Anglicanism

• Formation: 1529
• Founders: King Henry VIII of England; Thomas Cranmer; Queen Elizabeth I of England

Anglicanism is a form of Christianity that shares some characteristics with Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. It was one of the main movements within the Protestant Reformation in Europe during the sixteenth century. It began as a split between the papacy and the Church of England, but Anglicanism is not closely aligned with Lutherans or other Reformation churches. In the twenty-first century, the Anglican Communion, as the worldwide church is called, includes tens of millions of members in more than 165 countries.

According to the Anglican Communion website, the church is comprised of forty-six autonomous regional or national churches, called provinces, along with five "extra provincial" churches and dioceses. All are meant to be in Communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is the leader of the Church of England and spiritual head of the Communion worldwide. However, the Anglican Communion has no central authority comparable to the Vatican in Roman Catholicism.

The Anglican Church was closely aligned with the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada until 2016, when a schism developed within the Communion concerning same-sex marriage. Open conflict between Episcopalians and Anglicans erupted when the American church ordained an openly gay priest in 2003 and subsequently allowed the church’s ministers to perform marriages between same-sex partners. Dissenting churches in the United States broke away to form the more conservative Anglican Church of North America (ACNA) in 2009, which opposes not only same-sex marriage but also the ordination of women to the priesthood. In January 2016, the Anglican Communion imposed sanctions on the Episcopal Church, but the Communion was preserved. The Episcopal Church was barred from voting in matters of church doctrine and could not represent the Anglican Communion at ecumenical or interfaith meetings for three years. Although the Canadian church was not sanctioned, the issue simmered there as well. In the 2020s, the ACNA rejected the use of the term "gay Christians" in favor of "Christians experiencing same-sex attraction." The church stated they were willing to accept celibate same-sex individuals in their church.

The contentious issues of same-sex marriage and the ordination of gay or female bishops led to divisions within the Anglican Communion. Some Anglican and US Episcopal churches chose to rejoin the Roman Catholic Church almost 500 years after the Anglicans separated from Rome. In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI offered dissatisfied Anglicans, including American Episcopalians, the opportunity to become Roman Catholic, notwithstanding the presence of married priests in the Protestant sect. In 2011, St. Luke’s Episcopal parish in Maryland became the first American church to accept the Pope’s offer.

History

The Anglican Church was almost an evolutionary form of older practices of Christianity in the British Isles that for centuries had diverged from Rome. There was always an element of independence in the British church that may have played some part in the rift that permanently separated it from Roman Catholicism, but the main reason for the break was simple: Pope Clement VII refused to annul the marriage of Henry VIII.

Henry wanted his marriage dissolved because Catherine of Aragon had not produced a living male heir. He had no desire to reform the church or change its doctrines, as was the case with the Protestant Reformation that began in 1517. Henry simply wanted to gain authority over the church in England, replacing the Pope with himself. He accomplished this in two stages, declaring himself the head of the church in England in 1529 and pushing the Act of Supremacy through Parliament in 1534, cementing the break with the Roman Catholic Church.

It was not until Henry died that Archbishop Thomas Cranmer began to explicitly ally the Church of England with the Reformation. Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer included Protestant ideas and new forms of worship to accommodate those concepts. He also codified the beliefs of the English Church in Forty-Two Articles of Religion.

Queen Mary attempted to restore the primacy of the Pope, but her successor, Elizabeth I, rejected Mary’s efforts. From 1558 on, the Anglican Church has been a separate Protestant denomination. During Elizabeth’s reign, Cranmer’s forty-two articles were reduced to thirty-nine, and along with the Book of Common Prayer, the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion continued to form the foundation for the beliefs of the Anglican Communion.

As the British Empire developed and expanded, Anglicanism traveled throughout the world. The structure of the church, in some ways, resembled Roman Catholicism. The priests and bishops around the globe were all initially subservient to the see at Canterbury. The "see" during this time was the archbishopric or central governing authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who held primacy over other priests and bishops within the Church during the time. Church missionary societies extended the reach of the church throughout the British colonies, and gradually, the church became much less centralized. Decision-making powers and authority were transferred to the local churches.

However, these churches were still unified in their beliefs and by the Anglican Communion. Thus, the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA), which was fully formed in 1789, maintained a close connection with the Anglicans of England despite the American Revolution. The first American bishop, Samuel Seabury, was consecrated in Scotland five years before the Episcopal Church was formally created.

In 1893, the Anglican Church of Canada became a separate, self-governing organization under the name "the Church of England in Canada." It retained the name until 1959. The church gained power and structure in many British colonies during this period, including Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Australia, and India. The first Black bishop in the Anglican Church was Samuel Crowther of Nigeria, who was elevated to the position in 1864.

In 1867, the Lambeth Conference was initiated. This is a meeting held every ten years, hosted by the Archbishop of Canterbury in London and attended by each designated national affiliate church. The reason for the first conference is echoed in today’s controversy. The archbishop of Cape Town was a "High Church" priest, meaning a traditionalist. He accused the bishop of Natal, who was "Low Church" or evangelical, of heresy for a nondoctrinaire reading of the story of creation in Genesis. The debate stirred up controversy throughout the world’s Anglican churches. The bishop of Natal was convicted and removed from the priesthood. The incident was particularly important in that it revealed the decentralized structure of Anglicanism. Consensus drives the practice of the religion as opposed to decisions made by a central authority.

This aspect of the organization took on ever greater meaning as the British Empire came apart in the twentieth century. Among other changes, social justice and alleviating social ills became particularly important in the former colonial churches. In England during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Church of England adopted the stance that the social ideals of Christianity should be applied to industrial society.

Yet, during the same period, Anglican membership declined in England, despite remaining the nation’s official church. Anglicanism experienced its strongest growth in Africa, where by the early 2000s, more than half of all Anglicans lived. Desmond Tutu, who won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1984, was a bishop in the Anglican Church of South Africa and a former Archbishop of Cape Town. He was known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. Tutu died in 2021.

In 2004, the African church held the first African Bishops Conference. One of its goals was to develop the capacity to train clerics in Africa rather than England or America. Another goal was to allow the theology of the church to evolve into greater relevance for Africa. Because of the decentralized nature of Anglicanism, such broad changes have been adopted without excessive controversy. In the church’s internal debate about the ordination of gay priests and same-sex marriage, the African Anglicans lead the opposition to the revised doctrines being implemented in North America.

In 2015, an annual gathering of conservative Anglican churches called the Global Anglican Future Conference, or GAFCON, was established. GAFCON is composed primarily of churches from the Global South. Controversially, GAFCON has recognized the ACNA as its US affiliate, rather than the Episcopal Church, the official US affiliate recognized by the Lambeth Conference and the broader Anglican Communion.

Beliefs & Practices

Anglicanism is a sect of the Christian religion. Practitioners believe in the Christian Trinity and that Jesus is the Son of God. Their essential beliefs are called the Lambeth Quadrilateral, which was proposed in 1870. The four elements Anglicans define as the basis of their beliefs are the Bible, the Nicene Creed, baptism and Holy Communion, and the episcopate.

In many respects, Anglicanism has remained close to Roman Catholicism in its rituals and beliefs. For example, in the sixteenth century, the Book of Common Prayer established the sequence of religious services similar to the Roman Catholic Mass. Initially, Anglicanism saw itself as one of three "branches" of Christianity, with the other branches being Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholicism.

However, because Anglicanism has no central authority guiding practices among the churches in the Anglican Communion, there is substantial diversity of thought and worship among Anglicans. Among the differing schools of practice are the High Church (traditional), Anglo-Catholic, Broad Church, and Low Church (evangelical) congregations, as well as several others.

Since Anglicanism is thought of as the middle way between the Protestant churches that came from the Reformation and the Roman Catholic Church, it is sometimes easiest to define key differences in beliefs and worship between the Anglicans and the Roman Catholics. One example is the seven sacraments. All Anglicans consider Baptism and Holy Communion as sacraments. Anglo-Catholics consider Confession and Absolution, Matrimony, Ordination, Unction, and Confirmation full sacraments. So do many High Church Anglicans and some Broad Church Anglicans. Other Broad Church and Low Church Anglicans refer to these five as "sacramental rites" rather than full sacraments.

A unique feature of Anglicanism was the Book of Common Prayer (1662), a collection of religious services that were used in almost all Anglican churches from its creation until relatively recently. Its name came from its original purpose, which was to give all Church of England congregations a common liturgy. The meaning subsequently expanded to reflect its common use throughout the world. The prayer book remains important for the Church of England, but the Alternative Service Book 1980 (ASB) is also widely used. In 2000, a collection of services called Common Worship was produced, essentially replacing the previously used prayer books.

Regardless of language and specific liturgies, all Anglican churches consider Holy Communion (the Eucharist) the central element of their worship. Among some Low Church Anglicans, Holy Communion is seen as a ritual that directly commemorates the suffering of Christ. When they take Communion, they are replicating the Last Supper and believe Jesus is present in the bread and wine. Other Low Church Anglicans have a modified version of this belief, which is that Jesus is not necessarily present. Many High Church and Anglo-Catholic Anglicans believe in transubstantiation, just as Roman Catholics do. Generally, most Anglicans of all types are more closely aligned with traditional Protestant views of the Eucharist.

The Thirty-Nine Articles, the statement of doctrine approved by Elizabeth I in 1571, is still the guiding spirit for the Church of England. However, even within the Church of England members are not required to adhere to the articles, and even the clergy is expected to subscribe in general terms only. Other churches within the Anglican Communion tend to view the Thirty-Nine Articles as an artifact and not an essential statement of belief.

The Anglican Communion says that it adheres to the faith as it is set down by Scripture and by the early church fathers. By rooting its beliefs and practices in the Bible, the Communion says, it is by nature very flexible and tolerant of many different interpretations.

Actual services vary widely across the Anglican Communion. High Church and Anglo-Catholic services resemble Roman Catholic services, with a formal liturgy and clergy wearing vestments. At the other end of the spectrum, today’s Low Church evangelical services would appear almost identical to a Methodist service or some other mainline Protestant church.

In short, as with many church doctrines, actual worship practices are flexible in the Anglican Communion. A typical service includes Bible readings, hymns, prayers, and a homily (sermon) that is typically fifteen to thirty minutes long. In Evangelical churches, services may be considerably longer. Some services are quite informal in structure, although all congregations may recite common prayers, such as the Lord’s Prayer. On the other hand, some High Church and Anglo-Catholic services are almost identical to Roman Catholic Masses and may even include the Rosary.

In one respect, the Anglican Communion is identical to the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. It has the same organization in its ministry, with bishops, priests, and deacons. Consistent with this similarity, the Anglican Communion recognizes the ordinations of Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox priests as valid.

Church attendance and membership in Anglican Communion decreased in the first decades of the twenty-first century. The number of baptisms in the Anglican Church of Canada decreased by more than 75 percent between 2001 and 2024. Additionally, Sunday attendance across Canada in 2001 averaged 162,000 people, but by 2022, only about 65,000 individuals attended Sunday service. Similar declines in attendance, membership, and baptisms were observed in Anglican communities in America. Australia's Anglican membership in 2001 was 12.4 percent, but by 2021, only 5.4 percent of all church members were new. These declining numbers were consistent with most other denominations' decline in membership in the 2010s and 2020s.

Bibliography

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Countryman, Louis William. Calling on the Spirit in Unsettling Times: Anglican Present and Future. Morehouse, 2012.

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Ellsworth, Wilbur, et al. Journey of Faith: Evangelicalism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Anglicanism. Zondervan, 2012.

McDermott, Gerald R. The Future of Orthodox Anglicanism. Crossway, 2020.

McKenzie, Thomas. The Anglican Way: A Guidebook. Colony Catherine, 2014.

Milton, Anthony, et al. The Oxford History of Anglicanism. Oxford UP, 2019.

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Olson, Roger. "Something Interesting Is Happening in the Worldwide Anglican Communion (and Why It Matters to Non-Anglicans)." Patheos, 28 June 2018, www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/2018/06/something-interesting-is-happening-in-the-worldwide-anglican-communion-and-why-it-matters-to-non-anglicans. Accessed 28 Dec. 2024.

Spencer, Stephen R. SCM Studyguide to Anglicanism. 2nd ed., SCM Press, 2021.

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Wyatt, Caroline. "Anglican Communion's 'Bitter Divide.'" BBC News, 11 Jan. 2016, www.bbc.com/news/world-35256193. Accessed 28 Dec. 2024.

"What Is Anglicanism?" Holy Trinity Anglican Church, htcraleigh.org/about-old/what-is-anglicanism. Accessed 1 Jan. 2025.