This is important in that many today, following in the footsteps of John Henry Newman and John Keble, who represented the High Church Oxford Movement in the 19th century, still mistakenly believe that Anglican doctrine is a half-way house between Rome and Geneva. Though the views espoused by the Oxford Movement and kept alive in the High Church tradition are regarded by many as normative Anglicanism, the historical truth is that these views are alien intruders into the classical Anglicanism that arose in the sixteenth century.

If we want to discover the definitive characteristic of Anglicanism in terms of its doctrine and teaching, then we must go back beyond the Oxford movement of the nineteenth century to the title deeds of Anglicanism that were written by the Reformers in the sixteenth century.

Commenting on this foundational period within Anglicanism, Canadian Anglican, Dyson Hague, in his book Through the Prayer Book (London, 1932) writes:

'England's church arose at the Reformation from the deadly sleep of mediaevalism with two books - the Bible and the Prayer Book...The Church of England was not born at the Reformation...but it was born again....It was the old church with new life. It stood then and it has stood ever since with two books: one, the secret of its transformation, the Bible; the other, the expression and exponent of its re-formation, the Prayer Book.'

In other words, if we want to discover the true characteristic of Anglicanism, that which has given it its shape, theology, teaching and liturgical practice, then we need look no further than the Bible, the Edwardian 1552 Book of Common Prayer (confirmed by the 1662 edition) and the 39 Articles of Religion. Though some have vainly tried to posit that the 1549 book represented the real position of Anglicanism, it is true to say that this book was itself only a half-way house on the road to the full Reformed Prayer Book of 1552, which more clearly defined the Protestant Reformed position that had not been possible under the religious policy of Henry VIII (for a convincing argument on this, see Diarmid MacCulloch's Thomas Cranmer, Yale University Press, 1996).

The reading and teaching of God's Word was the overwhelming characteristic of Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer and this in turn set the defining characteristic of Anglicanism. In the Preface to the Prayer Book, he wrote that he was concerned to get back to the custom of the 'ancient Fathers' of the church, 'that the whole Bible...should be read over once every year...' that both the clergy and the people should be stirred up to godliness and 'might continually profit more and more in the knowledge of God, and be the more inflamed with the love of his true Religion.' From the beginning of Anglicanism, the Church of England put the greatest possible emphasis on teaching and instruction.

What's more, so that there would be no doubt about the interpretation of the Prayer Book, the Reformed Protestant ethos of the Prayer Book was underlined by two further standards of doctrine, the Homilies, and the 39 Articles of Religion.

The Homilies were two books of sermons given to aid the local clergy in the preaching of the Word of God. The 39 Articles of Religion are analogous to the Confessions of the continental Protestant churches and act as the standard of characteristic Anglican doctrine. The language of the Prayer Book is that of Anglican devotion, but the language of the Articles is that of Anglican doctrine, and both are unmistakably Protestant and Reformed.

This is the argument of Paul Zahl in his book, The Protestant Face of Anglicanism (Eerdmans, 1998), where he maintains that Anglicanism has been stamped decisively by classic Protestantism. However, this 'Protestant face', he claims, has been worn away by liberal and High Church doctrines that have crept into successive revisions of the Book of Common Prayer.

Within the Church of Ireland today, the Protestant origin of Anglicanism is being downplayed largely because of the new ecumenical atmosphere that has arisen since Vatican II. Many people are uncomfortable in describing Anglican doctrine and teaching as Reformed and Protestant, though this is how we, in the Church of Ireland, officially define our teaching and doctrine (see the Preamble and Declaration of the General Convention of 1870). One recent correspondent to the Church of Ireland Gazette (25th May 2007) underlined this anti-Protestant mood within the Church of Ireland when he wrote: "For my part, however (and I know that within Anglicanism I am not alone), I am an Anglican, but assuredly not a Protestant."

Worldwide however, the majority of Anglicans are keen to maintain the Protestant emphasis on the teaching and preaching of the Bible, the Reformed doctrines of faith as outlined in the Articles, and the supremacy of Scripture to teach and guide in all matters. Like Hooker, many Anglicans, especially in the two-thirds world, regard Scripture as the final authority on all matters, and tradition and reason as servants to help us understand Scripture, not masters that lord it over Scripture or partners that have equal weight with Scripture. Historically and theologically, the defining characteristic of Anglicanism is its Reformed and Protestant doctrine, reflecting the teaching of the Bible itself.

-----2009 Irish Church Missions