Last weekend I had the opportunity to worship at Christ Church Cathedral as part of the Flower Festival weekend. As the celebration of the Holy Eucharist came to a close, the presider, the Rt. Rev. George Wayne Smith, Bishop of Missouri, turned to the Most Rev. Daniel Deng Bul Yak, Archbishop of Sudan, and invited him to impart the final blessing on the congregation. The words he used to extend this invitation were something like, “Archbishop, my brother, would you bless us in the language of your birth?”

It was, for me, a powerful moment. The Archbishop spoke in what I am told was Dinka, an African language utterly unfamiliar to me (and, I would guess, to nearly everyone else in the Cathedral). And yet, at the moment when he raised his hand high to begin making the sign of the cross over us, every person in that church knew that we were being blessed “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” and it made no difference to us in what language the words were spoken. This was Anglicanism at its best: generous and welcoming, respectful of both liturgical tradition and cultural difference, joyfully making room at the table for all who feel called to respond to Christ’s invitation to reconciliation, fellowship, and transformation.

It was also a show of mutual respect and Christian charity between an American bishop and an African archbishop, something that news reports about the current state of the Anglican Communion might lead one to think would be impossible.

I bring this up in part because of the recent post on Faith and Cultural Identity by Sherry Tyree. In making the point that any religion that is used primarily to bolster cultural identity is doomed to failure, Ms. Tyree suggests that Anglicanism itself has failed, using the example of the shrinking attendance in the Church of England to support her claim. I would rather not re-fight the battles of the English Reformation by comparing and contrasting the way that politics, culture, and history have shaped both the Church of England and the Roman Catholic church, but I would like to clear up a little confusion that I think crept into the discussion due to her use of the word “Anglicanism.”

While the precipitous decline of church attendance in the United Kingdom (not to mention the decline of the faith in the rest of western Europe, including in countries where Roman Catholicism was the established church), is a sad and complex affair, it does not signal the failure of Anglicanism.

What needs to be made clear is that Anglicanism and the Church of England are not synonymous. This is not in any way intend to belittle the importance of the Church of England, but rather to explain that Anglicanism’s boundaries are not co-terminous with those of the British Isles.

Episcopalians, in the United States and elsewhere, are also Anglicans, both by virtue of our heritage (religious, not ethnic) and by the simple fact of being members of a church that is itself part of the Anglican Communion. The Anglican Communion is comprised of “over 80 million members in 44 regional and national member churches around the globe in over 160 countries,” according to its website. All of us who worship within this tradition are, in some sense, engaging in and with Anglicanism.

Anglicanism faces a number of challenges today. Culture and theology, as well as biblical interpretation and perhaps even in a lesser way national identity are all at play in the conflicts within the Anglican Communion that have become so painfully public these last few years. But all of that is a topic for another time.

I hope to blog more about Anglican theology and what it means to me personally to be Anglican, but in the mean time, if you’re curious about the Episcopal Church you can’t go wrong by taking a look at the Book of Common Prayer, and perhaps even flipping through the catechism it contains. Or, better yet, stop by an Episcopal church this weekend and experience our worship and fellowship for yourself.

More important links:

For a good article on What it Means to be an Anglican

For more on the Archbishop of Sudan’s visit to St. Louis, read Tims Townsend’s article or the article on the Diocese of Missouri’s website

For information on a resolution supporting Sudan’s progress toward peace

Photo is of the Archbishop of Canterbury and others at the dedication and consecration of the Cathedral of St. Matthew of the Diocese of Renk in the Episcopal Church of Sudan.