St. Augustine, the priest, bishop, and arguably most influential theologian outside the Bible, is well known for his conversion story. His Confessions remain widely read and quoted today. But we would not know St. Augustine as we do without St. Monica, his mother, and her own life of Christian formation. A Mother Formed in Faith…
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: Christian History, Volumes 1 & 2
Christian History, Volume 1 and 2, serve as a superb introduction to Christian history. They are written honestly and accessibly without losing their depth.
Why Was St. Gregory So Great?
Who is St. Gregory, what makes him so great, and why do Christians, specifically Anglicans, celebrate him 1,400 years after his death?
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…
Choir Dress: The Vestment That Is Never Wrong
Though you may be accustomed to seeing your priest in an alb and stole, choir dress is always an appropriate vestment in the Anglican tradition. Indeed, I would argue that there are many reasons it may be the preferred choice! Choir dress is the vestment that is never wrong.
The Global Anglican Communion: From Canterbury to Jerusalem
Someone may ask: “Hasn’t the Anglican Communion been around for a long, long time?” This depends on what you consider a long time and how you define the Anglican Communion.
St. Hilda of Whitby and the Ministry of Unity
In an era of polarization, even within the Church, it’s often hard to find leaders who attempt—let alone succeed—in bringing Christians together for the sake of the gospel. St. Hilda of Whitby stands among the most significant luminous figures of the early English Church—wise, steady, and quietly formidable. Centuries before the Reformation, when English Christianity…
Book Review: The White Horse King by Benjamin Merkle
Benjamin Merkle, The White Horse King: The Life of Alfred the Great. Thomas Nelson, 2009. 272 pp. Contrary to what the spicier corners of Roman Catholic Twitter insist, the English Church did not begin in 1534, and Anglicanism did not spring fully formed from the head of Henry VIII like some Tudor Athena. Long before…
A Gaelic Church: The Scottish Episcopal Story
In Scotland, the primary expression of the church—or kirk in the Scottish tongue—is the Church of Scotland, which has long been the epitome (and, in many ways, the founder) of the Presbyterian tradition. And yet, an episcopally-governed, liturgical church has long paralleled the state church with its own unique flavor of the Anglican tradition. This…
E.A. Litton: An Evangelical and Catholic Theologian
Anglicans can sometimes be stereotyped as having no good theology. We might have a great liturgy, inspiring preaching, and beautiful worship, but we aren’t always thought of as a theological people. In this post, I hope to dispel that rumor by introducing you to E.A. Litton, a forgotten gem of a theologian you may not…
Confessing the Gospel in Our Day (Jerusalem Declaration 1)
The Jerusalem Declaration is the confessional basis for a reformed and reordered Communion. It is not only a memento of the first GAFCON in 2008, but it is also the ongoing “contemporary standard for Anglican identity” for individual and corporate membership in the Global Anglican Communion.