Each Anselm Fellow participates in the liturgy and worship of St. Aidan’s Anglican Church in Kansas City, MO. St. Aidan’s is in communion with the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). Some of the team at St. Aidan’s includes Fr. Michael Flowers (rector), Fr. Derek Metcalf (curate), and others.
A Church of the Great Tradition
St. Aidan’s has a particular calling to tread the ancient path, to worship in the Great Tradition (One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic), rooted in the Church’s historic liturgy, the holy Scriptures proclaimed, and the Sacraments faithfully administered to be ever renewed by the truth of the apostolic faith in the power of the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 10:25; Jude 1:3).
To this end, we experience two conversions, Christ and his Church. As we relate to one another, we relate to him (Matt. 25:40-45). To love God is to love the Church, the Bride of Christ. The Church is the foundation and pillar of the Truth (I Tim. 3:15).
We are sometimes identified as a congregation of three streams: a people of the Scriptures, Sacraments, and Spirit. We’re committed to spiritual formation through daily liturgical prayer, the breaking of bread, and fellowship. Worship leads us to mission, as we live out our lives in Kansas City’s urban core and beyond for the life of the world.
Creeds and Formularies
Jaroslav Pelikan once said, “Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.” Derived from the Church of the Great Tradition, Anglicans affirm three ancient creeds: the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. In addition, we believe and put into practice the formularies of Anglicanism, such as the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion and the Book of Common Prayer.
Lived Theology
Christ-centered
St. Aidan’s is Christ-centered in its proclamation of all Scripture, the New concealed in the Old and the Old revealed in the New. Jesus taught the apostles how to read the Scriptures the Emmaus way (Luke 24:27).
Growing in Christ
To grow in Christ, we encourage regular, prayerful reading of holy Scripture. As a community, we meet daily for Morning Prayer and Eucharist. The liturgy of Morning and Evening Prayer is based around the Daily Office in the Book of Common Prayer (a two-year cycle covering most of the Bible). Devoted attendance in worship and partaking of the blessed sacrament (the Lord’s Supper) are foundational for growth in Christ (Acts 2:42; Hebrews 10:25). We are to grow up into Christ, attaining his fullness, awaiting the restoration of all things (Ephesians 4:7-16).
Worship
In worship, we participate in ultimate reality, Truth as it is in Jesus. The content of our liturgy comprises what we believe. The crucified, bodily risen Lord is new creation reality – the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Liturgy
The liturgy is comprised of two movements, Word and Table. The liturgy of the Word includes reading and proclamation of the Scriptures, affirming our faith in the words of the Nicene Creed, offering our prayers together, confessing our sins, and receiving forgiveness through absolution, a priestly declaration of God’s promise to heal, restore and unite to himself.
The liturgy of the table leads us to partake of Christ’s risen presence in the sacrament of his body and blood, nurturing us with his risen life. We are sent back into the world to do the work he has given us to do. Worship leads us back into our mission.
Scripture
We believe that all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16).
Sacraments
The sacraments are mysteries of God: water baptism and holy communion as the Gospel Sacraments for all. The world is sacramental, as the whole earth is full of his glory (Isa. 6:4). Matter matters.
Historic episcopacy
We believe in the historic episcopacy which includes the threefold office of bishops, priests, and deacons who provide servant leadership and pastoral care to equip members of Christ’s body to be his servants too.
How we interpret the Bible
Prima Scriptura means scripture is first and primary, interpreted through the lens of the historic Church, including creeds, councils, and the writings of the Fathers and Mothers of the Church. In this, we strive to avoid one’s private interpretation of Scripture (Jude 1:3; 2 Peter 1:20). “The Church is the pillar and support of the truth,” as Paul says in I Timothy 3:15.
This is not to assume that consulting the vast repository of the Church is uniform in understanding a passage of scripture. We consider what is essential and less essential. The Nicene Creed provides a starting point, providing a common way to speak about God as Trinity and Christ’s work of salvation.