On an entirely different note, this song came into my head today. My mother sang it to me when I was a child. She learned it from her roommate at Vassar in the mid-1950s; her roommate had sung it at an Episcopalian youth camp. I’ve sung it myself for many of my Episcopalian friends (including priests and the current bishop of Los Angeles), and to my amazement, none of them know it. So here it is, and it is to be sung to the tune of “God Bless America”:
I am an Anglican,
I am C.E.:
Neither high church
Nor low church,
I am Protestant and Catholic and Free!
Not a Presby,
Nor a Luth’ran
Nor a Baptist, white with foam;
I am an Anglican –
Just one step from Rome!
I am an Anglican —
Just one step from Rome!
Whether it’s theologically true any longer is debatable, but the bit about the Baptist is pretty darned good.
I did a little googling. From this website: “I Am An Anglican” was written in New York by an obscure group of Episcopalians, hence the tune. We Canadians admire their spirit, and wonder if the text was written because they got tired of the word “Episcopalian” and wanted to get back to the source.”
They don’t give any date, but if the speculation is correct, I imagine it was written during the colonial/antimodernist periods in the interwar years? Of course, that’s just speculation based on speculation.
Interesting that the lyrics there are slightly different… thanks!
Hugo,
“Nor a Baptist, white with foam;”
I don’t understand the Baptist reference. Would you please explain it.
It’s a playful, gentle jab at the Baptist penchant for exuberant preaching. It might have been even better (and more accurate) to say a “Pentecostal, white with foam”, but that wouldn’t scan. It’s not that all Baptists are rabid fundies, but the stereotype is not entirely without truth.
Anglicans in America often call themselves the “frozen chosen”, referring to the historic WASPy penchant for all things solemn, subdued, and elegantly understated. It’s all in good fun to point out differences in style.
My uncle (an Episcopalian) likes to sing that song.
On “frozen chosen,” I always heard it as “God’s frozen people.”
Funny, I went to a Congregational church in high school and he, too, poked fun at the Baptists (and occasionally Methodists) once in awhile. Having had experience with a Missionary Baptist churchgoing friend, the ribbing was always more than welcome. And in this case, definitely made me giggle. Thanks!
I learned “I am an Anglican” at Cass Lake Camp in Minnesota back in the early 1950’s, and always presumed that “white with foam” referred to emerging from total immersion baptism.