To call oneself “Anglican Catholic” often invites confusion. Some assume it means being Roman Catholic without the Pope. Others suspect it is a contradiction in terms. Neither is correct.

Anglican Catholicism is not a rejection of catholic faith, but a claim to it. Long before the divisions of the Western Church hardened, the faith was catholic—whole, apostolic, sacramental, and ordered. Anglicanism did not abandon this inheritance at the Reformation; it sought to reform abuses while retaining the substance of the ancient Church.

We confess the historic creeds. We uphold the sacraments as means of grace. We maintain the threefold ministry of bishop, priest, and deacon. We worship with reverence, continuity, and beauty. These are not Roman possessions; they are catholic treasures.

At the same time, Anglicanism resists doctrines and claims that cannot be clearly grounded in Scripture and the consensus of the early Church. Authority is exercised collegially, not absolutistically. The Church is governed, not by novelty or centralization, but by fidelity to the apostolic faith.

To be Anglican Catholic is to stand firmly within the Great Tradition—without surrendering conscience, Scripture, or reason. It is to be catholic without being Roman, reformed without being Protestant, ancient without being antiquarian.

This is not a compromise. It is a vocation.