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Anglican Communion

Anglican Communion

; in the center is a cross of St. George recalling the communion's origins in the Church of England. The Greek motto, Ἡ ἀλήθεια ἐλευθερώσει ὑμᾶς ("The truth will set you free") is a quotation from John 8:31.]] The Anglican Communion is a world-wide organization of Anglican Churches. There is no single "Anglican Church" since each national or regional church has full autonomy; as the name suggests, rather, the Anglican Communion is an association of these churches in full communion with each other and particularly with the Church of England, which may be regarded as the "mother church" of the worldwide communion. For membership, see the box at the bottom of this page. As a result, all rites conducted in one member church are to be recognized by the others. Some of these churches are known as Anglican, explicity recognizing the link to England; others prefer a less specific name. Each church has its own doctrine and liturgy, based in most cases on that of the Church of England; and each church has its own legislative process and overall episcopal leadership from a local primate. The Archbishop of Canterbury, religious head of the Church of England, has no formal authority outside that country; but is recognized as a symbolic head for the worldwide communion. Among the other primates, he is primus inter pares, or "first among equals." If the Archbishop of Canterbury is compared with other religious leaders such as the Pope, therefore, it is only because of his prominent figurehead role in the media. Some non-Anglican churches have entered into full communion with the Anglican Communion and are treated as members despite having non-Anglican origins and traditions. There are also a number of Anglican bodies which separated from a member church of the Anglican Communion and are no longer in communion with the Church of England. They are usually known as "continuing churches."

What holds the Communion together?

The Anglican Communion has no official legal existence nor any formal governing structure. (There is an "Anglican Communion Office" in London, under the aegis of the Archbishop of Canterbury; but it serves merely a supporting and organizational role.) Some have asked what holds the communion together. The first attempt at an answer was the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral of 1888. Proposed by the American Episcopal Church in 1886 and adopted by the Lambeth Conference of 1888, it set out four principles for future Christian unity. Although wider union has not followed, the quadrilateral has been useful within the communion itself. The quadrilateral, according to the wording adopted in Lambeth ([http://anglicansonline.org/basics/Chicago_Lambeth.html]), consists of: # "The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as 'containing all things necessary to salvation', and as being the rule and ultimate standard of faith." # "The Apostles' Creed, as the Baptismal Symbol; and the Nicene Creed, as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith." # "The two Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself--Baptism and the Supper of the Lord--ministered with unfailing use of Christ's words of Institution, and of the elements ordained by Him." # "The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the Unity of His Church." This, then, is the theoretical basis for unity. But what holds it together organizationally? In the last few years people have began to refer to four "Instruments of Unity", which are effectively symbols to which all the churches of the communion can feel tied. In order of antiquity, they are:
- The Archbishop of Canterbury (ab origine)
- The Lambeth Conference (first held in 1867)
- The Anglican Consultative Council (first met in 1971)
- The Primates' Meeting (first met in 1979) Since each province is legally independent and free to chart its own course, the stress on these instruments of unity can easily be imagined. In recent years, for example, some Anglicans (particularly in Africa and Asia) have been displeased with the American and Canadian branches, upset by their welcoming attitudes towards homosexuals, and by the confident way the changes have been made — the conservatives condemmed the action as unilateral and called for wider consultation within the communion before such steps were taken. After the North American churches reaffirmed their belief that their actions had been righteous and "prophetic", they were asked to withdraw their delegates from the 2005 meeting of the Anglican Consultive Council. They were permitted at the meeting with voice, but no vote. But they have not been expelled or even suspended from the communion; indeed, no church ever has. It is unclear, moreoever, how such an expulsion could ever be carried out, since the communion is such a theoretical construct.

History

Main article: see History of the Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is a relatively recent concept. Ever since the Church of England (which until the 20th century included the Church in Wales) broke from Rome in the reign of Henry VIII, it has thought of itself not as a new foundation but rather as a reformed continuation of the ancient "English church" and a reassertion of that church's rights. As such it was a distinctly local phenomenon. Thus the only members of the present Anglican Communion existing by the late 18th century were the Church of England, its closely-linked sister church, the Church of Ireland (which also broke from Rome under Henry VIII), and the Scottish Episcopal Church, which for parts of the 17th and 18th centuries was partially underground (it was suspected of Jacobite sympathies). However, the enormous expansion in the 18th and 19th centuries of the British Empire brought the church along with it. At first all these colonial churches were under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London. After the American Revolution, the parishes in the newly independent country found it necessary to break formally from a church whose earthly head was (and remains) the British monarch. Thus they formed their own dioceses and national church, the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, in a mostly amicable separation. At about the same time, in the colonies which remained linked to the crown, the Church of England began to appoint colonial bishops. In 1787 a bishop of Nova Scotia was appointed with a jurisdiction over all of British North America; in time several more colleagues were appointed to other cities in present-day Canada. In 1814 a bishop of Calcutta was made; in 1824 the first bishop was sent to the West Indies and in 1836 to Australia. By 1840 there were still only ten colonial bishops for the Church of England; but even this small beginning greatly facilitated the growth of Anglicanism around the world. In 1841 a "Colonial Bishoprics Council" was set up and soon many more dioceses were created. In time, it became natural to group these into provinces, and a metropolitan appointed for each province. Although it had at first been somewhat established in many colonies, in 1861 it was ruled that, except where specifically established, the Church of England had just the same legal position as any other church. Thus a colonial bishop and colonial diocese was by nature quite a different thing from their counterparts back home. In time bishops came to be appointed locally rather than from England, and eventually national synods began to pass ecclesiastical legislation independent of England. A crucial step in the development of the modern communion was the idea of the Lambeth Conferences. In 1867, at the suggestion of the Canadian synod, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Thomas Langley, invited a great conference of bishops to meet with him at Lambeth Palace. By inviting the bishops of the Churches of England and Ireland, those of the semi-autonomous colonial churches, and those of the fully autonomous Episcopal Church in the United States of America, he set a precedent that they all could meet together despite the absence of universal legal ties. Some bishops were initially reluctant to attend, fearing that the meeting would declare itself a council with power to legislate for the church; but it agreed to pass only advisory resolutions. These Lambeth Conferences have been held decennially since 1878 (the second such conference), and remain the most visible coming-together of the whole communion.

Recent controversies

Recent disagreements over homosexuality have strained the unity of the communion as well as its relationships with other Christian denominations; see Anglican views of homosexuality.

Relationship with the Roman Catholic Church

Efforts have been underway at least since 1966 to effect a reconciliation with the Roman Catholic Church, focusing on theological issues [http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/angl-comm-docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_19660324_paul-vi-ramsey_en.html] and ways "to further the convergence on authority in the Church. Without agreement in this area we shall not reach the full visible unity to which we are both committed." [http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/angl-comm-docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_19961205_jp-ii-carey_en.html]

External links

- [http://www.anglicancommunion.org/ Official website]
- [http://anglican.org/church/NoCentral.html Decentralised nature of worldwide Anglicanism]
- [http://www.gshep.org/information/vocabulary.htm Comprehensive Anglican vocabulary]
- [http://www.anglican.tk/ the conservative Classical Anglican Net News website]
- [http://www.anglicanchurchofindia.org Anglican Church of India]
- [http://www.anglicansonline.org/ Anglicans Online] Category:Anglicanism Category:Christian group structuring ja:アングリカン・コミュニオン

St George's Cross

The St George's cross, a red cross on a white background, is the national flag of England and was adopted for the uniform of English soldiers during the military expeditions by European powers to recapture the Holy Land from Muslims (Crusades of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries), and on or about 1277 it officially became the national flag of England. After England joined with Scotland by the Act of Union 1707 a Union Flag was created which was used for all national matters, but the flag of England (as opposed to the United Kingdom) remains St George's Cross, and continues to be used when showing allegiance to England alone — primarily nowadays at events such as international football and rugby competitions, in particular the 2003 World Cup, where the English Rugby Union Side were crowned World Champions. Saint George is the patron saint of England, and various other countries and regions. The St George Cross is also the symbol of Milan, Genoa, Freiburg and Montreal; and used, for example, in the [http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escut_de_Barcelona flag of the city of Barcelona] in Spain, and it appears on the flag of Georgia. The Lega Nord, a popular Italian political party campaigning for the independence of Northern Italy, also uses the St George Cross as an official symbol. The flag of St George is also the rank flag of an Admiral in the Royal Navy, and civilian craft are forbidden to fly it. However, ships which took part in the rescue operation at Dunkirk during World War II are allowed to fly it as a jack. St George's flag is not to be confused with the flag of the Red Cross. The flag of St George has a red cross which reaches from edge to edge of the flag. The flag of the red cross, like the Swiss flag, has a cross which does not reach the edges. St George's Cross should not be confused with the Cross of St. George, a military distinction in Russia, and a civil distinction – the highest honour – in Catalonia.

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, and acts as the 'mother' and senior branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, as well as a founding member of the Porvoo Communion. Porvoo Communions, many with histories stretching back centuries.]]

Theology and sociology

The Church of England considers itself to stand both in a reformed tradition and in a catholic (but not Roman Catholic) church tradition: Reformed insofar as many of the principles of the Protestant Reformation have influenced it, and insofar as it does not accept Papal authority; Catholic, in that it views itself as the 'unbroken continuation of the early apostolic and later medieval' "universal church", rather than as a 'new formation'. In its practices, furthermore, the Church of England remains closer to Roman Catholicism than most Protestant Churches. It holds many relatively conservative theological beliefs, its liturgical form of worship can feature tradition and ceremony, and its organisation embodies a belief in apostolic succession through the historical episcopal hierarchy of archbishops, bishops, and dioceses. In many people's eyes, however, the Church of England has as its primary distinguishing mark its breadth and 'open-mindedness'. In addition to the traditional mainstream, the church has long included "high church" and "low church" factions with their own particular preferences. Today, practices range from those of the Anglo-Catholics, who emphasise liturgy and sacraments, to the far less ceremonial services of Evangelicals and Charismatics. But this "broad church" faces various contentious doctrinal questions raised by the development of modern society, such as conflicts over the ordination of women as priests (accepted in 1992 and begun in 1994), and the status of noncelibate homosexual clergy (still unsettled today). In July 2005, the divisions were once again apparent, as the General Synod voted to "set in train" the process of allowing the ordination of women as bishops, scheduling debate on the specific legislation for February, 2006.

Governance and administration

The British monarch (at present, Elizabeth II), has the constitutional title of "Supreme Governor of the Church of England". In practice, however, the effective leadership falls to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The worldwide Anglican Communion of independent national or regional churches recognises the Archbishop of Canterbury as a kind of 'symbolic' leader. Dr Rowan Douglas Williams has served as Archbishop of Canterbury since 2002. The Church of England has a legislative body, the General Synod. However, fundamental legislation still has to pass through the UK Parliament. The church has its own judicial branch, known as the Ecclesiastical courts, which likewise form a part of the UK court system. In addition to England proper, the jurisdiction of the Church of England extends to the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. In recent years, expatriate congregations on the continent of Europe have become the Diocese in Europe.

History

Main article: History of the Church of England The Church of England traces its formal corporate history from the 597 Augustinian mission, stresses its continuity and identity with the primitive universal Western church, and notes the consolidation of its particular independent and national character in the post-Reformation events of Tudor England. Christianity arrived in Britain in the first or second centuries (probably via the tin trade route through Ireland and Spain), and existed independently of the Church of Rome, as did many other Christian communities of that era. Records note British bishops as attending the Council of Arles in 314. The Pope sent Saint Augustine from Rome in the 6th century to evangelise the Angles in (597). With the help of Christians already residing in Kent, he established his church in Canterbury, the capital of Kent, and became the first in the series of archbishops of Canterbury. Simultaneously, the Celtic Church of St.Columba continued to evangelise Scotland. The Celtic Church of North Britain submitted in some sense to the 'authority' of Rome at the Council of Whitby in 644. Over the next few centuries, the Roman system introduced by Augustine gradually absorbed the pre-existing Celtic Christian churches. England remained a Roman Catholic country for nearly a thousand years, but then the church separated itself from Rome in 1534, during the reign of King Henry VIII, though it briefly rejoined Rome during the reign of Queen Mary I, in 1555. Since that time, England has been known as a 'stronghold' of Protestantism, and of world-wide Christian evangelism, eventually being eclipsed in these activities during the twentieth century by one of her former colonies, the United States.

Related churches

In Scotland, the Church of Scotland is recognised in law (Church of Scotland Act 1921) as the "national church", but since 1929 it has not been "established" in the same manner as the Church of England. In particular, the state 'recognises' the independence of the Church of Scotland in matters spiritual, thus no ministers are appointed by the Crown or the State. The Church of Scotland has a Presbyterian system of government. A smaller Anglican church also exists in Scotland, known as the Scottish Episcopal Church, which is in full communion with the Church of England. The Church in Wales underwent disestablishment in 1920, and became an independent member of the Anglican Communion. The Church of Ireland had official established church status in Ireland until 1871, although the bulk of the Irish people in practice remained mostly Roman Catholic. The Church of England stands in full communion with the other churches in the Anglican Communion, and separately with the other signatories of the Porvoo Communion. The Church of England is also a full member of the Conference of European Churches.

Financial situation

The Church of England, although an established church, does not receive any direct government support. Donations comprise its largest source of income, though it also relies heavily on the income from its various historic endowments. As of 2005, the Church of England had estimated total [http://www.cofe.anglican.org/info/funding/ outgoings] of around £900 million. Historically, individual parishes both raised and spent the vast majority of the Church's funding, meaning that clergy pay depended on the wealth of the parish, and parish advowsons (the right to appoint clergy to particular parishes) could become extremely valuable gifts. Individual dioceses also held considerable assets: the Diocese of Durham possessed such vast wealth and temporal power that its Bishop became known as the 'Prince-Bishop'. Since the mid-19th century, however, the Church has made various moves to 'equalise' the situation, and clergy within each diocese now receive standard stipends paid from diocesan funds. Meanwhile, the Church moved the majority of its income-generating assets (which in the past included a great deal of land, but today mostly take the form of financial stocks and bonds) out of the hands of individual clergy and bishops to the care of a body called the Church Commissioners, which uses these funds to pay a range of non-parish expenses, including clergy pensions, and the expenses of cathedrals and bishops' houses. These [http://www.cofe.anglican.org/about/churchcommissioners/annualreport/ funds] amount to around £3.9 billion, and generate income of around £164 million each year (as of 2003), around a fifth of the Church's overall income. The Church Commissioners give some of this money as 'grants' to local parishes; but the majority of the financial burden of church upkeep and the work of local parishes still rests with individual parish and diocese, which meet their requirements from donations. Direct donations to the church (not including legacies) come to around £460 million per year, while parish and diocese reserve funds generate another £100 million. Funds raised in individual parishes account for almost all of this money, and the majority of it remains in the parish which raises it, meaning that the resources available to parishes still vary enormously, according to the level of donations they can raise. Most parishes give a portion of their money, however, to the diocese as a 'quota'. While this is not a compulsory payment, dioceses strongly encourage and rely on it being paid; it is usually only withheld by parishes either if are unable to find the funds or as a specific act of protest. As well as paying central diocesan expenses such as the running of diocesan offices, these diocesan funds also provide clergy pay and housing expenses (which total around £260 million per year across all dioceses), meaning that clergy living conditions no longer depend on parish-specific fundraising. Although asset-rich, the Church of England has to look after and maintain its thousands of churches nationwide — the lion's share of England's built heritage. As current congregation numbers stand at relatively low levels and as maintenance bills increase as the buildings grow older, many of these churches cannot maintain economic self-sufficiency; but their historical and architectural importance make it difficult to sell them. In recent years, cathedrals and other famous churches have met some of their maintenance costs with grants from organisations such as English Heritage; but the Church Commissioners and [http://www.churchcare.co.uk/fundraising.html local fundraisers] must foot the bill entirely in the case of most small parish churches. (The government, however, does provide some assistance in the form of tax breaks, for example a 100 percent VAT refund for renovations to religious buildings.) In addition to consecrated buildings, the Church also controls numerous ancillary buildings attached to or associated with churches, including a good deal of clergy housing. As well as vicarages and rectories, this housing includes residences (called 'palaces') for each of the Church's 114 bishops. In some cases, this name seems entirely apt; buildings such as Archbishop of Canterbury's Lambeth Palace in London and Old Palace at Canterbury have truly palatial dimensions, while the Bishop of Durham's Auckland Palace has 50 rooms, a banqueting hall and 30 acres (120,000 m²) of parkland. However, many bishops have found the older palaces inappropriate for today's lifestyles, and some bishops' 'palaces' are simply ordinary 4-bedroomed houses. Many dioceses which have retained large palaces now employ part of the space as administrative offices, while the bishops and their families live in a small apartment within the palace; and in recent years some dioceses have managed to put their palaces' excess space and grandeur to profitable use as conference centres. The size of the bishops' households has also shrunk dramatically and their budgets for entertaining and servants form a tiny fraction of their pre-20th-century levels.

External link

- [http://www.cofe.anglican.org/ Church of England website] ja:イギリス国教会 Category:Church of England Category:Religion in the United Kingdom Category:State churches (Christian)

Gospel of John

The Gospel of John is the fourth gospel in the sequence of the canon as printed in the New Testament, and scholars agree it was the fourth to be written. Like the other three gospels, it contains an account of the life of Jesus. The Church Fathers believed only The Gospel of John and The Gospel of Matthew to be written by apostles of Jesus. The Gospel of John is the most divergent of the four. While the "beloved disciple," who is traditionally identified as John the Apostle, has previously been regarded as the author, this is now disputed among scholars of the "Higher Criticism" based on historical context and close textual analysis.

Authorship and date

Main article: Authorship of the Johannine works Though John is agreed scholars place the gospel anywhere between AD 65 and 85, some scholars place the writing of the final edition of John later in the first or early second century. The text itself states only that the Fourth Gospel was written by an anonymous follower of Jesus referred to as the Beloved Disciple. Traditionally he was identified as John the Apostle, who was believed to have lived at the end of his life at Ephesus. The dating is important since John is agreed to be the last of the canonical Gospels to have been written and thus marks the end date of their composition. Scholarly research since the 19th century has questioned the apostle John's authorship, however, and has presented internal evidence that the work was written many decades after the events it describes. The text provides strong evidence that it was written after the destruction of the Temple in AD 70 and after the break between Christian Jews and Pauline Christianity. F.C. Baur asserted a date as late as 160. Today, most critical scholars are of the opinion that John was composed in stages (probably two or three), beginning at an unknown time (50-70?) and culminating in the final edition (Gospel of John) around 95-100. This final date is assumed in large part because John 21, the so-called "appendix" to John, is largely concerned with explaining the death of the "beloved disciple," probably the leader of the Johannine community that produced the gospel. If this leader had been a follower of Jesus, or a disciple of one of Jesus' followers, then a death around 90-100 is expected. This claim has been rejected by conservative scholars. Like the other gospels according to critical scholars, John was certainly based on previous texts that are now lost. The contemporary scholar of the Johannine community Raymond E. Brown identifies three layers of text in the Fourth Gospel (a situation that is paralleled by the synoptic gospels): an initial version Brown considers based on personal experience of Jesus, a structured literary creation by "the evangelist," which draws upon other sources, and the edited version that readers know today (Brown 1979). A fragmentary scrap of papyrus discovered in Egypt in 1920, now at the John Rylands Library, Manchester, accession number P52 (see link below), bears parts of John 18:31 - 33 on one side and 18:37 - 38 on the other. If it has been correctly dated in the first half of the second century (by C. F. Roberts), it ranks as the earliest known fragment of the New Testament in any language. Fuller details are at the entry on the Rylands Library Papyrus P52. Skepticism about the date (not about the fragment's authenticity) is based on two issues. First, no other scrap of Greek has ever been so narrowly dated based on the handwriting alone, without the support of textual evidence. Second, this fragment is not of a scroll but from a codex; a book not a roll. If it dates to the first half of the second century, this fragment would be an uncharacteristically early example of a codex, the form that superseded the scroll. Since this fragment is small—about nine by five centimeters— it is uncertain whether it comes from a full copy of the John that we know. Nevertheless, while some experts in paleography have objected to the dating, it is agreed that this piece of papyrus is the earliest text for any portion of the New Testament. Its closest rival in date is the Egerton Gospel, a mid-second-century fragment of a codex that records a gospel not identical to any of the canonical four, but which has closer parallels with John than with the synoptic gospels. Thus the Egerton Gospel may represent a less-developed example of the same tradition (though in a slightly later example). Brent Nongbri writes in the conclusion to the essay "The Use and Abuse of P52: Papyrological Pitfalls in the Dating of the Fourth Gospel" (Harvard Theological Review 98 [2005], page 48): "What emerges from this survey is nothing surprising to papyrologists: paleography is not the most effective method for dating texts, particularly those written in a literary hand. Roberts himself noted this point in his edition of P52. The real problem is the way scholars of the New Testament have used and abused papyrological evidence. I have not radically revised Roberts's work. I have not provided any third-century documentary papyri that are absolute "dead ringers" for the handwriting of P52, and even had I done so, that would not force us to date P52 at some exact point in the third century. Paleographic evidence does not work that way. What I have done is to show that any serious consideration of the window of possible dates for P52 must include dates in the later second and early third centuries. Thus, P52 cannot be used as evidence to silence other debates about the existence (or non-existence) of the Gospel of John in the first half of the second century. Only a papyrus containing an explicit date or one found in a clear archaeological stratigraphic context could do the work scholars want P52 to do. As it stands now, the papyrological evidence should take a second place to other forms of evidence in addressing debates about the dating of the Fourth Gospel." There are other theories of authorship. One of the most dramatic is the claim by Ramon K. Jusino that John was written by Mary Magdalene. [http://www.beloveddisciple.org/ "Mary Magdalene, author of the Fourth Gospel?'], 1998, available on-line.

Sources

A hypothesis elaborated by German bibilical scholar Rudolf Bultmann in Das Evangelium des Johannes, 1941 (translated as The Gospel of John: A Commentary, 1971), suggested that the author of John depended in part on an oral miracles tradition or a written manuscript of Christ's miracles that was independent of the synoptic gospels, whose authors did not use it. This has been labelled a "Signs Gospel" and alleged to have been circulating before AD 70: evidently it is lost. Even readers who doubt that such a document can be precisely identified have noticed the remnants of a numbering associated with some of the miracles that appear in the canonical Gospel of John. Textual critics have noted that, of the miracles that are mentioned only by John, all of them occur before John 12:37; that these "signs" are unusually dramatic; and that these "signs" (semeia is uniquely John's expression) are accomplished in order to call forth faith. These miracles are different, not only from the rest of the "signs" in John, but also from all of the miracles in the three synoptic gospels, which according to this interpretation occur as a result of faith. These characteristics may be independently assessed by a reader who returns to the text. One conclusion is that John was reinterpreting an early Hellenistic tradition of Jesus as a wonder-worker, the "magician" that would fit within the Hellenistic world view. These ideas were so hotly denied that heresy proceedings were instituted against Bultmann and his writings. (See more detailed discussions linked below.) Further arguments that Jesus is also known as a "Divine Man, Wonder-worker (One who is favored by the Gods), or even a Sorcerer" in the late 3rd and 4th centuries have also been given as an interpretation of the art portraying Jesus with a magic wand. Since this art exists only in the western part of the Roman Empire, it has been suggested this is a tie to Arianism. Peter is the only apostle, portrayed in early Christian art, who also carries a wand. These wands are thought to be symbols of power. This art, since its discovery, has not been kept in secret by the Catholic church.

Handling of source material

It is notable that the Gospel's opening prologue in John 1:1-18 consciously echoes the opening motif of the book of Genesis (Hebrew Bible). Beyond this clear emphasis, there has been much debate over the centuries as to the origin of the theological background of the prologue: is it a formula of Hellenistic rhetoric, traditional Jewish wisdom, or some type of Qumran-like Dead Sea scrolls metaphysic? By the beginning of the 21st century, the pendulum of scholarly opinion has swung back to a traditional Jewish background for the prologue. While Genesis 1 focuses on God's creation of the world, John 1 focuses on the Word (or Logos in the Greek) and all that the Word accomplished by coming into the world. The Johannine gospel identifies the Logos as Jesus. This internal contrast and comparison implies that John is in effect stating that Jesus is the Second Adam as described by Paul of Tarsus, the apostle. Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:45 states the First Adam of Genesis as a man who became "a living being", while the Second Adam (Jesus) is "a lifegiving spirit." Apparently with Paul's previously distributed epistle in mind, John aims not only to show Jesus as the Son of God but also to confound the Jews by superseding the incipit of their earliest historical book.

Structure

After the prologue (1:1-5), the narrative of this gospel begins with verse 6, and consists of two parts. The first part (1:6-ch. 12) contains the story of Jesus' public ministry from the time of his baptismal initiation by John the Baptist to its close. The second part (ch. 13-21) presents Jesus in the retirement of private life and in his dialog with his immediate followers (13-17), and gives an account of his sufferings and crucifixion and of his appearances to the disciples after his resurrection (18-20). Chapter 21, the "appendix" recounting the death of the "beloved disciple," follows. The Gospel of John is easily distinguished from the three Synoptic Gospels, which share a more considerable amount of text and describe much more of Jesus' life. By contrast, the specific peculiarities of John are notable, especially in their effect on modern Christianity. John gives far more focus in his work to the mystical relation of the Son to the Father. As a Gospel writer, he essentially developed the concept of the Trinity while the Synoptic Gospels had focused less directly on Jesus as the Son of God. John makes far more direct claims of Jesus being the only Son of God in favour of Jesus as the Son of Man. The gospel also focuses on the relation of the Redeemer to believers, the announcement of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter (Greek Paraclete), and the prominence of love as an element in the Christian character.

Popular Passages in the Gospel

John 3:16 is one of the most widely known passages in the New Testament: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. According to the professional men's and Bible distribution society Gideons International, John 3:16 has been translated into more than 1,100 languages.

Characteristics of the Gospel of John

The Greek of this gospel is elegant, and its theology subtle and sophisticated, with many parallels in Hellenistic thought. Some of the passages in this book are alleged to be anti-Semitic, mainly due to the emphasis placed on the responsibility of the Jews (especially the Jewish leaders in Judea) for the Crucifixion. The Gospel uses the term "the Jews" to categorize some of Jesus' detractors. However, it is important to remember that the author was most likely Jewish himself, speaking to a largely Jewish community, and therefore we must be careful applying a 21st century language lens on a 1st century expression. Nonetheless, these passages were appropriated and used in negative ways by some Christian groups in certain periods of history to persecute Jewish people, being quoted to justify odium theologicum. Other critics read this shift of emphasis to the Jewish public enemies of the Roman imperium and away from the Roman authorities, who actually carried out the execution, as a technique of rendering a developing Christianity more palatable in official circles. It is because of this that some politically-correct English translations (like the controversial Today's New International Version) remove the term "Jews" and replace them with non-offensive terms so as to remove alleged anti-Semitism. Critics of these translations state that when John uses "Jews," he is not referring to all Jews (as John, Jesus and his disciples were all Jews) but to the Jewish leaders (the Sanhedrin) in Judea who openly oppose Jesus. These same critics argued that those people who believe that the Gospel of John is "anti-Semitic" failed to understand how the term "Jews" is actually used. Unlike the synoptic Gospels, elements of Gnosticism have been recognized by some readers in the Gospel of John though it is not generally regarded as a "Gnostic gospel". In order to find passages that refute Gnosticism—by stating that Christ is approachable even as Spirit—readers must turn instead to the First Epistle of John, in passages such as 1 Jn 2:1-2; 3:8,16 and 4:2,3. The earliest copies of the Gospel of John are also from Gnostic sources that include overtly Gnostic writings, implying that John was read by Gnostic groups. One school of interpretation distinguishes between "Johannine Christianity" and "Pauline Christianity". The gnosis in Gnosticism is secret information that is available only to initiates. In the Gnostic view, salvation comes through "knowledge" that Jesus is the Christ -- those who understand his true nature are saved, those who don't "stand condemned already." Though John is not a "secret" gospel—as other surviving apocryphal ("secret") gospels and fragments claim to be—the narrative is interrupted at an important turn of events just before the Crucifixion, for nearly five chapters (John 13–18) of private discourse and teachings that Jesus shares only with the disciples, the "farewell discourses", which are without parallel in the synoptic gospels, in their present version (but compare the Secret Gospel of Mark).

Other characteristics unique to John

- The Apostle Thomas is given a personality beyond a mere name, as "Doubting Thomas" (20:27 etc).
- Jesus refers to himself with metaphoric "I am" saying seven times (6:35) (8:12) (10:9) (10:11) (11:25) (14:6) (15:1)
- Two "signs" are numbered (2:11) (4:54)
- There are no stories about Satan, demons or exorcisms, no predictions of end times, no Sermon on the Mount, and no ethical or apocalyptic teachings.
- The hourly time is given: Greek text: about the tenth hour, translated as "four o'clock in the afternoon" [first hour is 6 AM, sundial time] (1:39)
- When the water at the pool of Bethsaida is moved by an angel it heals (5:3-4)
- Jesus says he is not going to the festival. However, after his brothers had gone, he too goes, but in secret for not all to see (7:8-10)
- According to the New American Bible, Catholic Book Publishing Co., New York, 1970, the story of the adultress (8:1-11) is missing from the best early Greek manuscripts. When it does appear it is at different places: here, after (7:36) or at the end of this gospel. It can also be found at Luke 21:38.
- Jesus washes the disciples' feet (13:3-16)
- No other women are mentioned going to the tomb with Mary Magdalene. She seems to be alone. (20:1)
- Mary Magdalene visits the empty tomb twice. She believes Jesus' body has been stolen. The second time she sees two angels. They do not tell her Jesus is risen. They only ask why she is crying. Mary mistakes Jesus for the gardener. He tells Mary not to touch (or cling to) him. (20:1-18) Christ, as our high priest, had to apply his own blood on the mercy seat in heaven (Hebrews 9:12). In the great "blood atonement chapter" of the Bible, Leviticus 16, we read in verse 7 that the high priest had to be alone in the tabernacle until he had made an atonement for the sins of the people. That Christ had fulfilled this duty is evident: That very evening, in the same chapter (20:28), Jesus asks Thomas to touch him and to place his fingers and hand in Jesus' still open wounds. At the sight of Jesus, Thomas gives an exclamation of faith but if he follows Jesus' direction, it is not explicit in the text.
- Some of the brethren thought the "disciple whom Jesus loved" would not die, and an explanation is given for his death. (21:23)
- The "disciple whom Jesus loved" wrote down things he had witnessed, and his testimony is asserted by a third party to be true (21:24)
- The beloved disciple (traditionally believed to be the Apostle John) is never named.

Chapters

- John 1
- John 2
- John 3
- John 4
- John 5
- John 6
- John 7

- John 8
- John 9
- John 10
- John 11
- John 12
- John 13
- John 14

- John 15
- John 16
- John 17
- John 18
- John 19
- John 20
- John 21

References

- Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John Anchor Bible, 1966, 1970
- Raymond E. Brown, The Community of the Beloved Disciple Paulist Press, 1979
- Robin M. Jensen, The Two Faces of Jesus, Bible Review Oct 2002, p42
- J.H. Bernard & A.H. McNeile, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary On The Gospel According To St. John. Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark, 1953.

External links

Online translations of the Gospel of John:
-
- [http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/egerton.html The Egerton Gospel:] text. Compare it with Gospel of John Related articles:
- [http://www-user.uni-bremen.de/~wie/TCG/TC-John.pdf A textual commentary on the Gospel of John] Detailed textcritical discussion of the 300 most important variants of the Greek text (PDF, 376 pages)
- [http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/signs.html "Signs Gospel"]. a hypothetical written source for miracles in the Gospel of John: discussion
- [http://rylibweb.man.ac.uk/data1/dg/text/fragment.htm Papyrus fragment of John at the John Rylands Library;] illustrated.
- [http://www.kchanson.com/ANCDOCS/greek/johnpap.html John Rylands papyrus:] text, translation, illustration and a bibliography of the discussion
John John ko:요한 복음서 ja:ヨハネによる福音書

Anglican

The term Anglican (from the "Angles" meaning English) describes the people and churches that follow the religious traditions developed by the established Church of England. The Anglican Communion codifies the Anglican relationship to the Church of England as a theologically broad and often diverging community of churches, which holds the English church as its mother institution. Adherents of Anglicanism worldwide number around 70 million. The issue of Catholic and Protestant affiliation is often confusing. Whilst many Anglicans regard themselves as being within the Protestant tradition, many other Anglicans, especially Anglo-Catholics, do not consider themselves as being Protestants. The Church of England claims explicitly that the Church "upholds the catholic faith" (however, the Athanasian Creed states "And the catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; Neither confounding the persons, nor dividing the substance." The phrase "catholic church" by definition means the universal Christian Church but also holds the sense of the "church in its fullness" ). Ultimately, the Anglican Church is both catholic (stressing its continuity with the ancient Church), and Reformed / Protestant (noting that the Church does not accept the universal infallible authority of the Pope). The conduct of eucharistically-centred worship services is in keeping with the catholic liturgical tradition and the Communion emphasises its status of full communion with the Old Catholic Church — a small community of churches which split from the Roman Catholic Church in 1870 over the doctrine of papal infallibility. On the other hand, the development of Anglicanism as a distinctive church tradition is also deeply connected with the Protestant Reformation. As with the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches (but unlike most Protestant churches), Anglicans claim authority within the church through apostolic succession from the first followers of Jesus. Anglicans traditionally date their church back to its first archbishop Saint Augustine of Canterbury in the 6th century and centuries earlier to the Roman occupation. Many other Anglicans, however, point out that Christian missionaries existed in the British lands from the 1st century and consider Celtic Christianity a prefix of their faith, since many Celtic elements remained. They also point out that bishops from the British Isles participated in the early Ecumenical Councils.

Origins

See also: History of the Church of England While Anglicans acknowledge that the schism from papal authority under Henry VIII of England led to the Church of England existing as a separate entity, they also stress its continuity with the pre-Reformation Church of England. The organisational machinery of the Church of England was in place by the time of the Synod of Hertford in 673 AD when the English bishops were for the first time able to act as one body under the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Since the Elizabethan Religious Settlement the Church of England has enjoyed a heritage that is both Catholic and Protestant with the British monarch as its Supreme Governor. Contrary to much popular belief, the British monarch is not the constitutional "Head" of the Church of England and it is incorrect to refer to the monarch as such. The monarch has no constitutional role in Anglican churches in other parts of the world. Nonetheless, the English Reformation was initially driven by the dynastic goals of Henry VIII of England, who, in his quest for a queen to bear him a male heir, found it necessary and profitable to replace the Papacy with the English crown. Henry's need for a legitimate male heir was real. England's previous experience in the twelfth century of rule by a queen had been a disaster that no-one wished to see repeated. (see Empress Matilda) It was not Henry's intention to found a new church. He was well informed enough about history to know that the powers he was claiming were those which had been exercised by European monarchs over the church in their dominions since the time of Constantine and that what had changed since then had been the growth of papal power. The Act of Supremacy put Henry at the head of the church in 1534, while acts such as the Dissolution of the Monasteries put huge amounts of church land and property into the hands of the Crown and ultimately into those of the English nobility. These created vested interests which made a powerful material incentive to support a separate Christian church in England under the rule of the Monarch. The theological justification for Anglican distinctiveness was begun by the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer and continued by other thinkers such as Richard Hooker and Lancelot Andrewes. Cranmer had studied in Europe and was influenced by the ideas of the Reformation and had also married despite being a priest. Because Cranmer and other leaders of the Church of England had been ordained by bishops in the Apostolic Succession, and passed on that ordination to their successors, Anglicans consider that they have retained the historic apostolic succession. During the short reign of Edward VI, Henry's son, Cranmer was able to move the Church of England significantly towards a more Protestant Calvinist position. The first Book of Common Prayer dates from this period. This reform was reversed abruptly in the subsequent reign of Queen Mary. Only under Queen Elizabeth I was the English church established as a reformed Catholic church. In the 16th century religious life was an important part of the cement which held society together. Differences in religion were likely to lead to civil unrest at the very least, with treason and foreign invasion possibly thrown in as well. Elizabeth's solution to the problem of minimising bloodshed over religion in her dominions was a religious settlement which prescribed a fixed form of worship in which everyone was expected to take part, i.e. common prayer, but a belief system formulated in a way that would allow people with different understandings of what the Bible taught to give assent. The Protestant principle that all things must be proved by scripture was turned upside down in article VI of the Thirty-nine Articles, so that no one could be required to believe anything unless it could be clearly proved from the Scriptures. This recognised that there were areas where the Bible did not give clear cut teaching, where differences of opinion amongst Christians were legitimate. The bulk of the population was willing to go along with Elizabeth's religious settlement, but extremists at both ends of the theological spectrum would have nothing to do with it, and cracks in the facade of religious unity in England were appearing. For the next century there were significant swings back and forth between the Puritans and those with a more Catholic understanding of Anglicanism. It must be understood that the concept of religious freedom was in those days neither understood nor accepted by many people, and that the groups involved in the struggle were aiming for control, not freedom. By continental standards the level of violence over religion was not high, but among the casualties were a king, (Charles I) and an Archbishop of Canterbury, (William Laud). The final outcome in 1660 after the Restoration of Charles II was not too far removed from the Elizabethan ideal. One difference was that the ideal of encompassing all the people of England in one religious organisation, taken for granted by the Tudors, had to be abandoned. The religious landscape of England assumed its present form, with an Anglican established church occupying the middle ground, and the two extremes, Roman Catholic and Puritan, too strong to be suppressed altogether, having to continue their existence outside the national church, rather than controlling it. The English Reformation may be said to have ended at this point. The Elizabethan settlement failed in that it was never able to gain the assent of the entire English people. Yet as the Anglican form of Christianity is now flourishing in many parts of the world far away from England it may possibly have succeeded beyond the wildest expectations of anybody alive in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Leadership

The Archbishop of Canterbury has a precedence of honour over the other archbishops of the Anglican Communion. He is recognised as primus inter pares, or first amongst equals. The Archbishop of Canterbury, however, does not exercise any direct authority in the provinces outside England. The current Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, as former Archbishop of Wales, is the first primate appointed from outside the Church of England since the Reformation. Since the reign of Henry VIII ultimate authority in the Church of England has been vested in the reigning monarch. Since the time of Elizabeth I the sovereign's title has been 'Supreme Governor' rather than 'Head' of the Church of England. In practice this means that the monarch has the responsibility of seeing that the administrative machinery of the church is running smoothly, and in particular that new bishops are appointed when needed. Today this responsibility is discharged by the Prime Minister. Anglican churches outside England do not have this relationship with the British monarch, however it remains the case that the Archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, is appointed by the Crown of the United Kingdom (in theory; in practice by the Prime Minister).

Churches

Anglicanism is most commonly identified with the established Church of England, but Anglican churches exist in most parts of the world. In some countries (e.g., the United States, Scotland) the Anglican church is known as Episcopal, from the Latin episcopus, "bishop", which comes from a Greek word literally meaning an "overseer." Some Anglican churches are not in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury but are considered Anglican because they retain practices of the Church of England and the Book of Common Prayer. Each national church or province is headed by a Primate called a Primus in the Scottish Episcopal Church, an Archbishop in most countries, a Presiding Bishop in the Episcopal Church USA, and a Prime Bishop in the Philippine Episcopal Church. These churches are divided into a number of dioceses, usually corresponding to state or metropolitan divisions. There are three orders of the ordained ministry: deacon, priest and bishop. No requirement is made for clerical celibacy and women may be ordained as deacons in almost all provinces, as priests in many, and as bishops in a few provinces. Religious orders of monks, brothers, sisters and nuns were suppressed in England during the Reformation but made a reappearance in Victorian times. Those Anglican churches "in communion" with the See of Canterbury constitute the Anglican Communion, a formal organisation made up of churches at the national level. However, there are a small number of churches which call themselves Anglican that are known as the "continuing church" movement and do not acknowledge the Anglican Communion. They consider the Church of England and the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, as well as some other member churches of the Anglican Communion, to have departed from the historic faith by ordaining women, altering the theological emphases of the historic Book of Common Prayer, and loosening the Church's traditional regulations concerning sexual and marital matters.

Doctrine

Anglicans look for authority (in the formula of Richard Hooker) in Scripture, Tradition (the practices and writings of the historical church) and Reason. While some teach that these three are of equal value (using an image of a three-legged stool), the Anglican formularies have always pointed to the primacy of Holy Scripture. Historically, Anglicans regard the Bible, the three Creeds (Nicene Creed, Apostles' Creed, and Athanasian Creed), the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion and the Book of Common Prayer (1662) as the principal norms of doctrine. Thus it can be said that the Anglican Church retains much of the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church, but it is doctrinally Reformed. This distinction is routinely a matter of debate both intra-denominationally and within the Anglican Communion members themselves. Since the Oxford Movement of the mid-19th century, many churches of the Communion have embraced and extended liturgical and pastoral practices dissimilar with most Protestant theology. This extends beyond the ceremony of High Church services to even more theologically significant territory. Anglican clergy practice all seven of the sacraments in a marked departure from the teaching of early Protestant thinkers like Martin Luther. (Even though opinions vary about the best way to understand these "sacramental rites") For example, Anglican clergy often hear private confessions from their parishioners, a practice mostly discontinued in Protestant denominations. For these reasons and many others, many Anglicans prefer to be understood as a reformed catholic church, not as another institution falling under the general umbrella of "Protestantism."

Churchmanship

Anglicanism has always been characterised by diversity in theology and liturgy. Different individuals, groups, parishes, dioceses, and national churches may identify more with Catholic traditions and theology or, alternatively, with the principles of the Reformation. Some Anglicans follow such Roman Catholic devotional practices as solemn benediction of the reserved sacrament, use of the rosary, and the invocation of the saints. Some give greater weight to the deuterocanonical books of the Bible. (See Biblical canon.) Officially, Anglican teaching is that these books are to be read in church for their instruction in morals, but not used to establish any doctrine. For their part, those Anglicans who emphasise the Protestant nature of the Church stress the Reformation themes of salvation by grace through faith, the two sacraments of the Gospel, and Scripture as containing all that is necessary to salvation. The range of Anglican belief and practice became particularly divisive during the 19th century, as the Anglo-Catholic and Evangelical movements emphasised the more Catholic or the more Reformed sides of Anglican Christianity. These groups or "parties" are still often equated with the terms "High Church" and "Low Church", and these terms are commonly used to speak of the level of ceremony that is favoured. These terms are also used to discuss the theological place of the organised church within the Body of Christ. The spectrum of Anglican beliefs and practice is too large to be fit into these labels. Most Anglicans are probably somewhere in the middle and, in fact, stress that Anglicanism, rightly understood, is Christianity's "Via Media" (middle way) between Catholicism and Protestantism. Via Media may also be understood as underscoring Anglicanism's preference for a communitarian and methodological approach to theological issues rather than either relativism on the one hand or dogmatic absolutism on the other. The nineteenth century saw the height of intellectual activity in the Anglican Church. Since that time, the theological contributions of the Church to the wider spectrum of Christian thought have declined dramatically. A recent trend has been the emergence of fundamentalism in some strands of Anglicanism. Fundamentalism, seen as an anti-intellectual movement, rejects all but the most literal readings of the Bible. This controversial doctrine is regarded by most as highly divisive, rejecting all prior tradition and is seen by its critics as a reactionary measure by those who cannot cope with the relativisation of truth that has been a predominant feature of the post-modernist epoch. Traditionally, Anglicanism had been associated with the English university systems and hence, the literary criticism produced in those organisations has been applied to the study of ancient scriptures. A question of whether or not Christianity is a pacifist religion has remained a matter of debate for Anglicans. In 1937, the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship emerged as a distinct reform organisation, seeking to make pacifism a clearly defined part of Anglican theology. The group rapidly gained popularity amongst Anglican intellectuals, including Vera Brittain, Evelyn Underhill and former British political leader George Lansbury. Whilst never actively endorsed by the Anglican Church, many Anglicans unofficially have adopted the Augustinian "Just War" doctrine. The Anglican Pacifist Fellowship remain highly active and rejects this doctrine. The Fellowship seeks to reform the Church by reintroducing the pacifism inherent in the beliefs of many of the earliest Christians and present in their interpretation of Christ's Sermon on the Mount. Confusing the matter all the more however, is that the 37th Article of Religion states clearly that "it is lawful for Christian men, at the commandment of the Magistrate, to wear weapons, and serve in the wars."

Religious life

A small but hugely influential aspect of Anglicanism is its religious orders of monks and nuns. Shortly after the beginning of the revival of the Catholic Movement in the Church of England, there was felt to be a need for some Anglican Sisters of Charity. In the 1840s Mother Priscilla Lydia Sellon became the first woman to take the vows of religion in communion with the Province of Canterbury since the Reformation. From the 1840s and throughout the next hundred years, religious orders for both men and women proliferated in the UK, the United States, Canada, and India, as well as in various countries of Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. Anglican religious life at one time boasted hundreds of orders and communities, and thousands of religious. An important aspect of Anglican religious life is that most communities of both men and women lived their lives consecrated to God under the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience (or in Benedictine communities, Stability, Conversion of Life, and Obedience) by practicing a mixed life of reciting the full eight services of the Breviary in choir, along with a daily Eucharist, plus service to the poor. The mixed life, combing aspects of the contemplative orders and the active orders remains to this day a hallmark of Anglican religious life. Since the 1960s there has been a sharp falling off in the numbers of religious in most parts of the Anglican Communion. Many once large and international communities have been reduced to a single convent or monastery comprised of elderly men or women. In the last few decades of the 20th century, novices have for most communities been few and far between. Some orders and communities have already become extinct. There are however, still several thousand Anglican religious working today in approximately 200 communities around the world. The most surprising growth has been in the Melanesian countries of the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. The Melanesian Brotherhood, founded at Tabalia, Guadalcanal, in 1925 by Ini Kopuria, is now the largest Anglican Community in the world with over 450 brothers in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and the United Kingdom. The Sisters of the Church, started by Mother Emily Ayckbown in England in 1870, has more sisters in the Solomons than all their other communities. The Community of the Sisters of Melanesia, started in 1980 by Sister Nesta Tiboe, is a growing community of women throughout the Solomon Islands. The Society of Saint Francis, founded as a union of various Franciscan orders in the 1920s, has experienced great growth in the Solomon Islands. Other communities of religious have been started by Anglicans in Papua New Guinea and in Vanuatu. Most Melanesian Anglican religious are in their early to mid 20s, making the average age 40 to 50 years younger than their brothers and sisters in other countries. This growth is especially surprising because celibacy was not regarded as a Melanesian virtue.

External links

- [http://www.theanglicanwiki.org/index.php/Main_Page AnglicanWiki] - An Anglican wiki
- [http://justus.anglican.org/resources/pc/ Anglican historical texts]
- [http://www.anglicancommunion.org Anglican Communion] - The official site of the Anglican Communion.
- [http://www.anglicansonline.org Anglicans Online] - An unofficial site of the Anglican Communion. One of the biggest resources of Anglicanism in the world.
- [http://www.anglican.ca/index.htm] - Anglican Church of Canada website]
- [http://www.cofe.anglican.org/faith/anglican/ What it means to be an Anglican: Official CofE site]
- [http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/denominations/anglicanism.htm Anglicanism: ReligionFacts.com] - Articles on Anglican history, ritual, and organisation, plus an image gallery of people and places.
- [http://www.anglicanpeacemaker.org.uk/ Anglican Pacifist Fellowship] - The official site of the Anglican Church's peace movement.
- Category:Religion in the United Kingdom Category:Christian denominations ko:성공회 ja:聖公会

Church of England

Theology and sociology

Governance and administration

History

Related churches

Financial situation

External link

- [http://www.cofe.anglican.org/ Church of England website] ja:イギリス国教会 Category:Church of England Category:Religion in the United Kingdom Category:State churches (Christian)

Rite

A rite is an established, ceremonious, usually religious act. Rites fall into three major categories:
- rites of passage, generally changing an individual's social status, such as marriage, Christian baptism, or graduation.
- rites of worship, where a community comes together to worship, such as Jewish synagogue or Christian Mass
- rites of personal devotion, where an individual worships, including prayer and pilgrimages such as the Muslim Haj. Within Christianity it can have a much more specific meaning -- in this sense a rite is a particular liturgy. For example, in the Roman Catholic faith, the sacrament now called the Anointing of the Sick has traditionally been known as the last rites, being often performed on someone who is dying. In Christian usage, the term also refers to a body of liturgical tradition usually emanating from a specific center. Examples include the Roman or Latin Rite, the Byzantine Rite, and the Syriac Rite. Such rites may include various sub-rites. For example, the Byzantine Rite has Greek, Russian, and other ethnically-based variants. (See Christian liturgy.) Freemasonry in North America is divided into the Scottish Rite and the York Rite.

Liturgy

From the Greek word λειτουργια, which can be transliterated as "leitourgia," meaning "the work of the people," a liturgy comprises a prescribed religious ceremony, according to the traditions of a particular religion; it may refer to, or include, an elaborate formal ritual (such as the Catholic Mass), or a daily activity such as the Muslim Salats (see Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, p.582-3). The unprogrammed meeting of Quakers in The United States is an example of a non-liturgical service because there is no minister or structured order of events. Methods of dress, preparation of food, application of cosmetics or other hygienic practices are all considered liturgic activities of various religions. In the Christian church, liturgical churches are those that use a well-defined liturgy, where many of the words and music used are identical each time the service is conducted. Most Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran churches are liturgical while most others are not. Non-liturgical churches usually do follow a common worship sequence from one service to the next, but identical elements are few.

Source

- Bowker, John, ed. (1997) Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0192139657.
- [http://www.quakerinfo.org/beliefs.html "What Do Quakers Believe?"]. Quaker Information Center, Philadelphia, PA, 2004.

External link

- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09306a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia article] Category:Religious behaviour and experience ja:典礼

Archbishop of Canterbury

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior clergyman of the established Church of England and symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The present incumbent is Rowan Williams. Today the archbishop fills four main roles:
- he is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury, which covers the east of the County of Kent and extreme north-east Surrey. Founded in 597, it is the oldest bishopric in the English church.
- he is the metropolitan of the Province of Canterbury, which covers the southern two-thirds of England.
- as Primate of All England, he is the chief religious figure in the Church of England (the British sovereign is the "Supreme governor" of the church). Power in the church is not highly centralised, so the archbishop (along with his "junior" colleague the Archbishop of York) must usually lead through persuasion. He plays an important part in national ceremonies such as coronations; thanks to his high public profile his opinions are often in demand by the news media.
- as symbolic head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop is recognized as primus inter pares ("first among equals") of all Anglican primates. Since 1867 he has convened more or less decennial meetings of worldwide Anglican bishops, the Lambeth Conferences. The Archbishop's main residence is Lambeth Palace in the London Borough of Lambeth. He also has lodgings in the Old Palace, Canterbury, located beside Canterbury Cathedral, where his cathedra sits. As holder of one of the "five great sees" (along with the York, London, Durham and Winchester), the Archbishop of Canterbury is ex officio one of the Lords Spiritual of House of Lords. Since Henry VIII broke with Rome the Archbishops of Canterbury have been selected by the English (latterly British) monarch. Today the choice is made in the name of the Sovereign by the prime minister, from a shortlist of two selected by an ad-hoc committee called the Crown Nominations Commission. As the current archbishop, the Right Honourable and Most Reverend Dr Rowan Douglas Williams, the 104th Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of All England was enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral on 27 February 2003; he signs himself Rowan Cantuar. He was previously Archbishop of Wales and Bishop of Monmouth.

Origins

Records suggest that the Roman Britons had three Archbishops, seated in London, York, and Caerleon, an ancient city of South Wales. However, in the fifth and sixth centuries the country was overrun by the pagan Anglo-Saxons. Of the kingdoms they set up there, Kent had the closest ties to European trade and culture. The first Archbishop of Canterbury was Saint Augustine who arrived in Kent in 597, sent by Pope Gregory the Great to mission to the English. He was accepted by King Ethelbert, on his conversion to Christianity, about the year 598. Since then the Archbishops of Canterbury have been referred to as occupying the Chair of St Augustine. Before the break with Papal authority in the 16th Century, the Church of England was an integral part of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church. The present Church of England, an established national church, still considers itself part of the broader Western Catholic tradition as well as being the "mother church" of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Province and Diocese

The Archbishop of Canterbury exercises metropolitical (or supervisory) jurisdiction over the Province of Canterbury, which encompasses thirty of the forty-four dioceses of the Church of England. (The remaining fourteen dioceses, in northern England, fall within the Province of York.) Formerly, the four dioceses of Wales were also under the Province of Canterbury; in 1920, however, the Welsh dioceses transferred from the established Church of England to the disestablished Church in Wales. The Archbishop of Canterbury has a ceremonial provincial curia, or court, consisting of some of the senior bishops of his province. The Bishop of London—the most senior cleric of the Church with the exception of the two Archbishops—serves as Canterbury's Provincial Dean, the Bishop of Winchester as Chancellor, the Bishop of Lincoln as Vice-Chancellor, the Bishop of Salisbury as Precentor, the Bishop of Worcestor as Chaplain and the Bishop of Rochester as Cross-Bearer. The question of whether the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Archbishop of York should take precedence was once a cause of a long struggle. The dispute was temporarily resolved in 1071 after Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Thomas of Bayeaux, Archbishop of York, submitted the matter to the Pope. Pope Alexander II decided that Canterbury was to have precedence, and that future Archbishops of York would have to be consecrated by, and swear allegiance to, the Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1119, however, the Archbishop-Elect of York, Thurstan, refused to acknowledge the pre-eminence of Canterbury. As a consequence, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Ralph d'Escures, refused to consecrate him. When Thurstan appealed to Rome, Pope Callixtus II not only personally consecrated him, but al

Anglican Communion

What holds the Communion together?

History

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St George's Cross

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Church of England

Theology and sociology

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See also

External link

Gospel of John

Authorship and date

Sources

Handling of source material

Structure

Popular Passages in the Gospel

Characteristics of the Gospel of John

Other characteristics unique to John

Chapters

See also

References

External links

Anglican

Origins

Leadership

Churches

Doctrine

Churchmanship

Religious life

See also

External links

Church of England

Theology and sociology

Governance and administration

History

Related churches

Financial situation

See also

External link

Rite

See also

Liturgy

See also

Source

External link

Archbishop of Canterbury

Origins

Province and Diocese