AN INTERESTING ECUMENICAL INQUIRY REGARDING CATHOLICISM, ANGLICANISM, AND PROTESTANTISM............

An inquiry over the weekend from my friend and fraternity brother, Scott McKenna posed a question about where Anglicanism (known also in the United States as Episcopalism) stands in regards to Protestantism.  Whether the Worldwide Anglican Communion can be regarded as Protestantism along with other Christian denominations, separated from Roman Catholicism, or instead, "via media", being something in between Catholicism and Protestantism.  I responded that given historically, and religiously, King Henry VIII's split with the Pope and the Catholic Church came at the time of the major Protestant Reformation in the 16th Century, along with Lutheranism and Calvinism, and other divisions, Anglicanism can indeed be said to be a part of Protestantism.  But that from a cultural and political perspective as the British have always placed themselves atop, if not above the rest of the nations of Europe, an argument for Anglicanism as something between the Roman and Reformed traditions of Christianity can be made.  Whichever view or practice of the Christian Faith we profess, nearly five hundred years after the Protestant Reformation and Catholic counter Reformation, our efforts and focuses in relationship to the Lord Jesus, the Christian Community, and the People of God universally, the foremost priority in uniting and underscoring our togetherness should be a commitment to Ecumenism, building on our common held beliefs in the, "One Faith, One Lord, One Baptism", we share as Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox, Catholics............Fr.  Troy