An Anglican Way

AN ANGLICAN WAY OF LIFE

I don’t know if you’ve noticed—but we Episcopalians do lots of things differently from our more radically Protestant friends. Most of those differences come from the opposite approach we take in the one basic area of conversion to Christ. The Evangelical Protestants focus their attention on producing a cathartic emotional experience that leads to a decision to accept and follow Christ, with the expectation that a Christian way of living, centered in Bible study and supported by prayer and further worship experience, will follow. Episcopalians, like Roman Catholics, work to draw our people into a Christian way of living, centered in prayer and supported by Word and Sacrament, with the expectation that commitment to follow Christ will grow out of that regular pattern of life. That is why Protestants come forward individually to commit their lives to Jesus, while Episcopalians come forward collectively to receive the food of life from Jesus. Protestant pastors plead with their congregation to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior; I plead with mine to embrace a spiritual rule of life.

The premier rule of life for Christians is the one devised by St. Benedict of Nursia early in the sixth century. In some form, it has been advocated by virtually all of the monastic communities of the Christian Church, and it has guided Christian living from Benedict’s time. But in the hierarchical nature of medieval society, monks and nuns had a leg up on ordinary folk in living the religious life, cloistered and controlled as they were, and isolated from the temptations of life “in the world.”

When Henry VIII closed the monasteries in England and seized their lands, he was, no doubt, interested in the wealth they represented, which he could use for much-needed political capital. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer cheerfully went along with the closure. Partly, his compliance must have had to do with his desire to keep his head attached to his shoulders. In his masterful work on The Book of Common Prayer, however, we can see that he was up to something else as well. He wanted to make the entire nation a kind of monastic community, modeled after the Rule of St. Benedict. Every parish church was to be a chapel for its community, the center of the religious life of the people surrounding it. Since villagers do have other cares to attend to besides worship alone, he simplified the traditional hours for the monastic offices, and condensed them into Matins (Morning Prayer) and Vespers (Evening Prayer). It all soon fell apart, especially in the cities, as the Protestant Reformation continued to fragment the religious life of the English people, but there were brief periods in English history in which something like Cranmer’s vision was actually accomplished. (For a taste of it, read the Barchester Towers series by Anthony Trollope or anything by Jane Austen.)

Benedict’s Rule remains valid, however, and it has three essential components: stability, obedience, and conversion of life. Over the coming three months, I intend to write separately about each of these components and how they fit into the spiritual discipline, or Rule of Life, for modern Episcopalians. Cranmer was right: Jesus’ teachings do not prepare us to separate from the world in withdrawal to a convent, but for life in active engagement with the world. We never needed Benedict more than now.