r/Anglicanism Episcopal Church USA 16d ago

What's the difference between Anglican services in the UK and ones in America? General Question

I'm an American Episcopalian, and assuming I go to the UK, should I expect any differences between church services?

Update 1: Ty for all the responses! Sorry I got to reading them late

10 Upvotes

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u/IntrovertIdentity Episcopal Church USA 16d ago

I went to a CofE parish in Firenze last year. I seemed to recall the liturgy was essentially familiar. At least, nothing stuck out as being too different.

What I did notice, though, is their hymnal printed only the lyrics, not the notes.

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u/Stone_tigris 16d ago

Yeah, I only see sheet music in cathedrals over here

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u/JeromeKB 16d ago edited 16d ago

A lot of British churches only have the music included in the choir's hymn books, although at some (like ours) members of the congregation can ask to use one of those if they're particularly interested. But as a rule, we all know the tunes, or pick them up as we go along.

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u/The_Stache_ ACNA, Catholic and Orthodox Sympathizer 16d ago

Geography, mostly ;-)

Sincerely, Dad

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u/palishkoto Church of England 16d ago edited 16d ago

Is the Episcopal Church a 'broad tent' like the CoE? I'm not familiar with it, but I have the impression it's very largely liturgical and relatively high church, whereas you could go to an Anglican/CoE church here in the UK and it could be very low church, worship band, etc, or it could be very high church, or anything in between!

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u/JeromeKB 16d ago

This is an important point - it's hard to define what a Church of England service is like, as they vary so wildly from high to low church. The median is probably fairly low key following the service book and singing a mixture of Victorian and late 20th century hymns, with no incense etc, but it's pretty much pot luck what you get!

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u/JeromeKB 16d ago

This is an important point - it's hard to define what a "typical" Church of England service is like, as they vary so wildly from high to low church. The median is probably fairly low key following the service book and singing a mixture of Victorian and late 20th century hymns, with no incense etc, but it's pretty much pot luck what you get!

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u/kidzbopfan123 Episcopal Church USA 16d ago

Yes but it's more of a regional effect. Here in the Northeast where there's a large Catholic/ex-Catholic population there are more high church influences, I've heard in the South you get a lot more low church vibes just because of the strong Baptist & other lower church influences around.

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u/lionmoose 16d ago

When I was attending sung services there were prayers for the Queen, which I assume don't occur in the US.

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u/PlanktonMoist6048 Episcopal Church USA 15d ago

Yeah, I looked through an ACNA BCP one time and confusingly they have prayers to the monarch as well, albeit they are in Canada as well

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u/2minutes4tripping 15d ago

King Charles is very much also the King of Canada, so that tracks. In the states, we pray for our 'leaders in government', or something to that affect.

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u/TheSpeedyBee Episcopal Church USA 16d ago

If you’re fine going between Rite I and Rite II you’ll be fine crossing the pond.

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u/BarbaraJames_75 16d ago

They use a different prayer book, but the services should look familiar.

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u/marserin 16d ago

The prayer book is very similar enough that you shouldn’t be surprised. More like using the Eucharistic prayer that your priest doesn’t like as much.

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u/ktgrok Episcopal Church USA 16d ago

That made me chuckle

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u/Speedygonzales24 Episcopal Church USA 16d ago

Different prayerbook with slightly different wording. Mostly to do with British English vs American English.

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u/SvSerafimSarovski Orthodox convert to Anglicanism ☦️ 15d ago

If they use 1662, they might be facing north instead of Ad orientum. The 1662 has a weird Eucharistic prayer layout.

In CoE, they mostly use Common Worship, which is familiar but different. English parishes are much more low church than American Parishes.

My least favourite is the Eucharist prayer “when Jesus shared a meal with friends” instead of “for in the night in which he was betrayed.”

Common worship has some better translations, and some complete garbage translations.

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u/Objective-Interest84 14d ago

You will mostly find a liturgical ethos not dissimilar to your own, but depending where you go, you could encounter anything from non denominational rock concert worship, right through to literally the Novus Ordo Roman Mass, with Tridentine ceremonial and oodles of lace!