churchmanship

In Anglicanism parties can include, from highest to lowest, Anglo-Papalist, Anglo-Catholic, Prayer Book Catholic, Old High/Center, Broad, Low/Evangelical.

The term is derived from the older noun churchman, which originally meant an ecclesiastic or clergyman but, some while before 1677, it was extended to people who were strong supporters of the Church of England and, by the nineteenth century, was used to distinguish between Anglicans and Dissenters. The word "churchmanship" itself was first used in 1680 to refer to the attitude of these supporters but later acquired its modern meaning. While many Anglicans are content to label their own churchmanship, not all Anglicans would feel happy to be described as anything but "Anglican".{{cite book|last=Neill|first=Stephen|title=Anglicanism|location=London|publisher=Pelican|year=1960 |page=398}} Today, in official contexts, the term "tradition" is sometimes preferred.

"High" and "Low", the oldest labels, date from the late seventeenth century and originally described opposing political attitudes to the relation between the Church of England and the civil power. Their meaning shifted as historical settings changed and, towards the end of the nineteenth century, they had come to be used to describe different views on the ceremonies to be used in worship. Shortly after the introduction of the "High/Low" distinction a section of the "Low" Church was nicknamed Latitudinarian because of its relative indifference to doctrinal definition. In the nineteenth century this group gave birth to the Broad Church which, in turn, produced the "Modernist" movement of the first half of the twentieth century. Today, the "parties" are usually thought of as Anglo-Catholics, evangelical Anglicans, and Liberals and, with the exception of "High Church", the remaining terms are mainly used to refer to past history. The precise shades of meaning of any term vary from user to user and mixed descriptions such as liberal-catholic are found. Today "Broad Church" may be used in a sense that differs from the historical one mentioned above and identifies Anglicans who are neither markedly high, nor low/evangelical nor liberal.{{cite book|last=Hylson-Smith|first=Kenneth |title=High Churchmanship in the Church of England |publisher=T&T Clark |year=1993 |location=Edinburgh|page=340}}

It is an Anglican commonplace to say that authority in the church has three sources: Scripture, Reason and Tradition. In general, the Low churchman and the Evangelical tends to put more emphasis upon Scripture, the Broad churchman and the Liberal upon reason and the High churchman or Anglo-Catholic upon tradition.{{cite book|last=Holmes III |first=Urban T. |title=What is Anglicanism? |publisher=Moorehouse-Barlow Co |year=1982 |location=Wilton, Connecticut|page=11}}{{cite book|last=Carey |first=George |contribution=Celebrating the Anglican Way |editor-last=Bunting |editor-first=Ian|title=Celebrating the Anglican Way |location=London |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |year=1996|pages=14–16}} The emphasis on "parties" and differences is necessary but in itself gives an incomplete picture. Cyril Garbett (later Archbishop of York) wrote of his coming to the Diocese of Southwark:

{{blockquote|I found the different parties strongly represented with their own organizations and federations... But where there was true reverence and devotion I never felt any difficulty in worshipping and preaching in an Anglo-Catholic church in the morning and in an Evangelical church in the evening"... and when there was a call for united action... the clergy and laity without distinction of party were ready to join in prayer, work and sacrifice.|author=Garbett|source={{cite book|title=The Claims of the Church of England|publisher=Hodder & Stoughton|year=1947|last=Garbett|first=Cyril|location=London|page=27}}}}

and William Gibson commented that

{{blockquote|the historical attention given to the fleeting moments of controversy in the eighteenth century has masked the widespread and profound commitment to peace and tranquility among both the clergy and the laity.... High Church and Low Church were not exclusive categories of thought and churchmanship. They were blurred and broad streams within Anglicanism that often merged, overlapped and coincided.|author=Gibson|source={{cite book|title=The Church of England: 1688-1832 |publisher=Routledge |year=2001 |last=Gibson |first=William |location=London|pages=1, 2}}}}

A traditional poem to describe churchmanship is "Low and Lazy, Broad and Hazy, and High and Crazy." Lazy refers to simpler worship, hazy to unclear tradition or beliefs, and crazy to excessive ceremonialism; but the author of the poem may have been a humorist.

In the United States a "churchman" is a member of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA). Usage of the term began in the nineteenth century and has been modified in the twentieth century.The Churchman's Human Quest (1995–1996). {{ISSN|0897-8786}} & {{ISSN|0009-6628}} – is one of the titles of a periodical which has changed many times.

Lutheranism has traditionally retained cohesiveness due to doctrinal unity on the Book of Concord.{{cite web |title=Book of Concord FAQs |url=https://lutheranreformation.org/theology/the-lutheran-confessions/book-of-concord-faqs/ |publisher=Lutheran Reformation |access-date=16 May 2025|quote=The Book of Concord is unique among all churches in the world, since it gathers together the Lutheran Church’s most normative expressions of the Christian faith into a single book that has been used for nearly five hundred years as a fixed point of reference for the Lutheran Church.}}

The concept of churchmanship is used in Lutheranism. In Lutheran churches churchmanship can be liberal, pietist, confessional, high church or evangelical Catholic.{{cite book |last1=Rawlyk |first1=George A. |title=Aspects of the Canadian Evangelical Experience |date=17 February 1997 |publisher=McGill-Queen's Press |isbn=978-0-7735-6648-4 |page=248 |language=en}}

There may be overlap between these categories; for example, the Lutheran Church–International (LC–I) is a confessional Lutheran denomination of Evangelical Catholic churchmanship.{{cite web |title=Bulletin: Pentecost and Ordinary Time 2024 |url=https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/2dd65e00-9688-4351-8bdc-a3bf83abb8e9/downloads/219ba6b3-b13b-4b50-9548-e811974643b4/LC%E2%80%93I%20BULLETIN%202024-09.pdf?ver=1736526623701 |publisher=LC-I |access-date=2 February 2025 |language=English |date=2024 |quote=We do not want to provide reasons for those outside of our church body to be confused as to where we stand and for what we stand as a confessional Christian Lutheran church body in the evangelical catholic understanding.}}

File:High Altar and Reredos St. Nicholas Cathedral, Newcastle upon Tyne (geograph 3461076).jpg|Chancel of Newcastle Cathedral (High Church)

File:St Sepulchre without Newgate, Holborn Viaduct, London EC1 - Sanctuary - geograph.org.uk - 1164272.jpg|Altar of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate (Low Church)

File:St Ann's Church Manchester.jpg|Interior of St Ann's Church, Manchester (Broad Church)

File:All Souls Church, Langham Place, London, UK - Diliff.jpg|Interior of All Souls Church, Langham Place (Conservative Evangelical Anglicanism)

File:St Giles Church, Gilesgate, Durham (geograph 2261349).jpg|Interior of St Giles Church, Durham (Central churchmanship)

File:Chancel of All Saints, Margaret Street.jpg|Chancel of All Saints, Margaret Street (Anglo-Catholicism)

File:St. Matthews Chancel.jpg|Chancel of St. Matthew's German Evangelical Lutheran Church (Evangelical Catholic)

File:Lutheran Church of the Redeemer altar.jpg|Lutheran Church of the Redeemer (High Church)

• Central churchmanship
• Liberal Anglo-Catholicism
• Conservative evangelicalism in Britain
• Homosexuality and the Anglican Communion
• Crypto-papism
• Crypto-Calvinism

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book|last=Balleine |first=G. R. |year=1909 |title=A History of the Evangelical Party |url=https://archive.org/details/ahistoryevangel00balluoft |location=London |publisher=Longmans, Green & Co}}
• {{cite book|author=Bebbington, D. W. |title=Evangelicalism in Modern Britain |location=London |publisher=Routledge |year=1993}}
• {{cite book|last=Bennett |first=Gareth |title=To the Church of England |location=Worthing, UK |publisher=Churchman Publishing Ltd |year=1998 }}
• {{cite book|last=Chadwick |first=Owen |title=The Reformation |year=1996R |publisher=Adam & Charles Black |location=London}}
• {{cite book|last=Chadwick |first=Owen |title=The Victorian Church (2 vol) |year=1987 |publisher=Pelican |location=London}}
• {{cite book|last=Cragg |first=Gerald C. |title=The Church and the Age of Reason 1648–1789 |publisher=Pelican (revised 1960) |location=London}}
• {{cite book|last=Davies |first=Julian |title=The Caroline Captivity of the Church |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1992}}
• {{cite book|title=Evangelicals in the Church of England: 1734–1984 |publisher=T&T Clark |last=Hylson-Smith |first=Kenneth |year=1989 |location=Edinburgh }}
• {{cite book|last1=Shahan |first1=Michael |title=A Report from the Front Lines: Conversations on Public Theology: A Festschrift in Honor of Robert Benne |date=2008 |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |isbn=978-0-8028-4863-5 |language=en}}
• {{cite book|last=Smyth |first=Charles |title=The Church and the Nation |location=London |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |year=1962}}
• {{cite book|last=Rosman |first=Doreen |title=The Evolution of the English Churches |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2006}}
• {{cite book|last=Spurr |first=John |title=The Restoration, Church of England, 1646–1689 |location=London |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1991}}
• {{cite book|last=Trevelyan |first=G. M. |title=History of England |location=London |publisher=Longman Green & Co |date=December 1944 }}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Christian terminology