Oh, yes! That blessed Via Media.

I love this section of Stephen Neill’s Anglicanism, as it puts the term in perspective:

“So, by 1593, the Church of England had shown plainly that it would not walk in the ways either of Geneva or of Rome. This is the origin of the famous Via Media, the middle way, of the Church of England. But a ‘middle way’ which means ‘neither this nor that’ seems a rather negative road. And a middle way which is no more than a perpetual compromise, an attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable, is not likely to inspire anyone to heroism or to sanctity. Such is the caricature of the Anglican position which is the current coin of controversialists, and nothing could be further from the truth. Anglicanism is a very positive form of Christian belief; it affirms that it teaches the whole of Catholic faith, free from the distortions, the exaggerations, the over-definitions both of the Protestant left wing and of the right wing of Tridentine Catholicism. Its challenge can be summed up in the phrases, ‘Show us anything clearly set forth in Holy Scripture that we do not teach, and we will teach it; show us anything in our teaching and practice that is plainly contrary to Holy Scripture, and we will abandon it.’”
—Bp. Stephen Neill, Anglicanism, p. 119.

D. Houk+

It’s not bad, but the link to the Episcopal Cafe tell me all I need to know.

I think they try to dumb it down tooo much.

For one thing, and help me out here, is this not the shortest definition of the Trinity you have ever seen?

Episcopalians believe in a Trinitarian God, which means a God of creation, redemption, and constant presence and love. This belief is stated in forms called Creeds that are said together at worship services.

And just where are they going with this:

Our services tell a story and act it out. For instance, at every Eucharist celebration the people act out the Gospel story of the Last Supper, eating a piece of bread and taking a sip of wine because Jesus told us to do so, in remembrance of him. Similarly, the baptism of Jesus began for Christians a rite of acceptance that makes use of the symbolism of water.

We had the Prayer Book “written into” our service leaflets for years, in order to make the service more user friendly.  PROBLEM:  most of our parishoners are completely unaware that there is a Prayer Book.  Thus, the end of the Prayer Book in a generation or so.

Agree with you, trooper.  And the clergy do not want to make room on the Adult Ed or confirmation class schedule for classes on the Prayer Book or the Daily Office.  Another good idea with unintended and bad consequences.  It was never that hard to juggle the books!

#3 And not to mention that their “definition” of the Trinity is heretical and modalistic.  Oh well, I guess that doesn’t matter too much anymore.

Sadly, that is the church once served by now Bishop John MacNaughton, one of the great voices of orthodox Christianity in recent years.  Needless to say, at St Stephen’s, he is a DISTANT memory…

I think that the overarching problem is that no one, absolutely non one knows what episcopalianism is supposed to be.  The opinions are as endless as the stars, but the knowledge is severely limited.

I know that a non-Episcopalian shouldn’t lecture on what it means to be one but I was born Anglican so here you go:

Literally it means you’re an American whose bishop is invited to Lambeth.

More:

It means your denomination still holds the creeds on paper, so it’s still Christian, but in practice since the 1700s anything goes (like modalism).

It means you’re at least a nominal member of a liberal Protestant denomination with women ministers and gay weddings.

It means your bishops used to claim to be just like Roman Catholic and Orthodox bishops (the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches disagreed) but you really don’t understand what that fuss was about and now that you’re in communion with the Methodists, who cares?

Today it means less that you’re an old WASP born into it and more likely you’re a baby-boomer still in the habit of churchgoing who converted from something stricter: getting back at the church you’re mad at.

1. is a pretty good description of Eastern Orthodoxy (something many high churchmen historically identified with) not Anglicanism: not a whole lot of defined doctrine (Trinity, hypostatic union, Mother of God and icons) but thanks to lots of customs it’s Catholic not Protestant.

A Protestant via media is Lutheranism with bishops, which more or less is what middle-of-the-road Episcopalianism is like.