The following introduction to Anglican Catholic Faith and Practice was written by the Most Reverend William O. Lewis, late Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Anglican Catholic Church.

The Anglican Catholic Church was born in defense of the Catholic Faith. The events of that birth include a great number of writings declaring the position of the Church against modernism and secular humanism in particular. Because there were many men and women of the laity, with a good number of priests, ready to take the necessary steps to bring about an ecclesiastical body in which the Catholic Faith would be preserved, protected, and taught, it was possible to proceed from the 1977 Congress of Saint Louis to the erection of dioceses and the election of bishops, which first took place in Denver, Colorado, on 28 January 1978.

But time passes, as it must. And we face the fact that a new generation of Anglican Catholics has grown to maturity. We give thanks to God that we find that the Catholic Faith has still a strong appeal to young people. Ours is not an "old folks' religion."

Yet we find that the old books by which we were long ago taught the Faith are no longer available. Clergy libraries and seminary collections will have them, but what is needed is a new book proclaiming the ancient doctrine, discipline, and worship to which the Anglican Catholic Church is adamantly committed.

We have here just such a book. It is not a long book, and it does not dwell too long on any one subject. But it puts down before us that teaching that the Church must give her children if they are to grow in the Faith and carry it on to further generations. It gives us in one volume the core of further teaching. This book will tell you "all that you need to know" about the essentials of our religion. We can hope that it will stimulate further reading on the part of those who have experienced it. We can wish that it will challenge learned scholars in its several fields to assert themselves and write anew the splendid books that could be the texts for our people for the future.

It's a scholarly book, but it manages this without being in the least "dull." True, it's not written to be a church school text for children. But any intelligent adult, committed to the Faith, who studies what lies on these pages will be the better equipped to accomplish the passing of this teaching along to younger minds. It is a book for which the Church would wait no longer. Thank God that it has come!

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