DIPLOMA IN ANGLICAN STUDIES

Online

Purpose

All persons seeking ordination to the priesthood in the Anglican Network in Canada are required to demonstrate proficiency in ten Anglican-specific competencies in addition to proficiency in general Bible, theology, church history, and pastoral ministry.

The aim of Packer’s Anglican Studies Program is to supplement general divinity studies with a comprehensive exploration of Anglican history, theology, ministry, polity, liturgy, and spirituality. The program is primarily for persons graduating from non-Anglican seminaries seeking holy orders in the Anglican Network in Canada diocese.

Competencies

A graduate of the Anglican Studies Program will:

1. Understand Anglican History: Understands Anglican history from the Reformation to the present, including its English roots, worldwide expansion, and contemporary Anglicanism including the GAFCON movement and its impact on current Anglicanism.

2. Appreciate the Anglican Way of Theology: Appreciates the way Anglicans have traditionally approached theology and the major Anglican theologians and movements from the sixteenth century to the present.

3. Embrace the Theology of ACNA Liturgical Texts: Embraces the theology of liturgical texts approved for use in the ACNA. 

4. Articulate the Theology of the Thirty-Nine Articles: Articulates the content of the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, their role in Anglicanism, and the ways they have been interpreted and taught from the Reformation until now.

5. Embrace Anglican Ecclesiology: Embraces how Anglicans have understood the nature of the Church.

6. Practice Priestly Ministry: Practices priestly vocation and identity as it has been received within Anglicanism, especially as articulated in the 1662 Ordinal.

7. Exercise Anglican Polity: Exercises church polity from an Anglican perspective, providing an understanding of and appreciation for how the church operates on the parish, diocesan, and provincial levels. 

8. Appreciate and Lead Prayer Book Worship: Appreciates liturgy and its central role in articulating distinctive Anglican doctrine, and identity and can plan and lead prayer book worship.

9. Embrace the Importnace of the Sacraments: Embraces the biblical foundations and historical development of the two dominical sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion as well as other liturgies of the church such as Confirmation, Reconciliation, Ordination, Marriage, and Anointing with Oil.

10. Practice Anglican Spirituality: Practices a distinctive Anglican approach to spiritual and devotional life.

Course of Study

Anglican Way of Theology

Examination of the way Anglicans have traditionally approached theology, via a study of major Anglican theologians from the 16th c. to the present day.

Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion

A theological examination of the 39 Articles, and their importance in today’s church. Along with the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, the Articles provide the “terms and conditions” of our Anglican heritage, and those preparing for its ministry should be conversant with its distinctive claims.

Prayer Book Theology

This course examines the Book of Common Prayer from a theological perspective, taking the 1662 edition as the authoritative book, and looking at how it provides insight into the Canadian (1962), North American (2019), and other editions.

Anglican History

The history, worldwide expansion, and contemporary Anglicanism around the world, covering Reformation times to the present. 

Anglican Ecclesiology and Polity

Church, ministry, and polity from an Anglican perspective, providing an understanding of and appreciation for how the church operates.

Anglican Spirituality

Examination of the identifying marks of a distinctive Anglican approach to spirituality and devotional life, including our liturgical heritage and hymnody.

Liturgics

An examination of Christian worship--its history, development, theology, and symbolism--with a particular emphasis on sacramental theology and its expression in the past and contemporary church.