Denominational Jigsaw

It’s funny. People often assume if you’re an Anglican, and especially if you’re a warden, that you’ve been an Anglican for your entire life, and never strayed. Or, never played in any different playground. But my life, and my husband’s life, have been quite different from that. Here’s how.

I grew up in an unchurched family in the south of England. When I was about seven a friend took me to the afternoon Sunday School at her house church, where we learned bible verses and I was given my own bible for “good attendance.” I gave it back: even at seven, I had a strong sense of justice, and I felt my attendance had really not been good enough.

When I was 9 ½ we moved to the country, and my sister and I were sent to the nearest good school, which was a private girls’ school in the local village, and it happened to be Anglican. I stayed there right through high school and loved it. We had half-days off for Michaelmas and Ascension Day and Whitsun, after we’d all been to the local church in the morning in a crocodile of paired girls. The headmistress wore suits that matched the liturgical colour of the season. There was a service in the chapel once a week, and hymns and scripture at assembly every morning. We learned Bible stories and catechism in class. I got baptized because everyone else had been. I got confirmed four years later because I wanted to be serious about it all. I hoped gold letters would appear on the wall to clarify my faith, but they didn’t.

When I was 18, I went to university. There I met a new kind of Christian: bright, joyful, excited, and serious about faith. Mainly guys, because in that particular university at that time, the ratio of guys to girls was about 15:1. The Christian group was several hundred strong and very lively: they met weekly for prayer on Saturday mornings, bible teaching on Saturday evenings, and a worship service on Sunday evenings. The group was interdenominational, but the two biggest “student churches” in the area were both evangelical Anglican churches. Encouraged by some of my new friends, I got stuck in.

It was in that group that I met John, my future husband. When I visited his home in North Wales, we went to a little Baptist chapel, with lovely people and a terrible organ. When he visited my home in Surrey, we went to a big Baptist church in the local town, with excellent preaching and lots of warm fellowship. But we married in the local Anglican church.

Once we were married, John went to an Anglican theological college in Bristol for two years and I taught high school; there we attended a Brethren assembly because John felt we shouldn’t get too Anglican. The Brethren were a lovely group of people, two of whom had an open house for students every Sunday afternoon. But it was a difficult place to be a woman: we were allowed to pray on Wednesday evenings but not to speak in the services on Sundays.

Then John started work with the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF) in York, and I taught in a teachers’ college there. John’s work meant he rubbed shoulders constantly with Christians from every denomination you can think of. At home, the most alive church in the city was evangelical Anglican, right next to the famous Minster, so we went there for four years and learned a whack of stuff. It’s still the liveliest local church we’ve ever been part of.

Then we moved to Canada, for John to work with Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) in Toronto. More interaction with Christians from a wide range of denominations. The nearest local church to our apartment that had a strong student ministry was Knox Presbyterian, so that’s where we went. Long sermons, big heart for missions, big choir. Communion only four times a year, and you got visited by an elder before you were deemed ready to take it.

When we moved to Ottawa, the local church was Anglican. We thought it was a good idea that our kids would see some of their classmates on Sundays as well as at school. The church was small and often a bit wayward: the initial Church School leader was a Buddhist, which made for a fascinating and memorable Nativity Pageant in our first year there. Later we became Church School leaders ourselves. I joined a wonderful bible study group for young moms. John was still working with an interdenominational team, though his D. Min. studies linked him to a Baptist college (McMaster Divinity College) in Hamilton.

In our last year in Ottawa, I was commuting to Montreal to teach at the Université de Montréal. There I developed a strong friendship with a Catholic grad student who went on to become a priest. So, I got to know a whole lot about Catholicism, experienced Catholic services in many different churches and a couple of monasteries, and had many complex discussions with my friend.

And then we moved to Hamilton. We spent a year travelling around on Sundays to churches of many different denominations, to get a sense of what God is up to in this city, but also to make connections with an interdenominational community. While I got a teaching job at a Reformed Christian university, John started working for an Anglican theological college. And finally, we settled in our local Anglican church, which we can walk to from our house, and where we’ve now been for 27 years.

It does feel like home. We love liturgy and weekly eucharist, and being connected to a worldwide church with concerned members involved all over the world. We love being in a church that is connected also to its own rich history, as well as to its scriptural roots. We’ve realized that fundamentally our sympathies and our aesthetic are Anglican. But we are so grateful for the years of experience we’ve had with other denominations. We’ve discovered that few Christians ever have this privilege of experiencing the riches of other denominational traditions, other ways of doing things, and other flavours of brothers and sisters. Baptists and Reformed folk know their Bibles so much better than Anglicans do, and they’re better at tithing; Brethren and Pentecostals know more about listening to the Spirit’s guidance in worship; Presbyterians are more used to paying attention to teaching in lengthy sermons and adult bible classes; Catholics know about simple liturgical music and racial inclusiveness; Evangelicals of all stripes are stronger in prayer and concern for mission. So, we know we have been deeply blessed, and we try to bring those blessings with us into our Anglican church home.