St. Francis Anglican Church
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Home of the Traditional English Mass

History

St. Francis Anglican Church was established in 1970.  We are a congregation of the Diocese of the Holy Cross.  As faithful Anglicans, we have inherited the faith of the undivided Catholic (Universal) Church; together with the Apostolic orders of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, in succession from the Apostles of our Lord; and the discipline and moral standards of the historic Christian Church. 

We use the traditional Book of Common Prayer (1928) and the 1940 Hymnal.  The Mass (Holy Communion or Holy Eucharist) is our central act of worship.  We encourage each parishioner to say the Daily Offices of Morning and Evening Prayer.

Beliefs

We believe:

That God is the God described in Holy Scripture.

That Holy Scripture is the inspired Word of God.

The Holy Word of God to be Divinely inspired and profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. ( I Timothy 3; 16)

In the importance of Apostolic Succession; One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church; Christ being the Head Whose ministry descended equally upon His Apostles and their successors, His Bishops.

The anciently taught and Catholic tradition of Apostolic Succession to be restricted to males as a sacrament of the Undivided Church.

Our leadership must be committed to holiness and godliness as defined in Holy Scripture.

That Holy Matrimony is a Sacrament and a sacred, life-long union of one man to one woman entered into faithfully according to God's Holy Ordinance.

In honoring the traditional Anglican traditions which remain relevant today and should not be changed.

In being open to the continuing work of the Holy Spirit within the Church congruent with Scripture and Tradition.


What is Anglo-Catholicism?

To answer our question, we must go back almost one hundred and seventy years.  A group of Anglican scholars, priests, and bishops began what would eventually become known as the Oxford Movement.  Having studied the Ancient Fathers of the Church, they determined that the Church of England, in all of its essentials, was One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

First Among these truths was that Anglicans are Catholics.  Secondly, Anglo-Catholics understood that Apostolic Succession had been preserved in the English Church, thereby insuring the validity of the Sacraments.  Thirdly, they cherished the Book of Common Prayer and in particular the 1549 Book of Common Prayer written by Thomas Cramner, Archbishop of Canterbury.  The 1928 American Book of Common Prayer is based on the 1549 Book of Common Prayer.  Thus, the basis for our own liturgy is shaped by the liturgy of the Ancient Church. 

The English Reformation, unlike the movements led by Luther, Calvin, and others on the Continent, did not seek to replace the medieval Roman Catholic Church, but to reform it.  The standard of this reform was the teaching of Holy Scripture as understood and applied by the tradition of the Church.  It has looked at the example of the undivided Church.  Its goal was simply to restore the Catholic Faith and practice which, for the thousand years before the division of East and West, had been held by all, at all times, and in all places.  We are Anglo-Catholic because we honor God with the profound belief that He demands and deserves our best effort, and that faith and worship within the Church has come down to us unchanged in its essentials. 



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