Posted on: July 8th, 2009 +Stephen Sykes on Anglicanism

“Bishop Stephen Sykes once gave a crisp account of why he feels both attracted to and repelled by Anglicanism. On the positive side, he listed four chief strengths: a ‘quiet and confident Catholicism,’ an openness to a range of spiritual traditions, the exercise of authority with consent, and a developing baptismal ecclesiology. His dislikes included ‘the triviality an superficiality into which our eclectic openness can fall,’ the proneness of Anglicanism to fashionable causes and ‘the all-consuming ruthlessness of the campaigners, for whom politics is all.” – Rupert Shortt, Rowan’s Rule: the Biography of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

I was particularly interested in this comment about “baptismal ecclesiology,” since the absence of such a thing is one of the main reasons (you might say “the efficient cause”) of why I finally left Presbtyerianism.

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Filed under: Book Notes (& articles, too), liturgical theology, Me / Us, theology / ecclesiology

2 Responses to “+Stephen Sykes on Anglicanism”

  1. Robert Says:
    July 12th, 2009 at 3:14 pm

    Matt – Would you explain what exactly is “baptismal ecclesiology”? Thanks.

  2. matt Says:
    July 16th, 2009 at 1:03 pm

    Robert, I think a good place to start would be to read the Baptismal service (including “the baptismal covenant” in the BCP, and to go here:

    http://creedalchristian.blogspot.com/2008/06/all-of-baptismal-covenant.html

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