# Churchmanship

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Key figuresMissionaries
John Campanius
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William Tyndale
John Rogers
George Constantine
Jozef Roháček
Johannes Avetaranian
Guðbrandur Þorláksson
Ludvig Olsen Fossum
Hans Egede / Paul Egede
Otto Fabricius
Nils Vibe Stockfleth
Olaus Petri / Laurentius Petri
Martti Rautanen
Primož Trubar
Jurij Dalmatin
Ludwig Ingwer Nommensen
Sebastian Krelj
Mikael Agricola
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Samuel Ludwik Zasadius
Stanislovas Rapolionis
Laurentius Andreae
Hans Tausen
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Matthias Bel
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Johann Wilhelm Baier
Philipp Spener
David Hollaz
August Hermann Francke
Henry Muhlenberg
Lars Levi Laestadius
Charles Porterfield Krauth
C. F. W. Walther
Søren Kierkegaard
Albrecht Ritschl
Wilhelm Herrmann
F. W. Stellhorn
Rudolf Otto
Ernst Troeltsch
Rudolf Bultmann
Paul Tillich
Hermann Sasse
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Wolfhart Pannenberg
Robert Jenson :
vte :
Churchmanship (also churchpersonship, or tradition in most official contexts) is a way of talking about and labelling different tendencies, parties, or schools of thought within the Church of England and the sister churches of the Anglican Communion. The term has been used in Lutheranism in a similar fashion.

## Anglicanism

In Anglicanism parties can include, from highest to lowest, Anglo-Papalist, Anglo-Catholic, Prayer Book Catholic, Old High/Center, Broad, Low/Evangelical.
The term is derived from the older noun churchman, which originally meant an ecclesiastic or clergyman but, some while before 1677, it was extended to people who were strong supporters of the Church of England and, by the nineteenth century, was used to distinguish between Anglicans and Dissenters. The word "churchmanship" itself was first used in 1680 to refer to the attitude of these supporters but later acquired its modern meaning. While many Anglicans are content to label their own churchmanship, not all Anglicans would feel happy to be described as anything but "Anglican". Today, in official contexts, the term "tradition" is sometimes preferred.
"High" and "Low", the oldest labels, date from the late seventeenth century and originally described opposing political attitudes to the relation between the Church of England and the civil power. Their meaning shifted as historical settings changed and, towards the end of the nineteenth century, they had come to be used to describe different views on the ceremonies to be used in worship. Shortly after the introduction of the "High/Low" distinction a section of the "Low" Church was nicknamed Latitudinarian because of its relative indifference to doctrinal definition. In the nineteenth century this group gave birth to the Broad Church which, in turn, produced the "Modernist" movement of the first half of the twentieth century. Today, the "parties" are usually thought of as Anglo-Catholics, evangelical Anglicans, and Liberals and, with the exception of "High Church", the remaining terms are mainly used to refer to past history. The precise shades of meaning of any term vary from user to user and mixed descriptions such as liberal-catholic are found. Today "Broad Church" may be used in a sense that differs from the historical one mentioned above and identifies Anglicans who are neither markedly high, nor low/evangelical nor liberal.
It is an Anglican commonplace to say that authority in the church has three sources: Scripture, Reason and Tradition. In general, the Low churchman and the Evangelical tends to put more emphasis upon Scripture, the Broad churchman and the Liberal upon reason and the High churchman or Anglo-Catholic upon tradition. The emphasis on "parties" and differences is necessary but in itself gives an incomplete picture. Cyril Garbett (later Archbishop of York) wrote of his coming to the Diocese of Southwark:
   I found the different parties strongly represented with their own organizations and federations... But where there was true reverence and devotion I never felt any difficulty in worshipping and preaching in an Anglo-Catholic church in the morning and in an Evangelical church in the evening"... and when there was a call for united action... the clergy and laity without distinction of party were ready to join in prayer, work and sacrifice.
and William Gibson commented that
   the historical attention given to the fleeting moments of controversy in the eighteenth century has masked the widespread and profound commitment to peace and tranquility among both the clergy and the laity.... High Church and Low Church were not exclusive categories of thought and churchmanship. They were blurred and broad streams within Anglicanism that often merged, overlapped and coincided.
A traditional poem to describe churchmanship is "Low and Lazy, Broad and Hazy, and High and Crazy." Lazy refers to simpler worship, hazy to unclear tradition or beliefs, and crazy to excessive ceremonialism; but the author of the poem may have been a humorist.
In the United States a "churchman" is a member of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA). Usage of the term began in the nineteenth century and has been modified in the twentieth century.

## Lutheranism

The concept of churchmanship is used in Lutheranism. In Lutheran churches churchmanship can be liberal, pietist, confessional, high church or evangelical Catholic.
There may be overlap between these categories; for example, the Lutheran Church–International (LC–I) is a confessional Lutheran denomination of Evangelical Catholic churchmanship.

## Gallery

* Chancel of Newcastle Cathedral (High Church)
* Altar of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate (Low Church)
* Interior of St Ann's Church, Manchester (Broad Church)
* Interior of All Souls Church, Langham Place (Conservative Evangelical Anglicanism)
* Interior of St Giles Church, Durham (Central churchmanship)
* Chancel of All Saints, Margaret Street (Anglo-Catholicism)
* Chancel of St. Matthew's German Evangelical Lutheran Church (Evangelical Catholic)
* Lutheran Church of the Redeemer (High Church)