Anglican Studies Program

Current Schedule

A Program of six, 3 Masters credit-hour courses, designed to provide a sufficient education in Anglican theology, ecclesiology, and liturgical, pastoral and sacramental theology for a Masters degree-level student at a non-Anglican seminary seeking ordination as clergy in 21st century Anglicanism in America. Elective credit for degree students (normally transferrable) is available through seminary partnerships. The Program is also recommended to anyone interested in Anglicanism, particularly those called to leadership of any kind in Anglican congregations.

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The theology of the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon churches, the Church of England, the Episcopal Church of the USA, and the Anglican Mission in the Americas of the Church of Rwanda, in terms of its understanding of the Word of God and its teaching in a life of worship that includes sacrament. Special focus will be on the Nicene, Athanasian, and Chalcedonian Creeds, the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, the Lambeth Quadrilateral, and the Solemn Principles of the Anglican Mission. 

The theology of the Anglican Church from the time of the Celts, through the Church of England, the Episcopal Church of the USA, to the Anglican Mission in the Americas of the Church of Rwanda, in terms of its understanding of Sacrament as a component of worship along with the Word of God. Special focus is given to the theology of baptism and eucharist as it has been understood in the Anglican tradition.

January 19-23, 2008

Plano, TX

(prior to the AMiA Winter Conference in Dallas, TX)

Covering the history and polity of the Anglican Church from the Celts (fifth century AD) to the Primates, ca. Lambeth 1889 (not the issues of the Primates today), the course starts in the British Isles with the Church of the Celts. It also looks at the ecclesiastical sources of the Celtic Church, briefly surveying the features of the early Church that were formative for the Anglican Church. The Reform of the Church in the sixteenth century will be surveyed because of its significance in the ongoing development of the Church, but it is covered in detail in one topic of Anglican Ecclesiology 2. The course ends in America with the Episcopal Church and globally with the formation of the Anglican Communion in the nineteenth century.

This course covers a variety of topics in Anglican Ecclesiology, including pastoral care, pastoral leadership, and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer's Reform.

The next topic, Pastoral Theology (2nd Quarter, 2008), seeks to develop a biblical-theological understanding of Christian leadership, with special attention to the pastor’s role in fostering communities of witness and service.

This course starts locally with the foundation of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the USA and ends globally with the Anglican Communion as it attempts to forge its way through the crises presented to Christian faith in Modernism and Postmodernism. Special focus will be on the American Church in order to understand the context of orthodox Anglicanism in the US as it stands today, as well as on the Global South, in an effort to understand where orthodox Anglicanism in the US relates to the wider Anglican Communion.

Part A covers the Preaching of the Scriptures in the context of Anglican Worship. Focus is on the theology of preaching in worship that spans Word and Sacrament, the development of the sermon, sermon delivery, and the variety and styles of sermons. Attention is also given to the responsibility of the preacher for evangelism, to call hearers to discipleship to Christ. Breakout sessions with appropriate differing groups of students, clergy are held to cover specific issues.

Part B of the Practicum course covers Sacramental Administration and Anglican spirituality. Special focus is given to Prayer Book worship, with reference to the spectrum of English Prayer Books in use today, the uses of the various rites, liturgical practice with indication of the underlying theology, and the cultivation of the life of prayer corporately and individually. Attention is given to the three streams of evangelical, liturgical, and charismatic in their impact on sacramental administration.