This is an important subject to discuss because, for at least 200 years, there has been a mild division between Anglo-Catholic, Broad and Low Churchmen, and Evangelicals; each side believes that their approach to the Faith is superior to the others. However, despite our different approaches to Christianity, we as Anglicans collectively are responsible for sharing our faith to those who do not know Christ, the second person of the Godhead of the undivided Trinity, "once essence and divided." This leads us to the next point.

More than 1,000 years before the world heard of men like Billy Graham or Fulton Sheen, who I believe are good men of God, there were many who followed the Great Commission. Many secular and Church historians believe that the Apostle Paul may have traveled to Britain in the 1st century and spread the Gospel.

Saint Patrick, in the 5th century, reintroduced Christ to Ireland and eventually to the rest of the island in an era where the Faith had been decimated by pagan Saxon invasions, and had only survived in the monasteries and in certain areas in Wales, Ireland, and southern England. Also, let us not forget the examples of Saint Cyril and Methodious, who brought Christianity to Russia on foot; they brought with them both the Georgian and Eastern liturgies, and endured the harsh weather of that country that was so severe at times, that it had stopped or impeded the progress of invading armies. This brings us to the Anglicans.

John and Charles Wesley brought the Faith on horseback and on foot in England and the United States during the 18th century to people who may have not received it otherwise. They brought Christianity to people in prisons and in some quite impoverished areas. A contemporary of theirs, George Whitfield, a friend of Jonathan Edwards, preached concerning God's abundant grace in the colonies; he stated that it was not the denomination that one belonged to, but the saving power of Jesus Christ through his incarnation and death that lead people to eternal life; these three prominent Anglicans helped to shape the blue print of modern evangelism that is in force today. In fact, I have heard many pastors in evangelical churches quote famous Anglican ministers of the past or lead people in singing hymns derived from the Church of England. Whether you are high, broad, low, or evangelical churchman, we all share a common history with them all. They all endured some sort of hardship to bring Christ to a dark and broken world.

Is evangelism "Un-Anglican?" Answer: hardly, it is a part of our shared history as Anglo-Catholics, evangelicals, and broad churchmen. Evangelism can take many forms that can range from preaching the gospel in front of thousands on television, to talking to people in coffee houses who are "spiritual", but yet do not know Jesus, to simply taking prayer books and beginning a simple prayer service on a college campus. Several years ago, the Anglican Digest covered the story of a New Zealand Anglican priest who had a congregation of 80 in a beach community and added 420 more to the Faith by ministering to the surfers on the beach.

In many ways, we as Anglicans, along with other Christians, face the same challenges that the saints encountered: paganism, and parts of the Church that have departed from the apostolic Faith. In times such as these, the Great Commission is so crucial, and as necessary as it was 2,000 years ago. We have the responsibility to bring the "light of Christ" "to a dark and broken world. Let us draw on the example of Christ Himself, the saints of the Undivided Church, and our Anglican antecedents, who have clearly demonstrated that despite your stripe of churchmanship evangelism is a very "Anglican " thing to do. As a result of this, we should go out into the world and bring the light of Christ to those who are so in need of it.

----David Valentini is the executive director of the Anglican Campus Prayer Network and attends Christ our Saviour Anglican Church in San Diego, CA. He can be reached at needprayer50@yahoo.com