What it is about Anglican patrimony that gives it distinctiveness? What about it has made the Anglican Church unique, while still a strong, if troubled, member of the Catholic family of churches? The answer for many is, what makes Anglicanism unique is called the “Anglican ethos.” Anglican ethos is a term that refers to how the feel and sense—or “culture”—of Anglican life emerges from our tradition of liturgy, parish life, sacraments and monastic tradition.
Father Thomas Fraser, rector at Saint Paul’s, Riverside (near Chicago) for 40 years, provides the second half of his lecture that addresses those questions in an accessible and authoritative presentation that is 53 minutes long.
In this time of confusion about Anglicanism in England, the United States, and elsewhere, it can be difficult to see what makes us, in a healthy sense, “us.” In addition to the outline begun in Part 1, where he stressed the importance of The Book of Common Prayer as the Anglican Regula, in Part 2 Father Fraser outlines the five basic characteristics of Anglican uniqueness. The characterics are 1. Catholic theology, 2. an Evangelical spirit (that is, the Evangelical Counsels), 3. a Patristic foundation, 4. a Search After Truth and Quality of Life, and 5. Intellectual Openness and Individual Freedom.
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