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]]. It contains High Church elements (similar to the Roman Catholics), although it is not regarded as Protestant by manyLow Church elements (similar to evangelicals), because and a Broad Church middle. It is part of its many similarities with Roman [[Catholicism]]the worldwide Anglican Communion.
==Establishment==
[[Image:Anglican Christ Church.jpg|thumb|230px|Anglican Christ Church, Claremont, Western Australia]]
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. There were no such requirements in the colonies, but the Church of England was established and tax supported in the five southern colonies. They were disestabvlished during the Revolution.<ref> This is what the [[United States Constitution|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." </ref>
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==
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".
==Bibliography==
* Miranda K. Hassett. ''Anglican Communion in Crisis: How Episcopal Dissidents and Their African Allies Are Reshaping Anglicanism'' (2007) [http://www.amazon.com/Anglican-Communion-Crisis-Dissidents-Anglicanism/dp/069112518X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231706964&sr=1-2 excerpt and text search]
* Pawley, Bernard & Margaret Pawley. ''Rome and Canterbury Through Four Centuries four centuries: A study of the relations between the church of Rome and the Anglican churches 1530-1973'' (1974)
* Muriel Porter. ''The New Puritans: The Rise of Fundamentalism in the Anglican Church'' (2007)
* James Rosenthal. ''The Essential Guide to the Anglican Communion'' (1998)
==References==