Anglican Church of Canada

The Anglican Church of Canada is a Protestant Christian religious organization aligned with the Church of England. Following the Protestant Reformation that began in the first half of the sixteenth century, the Church of England officially separated from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534. Established in part to allow King Henry VIII, the reigning English monarch, to get a marriage annulment that the Catholic Church would not grant, the Church of England also introduced simplified religious rituals and established the celebration of mass in English rather than Latin. At the same time, the Church of England retained certain Catholic traditions, including several seminal prayers and an organizational hierarchy made up of bishops.

The first Anglican religious service in what is now Canada was held in 1578. However, it was not until the Canadian colonies fell under the exclusive control of Great Britain that the Church of England established a prominent position in the future nation. Originally known as the Church of England in the Dominion of Canada, the Anglican Church of Canada emerged as a major feature of Canada's cultural and religious landscape in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In the twenty-first century, the Anglican Church of Canada has an estimated seventeen hundred distinct worship communities known as parishes, organized into thirty regional groupings known as dioceses. It is one of forty-six members of the Anglican Communion, the global league of Church of England–aligned religious associations.

History

The origins of the Anglican Church of Canada can be traced back to the Arctic exploratory expeditions led by Martin Frobisher. Upon reaching territory near what is now the northern Canadian city of Iqaluit, the expedition's chaplain led an Anglican celebration of the Eucharist in 1578, in what is now recognized as the first such service to be held on territory in present-day Canada. Over the ensuing centuries, Great Britain and France jockeyed for colonial control of Canada, with the British eventually gaining complete dominion over the Canadian colonies during the Seven Years' War. With the victory, the British emerged as the driving cultural force in colonial-era Canada, and British institutions, including the Church of England, became dominant.

In 1787, Charles Inglis, an Irish-born clergyman, became the first Anglican bishop ever to serve in British North America. As the Anglican church continued to grow in Canada, and as the number of parishes across the vast country continued to climb, the need for a centralized authority emerged, and in 1893, a governing body known as the General Synod was established. In 1955, the General Synod authorized an official name change, and the Church of England in the Dominion of Canada became known as the Anglican Church of Canada.

As in the Anglican Communion more broadly, the Anglican Church of Canada experienced division of opinion in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries over the ordination of women and over homosexuality. The first female priests were ordained in Canada in 1976, and in 2018, Melissa Skelton became the first female archbishop. In 2016, the General Synod approved of same-sex marriages by the narrowest of margins, and that same year, Kevin Robertson became the first openly gay bishop in the country.

Between 1961 and 2001, the number of Canadians who self-identified as Anglicans or as members of an Anglican Church of Canada parish decreased by more than 50 percent. This trend continued in the first decades of the twenty-first century, with a 44 percent decline in church membership between 2001 and 2017. By the mid-2020s, less than 300,000 people were members of the Anglican Church of Canada.

Beliefs

From a general standpoint, the Anglican faith is a Christian religion that accepts Jesus Christ as a divine being sent by God to facilitate the entry of the spiritually worthy into heaven after death. More specifically, the Anglican Church of Canada's alignment with the Church of England decrees that the Canadian Anglican faith community conform to the church's official dogma and mandates. Historically speaking, the Church of England has two distinct features. First, it accepts the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion as a major foundational framework. Furthermore, it uses three traditional creeds, or prayers, as emblematic of its beliefs; these prayers include the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed.

The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, developed during the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, were officially adopted by the clergy of the Church of England in 1562. Acknowledging a desire to create a sense of unity and partnership among the disparate branches of Christianity that were emerging at the time, the articles state the essential beliefs and principles of Anglicanism, comprehensively espousing the church's position on matters of faith and liturgical interpretation. The articles cover everything from the conception, birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ to the concepts of free will, original sin, and spiritual salvation. Additionally, the articles dictate the structure and components of Anglican worship services, the authority of the Church of England's councils and representatives, and the methods through which its ministers and members gain official status within the church.

The three traditional creeds recognized by the church elaborate on the spiritual beliefs of the Anglican faithful. All three prayers date back to the third to fifth centuries and have a shared origin in the Roman Catholic tradition. They state the fundamental beliefs and principles of the Anglican faithful, emphasizing enthusiastic acceptance of the teachings of Jesus Christ and Christ's divinity. The creeds also acknowledge the status of God as creator and embrace the intrinsic Christian values of communion, forgiveness, and salvation.

In addition, the Anglican Church of Canada was shaped by the Lambeth Quadrilateral, an 1888 document that specified the dogmatic hegemony of the Anglican Communion and the Solemn Declaration of 1893. The Solemn Declaration coincided with the founding of the General Synod and officially positioned the Canadian Anglican church in relation to the worldwide network of the Church of England.

Organization

The Anglican Church of Canada recognizes four hierarchical levels, beginning with individual parishes. These parishes, which number nearly seventeen hundred across Canada, are also organized into thirty dioceses, each of which is headed by a bishop. The dioceses fall under the direct administration of the General Synod, which serves as the church's nationwide governing authority. Finally, the General Synod is headed by an elected official known as the primate. The primate of the Anglican Church of Canada serves as the church's national executive leader and represents Canada at official gatherings of the Anglican Communion. On a global level, the Anglican Communion is symbolically led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, an ecclesiastical official who serves as the leader of the Church of England.

Bibliography

"Anglican Church of Canada Backs Same-Sex Marriage, a Day after Rejecting It." The Guardian, 12 July 2016, www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/13/anglican-church-of-canada-backs-same-sex-marriage-a-day-after-rejecting-it. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.

"Articles." The Church of England, Archbishops' Council of the Church of England, www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/book-common-prayer/articles-religion. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.

"A Brief History." Anglican Church of Canada, www.anglican.ca/about/history. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.

Goodhew, David. "The Collapse of the Anglican Church of Canada." Living Church, 5 Aug. 2024, livingchurch.org/covenant/the-collapse-of-the-anglican-church-of-canada. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.

"How We Are Organized." Anglican Church of Canada, the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada, www.anglican.ca/about/organization. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.

"'In the Loving Image of God': Meet Canada's First Openly Gay Bishop." CBC Radio, 27 June 2017, www.cbc.ca/radio/tapestry/ugly-gay-it-s-ok-the-power-of-acceptance-1.4056234/in-the-loving-image-of-god-meet-canada-s-first-openly-gay-bishop-1.4056241. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.

"Our Beliefs." Anglican Church of Canada, the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada, www.anglican.ca/about/beliefs. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.

Picton, Hervé. A Short History of the Church of England: From the Reformation to the Present Day. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015.