Exploring the Anglican Catholic Church as the Via Media between Roman Catholicism, Reformation, and Orthodoxy

The interior of a traditional Anglican Catholic church reflects a faith rooted in ancient continuity, sacred liturgy, and apostolic order.

A Church Born from Crisis

In September 1977, nearly 2,000 Anglican clergy and laypeople gathered in St. Louis, Missouri. They were not meeting to celebrate. They were meeting to draw a line.

The Episcopal Church had just approved the ordination of women to the priesthood and adopted sweeping revisions to the Book of Common Prayer. For many faithful Anglicans, these moves were not mere policy updates. They were breaks with the Apostolic order that had defined the Church for nearly two millennia. The result of that St. Louis gathering was the Affirmation of St. Louis, a foundational document committing its signatories to "the Catholic Faith, Apostolic Order, Orthodox Worship, and Evangelical Witness" of traditional Anglicanism.

From that congress emerged the Continuing Anglican movement, and from it, the Anglican Catholic Church (ACC). Far from being simply a conservative splinter group, the ACC represents something far more theologically significant: a genuine via media, a middle way, between the Roman Catholic Church, the Protestant Reformation, and Eastern Orthodoxy.

What "Via Media" Actually Means

The phrase via media, Latin for "middle way," has been part of Anglican identity since the sixteenth century. Originally, it described Anglicanism's position between Lutheran and Calvinist forms of Protestantism. By the time of the Oxford Movement in the nineteenth century, theologians like John Henry Newman and Edward Pusey had recast the term to describe Anglicanism as a bridge between Rome and Protestantism.

The Anglican Catholic Church pushes this concept further and makes it more precise. It argues that authentic Anglican Catholicism occupies the theological center not just between two poles, but among three: Rome, the Reformation, and the Christian East. This is not compromise for the sake of it. It is a principled retrieval of the undivided Church of the first millennium, a church that existed before Rome's claims to universal jurisdiction, before the Protestant break, and before the Great Schism of 1054.

The Case Against Rome: Faithful but Not Papal

The Anglican Catholic Church affirms many of the same doctrines as Rome. It recognizes seven sacraments. It maintains the historic episcopate through valid apostolic succession, secured through the 1978 Denver Consecrations. It uses the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and the Apostles' Creed without revision. It accepts the dogmatic definitions of the Seven Ecumenical Councils of the undivided Church, spanning from Nicaea in 325 AD to the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 AD.

But the ACC firmly rejects the First Vatican Council's 1870 definition of papal infallibility and universal jurisdiction. These doctrines, the ACC argues, are post-Schism innovations with no grounding in the patristic consensus. The Bishop of Rome holds a place of honor in Anglican Catholic ecclesiology, but not supreme governing authority over the universal Church. This is precisely the position of the undivided Church of the first millennium, before the papal claims that contributed to the 1054 split.

The ACC also rejects certain medieval theological developments in Rome that went beyond the Vincentian Canon, the principle that true Catholic doctrine is "that which has been believed everywhere, always, and by all." Doctrines like the Immaculate Conception (defined 1854) and the bodily Assumption of Mary (defined 1950) fall outside the consensus of the ancient Church and are therefore not binding for Anglican Catholics.

The Case Against the Reformation: Reformed but Not Protestant

If the Anglican Catholic Church is not fully Roman, it is even less Protestant in the classical sense. The Continuing Anglican movement rejected precisely the innovations that mainstream Protestant churches embraced in the twentieth century: the ordination of women, the revision of historic liturgy, and the softening of sacramental theology.

The ACC draws on the legitimate insights of the Reformation without accepting its extremes. It agrees with the Reformers that Scripture holds primacy of place as the authentic record of God's revelation. It shares the Reformation's concern for clear, accessible worship in the vernacular, enshrined in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. It affirms justification by grace through faith.

But it categorically rejects the dismantling of sacramental theology that characterized much of the Reformation's more radical strands. The Eucharist is not merely a memorial. Holy Orders are not simply a function of congregational appointment. The priesthood is not an office that can be held by women, because it has never been held by women in the Apostolic tradition. On all these points, the Affirmation of St. Louis is explicit and unambiguous.

Anglican Catholicism is, in the words often used to describe it, reformed and catholic, not reformed instead of catholic.

The Case Alongside Orthodoxy: A Western Expression of the Ancient Church

Perhaps the most surprising and compelling dimension of the Anglican Catholic claim is its relationship to Eastern Orthodoxy. The ACC and the Eastern Orthodox churches share more than most Western Christians realize.

Both reject the papal universal jurisdiction and infallibility defined at Vatican I. Both accept the Seven Ecumenical Councils as the highest expression of dogmatic authority. Both maintain apostolic succession as essential to valid ministry. Both hold to a sacramental theology in which the Eucharist is truly the Body and Blood of Christ, not a symbol. Both resist the theological novelties of liberal Protestantism.

The Branch Theory, articulated by Anglican theologians in the nineteenth century and affirmed in spirit by the Continuing movement, holds that the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church exists in three main streams: the Roman, the Eastern, and the Anglican. Under this framework, the Anglican Catholic Church sees itself as a legitimate Western expression of the ancient, undivided Church, one that preserved the liturgical and theological inheritance of the pre-Schism era in the English-speaking world.

The key difference with Orthodoxy is not doctrinal in the deepest sense, but cultural and jurisdictional. The ACC is a Western church, formed in the Latin and English liturgical tradition. It worships in the idiom of Cranmer, not Chrysostom. But the faith beneath the liturgy shares far more with Constantinople than most people realize.

The Affirmation of St. Louis: A Blueprint for Authentic Catholicity

The genius of the Affirmation of St. Louis is that it did not invent a new theology. It retrieved an old one.

By anchoring itself to the Vincentian Canon, the Seven Ecumenical Councils, the historic creeds, the seven sacraments, and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, the Anglican Catholic Church staked its claim not on novelty but on fidelity. It said: the ancient Church, before the divisions of 1054 and 1517, is our model. We will go back there, and hold there, regardless of what the world demands.

This is a serious theological position. It is not nostalgia. It is not mere conservatism. It is an argument that the truest form of Christian unity is not achieved by moving forward into new consensus, but by returning to the consensus that already existed. The ecumenical councils, the creeds, the sacraments, and the apostolic ministry are not Anglican inventions. They belong to all Christians. The ACC simply refuses to abandon them.

Why the Via Media Matters Now

In an era of increasing Christian fragmentation, the Anglican Catholic Church's position deserves serious attention. Rome continues to hold positions that most Eastern Christians and many Western Christians find difficult to accept. Mainstream Protestant bodies have moved so far from classical Christian teaching that they are barely recognizable as heirs of the Reformation. The Orthodox churches, while preserving ancient doctrine, remain largely inaccessible culturally to English-speaking Western converts.

The Anglican Catholic Church offers a genuine alternative: a church that is sacramental without being papal, reformed without being Protestant, and ancient without being Eastern. It worships with beauty and reverence. It teaches with doctrinal clarity. It holds the apostolic faith without apology.

That is not a small claim. But it is a serious one, and it deserves to be taken seriously.

A Church Worth a Second Look

The Continuing Anglican movement, and the Anglican Catholic Church at its heart, emerged from a moment of crisis. But what it produced was not merely a reaction. It was a recovery. A recovery of the catholic faith in its fullest and most ancient form, rooted in scripture, shaped by tradition, and worshipped through one of the most beautiful liturgical texts the English language has ever produced.

If you are a Roman Catholic troubled by papal overreach, a Protestant searching for sacramental depth, or an inquirer drawn to Orthodoxy but rooted in Western culture, the Anglican Catholic Church may be exactly the via media you have been looking for. Not a compromise between three traditions, but a faithful witness to the one tradition they all claim to represent.

Disclaimer: This post was formatted by AI and edited by Sbdcn. Dan for further accuracy. The blog presents a theological argument in favor of the Anglican Catholic Church and the Continuing Anglican movement. It is intended for informational and discussion purposes. Readers are encouraged to explore multiple traditions and consult their own clergy or theological advisors before making decisions about church membership or affiliation.

Subdeacon Danne