Is an Anglican Priest a Catholic or a Protestant.?

Question

If he is a Protestant can he use the name Father. question for a bet.

Answer 1

An Anglican priest is considered to be a Protestant. He is a part of the Church of England, one of the first groups to split form the Catholic Church during the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s. The names "Anglican" was applied during the US Revolutionary War to separate the church from the government of England in people's minds.

The title of "Father" is not normally applied to Anglican Priest.

Answer 2

The term Protestant is commonly reserved for churches that stick closely to the theology of the anti-Catholic reformation of the 16th and 17th Centuries than the Church of England, or Anglican Church, so the Anglican Church does not share all the thoughts of the 'Protestant' churches.

The Angican church is also very definitely not Catholic (with a big 'C') as that refers to the Churches that are considered to be in communion with the Roman Catholic Church (e.g. Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox).

It is worth mentioning that the Anglican Church is heavily divided within itself. Many Anglicans believe that they are 'catholic' with a small c, because they choose to exercise practices that from the outside very closely reflect the practices of the modern, or in some cases ancient, Catholic church. The result is that some individual Anglican pastors will insist on being called 'Father', will use ancient or even Latin Eucharistic rites, and encourage dedication to Mary. Some even encourage pilgrimage to sites of apparitions of Mary and other nonsense.

Other Anglicans, however, are influenced by far more Reformed or Protestant thinking, and would deliberately shun such practices in order to focus on the key tenets of the Gospel of Christ, and effectively put this into practice.

Clergy ordained into the Anglican Church may appear Catholic from the outside, but even the most 'high church' Anglican is only catholic with a small c. Most would not covet that title in the modern theological climate.

Answer 3

well The whole term "protestant" is because we protest the authority of the Pope and the Vatican and submit only to the authority of the Bible..
The Anglican church is a take off of the Catholic church and might be called protestant, but it would depend on who is doing the calling..
I put them about half way in between. Go to this website and read the history. Read the part that says
Discontent with Roman administration of the church.
http://www.anglican.org/church/ChurchHistory.html

I think that you will find that they qualify as Protestant because they left the Catholic church to protest the authority of the Pope.
But a true Christian would quote you the Bible about calling men your spiritual father. Jesus said:
Mat 23:9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.

Answer 4

a) Protestant. And there are no Anglican priests in the Catholic sense. A Catholic priest (sacerdos) is reckoned to offer sacrifices, an essential 'direct line' to God. An Anglican priest (presbyter) is just an overseer. A massive theological difference that few people will inform you about.

b) There is no legal reason why anyone cannot call himself 'Father' (or 'God'), and there is no CoE canon (rule) against it. But there is nothing official in the CoE about calling oneself 'Father', either. It is entirely of one's own _personal_ usage and whim if one calls oneself 'Father', and there is no requirement that anyone should address such a person as 'Father'. Correct etiquette is that the form of address for ordinary clerics is 'Mister' (Mr). Also 'Reverend' is incorrect- it's for the grovelling working class, perhaps.

It is not permitted for Christians to use this title, though, at least in a religious sense.

'Do not call anyone on earth 'Father', for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.' Mt 23:9

All Anglicans sign to assent to the truth of the Bible, yet despite this, some of them style themselves 'Father'- so one can hardly suppose that their teaching is reliable either.
.

Answer 5

Anglicans are protestants. He is not a priest in the eyes of the Catholic church though if you are Anglican you would call him father. If you are not Anglican you can do as you wish in referring to him, Catholics would probably not call him father.

Answer 6

Sorry I think the bet's off. In the UK there are 'high' Anglican churches which behave like the Roman Church where the priest can be called Father and there are 'low' Anglican Churches where the priest is called the vicar or rector.

Answer 7

To your question.
He is a protestant, but'' and a big but, Anglicans are getting towards reunification towards the Catholic church in there thinking, They say the catholic creed and pray for the pope,,
I am a catholic and sometimes go to the Anglican church.

Answer 8

Protestant. Anglican is another name for the C of E.

Answer 9

He's a Protestant. He can call himself Father, which suggests he is "high" Anglican. Usually the term Catholic is reserved for Roman Catholics.

Answer 10

It is a misnoma that an Anglican minister should call himself a priest. A priest by definition in the Church is Roman Catholic and Roman Catholic priests have Apostolic decree to call themselves Father dating from St Jerome in the 4th century. All anglican sects are heretical as they along with the Queen of England and all subsequent monarchs who call themselves "defenders of the faith" were excommunicated by Pope Saint Pius V in his Excommunication Bull "Regnans in Excelsis" issued in April 1570 denouncing Elizabeth I and all protestants as heretics and fit only for the fire to burn as heretics.