The Anglican Tradition

Founded in 1842 by a Missionary Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Nashotah House belongs to the Anglican tradition of worship, theology and spirituality. That is, Nashotah House traces her roots to the Church of England and locates herself within the worldwide Anglican Communion.

“Sane, wise, ancient, modern, sound, and simple,” as Martin Thornton calls it, the Anglican tradition is rooted in the witness of the Holy Scriptures and the Early Fathers, and is often described as a via media between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Sometimes called “reformed Catholicism,” Anglicanism gives equal weight to Word and Sacrament in its worship, and secures its polity in the Apostolic Succession of bishops. With Holy Scripture as its rule of faith, Anglicanism reserves a place for Reason and Tradition in its theological discourse, and has always made a strong association between what the Church believes and what the Church prays. Lex orandi, lex credendi - “the law of prayer is the law of belief” - well expresses the close correspondence in classical Anglicanism between doctrine and doxology.

Serving students from traditions as various as Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, charismatic and evangelical non-denominational, Nashotah House has seen that the Anglican tradition of spirituality and theology is extremely well-suited to form leaders of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church in all her communities.