It's terribly sad to admit that Christians of one flavor often fail to recognize the life of their own Savior in Christians of other flavors. Critics of Christianity love to proclaim that the history of the Church is littered with schism, rejection, war and execution among Christians. We admit, ashamed, that to this day many Christians insist that others are not true Christians when they differ over forms of worship, ethical choices, theological definitions, institutional history, leadership structures, or even vocabulary. This very week, as I write this, I received a pamphlet in the mail from a recent visitor in our worship service. The pamphlet argues that most of the churches in the world are false churches, not churches at all. The visitor enclosed a written prayer for me, attesting her sincere love and affection, praying that I would leave this false church and come join her true church. Perhaps this is why some of us tell our new members' classes that the Church is that little girl in the old nursery rhyme:
Let me be as clear about this as I can: Anglicans do not contend that they belong to the one true Church in contrast to all other Churches. Anglicans believe that God loves diversity -- and that Christianity includes a wide variety of expressions, each with strengths and weaknesses. There are strengths in other churches that Anglicans admire, and even envy. And there are weaknesses in all the churches, including our own, that are just terrible. Yet we believe that God is graciously and powerfully present everywhere in the world, including all the Christian traditions.
I believe that Christians everywhere have more in common than they have differences. It is impressive, but not surprising, that the human genome project discovered that all human beings are nearly identical, genetically. That what appear to be huge differences in personality, race, or gender are explained by less than 1% difference in our genetics -- that the two most different people in the world are more than 99% identical. So it is with the Christian Churches. The two most different churches in the world have far more in common than in difference.
Thus, this paper is not an argument for the rightness of one approach to Christianity in contrast to the wrongness of another. Rather, it assumes that Episcopalians and Baptists are more alike than they are different. However, there is a difference, and a difference that is very important both to Episopalians and Baptists. This is an attempt to think clearly about that difference, and to understand it. More importantly, it is an attempt to get at the core essence of that difference, and it ignores most of the apparent differences that I consider to be peripheral, and non-essential. For example, Baptist churches usually say that have "no creed but the Bible" while Episcopal churches affirm the Nicene Creed and the Apostles' Creed. However, nearly all Baptist churches have a "doctrinal statement" often as part of their articles of incorporation. So it turns out that both churches have doctrinal statements (or creeds). This is incidental. I think it more helpful to consider the core, essential difference.
So to begin, imagine standing in the Village Square, one Sunday morning. Imagine a Baptist church on one corner, and an Episcopal church on the other. Imagine watching the two groups of people who enter the two churches that morning. One would easily observe that most Baptists carry Bibles while very few Episcopalians carry any book at all, including a Book of Common Prayer.
This one detail may appear trivial. However, as in much of human experience, apparently trivial details
on the surface may symbolize the far more significant causes that lie beneath. Imagine asking members of each group to explain why Baptists usually carry their Bibles to church while Episcopalians usually don't.
Many of the Baptists would explain this difference in words such as these:
For Baptists, this individual, particular faith relationship is both conscious and internal. Because there can be no conclusive external proof of a conscious and internal relationship, Baptists rely on a profession of faith to determine who is a member of the community. One is baptized, admitted to the Lord's Table, votes and holds office on the basis of one's profession of faith.
Of course, one may fail to persuade the community that one's profession is genuine, just as in any other human encounter where actions may contradict words. But it is considered far more likely, and far more dangerous, that rather than failing to persuade, one might falsely persuade. Baptists worry that someone might falsely persuade both oneself and the community that one's profession is true when in reality there is no genuine faith at all. Baptists believe there are always "tares among the wheat," that is, those who profess faith, who act like true Christians, and who think they are true Christians, but who ultimately will be revealed as lacking true faith. Thus there is an ongoing challenge to examine oneself to be certain that one is truly in the faith rather than in self-deception. Does one have a genuine, conscious and internal relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ? It is not the Scriptures in the community, but the Bible in the hand of the individual that symbolizes this personal, particular relationship.
Although Baptists root their salvation in the once-for-all work of Jesus Christ, the "all" is really "each." Salvation is seen as an individual, particular transaction based on the one historic work of Christ. This transaction begins at the Cross, but connects directly to the human heart through individual faith. Churches are seen as voluntary associations, assemblies or gatherings of individual Christians, each responsible for their own faith, relationship to God, and ministry. Baptists argue for sola scriptura, but because each one is both free and responsible to interpret Scripture for oneself, there is no common or final authority beyond the individual's interpretation of Scripture.
Consequently, the center of Baptist life is not worship, but preaching, which is intended to create a response of faith on the part of each individual. Thus in most Baptist churches, the pulpit is the most prominent feature to be seen, state of the art sound systems are common, and the common space is often called an auditorium.
Worship is usually seen either as that which prepares the heart to hear the preached Word, or that which is a response of the heart to the preached Word. Preachers have no authority in themselves by virtue of ordination. Authority is democratic because all authority derives from Scripture. The authority inherent in Scripture is recognized by the gathered only to the extent that the preacher persuades the gathered that God's Word has been expounded accurately and clearly. Should the preacher fail to persuade that the Word has been expounded accurately and clearly, no authority is recognized. On the contrary, each believer is free and responsible to reject inaccurate preaching. Successful clergy are those who are capable of persuasive preaching, whose life style supports their claim to speak the truth.
That the final authority is the Bible in the hands of the listener is
symbolized both by the facts that:
1) Bibles are literally in the
hands of the listeners, and
2) there is resistance to the use of other
Christian symbols that point to catholicity, especially those of historic
origin.
Moreover, because Baptists believe that the essence of Christianity is the conscious and internal faith relationship of the individual, symbols that suggest other concepts are not only firmly resisted, but are even seen as clear evidence that those who use such symbols remain confused, ignorant or deceived about the nature of true Christianity.
Episcopalians, while neither denying the importance of Scripture nor of personal faith, do not see the particular, conscious and internal faith relationship between an individual believer and God as the essence of Christianity. Rather, for Episcopalians, the essence of Christianity is the ongoing experience of the presence of God in the community. Thus, Episcopalians favor communal and sacramental symbols more than individual symbols. Rather than symbolizing the essence of Christianity with personal Bibles in the hands of each individual, Episcopalians may literally elevate the Scriptures in procession, symbolizing the Bible in the Community. They gather the community around a common altar. Episcopalians use a common calendar, common lectionary, common Prayer Book, and affirm a common Creed. Although many Episcopalians wear a cross, they do not reverence the cross they wear, but rather they reverence the altar cross -- which hopefully is the cross that leads the procession.
While Baptists gather principally to hear a sermon preached to the gathered individuals, Episcopalians form a single community gathered in the presence of God. Baptists hear the preached word as individuals, believe as individuals, and profess their faith as individuals. Episcopalians do common prayer. They pray together, that is, they do liturgy (the work of the people) together.
Baptists profess faith in the completed work of Christ in their lives.
Episcopalians acknowledge the perfect sacrifice of Christ, but assume a
continuing work of spiritual formation in community.
Baptists, seeing
salvation as an inner act of faith in God's forgiveness of believers, tend to
have an ethical system that seldom surpasses mere proclamation of the work of
Christ and external conformity to behavioral standards. In contrast, most
Episcopalians feel that such an approach truncates spirituality and ethics,
appearing as though salvation is nothing more than a judicial declaration of
forgiveness, something that happens to a person, outside the
person, rather than what happens in a person in community, that is, inner
transformation. Episcopalians celebrate the forgiveness of God, but continue to
work toward the reconciliation of people to themselves, to one another, to the
nations, and to the environment. Rather than looking for conformity to external
standards of behavior, Episcopalians seek inner spiritual formation within
community in the presence of God.
At Communion, Baptists only proclaim and remember what Christ has done in the past. Episcopalians also proclaim and remember, but they focus on a common Eucharistic Prayer and on experiencing the real presence of God in the community. Whereas Baptists only remember that which was done, Episcopalians are sacramental. They encounter Christ and one another in the community meal. Baptists distribute the elements to each individual. Episcopalians gather in community around one altar.
There may be no higher hurdle for anyone, in moving between the Baptist and Anglican worlds, than one's view of Scripture. Those looking from the outside of any particular sub-culture or world-view tend to view that sub-culture too monolithically, failing to see the what variation, breadth and pluralism does exist within that system. Nonetheless, it is both possible and fair to give a general statement of the Baptist view of Scripture as best summarized by the Reformation slogan sola scriptura -- not just the central, but the only source of religious truth. Beyond that, it is impossible to predict the view of any particular Baptist, although most would give assent to the idea of verbal, plenary, inerrant inspiration. Episcopalians however, believe that truth comes through Scripture, tradition, reason and experience. Baptists assume Scripture and tradition to be independent and contradictory sources. Episcopalians expect Scripture, tradition, reason and experience to give complementary insights to truth.
Baptists abhor institutionalism and tradition. They believe that the Episcopal value of interpreting experience and Scripture within community necessarily prevents the believer from personally encountering God. Thus Baptists insist that individual believers must interpret Scripture themselves, under the guidance of the Spirit. But, ironically, because they combine their belief that the essence of Christianity is the particular, conscious and inner faith of an individual with their view of sola scriptura (words that are both propositional and authoritative), they tend to articulate and dogmatize normative interpretations of Scripture. These articulated dogmas become "litmus paper" tests to determine who is and who isn't a true Christian. Those who profess the accepted interpretations are considered sound or true Christians, while those who question or reject the accepted interpretations are not considered sound or true Christians. The irony is that Baptists distrust creeds!
Episcopalians tend, on the other hand, abhor the using of "litmus paper" tests to test the validity of faith. Episcopalians believe such "tests of faith" are impossible to use in practice and essentially wrongheaded at heart. Rather than testing one's faith, Episcopalians gather in community around the presence of God, encourage one another to experience God's presence however it is encountered, and seek to live into the Gospel.
Baptists insist that ritual is an external action, mutually exclusive to a particular, personal, conscious and inner faith. Nonetheless, they, being human, ritualize their individual and group behavior in rigid ways as much as anybody. That this is so is revealed as soon as anybody suggests an alternative change. Many Baptist pastors have lost their jobs in an attempt to introduce a new way of doing things. However, Baptists tend not to recognize their own rituals as ritual. They specifically abhor ritual that reminds them of medieval, catholic liturgy, whether or not that ritual is in fact medieval, catholic or liturgical.
An Episcopal approach values ritual, not specifically because it is traditional (although rigid traditionalists thrive just as well as Episcopalians as anything else), but because it is both valuable and essentially human. Because Episcopalians recognize that all humans make sense of their experience and find transformation through meaningful ritual, they not only celebrate in traditional ritual ways, but are constantly revising their ritual, creating new ritual, and experimenting with ritual forms.
Finally, both Baptists and Episcopalians claim democratic polity. However, Baptist polity is democratic and independent; Episcopal polity is democratic and catholic. For Baptists, the priesthood of the believer implies individual freedom and independence. For Episcopalians, on the other hand, the priesthood of the believer implies responsibility.
For Baptists, the priesthood of the believer implies that no believer has authority over another believer, and by extention, no entity can have authority over a group of believers. Each congregation must be free of outside interference or control. No congregation can be called to account by any entity, whether national or ecclesiastical. Since all believers are equal, the final legal authority is the democratic vote of the majority. The majority can call or fire a pastor, buy or sell land, launch or dissolve a church, alter their doctrinal statement, or make any other legal decision, regardless of denominational desire.
For Episcopalians, on the other hand, the priesthood of the believer implies that Christians are responsible to one another. Each member makes vows at baptism to make responsible choices within the community. The community makes vows to care for the member. Each community is in community with the whole church. Catholicity is symbolized in the person of the bishop, who is the pastor of all the priests and churches of the diocese, as well as in community with all other bishops. Depending on the situation, Episcopal polity is exercised variously by congregational vote, vestry, rector, bishop or canon law. This strikes Baptists as contradictory to the priesthood of the believer, because they look through the lens of independence. That Baptists act through congregational vote without regard to the rest of the Church strikes Episcopalians as contradictory to the priesthood of the believer, because they look through the lens of catholicity. Moreover, Episcopalians observe that Baptist democracy is frequently lost to powerful interest groups or individuals who are skilled politicians. The larger and more successful (from the viewpoint of growth, program and budget) is a Baptist church, the more likely it will appear to be an oligarchy or monarchy.
The Baptist focus on the individual, symbolized by the carrying by each individual of their own, personal copy of the Bible, looks at evangelism as getting people to become individual disciples. They encourage people to read the Bible, pray, serve Christ, and attend church because these will all help the individual in their individual faith. For Episcopalians, on the other hand, becoming a Christian means becoming part of the community of God. We read the Bible in community, pray in community, serve Christ in community, and worship in community, not primarily because these help the individual (which of course, they do!!), but because these are our responsibilities as members of a community of faith. We are not our own: we belong to one another, and collectively, we belong to Jesus Christ.
Come and see. Come be part of this great adventure with us. Come, let us worship together, not "the" Father, not "my" Father, but OUR Father who is heaven!