FAQs

Province
The national Anglican Church is called a province, such as the Anglican Church of North America. Anglican provinces are autonomous. A province is not legally bound to other Anglican provinces. For example, the Anglican province of Kenya is not legally bound to the Anglican province of Uganda, yet they are in communion with each other. Therefore, we are commonly called the Anglican Communion. Anglicans are united in Christ by way of orthodox doctrine and the Table of the Lord. What we believe is expressed and maintained by our communion with one another across the world.

Read more on the ACNA structure

Diocese
A diocese is a group of churches in a geographical region with a bishop as pastor and guardian of the faith. The bishop is a pastor to the rectors, or senior pastors, within the diocese. A diocese is a cluster of churches within a province. The Anglican Church in North America, a province, comprises 28 dioceses.

Deanery

A deanery is a smaller cluster of churches within a diocese. A deanery is headed by a dean, a senior priest, as the first order of contact and pastoral care for clergy and other matters within the deanery. Each Dean sits on the Bishop’s Council.

To Summarize
St. Aidan’s is a member of the Anglican Church of North America Province within the Anglican Diocese of the Upper Midwest and the Chicago Deanery.

Read more about the Anglican Diocese of the Upper Midwest

Accountability

All bishops are accountable to the college of bishops. All deacons and priests are accountable to their bishops. Also, the senior priest of each local church is accountable to the local vestry or parish council.

The Anglican Church is catholic, not Roman Catholic; orthodox, not Eastern Orthodox. The three ancient streams, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and Anglicans, all share the roots of the first millennial Church.

Our doctrinal distinctives from Rome are expressed in the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion in our Book of Common Prayer. We are Reformed Catholics, with holy scripture as our primary source of authority. Tradition and reason then follow the primacy of holy scripture. For more, read.

St. Aidan's is an expression of traditional Anglicanism while avoiding traditionalism. We believe that tradition is the living faith of the dead; but traditionalism is the dead faith of the living (Jaroslav Pelikan). Therefore, liturgy isn’t dead, but people can be!

Throughout the world, Anglicans use a liturgical book of worship called the Book of Common Prayer. Our tradition is rooted in the ancient liturgy, creeds and ecumenical councils of the ancient church. This grounds and unifies us in the unchanging faith.

Like banks guiding a river, our forms provide a path for the Holy Spirit to flow, making the liturgy alive within the worshiper’s heart. Visit, taste and see that the Lord is good and alive among us!

Visit on Sunday

The aim of our worship together is transcendent. We seek to worship in communion with the Church, on earth and in heaven. As we worship together in the name of our Lord, he is present among us, uniting us with the worship of heaven. John’s book of Revelation depicts various scenes of the heavenly worship. Priests and Deacons wear white albs to remind us that we are united with the white-robed martyrs of Revelation 6:11. The white alb reminds us of how the martyrs have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb (Rev. 7:12-14).

This is why the liturgical color of Easter is white, representing the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The stole around the neck of the priest and deacon signifies the towel of servanthood, and the liturgical season is represented by a change in color.

The Anglican Church is one of three ancient streams of Christianity: Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Anglican. All three have maintained three biblical expressions of ordained ministry: deacons, priests, and bishops. These are called Holy Orders.

In our post-modern world, we need clarity of the words holy and orders in relation to holy orders. What is the historical context which shines light on our current usage? Since the first monks populated the Egyptian desert in the fourth century, a growing and diverse organization of orders emerged. An order is a body of persons living under a religious discipline. The word “order” is derived from the Latin “ordo,” meaning rank, routine, or row. Thus, an order is a brotherhood or sisterhood, a collective gathered around a common rule of life.

Anglican ecclesiology, church ministry, and structure are rooted in the early Church’s development of clergy, or those called to serve and equip the people of God to exercise their gifts and skills to build up the Church, the body of Christ. Holy Orders comprised three orders: deacons, priests (presbyters), and bishops. Paul’s New Testament letters display this emerging order of ordained ministers, those “set apart” for service to the Church (I Timothy 4, Ephesians 4, etc.).

The foundational ministry of Christ is the order of the deacon, meaning “servant.” What is the difference between the general call for every Christian to serve and the order of the diaconate? If everyone is called to serve, why then are only some ordained? Ordained ministry is more than a call to serve the Church; it is the call to be the Church’s servant. Ordination is not about being recognized and validated but about recognizing and serving Christ in the least of his brothers (Matthew 25:40).

One must also remain a deacon when a deacon is ordained to the priesthood. If a priest is consecrated as a bishop, the bishop remains a priest and a deacon. The call to be the Church’s servant remains as one becomes more lowly as a bishop.

God gifts, calls, and raises leaders in the body of Christ to build up the church and equip her for the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:12). Ordination, or Holy Orders, is a process whereby the church recognizes and confirms those gifts and callings. It culminates in the bishop laying hands on the candidate with prayer, conveying the grace of the Holy Spirit for a specific office and ministry. Following an ancient pattern, Anglicans recognize three offices of ordained ministers: deacons, priests, and bishops. Each of these offices has unique responsibilities and oversight in the church family.

Understanding How Our Staff is Comprised:

Our staff includes lay leaders, ordained leaders, and lay male and female pastors. “Lay leaders” are members of the church who lead a ministry but have not been ordained. “Pastors” are leaders (either lay or ordained) who oversee an area of pastoral ministry. We view lay pastors, male and female, as those bestowed with a charism (gift) of caregiving, counsel, and equipping, not to be confused with ordained presbyters (priests).

We wholeheartedly affirm women in ministry and encourage women to lead as pastors, teachers, small group leaders, worship leaders, global missionaries, parish council (board) members, junior and senior wardens (parish council leaders), and executive staff. We are part of a Diocese which ordains women into Holy Orders as deacons, but not as priests or bishops, in keeping with the scriptural teaching and historical tradition of the Church that only males can be admitted to the offices of presbyter and bishop (1 Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9). We reject any notion of male superiority in the historical and biblical practice of male headship.

If you want to read more about Holy Orders in the Anglican Diocese of the Upper Midwest, please read the document Understanding Holy Orders.

Anglican worship is embodied, utilizing bread, wine, water, oil, candles, incense, crosses, altars, and, not least, our bodies. We worship with our bodies, not just our thought; the visible and the invisible united. Biblical worship is replete with embodied worship (bowing, kneeling, lying prostrate, lifting of hands, etc.). Romans 12:1-2 exhorts Christians to offer their bodies to God in worship and to be transformed by the renewing of one’s mind. Body and mind are united, not split apart. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 6:19).

Making the sign of the cross is an ancient form of praying with one’s body. The sign of the cross is a means of bodily prayer affirming one’s source of salvation, the cross of Christ. It also affirms one God as Trinity, God the Father, God the Son and God, the Holy Spirit. Lastly, the sign of the cross is a symbol of sealing (see biblical citations below).

Two citations from the ancient Church of the Great Tradition:
In the second century, Tertullian (The Chaplet, 204): At every forward step and movement, at every going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, in all the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the sign of the cross.

Cyril of Jerusalem (Catechetical Lectures, mid‐fourth century): Let us not then be ashamed to confess the Crucified. Be the Cross our seal made with boldness by our fingers on our brow, and on everything; over the bread we eat, and the cups we drink; in our comings in, and goings out; before our sleep, when we lie down and when we rise up; when we are in the way, and when we are still. Great is that preservative; it is without price, for the sake of the poor; without toil, for the sick; since also its grace is from God. It is the Sign of the faithful , and the dread of devils: for He triumphed over them in it, having made a show of them openly (Col. 2:15): for when they see the Cross, they are reminded of the Crucified; they are afraid of Him who bruised the heads of the dragon (Ps. 74:13). Despise not the Seal, because of the freeness of the gift; but for this the rather honor your Benefactor. (Lecture 13, paragraph 36)

Biblical basis as a symbol of sealing
i. And the LORD said to him, ‘Go through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.’ (Ezekiel 9:4).

The ancient Hebrew letter, Tav, is used for the mark. Tav is the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet (Jesus as the Alpha and Omega), and before the alphabet was updated, the Tav was a diagonal cross. The holy angels who sealed the godly sealed them with a cross, prefiguring the Lamb of God.
ii. Then I saw another angel ascend from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, ‘Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God upon their foreheads.’(Revelation 7:2‐3)

iii. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green growth or any tree, but only those of mankind who have not the seal of God upon their foreheads (Revelation 9:4)

iv. Then I looked, and lo, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and‐with him a hundred and forty‐four thousand who had his name and his Fatherʹs name written on their foreheads. (Revelation 14:1).

We believe that the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (I Cor. 1:18).

Icons have been part of ancient Christian worship virtually since the beginning. Paintings on Rome’s catacombs date from as early as the second century. St. Paul says that Christ is the image (ikon in Greek) of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation (Colossians 1:15). Since the invisible God became a human being, the theology of the incarnation helped develop the use of icons in Christian worship. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, icons have a prominant role in the liturgy and are venerated and never worshiped. Veneration is a means of honor given to those who are united with Christ, awaiting the resurrection of the body. Such saints are part of all the company of heaven, saints and angels around the Throne of God. As all in Christ are united, earthly and heavenly, all are untied in communion together. There is one body in heaven and on earth, the church triumphant (heavenly) and militant (earthly). We catch a glimpse of this communion of the saints in Jesus speaking with Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. We also see the cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 11-12 and throughout John’s Revelation of Jesus Christ (e.g.,Rev. 5:8; 7:13-14).

Anglicans have no united practice of the use of symbols and icons. Those who embody the Great Tradition, called high church Anglicans, are more apt to incorporate the use of symbols and icons. Other Anglicans, those identifying as low church Anglicans, may not make use of symbols and icons. Rectors in consultation with the bishops may chart a path towards a congregation’s particular expression of worship.

At St. Aidan’s we value the Great Tradition of worship and expressions of truth, goodness, and beauty. We seek to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness and the freedom of the Holy Spirit. Icons are like family photos, reminding us that as we approach the Throne of God in worship, we are not alone. We come before God and all the company of heaven.

Most of us were not raised as Anglicans or in any other liturgical tradition. We understand how awkward and mechanical it may feel the first month or so of attending liturgical worship. We also know how second nature it becomes as one takes time to prayerfully absorb the stages of the liturgy. The goal of liturgy is to let it become a part of one’s inner life. Then, one can fully worship in spirit and in truth, together with all the saints!

To make the liturgy more accessible, we print weekly bulletins that guide us all through worship. The bulletins alert us to stand, sit, or kneel. The lyrics of songs and hymns are printed as well. And it’s totally okay, as the church worships, to just sit and take it all in, without saying anything. Just sit and open up your heart to the Lord. Jesus is among us, and he desires to touch you!

Between the two movements of the liturgy, Word and Table, we take a moment to greet one another, saying, “The peace of the Lord be with you.” In the ancient church, as the faithful were preparing to partake of the Eucharist, they would greet one another with a kiss of peace. This was in line with the apostolic imperative given by Saints Paul and Peter: “Greet one another with a holy kiss” (Romans 16:16; 2 Corinthians 13:13), and “Greet one another with the kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ” (1 Peter 5:14). This face-to-face encounter was to not only greet another but to have an opportunity to handle any need for reconciliation. One of the earliest Christian documents we have, the Didache, late first century, puts it like this, “On every Lord’s Day — his special day — come together and break bread and give thanks, first confessing your sins so that your sacrifice may be pure. Anyone at variance with his neighbor must not join you, until they are reconciled, lest your sacrifice be defiled…” (Did. Xiv.2). In short, these greetings embody the fact that we belong to one another. Our common bond is Jesus.

We understand this peace as embodied in Christ himself. “For he himself is our peace, who has made us both (Jew and Gentile) one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility … that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near” (Ephesians 2:14-17). The whole universe is realigned by the reconciling work of the crucified and risen Lord Jesus. Therefore, may the peace of the Lord, the Lord himself, be with you.

Our communion table is open to all who have been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. We ask that those receiving communion are in process of living a baptized life in Christ, in present-tense relationship with the Lord and his Church.

For more information on our view of baptism and holy communion, see FAQ - What are the Sacraments of the Gospel? Baptism and Holy Communion.

Casual or formal, but most all of us dress casually.

Visit on Sunday

We have children’s ministry classes for crawling through elementary school. Families worship together, then children are released to their classes during the sermon, prayers and creed. Children return to worship with their families during Holy Communion.

Children’s Ministry

Since we are an Anglican Church, drawing inspiration from the ancient Celtic Church of England, we chose St. Aidan as an inspiration of apostolic (missional) work of Christian renewal among the pagans in the northern part of England, 627 AD. As Christ ever lives to make intercession for all his children (Heb. 7:25), the saints in heaven offer prayers like sweet smelling incense (Rev. 5:8). We value the prayers from those within the cloud of witnesses (Heb. 11-12).

More on St. Aidan

Beginning with the Celtic Church, c. 325 AD, the Anglican church (Anglican meaning the English people) existed over 1,200 years before Henry VIII. In short, Henry didn't start the Anglican Church —he became head of the church of the English people, in place of the pope in 1534. The Anglican Church, therefore, is a Reformed Catholic Church, retaining the ancient episcopal ecclesiology of bishops, priests, and deacons; liturgy in worship; and the sacraments.

Outside of the United Kingdom, the English monarchy is not the head of global Anglicans.

The Anglican Church of North America was formed at the request of a majority of the global Anglican Church and her hierarchy to establish an orthodox province of Anglicanism in North America.

We seek to be in unity with historic Christianity’s understanding of biblical authority, resulting in her teaching on gender and human sexuality. We believe that marriage is a holy union between a man (born a man) and a woman (born a woman). The Episcopal Church has chosen to reinterpret the scriptures on these and other important matters.

more info on ACNA

Our basic doctrinal beliefs are stated within the Thirty-Nine Articles in the Book of Common Prayer. We affirm the Apostle’s Creed and the Nicene Creed as universally accepted statements on the Holy Trinity, the Church, and the final coming of Christ and his eternal Kingdom.

For more detail, read more here.

Our Beliefs

To learn more about the Christian liturgical calendar, click HERE.

The following is taken from To Be A Christian: An Anglican Catechism (ACNA)

CONCERNING SACRAMENTS

102. What is a sacrament?

A sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. God gives us the sign as a means whereby we receive that grace, and as a tangible assurance that we do in fact receive it. (1662 Catechism)

103. How should you receive the sacraments?

I should receive the sacraments by faith in Christ, with repentance and thanksgiving. Faith in Christ is necessary to receive grace, and obedience to Christ is necessary for the benefits of the sacraments to bear fruit in my life. (1662 Catechism; Articles of Religion, 28)

104. What are the sacraments of the Gospel?

The two sacraments ordained by Christ, which are generally necessary for our salvation, are Baptism and Holy Communion, which is also known as the Lord’s Supper or the Holy Eucharist. (Articles of Religion, 25)

105. What is the outward and visible sign in Baptism?

The outward and visible sign is water, in which candidates are baptized “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” – the name of the Triune God to whom the candidate is being committed. (1662 Catechism, 1 Peter 3:21; Matthew 28:19)

106. What is the inward and spiritual grace set forth in Baptism?

The inward and spiritual grace set forth is a death to sin and a new birth to righteousness, through union with Christ in his death and resurrection. I am born a sinner by nature, separated from God, but in baptism, rightly received, I am made God’s child by grace through faith in Christ. (John 3:3-5; Romans 6:1-11; Ephesians 2:12; Galatians 3:27-29)

107. What is required of you when you come to be baptized?

Repentance, in which I turn away from sin; and faith, in which I turn to Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord and embrace the promises that God makes to me in this sacrament. (Acts 2:38)

108. Why is it appropriate to baptize infants?

Because it is a sign of God’s promise that they are embraced in the covenant community of Christ’s Church. Those who in faith and repentance present infants to be baptized vow to raise them in the knowledge and fear of the Lord, with the expectation that they will one day profess full Christian faith as their own. (Acts 2:39)

109. What signs of the Holy Spirit’s work do you hope and pray to see as a result of your baptism?

I hope and pray that the Holy Spirit who indwells me will help me to be an active member of my Christian community, participate in worship, continually repent and return to God, proclaim the faith, love and serve my neighbor, and strive for justice and peace. (Hebrews 10:25; 12:14; 1 Peter 3:15; 1 John 1:9; 2:1)

110. Why did Christ institute the sacrament of Holy Communion?

He instituted it for the continued remembrance of the sacrifice of his atoning death, and to convey the benefits the faithful receive through that sacrifice. (Luke 22:17-20; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17)

111. What is the outward and visible sign in Holy Communion?

The visible sign is bread and wine, which Christ commands us to receive. (1 Corinthians 11:23)

112. What is the inward and spiritual thing signified?

The spiritual thing signified is the body and blood of Christ, which are truly taken and received in the Lord’s Supper by faith. (1 Corinthians 10:16-18; 11:27; John 6:52-56)

113. What benefits do you receive through partaking of this sacrament?

As my body is nourished by the bread and wine, I receive the strengthening and refreshing of my soul by the body and blood of Christ; and I receive the strengthening and refreshing of the love and unity I share with fellow Christians, with whom I am united in the one Body of Christ. (1662 Catechism)

114. What is required of you when you come to receive Holy Communion?

I am to examine myself as to whether I truly repent of my sins and intend to lead the new life in Christ; whether I have a living faith in God’s mercy through Christ and remember his atoning death with a thankful heart; and whether I have shown love and forgiveness to all people. (1 Corinthians 11:27-32)

115. What is expected of you when you have shared in Holy Communion?

Having been renewed in my union with Christ and his people through sharing in the Supper, I should continue to live in holiness, avoiding sin, showing love and forgiveness to all, and serving others in gratitude.

Item description

We consider every baptized believer, living in fellowship with Christ, fellow members of the Body of Christ. This is why we practice open communion for baptized believers, living in union with Christ.

Membership at St. Aidan’s is of another sort. Our Membership process aims at helping us be on the same page about the basics of Christian community, human sexuality, personal accountability, and other important theological matters. It is specific and local in scope.

Our membership covenant is a “rule” of life, inspired by the ancient monastic communities, to provide common biblical commitments towards a unified vision and way of life under the authority of Scripture and Christ’s Holy Church.

Our membership covenant is not expressly Anglican, but wholly biblical, as the New Testament describes what God’s new community looks like. This biblical vision of common life is described under four headings: Worship, Mission, Generosity, and Community.

Steps towards Membership at St. Aidan’s?

1. Regularly attend a minimum of six months before initiating the request.
2. Explore St. Aidan’s talks on mp3, and read Deep Anglicanism by Gerald McDermott.
3. One must be 18 or older
4. One must have been water baptized or request water baptism in the Triune Name.
5. If not Confirmed, receive the Sacrament of Confirmation upon the next visit by the Bishop.
6. Review various documents germane to membership and one’s Personal Path Profile (how one can offer their spiritual gifts and skills to serve).
7. Meet with the Rector to review one’s Personal Path Profile. Here we cover one’s spiritual gifts, skills, education, personality, experience, and interests in serving within St. Aidan’s.

Continual pastoral care and development are given to such members. We believe that every member is a minister!