Anglican Communion

The Anglican Communion is an association of all Anglican churches in full communion with the Church of England. There is no single "Anglican Church" with universal authority, because each national or regional church has full autonomy. With over one hundred and ten million members, the Anglican Communion is the third largest communion in the world, after the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches.

The status of full communion means that all rites conducted in one church are recognised by the other. Some of these churches are known as Anglican, explicitly recognising the link to England (Ecclesia Anglicana means "Church of England"). 

The Archbishop of Canterbury, religious head of the Church of England, has no formal authority outside that jurisdiction, but is recognised as symbolic head of the worldwide communion. 

Provinces of the Anglican Communion
All thirty-eight provinces of the Anglican Communion are independent, each with its own primate and governing structure. These provinces may take the form of national churches (such as in Canada, Uganda, or Japan) or a collection of nations (such as the West Indies, Central Africa, or Southeast Asia). They are, in alphabetical order:

The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and Polynesia
The Anglican Church of Australia
The Church of Bangladesh
The Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil (Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil)
The Anglican Church of Burundi
The Anglican Church of Canada
The Church of the Province of Central Africa
The Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central America (Anglican Church in the Central Region of America)
The Province de L'Eglise Anglicane Du Congo (Province of the Anglican Church of Congo)
The Church of England
Sheng Kung Hui (Hong Kong Anglican Church (Episcopal))
The Church of the Province of the Indian Ocean
The Church of Ireland
The Nippon Sei Ko Kai (The Anglican Communion in Japan)
The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East
The Anglican Church of Kenya
The Anglican Church of Korea
The Church of the Province of Melanesia
The Anglican Church of Mexico
The Church of the Province of Myanmar (Burma)
The Church of Nigeria 
The Church of North India   
The Church of Pakistan 
The Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea
The Episcopal Church of the Philippines
The Church of the Province of Rwanda
The Scottish Episcopal Church
The Church of the Province of South East Asia
The Church of South India 
The Anglican Church of Southern Africa
Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de las Americas (Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of the Americas)
The Episcopal Church of the Sudan
The Anglican Church of Tanzania
The Church of Uganda
The Episcopal Church in the United States of America
The Church in Wales
The Church of the Province of West Africa
The Church in the Province of the West Indies

In addition, there are six extraprovincial churches, five of which are under the metropolitical authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury:

The Anglican Church of Bermuda (extraprovincial to the Archbishop of Canterbury)
Iglesia Episcopal de Cuba (Episcopal Church of Cuba) (under a metropolitan council)
The Parish of the Falkland Islands (extraprovincial to the Archbishop of Canterbury)
The Lusitanian Catholic Apostolic Evangelical Church of Portugal (extraprovincial to the Archbishop of Canterbury)
The Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church (extraprovincial to the Archbishop of Canterbury)
The Church of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) (extraprovincial to the Archbishop of Canterbury)

Related pages
Thirty-Nine Articles

 Other websites 
Official website
Decentralised nature of worldwide Anglicanism
Anglicans Online

Category:Anglicanism