Is it impossible to know? For the medieval Christian, salvation was tenuous at best. It was tied to Masses and priestly mediation, penances, taxes, superstitions, and indulgences. These things totally obscured the saving message of the Gospel. Each week we give thanks for Jesus’ work on the cross so “that we might come with confidence before the throne of grace.” (Hebrews 4:16) The throne of grace was hard to find in those days. Martin Luther said Justification was the article by which the Church stands or falls. And Cranmer, the author of the first book of Common Prayer, made sure the thread of Justification by Faith Alone ran cover to cover through his English liturgy. By God’s grace it still does. You can hear it in our liturgy today in every orthodox Book of Common Prayer. In examining the theology of Thomas Cranmer and his editorial choices in the Book of Common Prayer, Zac Hicks notes, “Sola fide is the governor of Cranmer’s theological decisions.” Cranmer held tightly to the words of St. Paul in Romans 3:26–27, “Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.”7 And in Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your 8 own doing; it is the gift of God.”8 Cranmer made sure this idea echoed for generations to come in the worship of the church. Again, why? Because if I think my salvation rests in me, then I miss out on the life-changing truth, the lived experience of the powerful love of God. You and I are not saved by anything we do other than believing by faith in the Lord Jesus. But doesn’t James tell us “faith without works is dead”? Yes. Of course. But we are not saved by our good works; we are saved for good works. We are not saved because we do good things. No, we are saved by faith in the love of the Father, the sacrifice of the Son, and the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit and we do good works in response to the love we have received. We then reflect that love to the world. This is what Jesus says in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”9 The Christian’s Call to Christlikeness The third part of the legacy of our Reformers is their emphasis on the Christian’s call to Christlikeness. For the Reformers, every Christian was called to mature as a disciple, to grow in holiness and Christlikeness. But this idea that every Christian was called to Christlikeness and to growth in the faith was not commonly believed in the middle ages. Men and women despaired not only of their ability to be saved; they despaired of their ability to live in holiness. One had to be a monk, nun or a priest if you wanted to be holy or if you wanted to really be a disciple of Jesus. It was commonly thought that God’s favor was only reserved for those who withdrew from the world, who locked themselves in cloisters, and left the “normal” world behind. The great multitude of common people simply did not believe that they too were truly loved by God, redeemed by grace, and called to experience the abundant life of faith. The Reformers, particularly Cranmer, brought the hope of authentic discipleship and spiritual growth back to the people. That is the direction of the Book of Common Prayer. It took the monastic offices and simplified Volume 1 Issue 1 | Spring/Summer, 2024 | The North American Anglican
them for the use of the entire Church in the Daily Office. The language of the Eucharist went from Latin to English and the theology of the service was clarified to bring hope to the men, women, and children who filled the parish churches of England. Michael Jenson’s book Reformation Anglican Worship had a profound impact on me when I read it during the pandemic. In it, he notes that the Anglican Church of the Reformation was meant to achieve several specific things. 1.) It was meant to edify those who took part in it. 2.) It was meant to inspire holy affections toward God. 3.) It was designed to have an impact on society and 4.) It was missional–designed to communicate saving faith to those who heard it.10 He says, “The Reformers of the sixteenth century were convinced that the right pattern of corporate worship was essential for the spiritual health of the people of God, and even for the evangelization of the nation.”11 In all of this, note the emphasis our Reformers placed on accessibility, understanding, and action. The call to faithful living and a realistic hope of growing in Christian maturity was no longer only for the monastics and clergy. It was for the farmer in his field, the mother teaching her children, for the children gathered around the dinner table. The Christian faith was once again anchored in the real world and offered real Good News, to real people. Conclusion These three things: the English Bible and the Authority of Scripture, Justification by Faith Alone, and the Common Call to Christlikeness are all part of our heritage and all were championed by the Anglican Reformers. As I opened with a quote from Bishop Ryle, so I will close with his words: islation. It was forged in the fires of Oxford and Smithfield. It cost the lives of one Archbishop, four Bishops, and 280 other men and women.12 Their legacy is our inheritance. It is no less than the gift of the Gospel itself which continues, from their time until ours, to save and sanctify men, women, and children to the glory and honor of God. May their legacy be our legacy. Perhaps one day, five hundred years from now, it will be said of us, “Those Anglicans kept the candle burning in difficult days and passed on to us a heritage worth celebrating—the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” About Chris Findley The Very Rev. Chris Findley is the rector of St. Patrick’s Anglican Church (ACNA) in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He is a former Army Officer and currently a Chaplain with the Civil Air Patrol. Fr. Chris is an advocate for missions and evangelism, and for maintaining authentic Anglican liturgy and worship. He and his wife Sheryl live outside Nashville with their three children, Aidan, Evan and Caelyn. Notes J. C. Ryle, Distinctive Principles for Anglican Evangelicals (Church Society, 2014), ed. Lee Gatiss, 22. 2. J.C. Ryle, Light From Old Times (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2015), 27, 194. 3. Ryle, Light From Old Times, 27, 194 4. As recounted by J.C. Ryle in Distinctive Principles. 5. J.H. Merle D’Aubigne, The Reformation in England, Vol 1, Banner of Truth, 1977, org. 1853), 172. 6. J.H. Merle D’Aubigne, The Reformation in England, Vol 2 (Banner of Truth, 1977, org. 1853), 347. 7. Romans 3:26–27, ESV 8. Ephesians 2:8, ESV 9. Matthew 5:16, ESV 10. Michael Jenson, Reformation Anglican Worship (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021), 73‒74. 11. Jenson, Reformation Anglican Worship, 22 12. J.C. Ryle, Distinctive Principles for Anglican Evangelicals (Church Society, 2014), ed. Lee Gatiss, 41. 1. For ever let us thank God for the Reformation! It lighted a candle which ought never be extinguished or allowed to grow dim. And for ever let us remember that the Reformation was won for us by the blood of the martyrs quite as much as by their preaching and praying, and writing and legThe North American Anglican | Volume 1 Issue 1 | Spring/Summer, 20249
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