Are Anglicans/Episcopalians Protestant?

[TexasBluebonnet]

Hi,

I was talking to a friend the other day and she said that Anglicans/Episcopalians aren't Protestant. That really confused me because I thought they were. Can anyone settle this for me?

 

[Secundulus]

See this thread http://christianforums.com/t5701308-anglicanism-not-protestant.html .

We argued about that for weeks.

 

[TexasBluebonnet]

Thanks! That post answered all my questions.

 

[Colabomb]

Thanks! That post answered all my questions.

Please read the whole thread. Many Anglicans such as myself are not ashamed of our protestant faith. Many Anglicans unfortunately feel Protestant is equivalent to "Illegitimate" which simply is not true.

We are Protestant, not in the common (incorrect) sense of the word, implying a certain form of american evangelicalism, but in the proper historical understanding of the word.

Protestant is not the opposite of Catholic as many sadly say. Many Catholics such as myself are quite protestant.

Protestantism is a Return to Catholicism, not a break from it.

 

[InTheCloud]

Well the Anglican Church was a true refomation of the Catholic Church, if fact many off the changes the AC did are changes that are dreamed by Catholic liberals for centuries.
Continental protestants like Lutherans and even more Anabaptists, Calvinists and British separatists were actually more a revolution that a reform of the Church and went in my opinion too far away from the Apostolic Church producing things like american fundamental evangelicalism that is just good old Brittish separatism revisitied.
The AC in my opinion like a ship with three bows. One looks towards Catholicism, the other toward Calvinist protestantism and the other toward liberal univesalism.
In her finest hours the AC mixes the best of those traditions and produces fruit like C.S. Lewis or Sadhu Sangar Singh. Sometimes it looks like is mixing the worst of those traditions and leaving me confused.

 

[TomUK]

The AC in my opinion like a ship with three bows. One looks towards Catholicism, the other toward Calvinist protestantism and the other toward liberal univesalism.
In her finest hours the AC mixes the best of those traditions and produces fruit like C.S. Lewis or Sadhu Sangar Singh. Sometimes it looks like is mixing the worst of those traditions and leaving me confused.

Point taken, but couldn't a similiar characterisation be made against all denominations including the 'Catholic' Church? One looking towards progressevism, one toward traditionalism and the other toward liberal universalism.

 

[InTheCloud]

The Catholic Chruch does not have a Calvinist party.
Is more like liberal universalists vs traditionalists. With most people sitting somewere in near the middle on both sides. And the Vatican acting as a partial refeere that favors one party in one things and sometimes the others.
In my opinion the RCC politicas are like a tug of war while the AC politics are more like a triangle.
That is my mental image of the politics in those churches.
Cannot comment in EOC politics.

 

[JasonV]

Cannot comment in EOC politics.

Octagon anyone?

 

[Tonks]

I'd ask how they view / what is required for Salvation and you'll probably have your answer.

 

[ContraMundum]

My answer: sometimes.

Sometimes one must be Protestant if it means protesting for truth. Otherwise we are Apostolic and Catholic.

 

[LawsonAlan]

Episcopal is both protestant as well ac catholic, but not to be confused with Roman catholic.

 

[Albion]

Point taken, but couldn't a similiar characterisation be made against all denominations including the 'Catholic' Church? One looking towards progressevism, one toward traditionalism and the other toward liberal universalism.

Of course.

One characteristic of Anglicanism that I have to respect is that despite its breadth and the tensions that come from this, it doesn't lie about itself by claiming that every member in every pew certainly believes the exact same thing, that we have no divisions, yada yada yada.

 

[Colabomb]

Of course.

One characteristic of Anglicanism that I have to respect is that despite its breadth and the tensions that come from this, it doesn't lie about itself by claiming that every member in every pew certainly believes the exact same thing, that we have no divisions, yada yada yada.

Haha, dad and i were discussing that with an Orthodox friend of ours the other day.

(He's a good guy)

 

[CatholicFlame]

But isn't the main difference to answering this question that mainline protestants are derived from the changes implemented by martin luther and anglicanism derived from the changes of someone else?

It seems like they are not both of the same founder so much.

 

[TomUK]

What do you understand as protestant?

 

[CatholicFlame]

Are you asking me Tom?

 

[TexasSky]

See this thread http://christianforums.com/t5701308-anglicanism-not-protestant.html .

We argued about that for weeks.

My brother in law is a minster in the Episcopal faith. They are protestant. They are not Catholic.

However, several Catholics attend Episcopal churches, and they do share many of the same practices. Epsicopalians do not answer to the Pope. Their ministers marry. They have no equivalent of nuns.

 

[WarriorAngel]

The CoE was a Catholic Church who allowed the King's wife to give a protestant element into the worship.

SInce the Church was more controlled by its national leader rather than the Pontiff.

So i think altho they originated from Apostolic roots, they removed themselves from their only Successor.

 

[CatholicFlame]

What do you mean thier only successor?

 

[TomUK]

Are you asking me Tom?

Mainly, yes, but it's an open question!