Difference between revisions of "Church of England"

Revision as of 22:18, October 5, 2008

The Church of England (or, Anglican Church) is the English national church that traces its history back to the sixth century in England, when Pope Gregory the Great sent St. Augustine to Britain to bring a more disciplined Apostolic succession to the Celtic Christians. The Church of England is a denomination that arose during the Protestant Reformation, although it is not regarded as Protestant by many, because of its many similarities with Roman Catholicism.

Establishment

Anglican Christ Church, Claremont, Western Australia

The church was formally organised by King Henry VIII of England. Like Oriental and Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches (and unlike Protestant churches), Anglicans maintain authority within the church through Apostolic succession.

The British monarch (currently, Queen Elizabeth II) is technically head of the church.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the Primate of the church.

The principal book of worship in Anglican churches is the Book of Common Prayer. Most churches in England still follow the liturgy set down in it, despite moves to modernize the language - all of which were rejected by the Bishops. The basic summary of Anglican beliefs and practices is the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, written by Thomas Cramner and adopted in 1563. The influence of the Thirty-Nine Articles has declined rapidly since, and the Church has moved gradually farther away from Protestantism and closer to Catholicism in recent times, although the decision to admit women as priests is seen by Rome as creating barriers.

The Church of England is referred to as the "established church" of England. At the time of the American Revolution, it was a legal requirement in England that all public officials, including university professors, take an oath to uphold the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England. This is what the US Constitution is referring to when it says in Article VI that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States" and in the Bill of Rights when it says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."

In that context, the word "establishment" originally referred to the Church of England; in the United States during the 1960s, the word came to be used to refer to the social and political groups that were thought to have an analogous influence within the USA.

Components

The worldwide body, the Anglican Communion, is an association of those churches in full communion with the Church of England (which may be regarded as the "mother church" of the worldwide communion), and specifically with its primate, the Archbishop of Canterbury. These include:

• Church of England
• Anglican Church in Australia
• Anglican Church of Canada
• Anglican Church of Southern Africa
• Anglican Church in Wales
• Episcopal Church in the United States of America
• Extra-provincial Anglican churches
• Scottish Episcopal Church
• Sheng Kung Hui

Continuing Anglicanism is a movement of churches whose beliefs and practices are Anglican, but are not in full communion with the Church of England. These churches are generally more conservative.

Trivia

In the late 1800s, there was a movement to disestablish the Church of England. It failed, but it had the incidental effect of giving the English language one of its longest words, "antidisestablishmentarianism".

References