Anglicanism

**Anglicanism** is a denomination of Protestantism that is made up of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion, which is a group of Anglican churches from many other countries. The term "Anglicanism" includes the churches that have accepted the English Reformation as embodied in the Church of England and the offshoot churches in other countries that have followed closely to its doctrines and its organisation.

During the English Reformation, the English Church kept the early Catholic ministry of bishops, priests, deacons, and most of the doctrine and liturgy. The event that led to the Anglican Church was England's outright rejection of the Pope. That meant England also rejected the Catholic Church as an organisation.

Anglicanism is a form of Chritianity that is sometimes seen as being the middle way between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism and so is not always thought of as a form of Protestantism.

The ajective "Anglican" comes from the phrase _ecclesia anglicana_, a Medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that "the English Church". The noun "Anglican" is used to describe the people, institutions, churches, traditions and ideas developed by the established Church of England and the Anglican Communion, a theologically broad and often divergent affiliation of 38 Eecclesiastical provinces that are in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury.

## Worship

Anglicans can have many different beliefs. For example, there are a range of beliefs about Holy Communion. A few Anglicans, the High Church, believe that the bread and the wine become the actual Body and Blood of Christ, which is similar to what Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy believe. Most Anglicans, the Low Church think that Holy Communion is about remembering the life of Jesus Christ and his death on the Cross, as most Protestants believe. Anglicanism is fundamentally a Protestant church because the Bible, not the Pope, is the source of authority.

### Origin

The name "Anglican" comes from the Latin word for "English" because the church started in England. In the British Isles, Anglicanism has been the official or state religion in all parts at one time or another. Anglican Church leaders, and the state, worked together in what is called the alliance of throne and altar or church and State. Together, they tried to make the Anglican denomination as broad and welcoming as possible to a wide range of Christian believers to try to get as many citizens possible to worship in the official church.

#### Origin in Britain

When King Henry VIII wanted to divorce from Catherine of Aragon, the Pope refused to divorce him. As a result, Henry split from the Roman Catholic Church and started the Church of England. The English Parliament, through the Act of Supremacy, declared Henry to be the "Supreme Head of the Church of England" to fulfill the "English desire to be independent from continental Europe religiously and politically." This act said that the King, not the Pope, was the head of the Church of England. With that act, Henry was free to divorce his wife and remarry but also made England free from the interference of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church.

Although now separate from Rome, the English Church still continued to maintain Roman Catholic theology on many things such as the sacraments. Over time, the Church of England changed even more in what is known as the English Reformation, when it gained a number of characteristics which has finally formed the modern Anglican Communion.

In the British Isles and the early British colonies, that was done to try to defeat both the followers of the Roman Catholicism and all other kinds of Protestants by having the best of their ideas, traditions, and practices in the Anglican Church. Now, the only place in the British Isles in which Anglicanism is still the official religion is England, where the monarch, King Charles III, is the Supreme Governor on Earth of the Church of England. The effective government of the church is by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the legal Church Parliament is known as the General Synod.

#### Spread of Influence

In the rest of the world, Anglicanism was spread by overseas colonisation, settlement, and missionary work. It functions there as an ordinary denomination of Christianity without special status. Anglicans around the world join together in a group of national churches in countries where there are Anglican Churches to make the Anglican Communion. There are now more than 80 million Anglicans in the world. Most live in Africa and Asia, and only a few are still of British ethnic heritage.

## Issues

The Anglican Communion struggles today with questions about the role of women and gay people in the Church. As the Anglican Communion deals with those serious issues, some have split into liberal and conservative groups. Already, Anglicans have broken from the main churches to form their own separate groups of believers. Some use the term Anglican, combined with the words Catholic, Christian, Reformed, or Episcopal.

Leaders from the Anglican Communion hold talks with the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Churches to try to work toward Christian unity. At times, there has been some progress. Also, the Anglican and the Lutheran Churches have agreed to a high level of shared beliefs, leadership, and practices, called intercommunion.

## Related pages

- **History**
    - Protestantism
    - Catholicism
    - English Reformation
- **Movements and denominations**
    - Methodism
- **Prominent thinkers**
    - T. S. Eliot
    - C. S. Lewis
    - John Wesley

## Bibliography

- Hein, David, ed. (1991) _Readings in Anglican Spirituality_. Cincinnati: Forward Movement.

## Other websites

- Anglican Communion - The official site of the Anglican Communion.
- What it means to be an Anglican: Official Church of England site
- Anglican Historical Texts
- Anglicans Online - An unofficial site of the Anglican Communion. One of the biggest resources of Anglicanism in the world.
- Anglicanism: ReligionFacts.com  - Articles on Anglican history, ritual, and organisation, plus an image gallery of people and places.