'De-anglicize' Anglicanism, Says Francophone Anglican Leader
Episcopal News Service. May 23, 1996 [96-1476N]
(ENI) Anglicanism will find acceptance among many people in the world's French-speaking areas if it can be de-anglicized, according to Jacques P. Bossiere, the president of a new association of Francophone Anglican churches. He said that Anglicanism originated as a communion provincial in its English expression "but carrying values which have a universal character." Anglicanism originated in the break (1532-1534) between King Henry VIII of England and Pope Clement VII, after which the English Parliament declared Henry to be the "supreme head on earth of the English Church." To some people, an Anglicanism "de-anglicized" might appear to be a contradiction, but not to Bossiere. The genius of Anglicanism lies in the "comprehensiveness" that enables it to hold together such divergent approaches as "high church" and "low church" in a way that Roman Catholicism cannot, he said. Bossiere was recently elected president of an executive committee representing French-speaking Anglican churches. The committee includes representatives from Zaire, Rwanda, Guinea, Mauritius, Seychelles, Haiti, Quebec and France, as well as the United States. They represent some two or three million members world-wide, he said.