St. Clive
C.S. Lewis wrote an influential book called “Mere Christianity”. . He quoted a Christian from the 5th century who referred to “that which everyone has believed, at all times, everywhere” in the Christian community. He saw that even though there are many types of churches, there is a thread that is essential that he called “mere Christianity”
Lewis was not advocating a generic non denominational Christianity. He was defending the essence of the faith which runs from the time of Jesus through the early church, middle ages and through to us. He said that personally that what he believed can be found in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. We in the Episcopal Church are very excited about what we call the Middle Way, the via media, that creates space for a variety of ways of being Christian yet is rooted in both a deep tradition and also deeply committed to being relevant and progressive.
C.S. Lewis wants you to become Episcopalian!
Our former presiding bishop in the US, Bishop Curry described us as “the Episcopal Branch of the Jesus Movement”. So a little humility is in order. Though if you join us, you will find the heart of our faith is less in the “what we believe” and more in the “in whom we worship.”
(Pro tip: The Church of England is the Anglican Church, which is used where it appears in many countries around the world. The Americans changed their name to Episcopalians during the Revolutionary war (Episcopal = “bishop-y”) because it was a bit of a marketing problem to keep referring to themselves as the Church of England.)
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