All Things Seen & Unseen

The People of God as One People These posts in this series are an att empt to deal with some of the complicated issues s urrounding the identity of the people of God as the one p eople of God . They examine how the Church and cultural Israel are related within the b roader scope of the s everal types of eschatology (end-time stud y ). For t he complexity of the issues has led to a multiplic ity of differing viewpoints that can be confusing without some road map : using some type of classification of views is one way to create order in an otherwise t angled scene.  

Introduction The Roman Catholic Church finds its unity in the Pope; the Eastern Orthodox Churches find their unity in the decisions of the seven Ecumenical Councils of the unified Church before it split into East and Western Church in AD1054 (although the division between East and West had begun well before that date). Anglicanism is made up of 38 member Churches (provinces*) which makes up the Anglican Communion. Each of these member churches or provinces is in communion with the Canterbury diocese in England as the first diocese of the Church of England. But the question arises, where does that communion find its unity? (We need to bear in mind that the question of unity is different from the question of authority which will be dealt with in the next post.) First, it doesn't have a supreme Bishop or Pope like the Roman Church. Second, nor does it look to historical councils as such for its unity as does Orthodoxy. Yet, Anglicanism does have a basis for its unity. Th...