St Edmund, King & Martyr In defence of Holy England Go back to contents

The Anglo Saxon English people are a distinct nation, bound together by common origins, culture, history and all those things that a shared sense of belonging entails. We are the Angelcynn, the indigenous people of England, and we assert our right to exist and to celebrate this identity. Anglo Saxon Anglicans aims to help this by developing a form of Indigenous English Folk Christianity rooted in our native Anglican tradition. It is intended to draw together like minded people of an Anglo Saxon English identity and to help build strong English communities with a positive sense of history, identity and purpose. Anglican Christianity grew out of a fusion of the Celtic and Roman missions to the Angelcynn in the days before the Norman Conquest. The Celtic tradition pre-dates the Roman Church and was influenced by the ancient spirituality of the Druids. This, in turn, was similar to the pre-Christian religion of our Anglo Saxon ancestors and so much of Celtic Christianity resonated with them. The Roman tradition brought with it order and discipline as well as beautiful liturgy, vestments and music – something the Anglican tradition has retained and contributed to. This site uses the term Anglican because it is rooted in the Anglican tradition that grew out of the historic Anglo Saxon Church or Ecclesia Anglicana. However, it does not have any formal connections with the modern day Church of England or any of its off shoots. Indeed, these Churches have mostly lost their historic connection to our Anglo Saxon ancestors and to our Anglo Saxon identity and culture. Authentic Anglicanism is an expression of the religious life of the Anglo Saxon English people and is not a universal tradition that is relevant to everyone. Today, many peoples around the world are re-discovering their ancestral folk traditions. Officially, the Church has had mixed views on our folk traditions and has often been hostile to them. In Anglo Saxon times it was illegal to carry out even simple and apparently harmless rituals, such as votive offerings around wells. Punishments could be severe. But the reality is that ‘official’ Christianity never really penetrated that deeply into the general population – at least not until much later in our history. Some of our folk traditions, such as Yuletide, were absorbed into Christianity right from the beginning. Even some traditions that were initially suppressed, such as well dressing or honouring ancestors, came to be accepted in time. The Church is now far more positive about encouraging some native peoples, such as the First Nations peoples of Canada, to reconnect with elements of their native traditions and create an indigenous form of folk Christianity. If this is alright for the native peoples of North America, Australasia and so on – then it is alright for us Anglo Saxons. Anglo Saxon Anglicans is only this web site at present. It is not intended to be a new ‘Church’, at least for the time being. Instead, it will provide a way of looking at our spiritual and communal life that fosters a sense of our identity as Anglo Saxon English people. For some this might be an additional dimension to their existing Church life, whilst for others it may be a way of reconnecting back to the faith of their forebears. It will contain articles on historical subjects that will help us to better understand our roots. It will try to foster a strong sense of Anglo Saxon community, based around the family and clan group. It will offer practical ways of strengthening these such as prayers, blessings and short ceremonies that can be performed in the home and in small family gatherings. It will promote the idea of small churches dedicated to family groups and encourage religious ceremonies to be carried out as part of clan get-togethers. In this way, it is hoped that it will provide a spiritual underpinning for the Anglo Saxon community to mix amongst itself, to marry within the extended community and to raise strong families within the security of the wider folk group. This is what is meant by being folkish.