Year B, Lent 2
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
North Andover, Massachusetts
The Rev. Stephanie Chase Wilson


What does it mean to be an Episcopalian? If someone came up to you asked, “What do Episcopalians believe?” do you know how to answer? Having grown up in the Episcopal Church, I had never considered such a thing until I went to seminary. At Yale we had people from over 60 different denominations present so naturally we started noticing what was similar and different about each of our traditions. This was also when people started asking me the “What do Episcopalians believe” question. I was puzzled and tongue-tied. I had never considered such a question. What do we believe? I didn’t know how to answer exactly. Well, we believe in Jesus and the resurrection and the trinity, but so did all the denominations. What exactly made us different? What gave us our identity? Why do we do what we do? And what exactly do we believe? And can we articulate it if someone asks? How would you answer?

In an effort to help with these questions, for three Sundays I will offer a sermon series on what it means to be an Episcopalian. This Sunday I will explore the Anglican theology of the Via Media.
Next Sunday I will look at issues of authority in the Anglican church, specifically scripture, tradition, and reason. And on March 29th I will look at church polity and the ministry of the baptized. Maybe I should come up with some snazzy titles so they won’t sound so dull, but I assure you that all of these have profound implications as to how we live our lives in church and in the world.

So today I want to discuss the via media. This is Latin for the “middle way.”

First I must share a bit of history. Please bear with me. As most of you know, the Episcopal Church began in England. We are an offshoot of the Anglican Church. Without getting into the whole story, during the 16th century, Henry VIII had a number of problems. But when Ann Boleyn became Henry’s mistress and became pregnant by him, Henry realized that many of his problems, political, religious, and personal, could all be solved if he severed England from Rome, divorced his wife Kathryn, and married Ann. There was a perfect storm of events and Henry’s desire for divorce was merely the straw that broke the camel’s back. The pope no longer led the English Church – the King did.
Under Henry, the country became somewhat protestant, but still retained many of the Catholic forms of worship. After Henry’s death his son Edward, at age 9, became King. There were three regents appointed to run the country until Edward became of age. These regents were all strong Protestants, and England became very protestant during the seven years they ran the country. This is the time of the writing of the first Book of Common Prayer. Worship would now on be done in English.

But poor Edward was not in good health and he died at age 16. Then his sister Mary became Queen. She was Henry’s daughter by his first wife, the first one he divorced. As you might imagine Mary didn’t care for Protestants. It was the Protestant church that allowed Henry to divorce her mother. As soon as she became Queen she made the whole country Catholic again and persecuted Protestants. She ruled England for five years during which time she earned the title “Bloody Mary” because of the Protestants she had burned at the stake.

When Mary died the only one left was Elizabeth, Henry’s daughter by Ann. Elizabeth inherited a country in turmoil.

Remember, in a space of 24 years England had been Catholic, then Protestant, then Catholic and then Protestant again. They were feeling like ping-pong balls. Who knew what to believe! There was great social unrest and Elizabeth realized that if she just forced the Catholics to be Protestant, or the Protestants to be Catholic, she’d end up like her sister Bloody Mary. People would die protecting one tradition over another. War might erupt. Something had to be done. So with tremendous political brilliance, and I believe the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Act of Uniformity was born.

This was the law that said that the state, meaning Elizabeth, didn’t care so much what you believed as long as you participated in common worship. In other words, for the Anglican Church what binds us together is not our common beliefs, but our common worship. This is why we have a book of common prayer. In other words, two men could argue about the meaning of the bread and the wine. One that it is literally the body and blood of Jesus, as Catholics would say. The other that it is merely a symbol, as the Protestants would say. But when the church bell rang, they could walk arm in arm into church and worship side by side believing what they wished.  This saved England from civil war and brought everyone under the leadership of the monarch.

The Via Media was the name given to this understanding that the Anglican Church is the “middle way” between protestant and Roman Catholic. It is neither completely one or the other, but ideally combines the best of both. We have the beauty and forms of the ancient liturgies of the Catholic Church, as well as some more contemporary theologies and democracies of the protestant churches.

Most other protestant churches have a creed, or confession, or statement of belief to which one must adhere in order to belong. This is a perfectly fine way to be church, but it is not the Episcopal way. The only creeds the Episcopal Church adopted were the ancient Nicene and Apostle’s creeds. These were seen as the foundational pieces of theology, and all else was negotiable. Yes, you had to believe in God, you had to believe that Jesus was the son and that he died and rose again, you had to believe in the Holy Spirit. But whether you believed in transubstantiation, or not. Or in married priests or not. Or whether the service was in Latin or English. While important, are not what determined whether you are Christian.

Praying shapes belief. Common prayer, in the community of faith week after week, year after year, shapes us into the people of God more than arguments of doctrine or morality. Again, not that doctrine or morality don’t matter and shouldn’t be discussed in faith within the community. Just that they aren’t deal breakers. Queen Elizabeth famously said she had no “desire to make windows into men’s souls.” So in an effort to unite a country, she established a way of being church which today unites a great diversity of people. Because while the via media was intended to find unity within the diversity of the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches, today it is used to find that unity between many other groups as well.

Today Episcopalians, ideally, don’t kick people out of the church because they get divorced, or stay married, or use birth control, or don’t, or because they are gay, or because they hate gays, or because they are pro-choice, or because they protest abortions, or because they believe in war, or because they demonstrate against war. All of these issues, while important, and worthy of lengthy discussions and prayer, ultimately aren’t what determine a Christian. Episcopalians believe that Christians of deep faith can legitimately fall on different sides of theological and moral arguments. Not that anything goes. But the creeds and scripture give us a wide berth, which we will discuss further next week.

We believe in the Via Media, the middle way. This allows us to embrace a great variety of faithful people. Because what determines whether you are Episcopalian or not isn’t common belief, but common worship. We won’t all believe exactly the same things, but we will all come together as a community, love each other, break bread, and praise God together.

The Episcopal via media also challenges us. It is a challenge to be sitting in the pew next to someone whose theology we don’t like. It’s a challenge to love my neighbor when they think really differently from me. Because this doesn’t mean merely tolerating, this means actually loving someone really different. Here at St. Paul’s we have some diversity of opinions on some dicey issues. Good I say! The fact that we as a church can welcome and love people who are different from us says we are not only authentically Episcopalian, but authentically Christian. We aren’t a collection of like-minded folks all patting each other on the back. We are a community of faith where we get on each other’s nerves and challenge each other’s assumptions and still love each other. Good I say again! This is healthy. Because truth, I believe, is found in the tension of faithful conversation. Again - Truth is found in the tension of faithful conversation. If we lay down the law and say “that’s the rule. End of story. No discussion. Believe this or you’re out,” we don’t leave room for the Spirit to work in our midst. We are a people of spirit and faith, not the law. As Paul wrote in Romans today, “The promise… did not come… through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.”

The media would have us believe the arguments today in the larger Anglican Church are about homosexuality, when in fact the great tensions in the Anglican Communion are about identity and authority. Who determines what the boundaries are? What does is mean to be Anglican? Some of the members of the Anglican Communion do not honor the via media, so would like to see us adopt a creed like other Protestants so that it would be clear what to believe and who is in and who is out. If we don’t agree with their solution to the problem, they leave the church. Some more liberal brothers and sisters say “good riddance.” Neither of these are very Anglican responses to the problem. Both positions ignore the via media. But those who do have an Anglican ethos, whether they agree with homosexuality or not, want to be able to remain in conversation with each other. We want to remain one Anglican Church where we can respectfully disagree with each other as we discern the truth over time. We will worship together and pray together for guidance from the Holy Spirit.

If everyone is same, there is no discussion. The church MUST embrace diversity in order to reflect the fullness of creation. The church MUST embrace diversity in order to discern the will of God. All the voices must be present at the table for the conversations to be of God. Even the voices we don’t like very much. The via media allows for this diversity of belief while remaining under one roof.

That is why when someone asks “what do Episcopalians believe?” it can be tough to answer. We have a diversity of opinions on a number of issues. But if pressed I would say, Episcopalians believe in Jesus Christ and the Holy Trinity. We believe in the ancient creeds. We believe in the scriptures as interpreted through tradition and reason. And we believe in common worship.

Episcopal identity includes diversity in belief and unity in worship. Amen.