The Anglican Church

[Garland-Green]

The Origin of the Church of England

The churches of the Anglican Communion have their historical roots in the English Reformation, when King Henry VIII (r. 1509-1547) wished to obtain a divorce that the pope would not grant. Through the Act of Supremacy of 1534, the king made himself the "supreme head" of the Church of England in place of the Pope.

After this dramatic move, King Henry dissolved England's monasteries, destroyed Roman Catholic shrines, and ordered the Great Bible (in English) to be placed in all churches. However, Henry allowed few doctrinal changes and very little changed in the religious life of the common English worshipper. Under Henry VIII, and the Church of England remained almost fully Catholic with the exception of loyalty to Rome.

A power struggle between English Protestants and Catholics ensued during the reigns of Edward VI and Mary I. Under King Edward, Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer contributed a great deal to the Protestant movement, including the first two versions of the Book of Common Prayer (1549 and 1552) and the 42 Articles (1553). After the ascension of the Catholic "Bloody Mary" to the throne in 1553, England was restored to Catholicism, much of the reforming work under Kings Henry and Edward was undone, and Thomas Cranmer was burned at the stake.


Protestantism finally emerged victorious under Queen Elizabeth I (r. 1558-1603). It was under Elizabeth that "Anglicanism" took shape, established on the notion of a via media between Catholicism and Protestantism (specifically Reformed Protestantism). Elizabeth appointed Protestant bishops, but reintroduced a crucifix in her chapel, tried to insist on traditional clerical vestments, and made other attempts to satisfy conservative opinion.

The 42 Articles were reduced to 39 and the Book of Common Prayer was reissued. The 39 Articles and the Book of Common Prayer, which together expressed the faith and practice of the Church of England, were sufficiently vague to allow for a variety of interpretations along the Catholic-Protestant spectrum.

After Elizabeth, Calvinist influences were dominant for a time, but High Churchmen regained control of the Church of England in the Restoration of 1660. In the latter 17th and early 18th centuries, Anglicanism was characterized by its emphases on reason, simple devotional religion and moral living. After about 1690, the controversy quieted down and the Church of England settled into the form that still characterizes it today.  

[Garland-Green]

The doctrine of the Anglican Church is an interesting mix of Catholicism and Protestant Reformation theology. The Apostles’ Creed and Nicene Creed are authoritative declarations of belief for the Anglican Church and are typically recited in worship services. Interestingly, the church does not require individuals to agree with or accept all the statements of those creeds but encourages its members to join in the process of discovery. The 39 Articles, developed in the reign of Elizabeth I, laid out the Protestant doctrine and practice of the Anglican Church, but were deliberately written to be so vague that they were open to various interpretations by Protestants and Catholics. As in the Catholic Church, the celebration of the Eucharist is central to the worship service, along with the communal offering of prayer and praise through the recitation of the liturgy. In all liturgical churches, there is a danger of allowing the form of religious ceremony (Isaiah 29:13) to replace the personal application of faith (Psalm 51:16-17). This was a key point of contention by the Puritans and others who ultimately left the Anglican Church. Thomas Shepherd, who was expelled from the Anglican Church in 1630 for non-conformity, was a spiritual giant who was concerned that people distinguish between the work of grace in genuine conversion and the religious pretense that was common within the church. (Shepherd was one of the pivotal men in the founding of Harvard College and became a mentor of Jonathan Edwards, who was mightily used of God in the Great Awakening.)

The Anglican Communion has 80 million members worldwide in 38 different church organizations, including the Episcopal Church. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the recognized spiritual head of the church, though each church organization is self-governing under its own archbishop. In addition to those churches, the Continuing Anglican Communion, established in 1977, is composed of churches which share the historic Anglican faith, but reject the changes in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, as well as the ordination of women and gays/lesbians to the clergy, and have thus severed their ties with the main church.

Read more: http://www.gotquestions.org/Anglicans.html#ixzz3K4y9VRFO