The Meaning of Anglican Catholicism

There are a lot of enquiries about the Anglican Catholic Church: many are very genuine in their intent to understand what it is about this Church that makes it unique; others enquire in order to decry or denounce the Church as not being genuine. These latter are folk who equate "Anglican Catholicism" with "Anglo-Catholicism" and "Affirming Catholicism" and who insist that they (usually members of the Anglican Communion) are true Anglican Catholics in opposition to the Anglican Catholic Church. This is not altogether unsurprising: to many, the words "Anglican" and "Catholic" have had their meanings altered to "include" people who would otherwise be excluded on account of their own personal beliefs. If we say the Nicene Creed and claim that we believe in "One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church" but hold to different meanings of "One", "Holy", "Catholic" and "Apostolic" then how can we be committing ourselves to the same belief - the same Faith! - as the countless Christians who have held them dear and even shed their blood when those words were finally ratified at the Council of Constantinople in AD381? This essay seeks to address this ambiguity by demonstrating that not only that the Anglican Catholic Church is well-named but also that it is utterly consistent with the understanding of those who were present at the origin of the terms "Anglican" and "Catholic". The bulk of this essay forms the author's thesis accepted by the Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi Christian University for the degree of MTh and intends to show what Anglican Catholicism means as opposed to what people want it to mean.