Dear Reader,
I do apologize for my absence, though I'm certain your life has moved right along without my meager input! While I have been busy, I now return to consider why we should all thank God for the Protestant Reformation. More specifically, I would like to situate this in an Anglican context and consider what Rome and Geneva have to do with Canterbury (so to speak) and what this via media (middle way) business really means (hint: it doesn't mean that we Anglicans are always pleasant and reasonable and never fail to chill the salad forks). In other words, what is an Anglican? The short answer is that an Anglican is one in communion with the See of Canterbury who inherits and lives within a tradition which is both Catholic--maintaining the Episcopate and continuity with the early Church tradition-- and Reformed-- nuancing Catholic tradition with the reforms for which our forefathers wrote, prayed, fought, and died (e.g. Sola Scriptura- Scripture alone being of final authority, the Bible and liturgy being in the tongue of the people).
As a priest in Christ's One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church who serves in a Diocese within a Provence of the Anglican Communion, I am, by my very vows and vocation, called to be both Reformed and Catholic (This is also attested to by my owning both a biretta and an ESV Study Bible--see above picture, and no, I do not have a green pom on top--that's another thing on my desk). So, my cards are on the table. I believe that the Protestant Reformation was a necessary and God-ordained response to corruption and abuses with in the Church, and that the only way to be properly Reformed is to also be properly Catholic. Indeed, without the Catholic context, the Reformation doesn't really make any sense (What then would be reformed?).
If you can pray for yourself, read your own Bible, go to Mass celebrated in the language that you speak, and even (respectfully) question your clergy without fear of damnation, thank a Reformer. So much of what we take for granted we owe to the faith and suffering of those who have gone before us. It is because of the Reformation that all of the people, not just the wealthy and the ordained, have access to the Scriptures. It is also because of the Reformation that the people are permitted to know what it is that the priests are doing at the altar, and to hear the Sacrament celebrated in their own tongue. In short, the Reformation gave lay folk access to knowledge that is rightfully theirs and acknowledged that God can and does relate to His children even apart from ecclesiastical hierarchy. So, as Anglicans, we must be thankful for the Reformation, because it was then that the supremacy of Scripture, and the rights of all Christians to have access to it and the rites of the Church in their native tongue was held high. As Catholic as we are, and must me, we are indeed Reformed. There isn't the time to enumerate all of the Reformation principles, but much of what we experience as "Anglican" rather than "Roman" is really properly noted as being Reformed.
However Reformed we are, we are still Catholic. Or as I'm fond of responding when people see me with a collar and a wife and inquire as to how that's possible, "I'm Catholic, but I'm not Roman." Indeed, as Anglicans we affirm that we hold no unique faith, but only that which was held by the Church Catholic throughout the ages (long before various schisms). So, while many descendants of the Reformation would identify as being congregational in leadership, and avoid the use of terms like bishop, priest, and sacrament, we retained these traits as essentials.This is part of being in the "Magisterial Reformation"--those who became Reformed but retained some form of hierarchy in Church governance.
A brief and necessary aside: When we talk about the Roman Church and its corruption and abuses, we must be clear to note that this reference belongs in a certain time and place. The Roman Church today has also been reformed (Council of Trent--"Counter-Reformation", Vatican II--20th Century, etc.) and things such as the selling of indulgences have been suppressed in the Roman Church as well. While there are certain differences that would definitely keep one Anglican (rejecting the claim that the Bishop of Rome has universal jurisdiction over all Christian territories everywhere, for example) rather than Roman, it would be both untrue and uncharitable to talk about the Roman Church today as if it too was never cleansed and reformed from unfortunate abuses.
Back to our being Catholic...So, we understand ourselves as being both Reformed (liturgy in the language of the people, access to the Scriptures for all, salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, through Christ alone, of no merit of our own) and Catholic (claiming episcopal ministry that succeeds from the Apostles, celebrating the Sacraments, being tied to the faith as it has been for 2000 years). To be an Anglican is to be a Reformed Catholic (though this is certainly a spectrum from liturgical protestants to Anglo-Papalists).
So what is this via media business, anyway? Current usage has unfortunately made this important term all but devoid of any real meaning. If you've heard this battered around, you likely got the impression that Anglicans are the middle way in every respect (e.g. right between Republican and Democrat, Capitalist and Socialist, INTP and ESFJ, etc.), or even worse, that Anglicans are pleasant folk who are entirely wishy-washy. For example, the way via media is being used now is to say that we can see both sides of any issue and hold it all in tension while we live into...blah blah blah. To follow the via media is not to lack a spine or the ability to make a decision, it is rather to walk the middle way between Geneva (Reformed Protestantism) and Rome (representing Catholicism, which actually extends beyond Rome). Via media, like most misused Latin phrases, actually has a historical reference point and actually means something!
So, there you have it, we Anglicans are the people in communion with Canterbury who seek to be both Reformed and Catholic and to balance God's continual reformation of the Church with the teaching and faith of the Church Fathers. This is in many respects more difficult than simply signing either the Roman or a Reformed catechism, but we do it precisely because we believe that God calls us to be both Reformed and Catholic. And if God calls us to this, walking the via media is the faithful and honest thing to do, regardless of the difficulties this may cause.
May God bless your celebration of the Reformation as well as All Saints' and All Souls' Days.
Blessings,
David+
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