To orient ourselves for Election Day, we must understand that God establishes human government to promote good and punish evil.
George Washington: Vestryman and Lifelong Anglican
George Washington was born into a deeply Anglican family and remained a faithful Anglican layman for his entire life. He was baptized in the church as an infant, married a pious Anglican woman, and was buried with the burial office from the 1789 Book of Common Prayer. In between these sacramental milestones, Washington served as…
J.I. Packer: A Rookie Anglican Guide
J.I. Packer became an international figure through scores of pamphlets and books, especially his 1973 bestseller, Knowing God. Packer’s institutional engagement is less famous than his books but arguably even more influential.
The Five American Prayer Books: A Rookie Anglican Guide
Neither the ACNA nor the Book of Common Prayer in our hands today is a present-day import from England. Our Prayer Book, like our Church, has been a native, naturalized inhabitant since 1789.
Book Review: In Defense of Christian Patriotism
Daniel Darling. In Defense of Christian Patriotism. Broadside Books, 2025. 288 pp. Only a marginal minority of Americans has embraced the term “Christian Nationalist.” According to a 2023 Neighborly Faith report, only five percent of respondents self-identified as Christian Nationalists or sympathized with the movement. In most public discourse today, it is a pejorative that…
Book Review: That Blessed Liberty
Miles Smith, IV, and Adam Carrington. That Blessed Liberty: Episcopal Bishops and the Development of the American Republic, 1789–1860. Prolego Press, 2025. 179 pp. Between the surrender at Yorktown and the first shots at Sumter, the United States did more than construct a constitutional order. It also quietly and often anxiously reshaped its religious life….
John and Charles Wesley: Anglicans with Kindled Hearts
On March 3rd, we celebrate the feast of John and Charles Wesley, two Anglican priests credited as the founders of Methodism, but whose lifelong loyalties lay with the Church of England, from which they never formally left. The Anglican Church in North America recognizes them as “Reformers of the Church” (2019 Book of Common Prayer,…
Anglican America: From the Founding to the Future
For more than 400 years, the Anglican tradition has played a central role in the development of the United States of America. The intellectual culture of recent decades has obscured this historical truth, both on account of revisionist historians who see America as a secular nation and also by the failure of Anglicans to tell…
Hymn Guide: America the Beautiful
“America the Beautiful” is one of our popular patriotic hymns, sung often at civic celebrations and even before sporting events. But in the church, this hymn is a victim of its own success. Because we associate it with secular gatherings and only remember its first verse, we are often reluctant to sing it in church….
Holy Sovereigns Day: The Feast of the Church in Hawaii
At the end of November, we will make a big-to-do at All Saints Honolulu. A large, light-strung canopy will be set up in my front yard. Chairs, benches, and carpets from the sanctuary will be arranged, with an altar and lectern on the grass, dressed for Holy Communion. A reredos and boughs of leaves will…
Politics, Perspective, and the People of God
The church’s duty is to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, his reign, and the coming of his Kingdom. Its primary role is not the advancement of an earthly political agenda.
Independence Day: A Rookie Anglican Guide
The 4th of July, American Independence Day, is both a celebration of American political liberty and a universal commemoration of God’s priority over government. On this day, we remember that human laws are evaluated by the standard of God’s law, not the other way around. The Collect Lord God, by your providence our founders won…
