“Just what do Episcopalians believe?”
Have you ever been asked that question? I know that I have, by persons outside the Episcopal Church and Episcopalians! In traveling the Diocese, I have also discovered that a good many Episcopalians are asked the question in a variety of circumstances by a variety of people.
The question is often asked as a request for information, but also can be a form of interrogation by various religious groups that proselytize and attempt to intimidate. Regardless of the occasion, context or person asking, however, the question remains and is a good question.
Just what do we believe as Episcopalians?
How do we answer the question?
Get out the books
A good many persons might begin by holding up the Bible and saying that we believe the Holy Scriptures are the inspired and revealed word of God.
Others may begin with the words of the Creed, “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty…”
Still others might turn in the Prayer Book to the Eucharist and acclaim, “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.’
Then again, others might turn in the Prayer Book to the “Catechism” or “Outline of the Faith” and begin to recite it.
All of these attempts to answer the question, “Just what do you Episcopalians believe?” would be appropriate but partial answers.
One hundred years ago the Bishops of the Anglican Church, to provide an answer to the question, tried to find that which was essential for ecumenical efforts and Church union. The result was the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral.
During this year we will be celebrating the centennial of this historic document. As a Church that values history, it is important that we remember significant events such as the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral in answering questions about our belief as a Church.
Such remembering was highlighted at our Diocesan Convention this past October with our theme, “blessings of the past and promises of the future”. One of our blessings of the past is the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral; a blessing that helps us to understand who we are and what we believe as Christians and members of the Anglican Communion and Episcopal Church.
How — or what?
Holy Scripture, Creeds, sacraments and bishops provide a short answer to the question of how we believe as Episcopalians. And yet we need to look beneath this answer to what we believe, in recognition that we do not literally believe in Scriptures, Creeds, sacraments or bishops as an end, but as a means to our belief in God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
This is an important recognition, given the fact that for some persons Scripture, rather than a means, can become an end in itself. Scripture is indeed the revealed word of God but it is God we worship and not a book that we call the Bible.
Similarly, creedal or confessional literalism can be dangerous. The Creeds provide a statement of the Christian faith, a statement that points to a reality that is experienced in our lives.
Likewise, the sacraments are an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. As outward and visible signs, the sacraments point to something beyond themselves and invite participation in the grace that is promised therein. We do not worship the sacraments, although at times there is a tendency in much Prayer Book literalism to confuse the sacraments as ends rather than a means of belief.
Nor do we worship our clergy, be they bishops, priests or deacons. We have far too many current examples of religious personality cults and the devastation that can be caused by persons investing their belief and total commitment in human leaders.
Whenever we say that we do or don’t go to church because of the priest, we commit the sin of idolatry about the ordained person. Those ordained are called to be means, symbols and enablers of belief and vocation for all Christians.
Helpful balance
Having said that we do not literally believe in the four parts of the Lambeth-Chicago Quadrilateral, it is important to add that these means to a belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior provide us with a helpful way of understanding our identity as Christians and members of the Christian family that we call the Episcopal Church.
We are a scripturally based, confessional Church centered in a sacramental life and linked with the past through the historic episcopate. The Quadrilateral helps us to lift up these various aspects of what we believe, as we talk to other members of the Christian body, and also guards against our isolating any one of these means of proclaiming the resurrected Lord.
All four elements are important. They avoid an unbalanced reliance on word or sacrament, symbol or sign, confession or person and a rigid literalism that may attach itself to any of these aspects or means for expressing Christian belief.
In the next four months I shall be using this column to explore some of the riches of each of the four components.
We will be looking at what it is we mean, when we say we are a biblically-based Church that “holds the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as containing all things necessary to sa1vation” We will be asking how we use Holy Scripture in our life, ministry and articulation of who we are as Christians.
Similarly, why do we find it necessary to use Creeds, not only in our liturgy, but to have Creeds as a “sufficent statement of the Christian faith”? What brought about these Creeds? Why do we continue to use them?
Third, are there only two sacraments or are there more? Seven or more than seven? Why do we place so much emphasis on the sacraments of the Church? Why do we have weekly Eucharist?
Fourth, and perhaps the least explored of the various parts of the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral; why do we have bishops? What do we mean when we say that bishops are symbols of the unity and catholicity of the Church and guardians of the faith?
Can we talk?
It is my hope that raising these questions and exploring them will provide the basis for theological reflection and lively discussion within our congregations throughout the Diocese. Such discussion and reflection could lead us to a deepened understanding of our identity as Episcopalians and Christians so that we might more fully work with other members of the Christian Church to share ministry and to provide a unified witness to the resurrected Christ.