Anglican identity and the Missio Dei: Implications for the American convocation of churches in Europe

Anglican Theological Review, Summer 2000 by Douglas, Ian T

Into this glorious mess, I would like to cast a new interpretation of Anglicanism, a new understanding of Anglican identity: Anglicanism is the embrace and celebration of apostolic catholicity within the vernacular moment. It is worthwhile to pause and repeat this new understanding before unpacking the terms and phrases contained in it. Anglicanism is the embrace and celebration of apostolic catholicity within the vernacular moment.

First, what is the meaning of embrace and celebration? Embrace begins with an affirmation of the incarnation. In Jesus, God took human form and became one of us. To heal the sins of division and separation between God and humanity, and between humans as individuals and nations, God crossed the divide and became incarnate in a first-century Jew. God embraced a particular culture, nation and people in Jesus. Fully human and fully divine, God in Jesus became one of us and lived the human condition in all of our glory and all of our failings. God embraced humanity in the incarnation of Jesus.

The wonder and joy of the embrace of humanity in a first centuryJew is that God's incarnation in Jesus did not stop with him. The new creation effected in Jesus has continued to spread to the ends of the earth in the ongoing life and body of Christ, the Church. The miracle of the incarnation is that God's embrace of humanity in a particular person, at a particular place and time, was not limited but universal. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, the incarnation of God in Christ gave way to the plurality of Pentecost. The embrace of humanity in Jesus the Jew became the embrace of all of humanity in the worldwide Body of Christ.

The ongoing incarnation of Christ is thus both profoundly particular and profoundly universal. We all share a oneness in Christ, but the reality of the incarnate one among us can only be known and experienced contextually. God's embrace of humanity and our embrace of God in the incarnation of Jesus are at the heart of God's reign made real in both our particular localities and across the universality of time and space.

The Church, as the body of Christ in the world today, thus lives and celebrates the reality of the incarnation, locally and globally. As Anglicans, we believe that each time we gather to hear God's word and share in the sacraments we are joined anew with God and with each other in Jesus. As a liturgically centered people, we affirm that the celebration of the Eucharist is an expression of genuine communion with God and each other. The Eucharist becomes for us the place where we herald and experience anew that incredible good news that God has embraced us, individually and corporately.5 Whether graced with handbells in Houston, drums in Dar es Salaam, or choirs in Canterbury, the celebration of our commonality with God and each other in Christ is at the heart of our worshiping community. The embrace of us by God and God by us in the incarnation of Jesus, and the celebration of this profound and life-giving truth in our sharing of the body and blood of Christ, are basic to understanding Anglican identity today.