Anglicans invited to take a Catholic view of Mary.

[BobRyan]

Originally posted by Matt Black:
[QB] Er...Bob, I already had a stab at answering your question, so why are you asking it again - didn't you read my post?

I stand corrected. I completely missed your post Matt. I will respond.

And, no, although the Anglican Communion is episcopal, with the AoC as its hierarchical head, in reality it is much more decentralised than that. In the UK, it tends to be the local vicar and Parochial Church Council who determine the 'flavour' of the church.

My question was more to the point of doctrine. For example can local Anglican congregations define their own doctrines? Is it "acceptable" to have an entirely different set of doctrines at each Anglican church - or is there an expectation that holding to Anglican beliefs makes a statement about what doctrines they accept.

Could a local congregation be "non-trinitarian" for example? And would this be considered "par for the course" within the denomination because after all they are decentralized?? Would they simply lament unpopular beliefs held at the congregational level as "a symptom of our decentralized structure"??

In Christ,

Bob

 

[Ben W]

In Adelaide, you cannot as a non-member of the Anglican Church recieve communion, yet at the Evangelical Anglican churches you can, they are not state run by their association but run from another state from which there diocese is co-ordinated, so although both groups are Anglican, yes they have different leadership.

 

[BobRyan]

Originally posted by BobRyan:

Where are they on the following?

1. The inerrancy of scripture.
2. Is the Genesis "account" of the Creator's act of Crating life on this earth to be trusted as really literally true?
3. Should Christians pray to the dead?
4. Does one have to knowingly accept salvation to be saved - or is there a magic power among priests that can "do that for you" no matter what you may "know" at the time?
5. Since the fall of Adam - are ALL humans procreated as sinners in need of salvation - or are some born "sinless"??
6. Are the "abominations" God defines in Lev 18, (Those HE applies to pagan nations) really wrong for Anglicans to practice - or are they free to engage in abominations that brought judgment on pagan nations?

What would all the various flavors of Anglicanism say to those Bible inquiries?

Originally posted by Matt Black:
At the risk of generalisation, here's what I suspect the three main types of Anglican (A-C=Anglo-Catholic/ high church/ traditionalist/ smells'n'bells, E=evangelical, L=liberal), following your numbered paragraphs:-

Are these actual denominations or simply popular labeling of a single denomination into subgroups??

Matt said --
1. The inerrancy of scripture.
1. E - mainly, yes, although some would not accept inerrancy, they would certainly regard Scripture as trustworthy and of high authority;

So a central structure that defines Anglican teaching as accepting innerrancy??

Matt said

A-C - similar to E except they would place Tradition in the same category; L - no, they would at best subscribe to the 'tripod' of Scripture, Tradition and Reason

So 3 different answers.

Matt said --
2. Is the Genesis "account" of the Creator's act of Crating life on this earth to be trusted as really literally true?


2. Flows from #1 above

How do the 3 answers to #1 "flow" into #2?

Is there a A-C group that teaches Creationism in their Churhces and universities?

Are they in fact all teaching evolutionism??

Matt said --


3. Should Christians pray to the dead?

3. A-C - in some cases; E&L - no

That seems like a big jump. Is there centralized confusion or agreement or is this congregation by congregation.

4. Does one have to knowingly accept salvation to be saved - or is there a magic power among priests that can "do that for you" no matter what you may "know" at the time?

4. E - yes to the former; A-C - yes to the latter; L - neither absolutely, at best a bit of both



5. Since the fall of Adam - are ALL humans procreated as sinners in need of salvation - or are some born "sinless"??

5. E&A-Cs believe in Original Sin; L more woolly on the subject


6. Are the "abominations" God defines in Lev 18, (Those HE applies to pagan nations) really wrong for Anglicans to practice - or are they free to engage in abominations that brought judgment on pagan nations?

6. L - no, not really. E&A-Cs - yes in the main (NB there are a few A-Cs who are also Ls)

THe same question for these differences - are they simply local congregational views - or are there 3 different centralized governing bodies defining the 3 positions?

In Christ,

Bob

 

[Matt Black]

No, there are not three centralising governing bodies. There are various pressure groups within Anglicanism which 'fly the flag' for different flavours of Anglicanism eg: evangelical , A-C and A-C and liberal . In some cases, it is the type of bishop which determines the type of congregations in his diocese. There is a world of difference between say Gene Robinson and Michael Nazir-Ali, but they are part of the same communion and both, in theory at least along with every other ordained Anglican clergyman, subscribes to the 39 Articles.

To answer another of your questions, those who accept inerrancy would tend also to go along with a literalist interpretation og Gen 1&2. That phenomenon is of course not confined to Anglicanism

Yours in Christ

Matt

NB - note to mods - please check out those links and see if they pass BB muster!