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What's an Anglican?

 
 

Anglicans are:

Biblical

Our church believes that the bible is the inspired word of God (2 Timothy 3:16) and the ultimate standard of our faith. According to the 39 articles of faith, one of the founding documents of the Anglican church, “Holy Scripture contains all things necessary for salvation.” Practically this means that we try to model our lives and worship around the scriptures.

Sacramental

God redeemed our bodies and not just our minds.  Therefore, in our worship of him, we do more than hear sermons and sing.  We encounter Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit in the bread and wine of the Eucharist. God also comes to meet us in the waters of Baptism,  the exchanging of vows and rings at weddings, and in the anointing and prayers for healing when we are sick. (James 5:14-15, I Cor. 11:23-30, Acts 2:37-39).

Liturgical

Liturgy literally means “the work of the people”. It is the way we order our worship to God. The Anglican communion worships according to the book of Common Prayer. It has been widely hailed as one of the great spiritual works of Christianity. C.S. Lewis says this about the prayer book, “[The Prayer Book’s] temper may seem cold to those reared in other traditions but no one will deny it is strong. It offers little and concedes little to merely natural feelings: even religious feelings it will not heighten till it has first sobered them; but at its greatest it shines with a white light hardly surpassed outside the pages of the New Testament itself.”

Evangelical

The word evangelical comes from Evangel which means good news or gospel.  We are a church of people who have received and now wish to pass on the good news of Jesus Christ in the context of the local church (John 3:16). Historically the Anglican Church in Japan exists because of the sacrifices and commitment of missionaries from the Church of England and the United States over  150 years ago.   All Souls’ is a member of the Diocese of Okinawa. All Souls’ was founded over 50 years as a mission from The Episcopal Church, Diocese of Hawaii, to minister to the Americans on Okinawa. Today we continue in the tradition of our founders by reaching out via service and sharing our faith with those who speak English. We also offer translations of our worship literature into Japanese.

Catholic

Anglicans believe themselves to be part of the one holy catholic and apostolic church dating back to the earliest apostles.  We maintain the three historic orders of the church:  Bishops, priests, and deacons.  We uphold the creeds of the undivided church (before the division between east and west) The Nicene Creed, the Apostles Creed, and the Athanasian.  We are proud of our recovery of certain parts of the Gospel of God’s grace during the English reformation.