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To: RonF
You wrote: "Anglo-Catholic I'm familiar with, as my own parish is such (we called it "high church" when I was a kid). What's Charismatic?"

gee whiz Ron, you've got to quit throwing me these softball questions! :-) Hmm, this is one of those things that people spend hours trying to define. Let me try it like this (and hope I don't terminally offend too many folks in the process):

The two theological polar extremes within *orthodox* Anglicanism are Anglo-Catholic (A-C's tend toward theology much closer to that of our Roman cousins - in some circles referred to as reformed Catholic) at one end and Evangelical at the other (Evangelical theology tends toward some blend of Calvinism and Lutheranism sometimes including at least some elements of reformed Catholicism, but not always by any means).

There is a second dimensiion here on a scale between High Church [Roman vestments, bells, smells, sung liturgy, etc, etc] and Low Church [minimal or no vestments, no bells, no incense, spoken liturgy, and so forth]. Yes more AC parishes tend to be high church, than not but there are exceptions; and Evangelical parishes can be anywhere on the spectrum.

Now given these two dimensions: Charismatics in very general terms are those of us who believe that all of the Charisms the Holy Spirit poured out on Pentecost are still functional in the Body of Christ today. Beyond that, many Charismatics tend to be a bit more toward the Evangelical part of the spectrum, though that is not always the case. Also, while perhaps only rarely as high church as some of our AC brethren, sung liturgies, and the use of banners, bells, incense and the like are somewhat more common among Charismatics than among our non-Charismatic Evangelical brethren.

Did that help at all, or did I just stir the mud up more than before?
20 posted on 09/04/2003 9:53:10 AM PDT by ahadams2 (Anglicanism: the next reformation is beginning NOW)
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To: ahadams2
When I was a kid in semi-rural Massachusetts, our home town Episcopal parish was definitely low church. The parish I'm in now is high church, and is usually described as Anglo-Catholic. I had thought that the description was being used to describe the liturgical style, not the theology, but that's probably simply my ignorance. But I'd say that in our parish, there's definitely some sympathy for Rome (but not for it's Bishop).

I'm not well enough informed about Lutheranism or (especially) Calvinism to get your references there, except for the concept that unlike the original intent of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, they wanted to make a much more complete break with not just Rome's authority, but it's theology as well: the "protest" in "Protestant". The 95 theses setting forth the pre-Reformation abuses in the Catholic Church, and all.

So, what are the Charisms that were poured out in Pentecost that are still operational today? I must say that in reading about Pentecost, I've become a bit flummoxed by people who talk about the experience of "speaking in tongues". Seems to me pretty clear from reading that the people who spoke in tongues at the original Pentecost were reputed to be speaking actual languages extant at the time, not just babbling.
21 posted on 09/04/2003 11:11:31 AM PDT by RonF
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