The Historic Episcopate, Locally Adapted

Abstract

"Anglicanism has traditionally defined itself in ways which have included a commitment to episcopacy. The Lambeth Quadrilateral (1888) classically expresses the grounds of Anglican unity and the basis of its mission in terms of Scripture, the creeds, the sacraments of baptism and eucharist, and 'The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its admini~tration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the unity of His Church'. That statement was drawn directly from a report which had been received two years earlier by the Protestant Episcopal Church of the USA, and indirectly from a remarkable New York clergyman, William Reed Huntingdon, and drew upon nearly thirty years of debate in North America about how far the traditions of the Church of England could be appropriated to provide a basis for authentic Christian presence in a new cultural situation"