| Doctrines | | The Anglican Communion
is a fellowship of churches which are linked to the see of Canterbury
forming one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. The churches all have the
following characteristics: - A commitment to uphold the
faith and order found in the early primitive Church, and the Book of
Common Prayer or the Alternative Service Book which is generally in the
Protestant tradition. Because the various service books of the Church
generally have been loosely worded there is a great deal of theological
variation within it. As a result there is room in the church for
theological liberals, evangelists, neopentecostalism, and
Anglo-Catholicism. Only two sacraments are accepted as strictly valid,
infant baptism and the Lord's supper, but other rites of the Church, such
as marriage, often remain surrounded by ceremony.
- They are all
national churches which promote an appropriate national expression of
Christian life.
- They are bound together by a Common council of
bishops in conference, chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury, thus
preserving apostolic succession, a line of clerical appointments which can
be traced back to the apostles.
| History | | The Church of England
broke with Rome in 1534 because of Henry VIII's desire for a divorce and
the Church's wealth. Radical doctrinal change did not come until Edward VI
introduced a more Protestant Book of Common Prayer in 1552. But it was the
Elizabethan Church settlement of 1558 which established the classic
Anglican position. The settlement, embodied by the Thirty Nine Articles of
Religion, was deliberately designed to provide a middle way, in which
strands of both Catholic and Protestant belief would co-exist in a
national Church. Yet the settlement dissatisfied radical Protestants,
nicknamed Puritans, who wanted a church purified of all Catholic rituals
and devoted to preaching. Under James I and Charles I the Puritans became
increasingly identified as a threat, which meant the Crown backed a more
ritualistic, anti-Calvinistic group lead by William Laud. It is this
conflict between a High Church party, emphasising ritual and leaning
towards Roman Catholicism, and a Low Church party, which is evangelical
and more strictly Protestant, which dominates the history of the
church.
In the English Civil Wars the Puritans triumphed briefly, but the
Restoration of Charles II resulted in the mass expulsion of Puritan clergy
who went on to form the non-conformist churches. (For more details see
entries on the Congregationalism, United Reformed Church, Baptists and
Society of Friends.) The 1662 Book of Common Prayer adopted Laudian ideas
signalling this rejection. The eighteenth century saw the Anglican church
pursue missionary activities in America, but remain complacent at home.
This lead Charles Wesley to adopt an evangelical approach which was
greeted with disdain and the Methodists felt compelled to leave the
Church. Nevertheless, the nineteenth century saw the Anglican church
becoming far more Low Church, evangelical and socially motivated under the
influence of men like William Wilberforce and involved in world-wide
missionary activities. In the 1840s a revitalised High Church party, known
as the Oxford movement, lead by Charles Newman caused serious controversy.
This period
also saw the rise of Broad Churchmen, who were influenced by modern
critical theology and liberal ideas. In 1867 the first Lambeth Conference
was held, setting up the organisation of the world-wide Anglican
Communion.
The Church has undergone serious change this century. In 1919 a lay
element was introduced into the government of the church and a synod was
set up in 1970. Recently it has been riven by conflict over the
introduction of women priests and the adoption of a new prayer book and
seems to be turning increasingly in an evangelical and liberal direction.
Such issues have made some High Churchmen become Catholic. The Church has
increasingly attempted to address modern issues, trying to play a role in
revitalising urban areas, and playing a leading part in co-operating with
other world churches.
| | Symbols | | A great deal of variation.
High Church services are very ritualistic, with great similarities to
Catholic symbolism in vestments, sacraments and language. The Oxford
Movement sparked a Gothic Revival which dominated the architecture of
Victorian church buildings. On the other hand Low Church services, which
are becoming increasingly prevalent, are quite informal and dominated by
preaching and hymn singing. Some services even have a Pentecostalist
influence.
| | Adherents | | There are 70 million
members organised in 28 self governing churches world-wide and 1.1 million
regular worshipers in the UK (Whitaker, 1995, 396). Some examples of
national membership figures follow: Australia, 4,018,800; Canada 784,102;
Kenya, 2 million; Madagascar, 160,000; New Zealand, 732,048; Nigeria, 10
million; Pakistan, 700,000; South Africa, 2 million; Uganda, 4 million
(Europa Pub. Ltd. 1995, I:421, I:737, II:1754, II:1962, II:2251, II:2315,
II:2373, II:2782, II:3090).
| Headquarters/
Main
Centre | | General Synod of the Church of England, Church
House, Dean's Yard, London, SWIP 3N2, UK
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