The Undivided Church
For the first thousand years of its history, the Christian Church was one — divided by heresy and schism at various points, but always recovering its unity through the process of conciliar discernment and reception. The Seven Ecumenical Councils, from Nicaea (325) to the Second Council of Nicaea (787), represent the high-water mark of this unity: the whole Church, East and West, gathered to define the Faith against heresy and to express its common life in the Holy Spirit. This unity was not a uniform centralisation; it was a communion of local churches, each governed by its own bishop, united in the one Faith, the one Eucharist, and the one Apostolic Order. The five great patriarchates — Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem — each had their own traditions, their own theological emphases, and their own liturgical customs, but they were united in the essentials of the Faith and in mutual recognition of each other's orders and sacraments.
The Causes of the Schism
The Great Schism of 1054 — the formal separation between the Church of Rome and the Church of Constantinople — was the culmination of centuries of growing estrangement between East and West. Its causes were both theological and political. The primary theological cause was the Filioque controversy. The Western Church had added the word Filioque ('and from the Son') to the Nicene Creed, so that the article on the Holy Spirit read: 'who proceeds from the Father and the Son.' The Eastern Church objected that this addition was both theologically erroneous and canonically illegitimate — erroneous because it compromised the monarchy of the Father as the sole source of the Godhead, and illegitimate because no local church had the authority to alter the text of an Ecumenical Council. The primary political cause was the growing claim of the Bishop of Rome to a universal jurisdiction over the whole Church. The Eastern Church recognised the Bishop of Rome as the first among equals — the senior patriarch, whose see had a primacy of honour — but not as the universal monarch of the Church, whose decisions were binding on all other bishops without the consent of an Ecumenical Council. The conflict between these two ecclesiologies came to a head in 1054, when the papal legates excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople, and the Patriarch responded in kind.
The Anglican Position
The Anglican tradition has always sought to hold a middle position between Rome and the East. The Elizabethan Settlement rejected the papal claims while retaining the Catholic Faith, the Apostolic Succession, and the sacramental life. The Caroline Divines — Lancelot Andrewes, William Laud, Jeremy Taylor — appealed to the undivided Church of the first five centuries as the standard of orthodoxy, refusing to be bound by either Roman innovations or Protestant reductions. The Holy Catholic Church Anglican Rite stands in this tradition. We reject the papal claims to universal jurisdiction and infallibility, which were not part of the Faith of the undivided Church. We also reject the Protestant reduction of the Church to a voluntary association of individuals, and the Protestant denial of the sacramental life. We seek to hold fast to the Faith and Order of the undivided Church, as expressed in the Seven Ecumenical Councils and the consensus of the Fathers.
The Way Back to Unity
The restoration of Christian unity is one of the great imperatives of our time. Our Lord's prayer 'that they may all be one' (John 17:21) is a constant challenge to the divided Church. But unity cannot be achieved by the lowest common denominator — by setting aside the Faith in order to achieve institutional union. True unity is unity in the Truth. The way back to unity requires, first, a return to the Faith of the undivided Church — the Faith defined by the Seven Ecumenical Councils, expressed in the historic creeds, and transmitted through the Apostolic Succession. It requires, second, a willingness to acknowledge the errors and sins that have contributed to division — on all sides. And it requires, third, a patient, prayerful, and charitable dialogue, conducted in the spirit of the Fathers, who sought always to understand before they condemned. The Holy Catholic Church Anglican Rite is committed to this work of unity. We are in dialogue with Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and other Anglican bodies, seeking to identify the common ground on which a restored unity might be built. We do not claim to have all the answers, but we are committed to the search, trusting that the Holy Spirit who guided the undivided Church will guide us also.