The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum Lutheran and Anglican Differences

Joe below in another post mentioned that someone was not Reformed, but a Lutheran scholar. My interests is not with that man, but what are the major differences between the Reformed and Lutheran. And I will also inquire on the major differences between the Reformed and the Anglicans.

The main differences between Lutherans and Reformed involve the Regulative Principle of Worship and the sacraments. Most Lutherans would be comfortable with the maxim, "Whatever is not prohibited to the worship of God is permissible." Thus, they will usually go by the church calendar and will also allow images of Christ and sometimes elaborate vestments. In terms of the sacraments, Lutherans generally teach baptismal regeneration and affirm that our Lord's body is present in His Supper (either by thedoctrine of ubiquity or the doctrine of consubstantiation).

Anglicans are much the same in these regards, but there are many more parties within the Anglican church, from Anglo-Catholics to Reformed Evangelicals. The 39 Articles of Faith are generally considered to be Reformed in perspective. The most important thing about Anglicanism is the episcopal polity, where you have a heirarchy of clerical orders. So you have the Bishops over the Priests over the Deacons, just as in the Catholic church but without a Pope. Anglicans are more likely to affirm consubstantiation in regards to the Lord's Supper.

Does that help you out some?

I went to an Anglican service once. The liturgy was Romanist in my opinion. When I asked about the Real Presence, he said Anglicans are not bound by the 39 Articles but only by the prayer book they are using (In his case, the 1928 version). I asked a low church Anglican about this. He replied that what the Priest said was true but the 39 Articles were in the prayer book.

It is evident the Book of Common Prayer has changed over time. The first prayer book was essentially Lutheran (many American Lutherans still use it as the basis for their own liturgy). The second prayer book was Calvinist. Succeeding prayer books became increasing Romanist. Since past prayer books may be used by Anglicans, Anglicanism has elements of Lutherism, Calvinism, and Romanism.

It depends on what Lutherans one is talking about.
their are many many doctrinal differences between those that subscribe to the inerrancy of the bible and the lutheran confession's such as the wels and els and clc and the anglican.
THE differences are so great it break's "all" religious fellowship between the church bodies including prayer and worship fellowship and pulpit fellowship .as far as these 3 Luthern church bodies
teach and confess. even if their was just one doctrinal difference it breaks religious fellowship as far as these 3 Lutheran bodies teach and confess.
Because doctrine does matter.

Yes, doctrine does matter. But it is sufficient to agree concerning teaching of the gospel and administration of the sacraments. Some Lutherans have forgotten this. Did not the CLC split with WELS/ELS over an insurance company? Isn't the relationship between WELS and ELS stressed because the WELS has made doctrinal statements on church and ministry that go beyond the Book of Concord and is pushing ELS to agree with them? Doesn't WELS make new binding doctrinal statements without first seeking the universal consent of the churches of Augsburg confession?

Historically, Anglicans have been much more willing to paper over internal differences than Lutherans. The failure of this policy can be shown by the thousands of denominations spawned by this mother church.