Our Tradition: "Anglicanism"

The Anglican Church traces its roots to the church of the first century. From its beginnings in Jerusalem, the Christian church quickly spread across Europe and into England in the first few centuries AD. Rome became the headquarters of the church in the west with branches in many countries, including England. "Ecclesia Anglicana" (the English church) was simply the church of Jesus Christ as it existed in England. By the 1500s, pressures to reform the church spread in Europe, partly as a reaction to the corruption in the church and partly because the church had strayed from the gospel. In England, this led to a split with Rome and the beginning of the Church of England. It is this reformed, protestant form of English Christianity that is "Anglicanism". Some of the reformers rejected pretty much all the ways of worship of the older church (and most Christianity in the USA comes from these groups), but in some places, including in England, the ancient spiritual practices were reformed and made to conform to the bible rather than rejected. Today’s Anglican Church echoes forms of worship, organization, and belief going back to the first decades of Christianity. We are proud of having our roots show.

The British Empire spread to many parts of the world and the faith and worship of the Church of England went with it. The first Anglican church in the United States was formed in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. Not only is Anglicanism ancient, it has been in America 180 years longer than the dollar. In common with many of the older denominations, Anglicanism in the USA (also called "Episcopalianism") had become rather formal and dead by the middle of the C20, but it was one of the first groups in the USA to be touched by the charismatic renewal in the 1960s and 70s. This movement of the Holy Spirit brought life back to the river beds which had run dry and changed the way that many Anglican ministers saw their work, and the way that they went about it. At New Covenant you will find an authentic charismatic experience, and a number of our members and staff come from Pentecostal backgrounds.

The Anglican Church is part of the ancient church of Christ which has been through an evangelical reformation and a charismatic renewal – if it were a car it would have a catholic chassis, an evangelical-protestant motor and run on charismatic "gas". Give it a test drive: you might find you like it.