There are two archbishoprics, Canterbury and York, with the Archbishop of Canterbury taking precedence over the Archbishop of York. Women have been ordained as deacons since 1987 and as priests since 1994. In 1970 the Church Assembly was replaced by the General Synod, which retained the basic administrative structure but streamlined certain aspects of church government and allowed for greater participation by the laity. Worship is liturgical and is regulated by the Book of Common Prayer and its revised alternatives, but it varies in degree of ritual between parishes. The creeds in use are the Apostles', the Nicene, and the Athanasian.
Authority rests in Scripture as interpreted by tradition.
3 History Origins Christianity, introduced by the Romans, was fairly well established in Britain by the 4th cent., but was almost destroyed by the Anglo-Saxon invasions beginning in the 5th cent. Surviving in isolation, the Celtic Church developed practices at variance with those on the Continent. 4 Creation of the Church During the Middle Ages the church in England was affected by the same clashes that bedevilled the relationship between church and state elsewhere in Europe. A modus vivendi was finally achieved in the matter of investiture , but quarrels over the taxes demanded by Rome and appeals going from English courts to Rome were not resolved until Henry VIII broke the union of the English church with Rome. Thus the Reformation in England under Henry was at first a matter of policy, not doctrine.