The Wedding at Cana and Why I'm An Anglican
There is Something So Wonderfully Anglican About This Famous Event
Your Sunday Post
There is something warm and wonderful about the story of Jesus at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. I have been to Cana many times, seen the stone jars there, and prayed over dozens, if not hundreds, of couples who traveled to the Holy Land to walk in the Lord’s footsteps.
In other words, I have thought about the story in John 2 countless times. I have preached many sermons on it. I even did an entire sermon series on the miracle at Cana.
It may be my favorite miracle story and how I wish I had been there to meet the Lord, hear his mother, taste the wine, and even get in a circle dance with the Lord!
Why I’m An Anglican
But it wasn’t until this week, when I saw the story of the miracle coming up in the lectionary reading for Sunday, that I connected to it in a new way: I love this story for the same reason I love being an Anglican.
Put another way, everything about this story reminds me why I am an Anglican.
It’s the way divine mystery mingles with human celebration. It’s how the presence of Christ changes everything.
As I thought more about it and began to write, I came up with a list of reasons why the wedding feast at Cana reminds me of why I am an Anglican.
Here is my list, in no particular order:
1. The Joy of Gathering
A wedding feast—what could be more human, more alive with the joy of celebration?
Anglicans understand that human celebrations matter deeply. We’re the people of parish halls, potlucks, and parties. We love that fellowship hour after church, willing to put up with terrible “church coffee” while secretly wishing it were wine!
We a person is baptized, there is usually a reception. If the bishop comes for confirmation, there had better be cake. What is a church without a kitchen? And when we die—as we all will—none of us are surprised when church people bring food to a reception after the service.
In these moments of fellowship—sometimes over joy and sometimes with grief— we sense the Kingdom.
2. When Rituals Run Dry
Those six stone water jars stood empty; their ritual purpose was as empty as they were. They needed transformation.
As Anglicans, we cherish our beautiful liturgies and ancient traditions, but we know they’re not ends in themselves. They are dead vessels waiting to be filled with new wine—ordinary containers ready for extraordinary grace.
Our rituals need Christ’s presence to transform them from mere ceremony into genuine encounters with the Lord.
Every liturgy, every prayer, every memorized Collect is in danger of becoming rote and rotted by repeated repetition. What makes the difference? How do things become new? Mary knew: she called Him to the center. After that, nothing was dry. The best wine was flowing freely!
3. The Power of Invitation
“Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.” Such a simple line, yet it captures something fundamental about Anglican Christianity.
We believe in a God who responds to invitation, who enters where He is welcomed.
Our evangelism flows from this understanding. We don’t force faith upon others; we invite them to experience Christ’s presence. We create spaces where people can encounter God at their own pace and in their own way.
Anglican churches can do this well. Many congregations don’t have aggressive evangelism strategies. Our approach is more like the angel’s message to the disciples on Easter morning: “Come and see.” Then, “Go and tell.”
Sometimes the most important thing you can say to a friend is, “Will you come to my church with me?” There, they can ask the Lord to come into their life at their own time and in the own way.
That pretty much sums up our evangelism strategy.
4. Mary’s Wisdom
Mary’s role in this story reflects the Anglican understanding of her place in the faith. We honor her deeply—she is Theotokos, the Mother of God—but notice that, even here, she doesn’t point to herself but to her Son.
We honor Mary while keeping our devotion centered on Christ.
Did you notice this: Once Mary introduces Jesus into the scene, she doesn’t say another word. Her last recorded words in all the Gospels are these: “Do whatever He tells you.”
Thank you, Mary.
5. The Sacramental Life
In this story, common water becomes tasty wine. Later, the Passover wine becomes His blood. That is what an Anglican would call sacramental.
The wine of the Last Supper was the very definition of a sacrament: an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual truth.
Anglicans believe that ordinary things—water, bread, wine—become vessels of extraordinary grace. The material world carries spiritual possibilities in many ways. Every common thing holds the potential for sacred purposes.
Just look how ordinary the elements of our sacraments, ordinances, and religious rituals are: bread, wine, water, oil, touch, vows, rings, and the laying on of hands.
6. Common Prayer for Common Life
Anglicans believe that God meets us in the ordinary moments of life. Like well into a wedding with a hospitality emergency.
It’s why the Anglican Book of Common Prayer contains not just Sunday services but prayers for schools, hospital bedsides, birthdays, funerals, crops and fields, children, teens, adults, dying elders, and even battleships. There are prayers for every mundane or momentous occasion where human life needs God’s blessing.
The Book of Common Prayer is filled with prayers for the most common things.
7. The Quality of Grace
Jesus didn’t produce just any wine—He produced the best wine. And lots of it.
There’s something very Anglican about appreciating that God’s gifts can be both spiritual and sensual, both holy and delightful. We’re not afraid to enjoy life’s finer things while remembering they are gifts from God.
Even if Paul will say we should do everything in moderation, especially wine, we know there are a few times where we can cheat.
Grace, like good wine, flows abundantly. And it’s often true that one glass of wine does not a party make.
8. Vessels Old and New
Ancient jars of purification become vessels for celebration.
This image reflects how Anglicanism approaches tradition. We don’t discard the old; we fill it with new! We cherish our heritage while remaining open to how God might repurpose it for new works of grace.
9. The Via Media
Like water becoming wine, we hold the mystery of both/and.
One of Anglicanism’s most distinctive features is its identity as the via media—the “middle way.” We respect tradition while remaining open to transformation.
The Cana story shows this balance beautifully: stone jars filled with fine wine. Mary speaks, Jesus acts. There’s beauty and utility, public moments and private ones. Jesus says, “Fill the jars,” but the servants must act. It’s His power and their participation.
It isn’t either; it’s both.
10. The Glory Revealed
“He revealed His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.”
This is what Anglican worship and life are about—creating spaces where Christ’s glory is revealed, and faith flourishes. We seek to build communities where ordinary moments become vessels of extraordinary grace, where ancient traditions speak with fresh voice, where heaven and earth meet in bread, wine, and daily life.
Amen
For all these reasons—and more that would surely follow a deeper dive into the story—I believe this miracle is the most Anglican of all New Testament miracles. (Except, of course, the Lord’s Supper.)
The story shows us a Christ who is both transcendent enough to turn water into wine and immanent enough to care about a wedding running smoothly. It shows us faith expressed not in isolation from human life but in the midst of it, with miracle and mystery in the life of ordinary celebration.
And isn’t that what Anglicanism at its best has always sought to do?
That’s why I am an Anglican!
The Rev. David Roseberry, an ordained Anglican priest with over 40 years of pastoral experience, offers leadership services to pastors, churches, and Christian writers. He is an accomplished author whose books are available on Amazon. Rev. Roseberry is the Executive Director of LeaderWorks, where his work and resources can be found.