Fr Patrick Lim

Christianity in Roman Britain We cannot tell exactly when Christianity first came to Britian. There are some very early writings about missionary travels which may refer to the British Isles, but there is little certainty. About the year 70, Clement who was then Bishop of Rome, wrote that St. Paul went 「to the extreme limits of the West.」 Irenaeus wrote about 180 that Christianity had already been taught 「among the Germans and Britons.」 Then about 208, Tertullian remarked that 「some countries of the Britons」 were subject to Christ. However, in those days, words which we might translate as 「Celts」 or 「Britons」 were used so loosely for different peoples of northern or western Europe that it is sometimes impossible to be certain which were meant. ...

James I and the new English Bible Elizabeth I died in 1603. Since she had no children of her own, her heir was her cousin’s son, James VI of Scotland. James was a descendant of Henry VII and had been King of the Scots since infancy, when a group of Protestant lords forced his Roman Catholic mother to abdicate in his favor. With this new, Scottish dynasty, coming to the throne, the Puritan faction within the English Church hoped effect significant change in the form of worship. James, having agreed to hear their proposals, called a conference at Hampton Court to allow both Puritans and Churchmen to make their case. ...

One of the great barriers to Anglican Catholics considering corporate reunion with Rome is that we perceive a demand on the other side of the Tiber for a mere submission which would involve two deliberate lies by us. The first would be an unqualified affirmation that Rome’s actions and common or approved teachings in the past (relevant to the broken relationship between our Churches) have not been at fault. The second, related to the first, is a dishonest denial of our identity. This demand is implicit in the official approach, wherein we are characterised as properly schismatic, heretical and without valid Orders, and explicit in the polemic of those I will call Anti-Anglican Roman Catholic Apologists (AARCAs herein), in particular those apologists for the RCC who engage Anglican Catholics with the attitude and arguments of Cardinal Newman and take Apostolicae Curae as at least practically infallible. ...

The Diversity of ‘Classical’ Anglicanism Those who have studied Anglicanism closely know that Anglican history shows several broad strains of tradition, all of which can plausibly claim to be classically Anglican in that they have a long pedigree within the Church of England and her daughter Churches. Yet no one of these strands can claim to be Anglicanism in an exclusive sense if that claim means to imply that most Anglicans in fact historically held to that particular strand. Furthermore, these strands were and are often mutually contradictory and hostile. Nevertheless, classically the various parties within Anglicanism were united by at least two important factors. ...

Restoring Unity–First Steps Beginning in June a number of Continuing Church leaders have met three times: in Victoria, British Columbia, in West Palm Beach, Florida, and in Brockton, Massachusetts. The bishops involved include the leaders of the three Churches that are in full communion with each other and whose first bishops were consecrated in 1978 in Denver (the ACC, the Anglican Province of Christ the King [APCK], and the United Episcopal Church in North America [UECNA]), but also include three bodies with which we are not yet in full communion: the Anglican Church in America (ACA), the Anglican Province in America (APA), and the Diocese of the Holy Cross (DHC). ...

The Gospel Imperative The Church of Jesus Christ is 「One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic.」 Whilst on earth its unity, holiness, catholicity and apostolicity are imperfect, all ecclesiastical jurisdictions within the Apostolic Tradition acknowledge the Gospel imperative towards unity which springs from our Lord’s High Priestly Prayer recorded in St. John’s Gospel, in particular: 「I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them, and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me.」 (John 17:20-23). ...

Churches and Denominations A ‘Church’ is a body of Christians gathered around a bishop in the Apostolic Succession and faith in a given geographical area. A true Church requires a true bishop, Christians, and a particular territory. ‘Churches’ are simply a multiplicity of these individual, local Churches. In the course of the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, almost all of the Protestants lost the Apostolic Succession. Even in Protestant bodies that have officials called ‘bishops’, such as the United Methodists and Evangelical Lutherans in the United States, there is no historic Succession of bishops but only the name or title. There is no doubt that they contain many good and devout Christians and that they believe much that is good and true. However, since they have abandoned or lost the Apostolic Succession and much else that characterizes the Catholic faith in its fullness, these bodies are not Churches in the full sense, but more properly called ‘denominations.’ ...

The Nature of the Church The Anglican Catholic Church is a Church. The Church is the Body of Christ, his sacramental extension and presence in human history in the world. As the Body of Christ the Church does what Jesus Christ originally did in his incarnate Person: it teaches and heals the world, it reveals the Father’s will and his nature of love, and it gathers a company of disciples to worship the glorious Trinity. The Church as the gathered company of all faithful people is centered in the revealed word of God, in prayer and the sacramental system, and in her bishops, whose ministry is the constitutive element that makes a mere human organization be the organic, sacramental, transcending, saving Presence of God in the world. ...

The Four Last Things ‘Eschatology’, from the Greek word eschaton (‘end’, ‘final thing’, ‘last thing’), is the branch of theology which considers the final things. The Four Last things are death, judgement, heaven, and hell. Death and judgement are the lot of all human beings. Heaven or hell is the final destiny of every individual. The relation of the judgement of the individual soul to Christ’s return in glory is not entirely clear. It appears from Scripture that the Second Coming of Christ (the parousia) precedes the judgement. Most the­ologians, however, distinguish the particular judgement of the individ­ual at death from the general resurrection and judgement of the dead at the end. A few theologians (‘full preterists’) argue that all biblical texts about the end were fulfilled with the destruction of Jerusalem in the first century. It is, however, neither necessary nor wise to attempt to settle finally all of these matters in one particular manner. ...

Origins of the Church The Christian Church began with the Holy Apostles. The word apostle means 「one who is sent forth」, and is the name used in the Church for those twelve disciples specially chosen by Christ Himself. They are called apostles because Our Lord instructed them to go forth and proclaim the Gospel and to establish the Church in all the world. ...