A Question of Identity
When people encounter the Holy Catholic Church Anglican Rite for the first time, they often ask: 'Are you Anglican or Catholic?' The question is understandable, but it rests on a false dichotomy. The HCC-AR is both — and in a sense that neither the Anglican Communion nor the Roman Catholic Church fully embodies. The Anglican Communion, as it exists today, has departed from the Catholic Faith in matters of doctrine, order, and morality. The ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate, the blessing of same-sex unions, and the revision of the liturgy in ways that obscure or deny the sacrificial character of the Eucharist — these are not matters of secondary importance but of the substance of the Faith. The HCC-AR cannot be in communion with a body that has embraced these departures. The Roman Catholic Church, for its part, has added to the Faith definitions that the undivided Church never made — the Immaculate Conception (1854), Papal Infallibility (1870), and the Assumption (1950 as a dogma de fide) — and has claimed for the Bishop of Rome a universal jurisdiction and infallibility that the ancient Church did not recognise. The HCC-AR cannot accept these additions as binding on all Christians.
The Continuing Anglican Church
The Holy Catholic Church Anglican Rite is part of the Continuing Anglican movement that emerged from the Congress of St. Louis in 1977. When the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada departed from the Catholic Faith and Apostolic Order, faithful Anglicans gathered to affirm their intention to 'continue in the Catholic Faith, Apostolic Order, Orthodox Worship and Evangelical Witness of the traditional Anglican Church.' The Continuing Anglican Church does not claim to be a new church. It claims to be the continuation of the Church of England as it was received at the Reformation — a Church that retained the Catholic Faith, the Apostolic Succession, and the sacramental life, while rejecting the corruptions and innovations of Rome. The Anglican Reformers did not intend to found a new church but to reform and purify the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church in England. The HCC-AR stands in this tradition. It uses the traditional Book of Common Prayer (the American 1928 and Canadian 1962 editions), maintains the threefold order of bishops, priests, and deacons in the Apostolic Succession, and holds the Catholic Faith as defined by the Seven Ecumenical Councils and expressed in the historic creeds.
Eucharistic Ecclesiology
The theological foundation of the HCC-AR's understanding of itself is what theologians call 'Eucharistic Ecclesiology.' This is the understanding that the Church is constituted by the Eucharist — that wherever the Eucharist is celebrated by a validly ordained priest in Apostolic Succession, there is the Church of Christ. This understanding, rooted in the theology of St. Ignatius of Antioch and developed by modern Orthodox theologians such as Fr. Nicholas Afanasiev and Metropolitan John Zizioulas, means that the Church is not primarily a juridical institution governed by a central authority, but a eucharistic community gathered around the bishop. The bishop is the centre of unity in the local Church; the local Church is in communion with all other local Churches that share the same Faith and Order. On this understanding, the HCC-AR is a genuine part of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church — not because it is in communion with Rome or Canterbury, but because it celebrates the authentic Eucharist, maintains the Apostolic Succession, and holds the Catholic Faith. Communion with Rome or Canterbury is desirable, but it is not the criterion of catholicity.
The Answer
So: are we Anglican or Catholic? We are both. We are Anglican in our liturgical tradition, our use of the Book of Common Prayer, our theological method (Scripture, Tradition, and Reason), and our historical continuity with the Church of England. We are Catholic in our Faith, our Order, our Sacraments, and our commitment to the undivided Church of the first millennium as the standard of orthodoxy. We are not a sect or a splinter group. We are the continuation of the authentic Anglican tradition — a tradition that has always understood itself as a part of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. We invite all who love the Catholic Faith and the Anglican heritage to worship with us, to receive the sacraments with us, and to join us in the great work of holding fast to the Faith once delivered to the saints.