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In Anglican Christianity, the term low church refers to those who give little emphasis to ritual, often having an emphasis on preaching, individual salvation, and personal conversion. Episcopal Church website, Glossary section, Low Church Compelling Truth website, What are 'High Church' and 'Low Church'? The term is most often used in a liturgical sense, denoting a Protestant emphasis, whereas high church denotes an emphasis on ritual, often Anglo-Catholic (with respect to Anglicanism) and Evangelical Catholic (with respect to Lutheranism).
The term was initially pejorative. During the series of doctrinal and ecclesiastic challenges to the established church in the 17th century, commentators and others – who favoured the theology, worship, and hierarchical structure of Anglicanism (such as the episcopate) as the true form of Christianity – began referring to that outlook (and the related practices) as high church, The Anglican Church of Canada website, “High” and “Low” Church and by the early 18th century those theologians and politicians who sought more reform in the English church and a greater liberalisation of church structure were in contrast called low church.
To an outsider, the difference between high church and low church may not be immediately obvious. There is a strong tradition of spiritual flexibility in Anglicanism, and many churches do not wish to exclude those who prefer one or the other. Most local churches do not identify as one or the other, and may try to accommodate many forms of worship. Churches that are more lax in ritual generally do not advertise as such, and the vast majority of Anglican churches, including most low church congregations, follow some kind of fixed liturgy. Low-church congregations, however, typically have plainer-looking churches, prefer modern language, have some aspects of contemporary worship, and include more roles for Laity during service. One definite indicator of a low-church parish are infrequent services for performing sacraments such as the Eucharist. Many low-church parishes are strongly influenced by evangelicalism and individual religious experience, resulting in a tradition called Evangelical Anglicanism.
Low churchmen wished to tolerate Puritan opinions within the Church of England, though they might not be in agreement with Puritan liturgical practices. The movement to bring Separatists, and in particular Presbyterians, back into the Church of England ended with the Act of Toleration 1689 for the most part. Though Low church continued to be used for those clergy holding a more liberal view of Dissenters, the term eventually fell into disuse.
Both terms were revived in the 19th century when the Tractarian movement brought the term "high churchman" into vogue. The terms were again used in a modified sense, now used to refer to those who exalted the idea of the Church as a catholic entity as the body of Christ, and the sacramental system as the divinely given means of grace. A low churchman now became the equivalent of an evangelical Anglican, the designation of the movement associated with the name of Charles Simeon, which held the necessity of personal conversion to be of primary importance.
At the same time, Latitudinarian changed to broad church, or broad churchmen, designating those who most valued the ethical teachings of the Church and minimised the value of orthodoxy. The revival of pre-Reformation ritual by many of the high church clergy led to the designation ritualism being applied to them in a somewhat contemptuous sense. However, the terms high churchman and ritualist have often been wrongly treated as interchangeable. The high churchman of the Catholic type is further differentiated from the earlier use of what is sometimes described as the "high and dry type" of the period before the Oxford Movement.
Some contemporary low churches also incorporate elements of charismatic Christianity.
More traditional low church Anglicans, under the influence of Calvinist or Reformed thought inherited from the Reformation era, reject the doctrine that the confer divine grace ex opere operato (e.g., baptismal regeneration) and lay stress on the Bible as the ultimate source of authority in matters of faith necessary for salvation. They are often prepared to cooperate with other on nearly equal terms. Some low church Anglicans of the Reformed party consider themselves the only faithful adherents of historic Anglicanism and emphasise the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England as an official doctrinal statement of the Anglican tradition. Reformed Anglican website, Gleaning - What is Reformed Anglicanism?, article by H Barton dated April 20, 2016
In 1970 the Church of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon, the United Church of North India, the Baptist Churches of Northern India, the Church of the Brethren in India, the Methodist Church (British and Australia Conferences) and the Disciples of Christ denominations merged to form the Church of North India. Also in 1970 the Anglican, Presbyterian (Church of Scotland), United Methodist and Lutheran Churches in Pakistan merged into the Church of Pakistan. Britannica website, Church of Pakistan The Church of Bangladesh is the result of a merger of Anglican and Presbyterian churches. Church of Bangladesh website, Who We Are
In 1982 the United Reformed Church voted in favour of the covenant, which would have meant remodelling its elders and moderators as bishops and incorporating its ministry into the apostolic succession. The Church of England rejected the covenant. Conversations and co-operation continued leading in 2003 to the signing of a covenant between the Church of England and the Methodist Church of Great Britain. From the 1970s onward, the Methodist Church was involved in several "Local Ecumenical Projects" (LEPs) with neighbouring denominations usually with the Church of England, the Baptists or with the United Reformed Church, which involved sharing churches, schools and in some cases ministers.
In the Church of England, Anglicans of Anglo-Catholic churchmanship are often opposed to unity with other Protestants, which can reduce hope of unity with the Roman Catholic Church. Accepting women Protestant ministers would also make unity with the See of Rome more difficult. America Jesuit Review website, A short history of Catholic-Anglican relations - and the last roadblocks to unity, article by Gerard O’Connell dated February 2, 2024
In the 1990s and early 2000s the Scottish Episcopal Church (Anglican), the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian), the Methodist Church of Great Britain and the United Reformed Church were all parts of the "Scottish Churches Initiative for Union" (SCIFU) for seeking greater unity. Christian Post website, Scottish Churches' First Steps to Union, article by Albert H Lee The attempt stalled following the withdrawal of the Church of Scotland in 2003. The Scotsman website, Kirk Rejects Move to form Super-Church, article dated May 20, 2003 Oxford Institute of Methodist Theological Studies website, The Notion of Covenant as ecumenical instrument, article by Gillian Kingston (2013)
In 2002 the Church of Ireland, which is generally on the low church end of the spectrum of world Anglicanism, signed a covenant for greater cooperation and potential ultimate unity with the Methodist Church in Ireland.
Modern use
In contemporary usage, "low churches" place more emphasis on the Reformed Protestant nature of Anglicanism than broad or high churches and are usually Evangelicalism in their belief and (although not necessarily traditional) in practice. They may tend to favour liturgy such as the Common Worship over Book of Common Prayer, services of Morning and Evening Prayer over the Eucharist, and many use the minimum of formal liturgy permitted by church law. The Diocese of Sydney has largely abandoned the Prayer Book and uses free-form evangelical services.
Ecumenical relationships
United churches with other Protestants in Asia
Several provinces of the Anglican Communion in Asia have merged with other Protestant churches. The Church of South India arose out of a merger of the southern province of the Church of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon (Anglican), the Methodist Church of South India and the South India United Church (a Congregationalist, Reformed and Presbyterian united church) in 1947. Britannica website, Church of South India In the 1990s a small number of Baptist and Pentecostal churches joined also the union.
Great Britain and Ireland
In the 1960s the Methodist Church of Great Britain made ecumenical overtures to the Church of England, aimed at church unity. These formally failed when they were rejected by the Church of England's General Synod in 1972. Fulcrum Anglican website, Ministry, ecclesiology and theological tidiness: Reflections on the history of Anglican-Methodist unity, article by Peter Webster dated February 7, 2018 In 1981, a covenant project was proposed between the Church of England, the Methodist Church in Great Britain, the United Reformed Church and the Moravian Church.
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