Episcopalians have long believed themselves to belong to a church which prides itself on being tolerant enough to provide a home for Christians whose convictions lie across a wide spectrum - a church which is broad minded and (the term made popular within the last dozen or so years) inclusive. The same claim has been made over the generations in a variety of ways. We have claimed to be a "bridge church" and the via media, to value "comprehension for the sake of truth, not compromise for the sake of peace," and to profess and practice "the reformed and catholic religion."

But this commonly accepted image of Anglican tolerance has often been a myth. Although there is much truth in this picture, there are also many realities which show the dark side of our many-faceted Anglican ethos. The inflexibility of Anglicans, always present to some degree, has been especially pronounced whenever there has been a revival, and therefore a threat to the status quo. The three great revivals of the last three centuries - the evangelical revival of the 18th century, the catholic revival of the 19th, and the charismatic revival of the 20th - have contributed to Anglicanism the very elements which have made possible our boast of tolerance; yet each has been vehemently resisted.

After more than a century of lethargy in the Church of England, the evangelical revival began in the mid-1700s under the leadership of Anglican priests John and Charles Wesley. They emphasized the Reformation doctrines of grace, personal conversion, salvation by faith in the atoning death of Christ, and the inspiration of the Bible. Evangelicals made preaching central to church services, and rapidly gained many adherents, who became known as Methodists. But opposition to their enthusiasm grew to the point where evangelical preachers were banned from many churches.

In 1777, one of the leaders of the evangelical movement, George Whitefield, said, "We do not, will not, form any separate sect, but from principle remain, what we have always been, true members of the Church of England." Nevertheless, when the Countess of Huntington opened her domestic chapels and drawing rooms to evangelical Anglican preachers, Parliament responded by passing a law in 1779 that compelled her, against her will, to register her chapels as "nonconformist meeting houses." This action of the establishment was tantamount to removing the evangelicals from the Church of England forcibly. The Methodist schism was formalized in 1795, after both Wesley brothers had died. Certainly a number of actions of the Wesleys and their followers contributed to the schism, but the resistance of the establishment of the church was a primary factor in the making of these decisions.

The few evangelicals who remained in the Church of England became the low church party, who inspired genuine conversions and costly devotion to Christ, raised standards of preaching and morality, brought the gospel to the poor and the unchurched whom the establishment had long neglected, and aroused interest in social concerns and missionary endeavor overseas. The evangelicals brought renewal to the Church of England which had been in hibernation for decades, but which, when the renewal was presented, opposed rather than supported it.

The leadership of the next generation of evangelicals was personified in such men as Charles Simeon, rector of Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge, for more than 50 years, and William Wilberforce, the member of Parliament who almost singlehandedly brought about the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. Their devotion eventually produced grudging acceptance of the movement and respect for its adherents.

In the decade in which Simeon and Wilberforce died, the catholic revival in the Church of England began. Even as the catholic revival was greeted with enthusiastic support by many clergy and laity, opposition to it from others, most especially the church's leadership, quickly arose and intensified. Anglo-Catholics were accused of Romanism, a charge made on the grounds that emphasis on the Church of England's catholic and apostolic heritage was being disloyal to it. Accusations were made against the leaders and reprisals taken against them.

Severe persecution of the leading Anglo-Catholics was intended to eliminate their movement completely. Like the evangelicals before them, Anglo-Catholics were banned from preaching and inhibited from conducting services. In the late 1800s, on numerous occasions, Anglo-Catholic churches were seriously vandalized by other members of the Church of England. A number of priests were even arrested and prosecuted; some were imprisoned for months at a time. Their offenses included the use of candles on the altar, crosses, and vestments, and such practices as adding water to the wine and hearing confessions.

Nevertheless, they brought about a profound sense of reverence in worship, renewed the importance of liturgy, restored religious orders and the practices of retreat and spiritual direction, heightened a sense of the connectedness with the wider church and its heritage, raised the standards of pastoral care, demonstrated the principle of sacrificial living and giving, presented an example of patient martyrdom, and (like the evangelicals before them) evidenced concern for the poor and uneducated and neglected.

Though many individuals and some small bodies like religious orders defected to Rome, the Anglo-Catholics did not leave in a body, and had never organized to do so as had the Methodists. Like the evangelicals before them, many who took that course were certainly sped on their way by the intransigence of the established church. But for the most part they remained in the Church of England and, in the end, they gained the acceptance of nearly everything they taught and practiced.

The third revival in the Anglican Communion, the charismatic or neo-Pentecostal movement, began in the United States in the early 1960s. Neo-Pentecostalism arose spontaneously in the Episcopal and other mainline denominations. It emphasized the presence and gifts of the Holy Spirit in the same fashion as took place for the first Christians on the day of Pentecost. Its adherents value the corporate element in worship (often marked by great spontaneity) and lay special stress on the practice of the spiritual gifts listed in the letters to the Corinthians and described in the Acts of the Apostles - that is, speaking in tongues, healing, the working of miracles and prophecy. The primary characteristic of the movement is the teaching that the experience of the Holy Spirit in the early church is normative - that the Holy Spirit is immediately present and accessible.

Once again, the immediate reaction was negative, although milder than before. Charismatics were called individualists, non-social, and accused of teaching the renewal of individuals at the expense of society.

Yet the fruit of the charismatic renewal includes such powerful ministries as Cursillo and Faith Alive, a profound reverence for scripture and the reality of the promises of God, powerful ministries of prayer, and uncountable conversions and healings.

Several observances in Lesser Feasts and Fasts appear to make us guilty of the charge Jesus made against his generation, that it had built "the tombs of the prophets" which their forbears had refused to heed. Today we commemorate James DeKoven, Edward Bouverie Pusey, Frederick Denison Maurice, Charles Simeon, the Wesleys, and others whose strongest opponents and detractors were the members of their own church. Nevertheless, in our own day similar judgmentalism and inflexibility can be found without effort in all parties and quarters of the Episcopal Church

Gladly, innumerable exceptions can also be found. There are many places where charity and love prevail, where truth is honored and sought after regardless of cost, where differences of conviction are not seen as battle lines but as opportunities to practice love and learn more of the ways of God.

What makes this possible? The answer is what it has always been. We must recognize that we are nowhere charged to be tolerant or inclusive, but rather to be both truthful and charitable. We are commanded to hold truth without compromise, but also to love without limit. When we depart from this way, whatever our convictions, we betray not only the claims of Anglicanism at its best, but basic Christian profession itself. If we do so, we will not have comprehension for the sake of truth, nor even compromise for the sake of peace, but intolerance for the sake of power.

The Rev. David Baumann is rector of the Church of the Blessed Sacrament, Placentia, Calif.