Compass Rose of the Anglican Communion

Papal Coat of Arms

In many respects, there are no differences between the two churches.  They are both Christian churches, springing from the same ancient source as the Eastern Orthodox churches.  As such, Anglicans and Roman Catholics read the Bible with not only the two Testaments but also the Apocrypha.   Both churches recite the Nicene and Apostles Creeds.  Both administer the Sacraments of Holy Baptism and Confirmation, celebrate the Holy Eucharist or mass, as well as the four other sacramental rites of Penance, Matrimony, Anointing of the Sick, and Holy Orders.  Although rigid requirements for receiving some Sacraments in the Roman Catholic Church, i.e. Confession, exist, they are not widely observed.

Preparation for Ordination

The requirements for college and seminary education are the same for clergy of both churches.  Candidates for Holy Orders are ordained deacon first, then priest, unless they are called to be vocational or permanent deacons. In the Episcopal Church, bishops are elected by Diocesan conventions of the clergy and lay people from among the priests of the whole Church and are consecrated by no fewer than three bishops belonging to a scrupulously conserved line of bishops that reaches back to the earliest churches. (The Apostolic Succession)   Roman Catholic Bishops are appointed by the Vatican; i.e. the Pope, and are not elected.

There are Roman Catholic and Anglican shrines and churches honoring the Virgin Mary. Some Anglicans pray the rosary.  Both churches maintain calendars of saints, with special prayers and readings for their feast days.  Both churches have Religious Orders of men and women, vowed celibates who live in monasteries and convents in community and focus on specific ministries.

Liturgical Similarities

If you visit an Anglican parish (i.e. Episcopal parish) and a Roman Catholic parish, you will observe many similarities.  The central act of worship of both Churches is The Holy Eucharist or mass. Both names for the service, as well as others, are listed in our Book of Common Prayer as appropriate ways in which to refer to the liturgy. The liturgy and Eucharistic Prayers are nearly identical, as are the vestments worn by priests, bishops and assisting lay ministers.  In an Episcopal Eucharist, the elements of bread and wine are consecrated by the priest as the Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ. The Roman Catholic term for this common belief is ‘transubstantiation”  Episcopalians communicants receive the Sacrament in both forms.  Some Roman Catholic churches have just recently adopted this practice.  The very same ‘schedule’ of readings from Holy Scripture, the Lectionary, is used in both Anglican and Roman parishes.  The differences are in the details for the most part.  These differences flow from one central issue:  who is in authority.

Authority in the Churches

The Roman Catholic Church has over the centuries steadily increased the power and control exercised by pope, the Bishop of Rome.  Despite attempts of Vatican II to create local synods at the diocesan and national levels, these Roman Catholic conventions of bishops serve in a purely advisory capacity.  No other body has any authority over the pope.  All church authority flows from him down and outward.

The churches of the Anglican Communion have resolutely sought to disperse that absolute authority among several places.  Each Anglican Church belongs to the Anglican Communion because it is in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury and seeks to uphold the Catholic Faith and reformed order inherited from the Church of England.  The Archbishop of Canterbury has no legal authority outside the Diocese of Canterbury.  He is spiritual leader and symbol of unity for all Anglicans worldwide.

Responsibility of the Laity in Anglican Communion

The laity have real authority at all levels of the Anglican/Episcopal churches.  Anglicans or Episcopalians look to their diocesan bishops and the actions of General Convention to interpret matters of faith and order.  Unlike the Church of Rome, with its unilateral top-down decision-making structure and papal authority, Anglicans/ Episcopalians struggle with the lack of a central teaching voice and often disagree with each other.  Some Anglican churches, such as the Episcopal Church of the United States,  ordain women to all three orders of ministry:  deacon, priest and bishop.  The Church of England ordains women to the diaconate and the priesthood but not to the episcopate.  The Roman Catholic church ordains men only to the orders of deacon, priest and bishop and all are required to remain celibate.

Claims of Papal Authority

Since Roman Catholics tie membership in their church to the person and authority of the pope, they do not allow intercommunion.  They do not recognize the validity of Anglican ordination (orders), and so confirm and re-ordain Anglican converts.  Anglicans on the other hand tend to practice open communion to all baptized Christians, and do not re-confirm or re-ordain Roman Catholic converts, because they recognize Roman Orders as valid.  The difference is being in communion with the pope for Roman Catholics, and for Anglicans, it is adhering to the Catholic faith as it has been inherited from the earliest Christians.  One permanent feature of Anglicanism has been seeking to restore the faith and order of the primitive church.  This is the principle of its reformation, while Rome’s counter-reformation was to restore and enhance the medieval concept of papal authority.

BENEDICT CREATES “ANGLICAN ORDINARIATES” The damage to the relationship between Anglicans and Roman Catholics by recent actions by Pope (Ratzinger) Benedict creating so-called Anglican Ordinariates (see Anglican Communion website) has yet to be examined.  With the exception of very few isolated instances, there has been NO STAMPEDE to ROME by disaffected Episcopalians in the United States.  The Archbishop of Canterbury was informed of Rome’s plan only days before it was announced.  Archbishop Williams was not part of ANY official discussion leading up to the announcement of the “scheme” by the Vatican absorb this tiny minority within our Church.  Not even the “schismatic” element that followed a former bishop of the Episcopal Church, Robert Duncan,   out of the Anglican Communion have opted for Rome.  Christ Church, Guilford is typical of many Episcopal parishes.  Nearly half of the active communicants of Christ Church parish left the Roman Church to celebrate their catholic faith as Episcopalians / Anglicans.

Despite this very recent divisive action by Rome,  documents of the still-ongoing Anglican-Roman Catholic Inter- national Consultation, the ecumenical body devoted to helping the two churches come closer, entitled “The Gift of Authority”, Anglicans are asked to consider the role of the Bishop of Rome, just one of his official titles (the pope) in the life of their church, while Roman Catholics are asked to begin to take seriously the collegiality of synods of bishops called for in Vatican II, where Anglican observers were included with special distinction.   Nevertheless, all Christians need to continue to pray for Christian Unity without having the expectation of local uni

Common Roots-Divergent Paths

Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism are two worldwide communions whose similarities reflect their common roots, and whose differences reflect the divergent paths they took in their reforms.  Both churches use ancient liturgies, presided over by clergy ordained by bishops, themselves consecrated in the scrupulously conserved lineage of the bishops of the ancient church.  Both churches read Bibles that include the Apocrypha.  Both recite the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds as their basic statements of faith.  Rome’s ongoing reformation, begun at the Council of Trent in the 16th century, has aimed to purify and strengthen its catholicism by intensifying the medieval concept of central and infallible papal power and authority.  The ongoing reforms of the Anglican churches has been to uphold the catholic faith and order by dispersing the Pope’s role and authority among the bishops, clergy and laity.  In this sense, Roman Catholics and Anglicans represent opposite attempts to reform and uphold the catholic faith of their common roots.  In other words, the basic distinction between Anglicanism and Romanism for Anglicans is no Pope. This is, of course simplistic.  All Anglicans reject the papacy’s claim to juridical power over them.

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