Anglicanism as a Via Media

I was reading Lyle Dorsett’s chapter in Journeys of Faith,
and came across this section lauding Anglicanism’s attempt to be a middle
way.

“I feel at home in the Anglican tradition because
historically it has been the via media that emerged from the English
Reformation. It is a middle way between the austerity of some radical Puritans
who determined to cleanse the Church from all “vestiges of popery,” going so
far as to call for the abolition of everything not expressly required in the
Bible, and the Catholics on the other hand who placed Tradition and the Church
to an extreme where they promulgated some doctrines that stand in contradistinction
to Holy Writ.” – pg. 208 

It stood out to me because I know a few of people who have recently “swum the Thames” as
it were. And Anglicanism’s attempt to be a middle way on a number of issues,
along with the beauty of the liturgy, seems to often be key components to that journey.

You can read the rest of Lyle's story, along with stories of
conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and Evangelicalism, in
Journeys of Faith.