Introduction
The point of these teachings is to explicate the Christian faith…A new Christian in baptism enters the Church…not Anglicanism (whose American expression is the Episcopal Church). What ought to come first is what C.S.Lewis called ‘mere Christianity,’ the doctrinal basics shared by the most (in the 6th Century, Vincent of Lerins, stressed beliefs that were held ‘everywhere, at all time, and by everyone.)
But just the same we do well to give a coherent and winsome account of the particular road of faith we walk, without claiming that it is the only one, or even the best one. We do so, the reader will observe, with a note of irony- the distinctively Anglican feature is the façade, an imitation of something older, offering aesthetic appeal which does not itself make a claim to being essential. We ought to bring this same humility to our description of ourselves.
In this section we will offer this self-presentation in relation to five things we Anglicans have: