Evangelical Anglican

Have you every written a phrase and thought it to be particularly clever only to find that that very same phrase has been penned many times before you conceived it? I had that experience today and I thought, “Of course.”

I went to Wheaton College to study theology at 18. At the time I was completely evangelical. I had the conversion experience. I read my Bible daily. I did humanitarian aid work. I even place a high emphasis on the cross - the whole nine yards.

But then something happened. I started my theological education. I found myself continually challenged by the Bible and the more I read and the more I learned, the less I felt like I was just an evangelical.

I had begun to take more seriously the sacrament of the church. I started finding myself attracted to the imagery of the ancient icons of the saints. I found that I became fascinated with rosaries and symbols of the faith. But I also found myself strictly egalitarian and appalled by the notion of the papacy.

During the same time, Robert Webber’s name kept creeping into conversations. I kept being referred to Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail: Why Evangelicals Are Attracted to the Liturgical Church. But I didn’t read it then because I knew why I was being drawn to the liturgical church. I had even started attending St. Barnabas, the episcopal church Robert Webber attended for a time, without knowing it was even mentioned in his book.

I was becoming an Anglican, but not just an Anglican either.

The other piece I was wrestling with was my Korean heritage. I had just assumed that I would eventually attend and serve the PCUSA (there are some out there that still think I will). After all, I was a Korean American that was attending Wheaton College to study theology. Where else would I go?

But today, Amazon delivered Stephen Sykes’s book, Unashamed Anglicanism. And bibliophile I am, I couldn’t help but start consuming his insights. In his book, I discovered the phrase “evangelical anglicans” as he referenced Stephen Neill, G. W Bromiley, and J. I. Packer. And I thought, “Oh, of course.” No wonder I feel completely comfortable in reading Augustine, Thomas, Luther and Calvin. No wonder I treasure the words of Bernard of Clairvaux and Karl Barth. No wonder I like Brennan Manning, Henri Nouwen, Aimee Semple Mcpherson, Catherine of Sienna, Julian of Norwich, and the countless others that don’t fit into each others paradigms.

I belong to a Christian tradition that is self critical enough to value the voices of countless others and still maintain a modest, yet confident sense of self. I am an Evangelical Anglican.