Um, yeah. But that’s because (Roman) Catholicism, constituting about half of all Christians, has successfully pushed a definition of “us Catholics [and those foolish Orthodox] vs. everybody else, which we’ll lump together as Protestants.” That’s fine until you get down to details – The Polish National Catholic Church, which accepts every Catholic doctrine and praxis except papal infallibility and supremacy, is a Protestant church just like the Primitive Baptists?
Anglicans (including Episcopalians) preserve a sacramental liturgy, governance by bishops in line from the Apostles, in general all the characters that make Roman Catholicism catholic except priestly celibacy and papal supremacy. By our own definition that makes us catholic; Rome’s opinion is important to us as a sister church but they are not the sole and supreme authority on what makes one catholic.
Beyond that, we preserve [or actually resurrected] the Orthodox way of recognizing saints – local acknowledgement of sanctity is ratified by bishop(s) and synod (in the Episcopal Church, General Convention) and kalendarization (the spelling is intentional). Among people the Episcopal Church has kalendarized are King Kamehameha and Queen Emma of Hawai’i, “O Little Town of Bethlehem” author Phillips Brooks, and C.S. Lewis. Other individual national Anglican churches have their own lists. (I’m not sure of the process in England, where Parliament has some control over church synods.)
Also worth noting is that the Orthodox have continued their traditional practice of local recognition and ratification by bishop, without much attention from the rest of Christianity – to the point that the first saint canonized in America was not Elizabeth Seton but Herman of Alaska.
Polycarp: Of course you are correct. My view, on the other hand, is the one shared by most people in America, the majority of them Christians of one kind or another.
My understanding is that the Anglican Communion and the Orthodox churches are actually fairly similar in their approach to this issue. Anglicanism and Orthodox both agree on the Apostolic Succession, and the various creeds (with the possible difficulties of the filioque clause), which are core doctrines.
On the matter of church organizaiton, both commmunions are based on autonomous regional or national churches, and reject the primacy of Rome. The various churches in the catholic tradition owe respect to each other, but no one church leader can claim primacy.
Look I am going to have to agree with Derleth - OED online (2) defines Protestant
*
Protestant /prottistnt/
• noun a member or follower of any of the Western Christian Churches that are separate from the Roman Catholic Church in accordance with the principles of the Reformation.
• adjective relating to or belonging to any of the Protestant Churches.
— DERIVATIVES Protestantism noun.
— ORIGIN Protestants are so called after the declaration (Latin protestatio) of Martin Luther and his supporters dissenting from the decision of the Diet of Spires (1529), which reaffirmed the edict of the Diet of Worms against the Reformation*.
Now I totally understand and agree that you are fighting ignorance by pointing out that Anglicans and Episcopalians esp. – but others too – are touchy on the subject. That is great the nuanced answer is important and appropriate here. But there is an English definition of the word and really, it isn’t that foggy a concept as this thread is making it.
But that definition is pretty vague, and glides over the very point that has been raised in this thread. If Protestants are defined by the “principles of the Reformation”, then what are those principles?
is it rejection of the concept of Apostolic Succession?
rejection of the concept of priest as mediator and substituting the priesthood of all believers?
the adoption of the principle of predestination?
congregationalism and / or presbyterianism and a rejection of hierarchy?
rejection of sacramental theology and liturgy?
the primacy of the Bible as the only source of inspiration?
rejection of papal authority over the governance of the church?
rejection of papal authority as one of the traditional patriarchs of the church?
Anglicans, like other clearly Protestant churches, reject the papal authority with respect to the governance of the church. But that principle is shared by Old Catholics in Europe, and the Orthodox, so it’s hard to say that that alone is a defining feaure of Protestantism.
But as soon as you say protestantism is the rejection of the Pope’s governing authority plus something more, you run into problems with Anglicanism, which does not accept many of the points set out above, and adheres to traditional catholic doctrine with respect to the Apostolic Succession, church structures and creeds, sacramental theology, and reliance on church traditions as another source of inspiration, in addition to the Bible. On basic points of church doctrine, Anglicans disagree with many clearly Protestant churches, and align with doctrines of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches - hence the use of the term catholic.
Actually, at least one branch of Roman Catholic theology would agree. A lot of different denominations, including RC, use some form of the Apostle’s Creed or Nicene Creed, both of which refer to "one, holy, catholic (note the lower case) and apostolic church.
The word catholic, in that sense, means “universal.”
Roman Catholics accept baptism by other churches. They don’t require a person who has already been baptized to be re-baptized if that person converts to Roman Catholicism. There are other commonalities, as well.
Of course, looking at that website a bit more, they seem to claim that both Protestants and Catholics don’t count as Christians either, so I would take what they say with a grain of salt.
In addition, I was at mass today, at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, and the bulletin made it clear that those not catholic shouldn’t take communion, but specifically allowed the various Orthodox churches and the Polish Catholic Church.
For what it’s worth: Orthodox believers are welcome at Catholic altars, and Catholics are permitted to fulfill their communion and Mass-attendance obligations at Orthodox churches when Catholic serices are not available (Catholic rules being described). However, Catholics are not welcome to take communion at Orthodox churches, and Orthodox communicants are strongly discouraged, sometimes to the point of excommunication, from communicating at a Catholic church (Orthodox rules here).
