The Anglican Church welcomes you!
Welcome to the Anglican Church! Perhaps you are a visitor or a new member and want to know
something more about the customs and traditions of this church. Perhaps you have been an
Anglican for a long time, but are curious about what the Anglican Church stands for and are looking
for a refresher course.
If you are coming into the Anglican Church from another tradition, you may find some of our customs
unfamiliar, perhaps confusing. I can sympathize to some extent with your experience.
Let me tell you something of my own story of discovering the Anglican Church. I was born the oldest
child of a Scottish Presbyterian mother and an Irish Roman Catholic father, and was baptised and
raised in the Roman Catholic Church. We were an observant family, attending Mass every Sunday,
reciting the family Rosary, saying grace at meals, fasting on Fridays, attending church schools.
Religious customs were part of everyday life.
"Because we were going to a Protestant school, my mother was refused communion at the local
Roman Catholic church."
Our Presbyterian grandmother lived with us. She demanded very strict standards of behaviour from
us. From her we learned Bible stories and hymns. She also imparted, somehow, the idea of God as a
strict parent -- a view that I have had to struggle to overcome in my adult life.
My sister and I attended a United Church girls' school, a school deeply influenced by the Christian
tradition, with daily worship, fine liturgical music and excellent required classes in Christian
knowledge. In its daily chapel services, I encountered the worship traditions of The United Church
of Canada and its predecessors, the Methodist, Congregational, and Presbyterian churches.
Because we were going to a Protestant school, my mother was refused communion at the local
Roman Catholic church. So when I was a teenager, my mother decided to attend the Anglican
Church as a kind of middle road, and my sister and I accompanied her. I was immediately drawn to
the Anglican Church by its worship -- the orderly pattern of common prayer, the richness of its
music and
"I love the rhythm and music of the language of worship."
symbolism. I have remained an Anglican, have studied and taught theology, and been involved with
the life of the Anglican Church at many levels -- parish, diocesan, national and international. My life
as a member of this church has brought me a great diversity and richness of experience. I love the
Anglican Church and am committed to living and working within this family.
Here are some of the things that I celebrate about the life of the Anglican Church.
I love the worship, with its ordered patterns of prayer, the same from week to week and yet varied
according to the seasons. I love the rhythm and music of the language of worship, and the colour
and dramatic action of the services. Anglican worship, quite deliberately, I think, involves all our
senses. Our churches are (usually) visually tasteful, colourful, attractive. Wood stone, fabric, appeal
to touch as well as sight; flowers or incense connect with the sense of smell; the Eucharist,
celebrated week by week, stimulates the sense of taste. Anglican worship is much more than a
performance to be observed or listened to.
I appreciate also a certain "matter-of-factness" about Anglican worship. We join in common prayer.
"Common" does not mean "ordinary" in this context. It means that we all say the same words
together when we pray. Anglicans use set texts, printed in our books of Common Prayer. You will
not find the priest extemporizing in prayer. Our worship does not depend on the personality of the
priest or the quest for novelty or the stirring up of an emotional reaction. we worship God in
accustomed patterns, the same week by week. This provides an
The sacraments, particularly the Eucharist, are an important part of being an Anglican. For us, the
Eucharist is daily bread, food for our journey. It is to be celebrated frequently, on all occasions, in
sorrow and in joy.
I find helpful the importance of reason and common sense in Anglican theology. God gave us minds
and expects us to use them. The Anglican Church places a great deal of importance on theological
exploration, and I appreciate this freedom to question and explore. Sometimes this exploration
brings controversy. In the 1960s Bishop John Robinson's book Honest to God explored the
Christian teaching about the nature of God in terms that secular society could understand. In the
1990s Bishop John Spong has written for contemporary men and women a number of provocative
books exploring the Bible and the Christian approach to human sexuality. Both authors have
generated a good deal of debate, in church circles and in the wider world. I value membership in a
church which allows and, in fact, encourages such exploration, and is not threatened by the debate.
"We affirm that the world and human beings are good because they are God's creation."
I also love the encouragement of the life of the imagination. Anglicans find God through art and
music and fiction and poetry as well as through the Bible and theological texts. The great Anglican
writers who shape and are shaped by our distinctive way of doing theology include such people as
George Herbert, C.S. Lewis, William Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot, Madeleine L'Engle, Dorothy Sayers, and
P.D. James. A current interest of mine is using literature in religious education, to encourage the
use of the imagination in exploring Christian faith.
I like the Anglican emphasis on the doctrines of Creation and the Incarnation. We affirm that the
world and human beings are good because they are God's creation. In Jesus Christ, God became
human and shared in our everyday existence. God must value human nature very highly if God is
willing, in Jesus Christ, to "take our nature upon him" as ours prayers say. and if God also raises
that same human nature to new life after Jesus endured suffering and death. We must work to bring
all of humanity to its full potential as God intended, and I rejoice that we do this by loving God and
by being involved in our society to work for change.<\p>
"a young boy tended a flock of small goats and edged nearer to the open windows to hear what was
going on..."
I like the diversity which Anglicanism offers. Within our communion we have a variety of styles of
worship, of theological emphases. Yet we keep also a strong sense of family, of connections, of
links in worship and structure. Through my involvement with international committees of the
Anglican Church, I have had the privilege of worshipping in Anglican churches in many parts of the
world. In a Nigerian village I was escorted into the church by a group of Women's Guild members,
singing and clapping and dancing up the aisle. The service was in the Yoruba language but the
pattern of the liturgy was the same as at home. In Malaysia, in a small frame church on a palm oil
plantation, we sat on benches for the Eucharist. The music was supplied by a guitarist and two small
boys who played a lively beat on the drums. Outside a young boy tended a flock of small goats and
edged nearer to the open windows to hear what was going on.
Everywhere I have travelled there has been a warm welcome for a fellow Anglican, and I have felt at
home as the familiar words and actions of the service unfold. It will be an enriching experience for
you if you can visit these other "family members" when you go to different places.
I invite you to join with me in exploring what the Anglican Church is like and getting to know your
fellow Anglicans or Anglican neighbours.
Patricia Bays, 1996
This is an excerpt from Patricia Bays' book Meet the Family, available from the Anglican Book Centre.
