Reformed Living

The Church in England was established before 300 AD.  References are made to it in historically reliable writings in the 3rd and 4th Centuries. There are theories and stories about the Apostles or Joseph of Arimathea or missionaries from Greece or Turkey or Roman soldiers bringing the Gospel to the British Isles.  Members were the original Britons as well as Celts, Saxons and Angles from Germany .  The rather scattered Church was organized and came under the authority of the Pope by the end of the 6th Century.  It remained Roman Catholic for almost 1000 years until King Henry VIII in the 16th Century managed to have it severed from Papal authority in 1534. But the "Church of England" did not begin with Henry  and his famous pursuit of a divorce in order to have the required male heir to the Throne.

A true Church is any group of people who confess faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and regularly assemble in His Name to worship God and to hear the Gospel preached and the Scripture expounded.  They are Baptized and observe the Lord’s Supper.  This is a minimalist definition- the basic Essentials of a true Church.

A complete Church would be organized under the leadership of a 3-fold ordained Ministry (Bishop, Priest, Deacon) in historic continuity with the ancient Church. Its Doctrine would be Apostolic and Creedal; its Worship Liturgical and its Ordinances (Baptism and Lord’s Supper) sacramental. This describes a classic Anglican Church.

The Catholic and Reformed Church (an Anglican Church) has historic continuity with the Church of England and the Archbishop of Canterbury and through that it has continuity to the Church in England and those who brought the Faith of the Early Church to the British Isles by the 3rd C

The true, complete, Catholic and Reformed Anglican Church has Liturgical and Eucharistic (Sacramental) Worship according to a Book of Common Prayer which is faithful to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and the Doctrine of the 16th C Protestant Reformation (as stated in its 39 Articles of Religion)

Does the Episcopal Church have a fundamental Faith and core Doctrine?  Where is it found?  The common answer to that question is given by Bishop Nathan Baxter of the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania.  Dr Baxter is a a major, respected Leader in TEC, having been Dean of the National Cathedral in DC and Rector of influential parishes.  He is highly educated and has several advanced academic and professional degrees. He should know the answer to this question.

Bishop Baxter's answer is found in his letter to his Diocese explaining why he is not voting to approve a Bishop-elect for the Diocese of Northern Michigan, Rev Thew Forrester.  The Bishop-elect considers himself to ba a Buddhist as well as a Christian and has apparently introduced major changes  in the Liturgies he uses in his current Parish which show the influences of his personal faith and are at odds with the Liturgies of the current BCP.  That letter is found here

http://www.diocesecpa.org/news.cfm 

I have excerpted Dr Baxter's answer:

Trinity School for Ministry (once the Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, TESM is now known as an “evangelical Seminary in the Anglican tradition“) recently ran an article in its school magazine, Seed & Harvest (January-February 2009) entitled “Ancient Wisdom-Anglican Futures“.  The Protestant or Reformed Church of England began with a Vision expressed here by Thomas Cranmer [no it did not begin with the desire for a divorce by Henry the 8th].

We are desirous of setting forth in our churches
the true doctrine of God, and have no wish to
adapt it to all tastes, or to deal in ambiguities;
but, laying aside all carnal considerations, to
transmit to posterity a true and explicit form of
doctrine agreeable to the rule of the sacred writings;
so that there may not only be set forth
among all nations an illustrious testimony respecting
our doctrine, delivered by the grave
authority of learned and godly men, but that all
posterity may have a pattern to imitate.

         ~Thomas Cranmer, 4 July 1548