   #copyright

Anglican Communion

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Religious movements,
traditions and organizations

   The Anglican Communion is a world-wide affiliation of Anglican
   Churches. There is no single "Anglican Church" with universal juridical
   authority, since each national or regional church has full autonomy. As
   the name suggests, the Anglican Communion is an association of these
   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. With over
   seventy million members, the Anglican Communion is the fourth largest
   communion in the world, after the Roman Catholic Church the Eastern
   Orthodox Churches and the Methodists.

   The status of full communion means that all rites conducted in one
   church are recognised by the other. Some of these churches are known as
   Anglican, explicitly recognising the link to England (Ecclesia
   Anglicana means "Church of England"); others, such as the American and
   Scottish Episcopal churches, or the Church of Ireland, prefer a
   separate name. Each church has its own doctrine and liturgy, based in
   most cases on that of the Church of England; and each church has its
   own legislative process and overall episcopal polity, under the
   leadership of a local primate.

   The Archbishop of Canterbury, religious head of the Church of England,
   has no formal authority outside that jurisdiction, but is recognised as
   symbolic head of the worldwide communion. Among the other primates, he
   is primus inter pares, or "first among equals." If the Archbishop of
   Canterbury is compared with other religious leaders such as the Pope,
   therefore, it is only because of his prominent figurehead role in the
   media. He has no formal authority outside his own province.
   Nonetheless, churches are not considered to be in the Anglican
   Communion unless they are in full communion with him.

   Although they are not considered members, some non-Anglican bodies have
   entered into communion with the Communion as a whole or with its
   constituent member churches, despite having non-Anglican origins and
   traditions. There are also a number of jurisdictions which do have
   Anglican origins and traditions but have separated from a member church
   of the Anglican Communion. They thus are no longer in communion with
   Canterbury, although some are in communion with individual provinces of
   the Communion. Nonetheless, these bodies self-identify as Anglican and
   are referred to as Anglican by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Many are
   part of the Continuing Anglican Movement. It is estimated that there
   are approximately forty million non-Canterbury Anglicans worldwide as
   against seventy million members of the Anglican Communion.

What holds the Communion together?

   Part of the series on
   Anglicanism
   Anglican Communion
            Background

   Christianity
   English Reformation
   Apostolic Succession
   Roman Catholicism
   Episcopal polity
              People

   Thomas Cranmer
   Henry VIII
   Richard Hooker
   Elizabeth I
   John Wesley
       Instruments of Unity

   Archbishop of Canterbury
   Lambeth Conferences
   Anglican Consultative Council
   Primates' Meeting
        Liturgy and Worship

   Book of Common Prayer
   High Church · Low Church
   Broad Church
   Oxford Movement
   Thirty-Nine Articles
   Ministry
   Saints in Anglicanism

   The Anglican Communion has no official legal existence nor any
   governing structure which might exercise authority over the member
   churches. There is an Anglican Communion Office in London, under the
   aegis of the Archbishop of Canterbury; but it serves merely a
   supporting and organisational role. Instead, the communion is held
   together by a shared history, expressed in its ecclesiology, polity,
   and ethos; and by participation in international consultative bodies.

Ecclesiology, polity, and ethos

   Three elements have been important in holding the Communion together:
   First, the shared ecclesial structure of the churches, manifested in an
   episcopal polity maintained through the apostolic succession of bishops
   and synodical government; second, the principle of belief expressed in
   worship, investing importance in approved prayer books and their
   rubrics; and third, the historical documents and standard divines that
   have influenced the ethos of the Communion.

   Originally, the Church of England was self-contained, and relied for
   its unity and identity on its own history, its traditional legal and
   episcopal structure, and its status as an established church of the
   state. As such, Anglicanism was from the outset a movement with an
   explicitly episcopal polity, a characteristic which has been vital in
   maintaining the unity of the Communion by conveying the episcopate's
   role in manifesting visible catholicity and ecumenism.

   Early in its development, the Church developed a vernacular prayer
   book, called the Book of Common Prayer. Unlike other traditions,
   Anglicanism has never been governed by a magisterium nor by appeal to a
   founding theologian, nor by an extra-credal summary of doctrine (such
   as the Westminster Confession of the Presbyterian Church). Instead,
   Anglicans have typically appealed to the Book of Common Prayer and its
   offshoots as a guide to Anglican theology and practice. This had the
   effect of inculcating the principle of lex orandi, lex credendi ("the
   law of prayer is the law of belief") as the foundation of Anglican
   identity and confession.

   Protracted conflict through the seventeenth century with more radical
   Protestants on the one hand and Roman Catholics who still recognised
   the supremacy of the Pope on the other, resulted in a Church that was
   both deliberately vague about doctrinal principles, yet bold in
   developing parameters of acceptable deviation. These parameters were
   most clearly articulated in the various rubrics of the successive
   prayer books, as well as the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion. These
   Articles, while never binding, have had an influence on the ethos of
   the Communion, an ethos reinforced by their interpretation and
   expansion by such influential early theologians as Richard Hooker,
   Lancelot Andrewes, John Cosin, and others.

   With the expansion of Anglicanism outside Britain and Ireland, the
   Communion sought to establish new vehicles of unity. The first major
   expression of this were the Lambeth Conferences of the Communion's
   bishops, first convened by Archbishop of Canterbury Charles Longley in
   1867. From the outset, these were not intended to displace the autonomy
   of the emerging provinces of the Communion, but to "discuss matters of
   practical interest, and pronounce what we deem expedient in resolutions
   which may serve as safe guides to future action." One of the enduringly
   influential early resolutions of the Conference was the so-called
   Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral of 1888. Its intent was to provide the
   basis for discussions of reunion with the Roman Catholic and Orthodox
   Churches, but it had the ancillary effect of establishing parameters of
   Anglican identity. Its four principles are:
    1. "The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as 'containing
       all things necessary to salvation', and as being the rule and
       ultimate standard of faith."
    2. "The Apostles' Creed, as the Baptismal Symbol; and the Nicene
       Creed, as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith."
    3. "The two Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself - Baptism and the
       Supper of the Lord - ministered with unfailing use of Christ's
       words of Institution, and of the elements ordained by Him."
    4. "The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its
       administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples
       called of God into the Unity of His Church."

Instruments of Unity

   As mentioned above, the Anglican Communion has no international
   juridical organisation. The Archbishop of Canterbury's role is strictly
   symbolic and unifying; and the Communion's three international bodies
   are consultative and collaborative, their resolutions having no legal
   effect on the independent provinces of the Communion. Taken together,
   however, the four do function as "instruments of unity", since all
   churches of the Communion partcipate in them. In order of antiquity,
   they are:
    1. The Archbishop of Canterbury (ab origine) functions as the
       spiritual head of the Communion. He is the focus of unity, since no
       church claims membership in the Communion without being in
       communion with him. The present incumbent is Dr. Rowan Williams.
    2. The Lambeth Conference (first held in 1867) is the oldest
       international consultation. It is a forum for bishops of the
       Communion to reinforce unity and collegiality through manifesting
       the episcopate, to discuss matters of mutual concern, and to pass
       resolutions intended to act as guideposts. It is held roughly every
       ten years and invitation is by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
    3. The Anglican Consultative Council (first met in 1971) was created
       by a 1968 Lambeth Conference resolution, and meets usually at three
       year intervals. The council consists of representative bishops,
       clergy, and laity chosen by the thirty-eight provinces. The body
       has a permanent secretariat, the Anglican Communion Office, of
       which the Archbishop of Canterbury is president.
    4. The Primates' Meeting (first met in 1979) is the most recent
       manifestation of international consultation and deliberation,
       having been first convened by Archbishop Donald Coggan as a forum
       for "leisurely thought, prayer and deep consultation."

   Since there is no binding authority in the Communion, these
   international bodies are a vehicle for consultation and persuasion. In
   recent years, persuasion has tipped over into debates over conformity
   in certain areas of doctrine, discipline, worship, and ethics. The most
   notable example has been the objection of some provinces of the
   Communion (particularly in Africa, Asia and Sydney Australia) to the
   changing role of homosexuals in the North American churches (e.g., by
   blessing same-sex unions and ordaining and consecrating gays and
   lesbians in same-sex relationships), and to the process by which
   changes were undertaken. Those who objected condemned these actions as
   unscsriptural, unilateral, and without the agreement of the Communion
   prior to these steps being taken. In response, the American Episcopal
   Church and the Anglican Church of Canada answered that the actions had
   been undertaken after lengthy scriptural and theological reflection,
   legally in accordance with their own canons and constitutions and after
   extensive consultation with the provinces of the Communion.

   The Primates' Meeting voted to request the two churches to withdraw
   their delegates from the 2005 meeting of the Anglican Consultative
   Council, and Canada and the United States decided to attend the meeting
   but without exercising their right to vote. They have not been expelled
   or suspended, since there is no mechanism in this voluntary association
   to suspend or expel an independent province of the Communion. Since
   membership is based on a province's communion with Canterbury,
   expulsion would require the Archbishop of Canterbury's refusal to be in
   communion with the affected jurisdiction(s). In line with the
   suggestion of the Windsor Report, Dr. Williams has recently established
   a working group to examine the feasibility of an Anglican covenant
   which would articulate the conditions for communion in some fashion.

Provinces of the Anglican Communion

   All thirty-eight provinces of the Anglican Communion are independent,
   each with its own primate and governing structure. These provinces may
   take the form of national churches (such as in Canada, Uganda, or
   Japan) or a collection of nations (such as the West Indies, Central
   Africa, or Southeast Asia). They are, in alphabetical order:
     * The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and Polynesia
     * The Anglican Church of Australia
     * The Church of Bangladesh
     * The Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil (Anglican Episcopal Church
       of Brazil)
     * The Anglican Church of Burundi
     * The Anglican Church of Canada
     * The Church of the Province of Central Africa
     * The Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central America (Anglican Church
       in the Central Region of America)
     * The Province de L'Eglise Anglicane Du Congo (Province of the
       Anglican Church of Congo)
     * The Church of England
     * Sheng Kung Hui (Hong Kong Anglican Church (Episcopal))
     * The Church of the Province of the Indian Ocean
     * The Church of Ireland
     * The Nippon Sei Ko Kai (The Anglican Communion in Japan)
     * The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East
     * The Anglican Church of Kenya
     * The Anglican Church of Korea
     * The Church of the Province of Melanesia
     * The Anglican Church of Mexico
     * The Church of the Province of Myanmar (Burma)
     * The Church of Nigeria
     * The Church of North India
     * The Church of Pakistan
     * The Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea
     * The Episcopal Church of the Philippines
     * The Church of the Province of Rwanda
     * The Scottish Episcopal Church
     * The Church of the Province of South East Asia
     * The Church of South India
     * The Anglican Church of Southern Africa
     * Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de las Americas (Anglican Church of
       the Southern Cone of the Americas)
     * The Episcopal Church of the Sudan
     * The Anglican Church of Tanzania
     * The Church of Uganda
     * The Episcopal Church in the United States of America
     * The Church in Wales
     * The Church of the Province of West Africa
     * The Church in the Province of the West Indies

   In addition, there are six extra-provincial churches, five of which are
   under the metropolitical authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
     * The Anglican Church of Bermuda (extra-provincial to the Archbishop
       of Canterbury)
     * Iglesia Episcopal de Cuba (Episcopal Church of Cuba) (under a
       metropolitan council)
     * The Parish of the Falkland Islands (extra-provincial to the
       Archbishop of Canterbury)
     * The Lusitanian Catholic Apostolic Evangelical Church of Portugal
       (extra-provincial to the Archbishop of Canterbury)
     * The Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church (extra-provincial to the
       Archbishop of Canterbury)
     * The Church of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) (extra-provincial to the
       Archbishop of Canterbury)

History

   The Anglican Communion is a relatively recent concept. Ever since the
   Church of England (which until the 20th century included the Church in
   Wales) broke from Rome in the reign of Henry VIII, it has thought of
   itself not as a new foundation but rather as a reformed continuation of
   the ancient "English church" and a reassertion of that church's rights.
   As such it was a distinctly local phenomenon.

   Thus the only members of the present Anglican Communion existing by the
   mid-18th century were the Church of England, its closely-linked sister
   church, the Church of Ireland (which also broke from Rome under Henry
   VIII), and the Scottish Episcopal Church, which for parts of the 17th
   and 18th centuries was partially underground (it was suspected of
   Jacobite sympathies).

   However, the enormous expansion in the 18th and 19th centuries of the
   British Empire brought the church along with it. At first all these
   colonial churches were under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London.
   After the American Revolution, the parishes in the newly independent
   country found it necessary to break formally from a church whose
   Supreme Governor was (and remains) the British monarch. Thus they
   formed their own dioceses and national church, the Episcopal Church in
   the United States of America, in a mostly amicable separation.

   At about the same time, in the colonies which remained linked to the
   crown, the Church of England began to appoint colonial bishops. In 1787
   a bishop of Nova Scotia was appointed with a jurisdiction over all of
   British North America; in time several more colleagues were appointed
   to other cities in present-day Canada. In 1814 a bishop of Calcutta was
   made; in 1824 the first bishop was sent to the West Indies and in 1836
   to Australia. By 1840 there were still only ten colonial bishops for
   the Church of England; but even this small beginning greatly
   facilitated the growth of Anglicanism around the world. In 1841 a
   "Colonial Bishoprics Council" was set up and soon many more dioceses
   were created.

   In time, it became natural to group these into provinces, and a
   metropolitan appointed for each province. Although it had at first been
   somewhat established in many colonies, in 1861 it was ruled that,
   except where specifically established, the Church of England had just
   the same legal position as any other church. Thus a colonial bishop and
   colonial diocese was by nature quite a different thing from their
   counterparts back home. In time bishops came to be appointed locally
   rather than from England, and eventually national synods began to pass
   ecclesiastical legislation independent of England.

   A crucial step in the development of the modern communion was the idea
   of the Lambeth Conferences, as discussed above. These conferences
   demonstrated that the bishops of disparate churches could manifest the
   unity of the church in their episcopal collegiality, despite the
   absence of universal legal ties. Some bishops were initially reluctant
   to attend, fearing that the meeting would declare itself a council with
   power to legislate for the church; but it agreed to pass only advisory
   resolutions. These Lambeth Conferences have been held roughly
   decennially since 1878 (the second such conference), and remain the
   most visible coming-together of the whole Communion.

Controversies

   One effect of the Communion's dispersed authority has been that
   conflict and controversy regularly arise over the effect divergent
   practices and doctrines in one part of the Communion have on others.
   Disputes that had been confined to the Church of England could be dealt
   with legislatively in that realm, but as the Communion spread out into
   new nations and disparate cultures, such controversies multiplied and
   intensified. These controversies have generally been of two types:
   liturgical and social.

   The first such controversy of note concerned that of the growing
   influence of the Roman Catholic Revival manifested in the so-called
   ritualism controversies of the late nineteenth and early twentieth
   centuries. Later, rapid social change and the dissipation of British
   cultural hegemony over its former colonies contributed to disputes over
   the role of women, the parameters of marriage and divorce, and the
   practice of contraception and abortion. More recently, disagreements
   over homosexuality have strained the unity of the Communion as well as
   its relationships with other Christian denominations (see Anglican
   views of homosexuality). Simultaneous with debates about social
   theology and ethics, the Communion has debated prayer book revision and
   the acceptable grounds for achieving full communion with non-Anglican
   churches.
     * A Letter From The Episcopal Church Historical Society On Bishop
       Polk And Sewanee

Ecumenical relations

   Anglican interest in ecumenical dialogue can be traced back to the time
   of the Reformation and dialogues with both Orthodox and Lutheran
   churches in the sixteenth century. In the nineteenth century, with the
   rise of the Oxford Movement, there arose greater concern for reunion of
   the churches of "Catholic confession." This desire to work towards full
   communion with other denominations led to the development of the
   Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral, approved by the Third Lambeth Conference
   of 1888. The four points (the sufficiency of scripture, the historic
   creeds, the two dominical sacraments, and the historic episcopate) were
   proposed as a basis for discussion, although they have frequently been
   taken as a non-negotiable bottom-line for reunion.

World Council of Churches

   Ecumenical dialogue has been particularly fruitful in three realms. The
   first is the World Council of Churches and its predecessors, in which
   Anglicans have been involved from the first. Anglican representatives
   were particularly involved in the development of the seminal Faith and
   Order paper, Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry, which sought to develop
   common ground concerning these issues, and have been at the centre of
   the process of developing recent work on the "Nature and Mission of the
   Church".

Roman Catholic Church

   The second concerns dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church. Long-term
   hostility between the two Communions had undermined the prospects of
   dialogue. Although Roman Catholic Emancipation in the United Kingdom
   relieved some of the tension, the Catholic response to the
   Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral was articulated in Apostolicae Curae, an
   1896 papal bull which declared Anglican holy orders null and void.
   Rapprochement was finally achieved in 1966, with the visit of
   Archbishop Michael Ramsey to Pope Paul VI. The following year, the
   Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission was established. Its
   first project focused on the authority of Scripture, and the Commission
   has since produced nine agreed statements. Phase One of ARCIC ended in
   1981 with the publication of a final report, Elucidations on Authority
   in the Church. Phase Two lasted between 1983 and 2004, and a third
   phase is expected. The most recent agreed statement dealt with Marian
   theology, and was published in 2004. In 2000, following a successful
   meeting of Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops in Mississauga in
   Canada, a new commission, the International Anglican Roman Catholic
   Commission for Unity and Mission, was established to promote practical
   co-operation between Anglicans and Roman Catholics, and the reception
   of the fruits of the theological dialogue.

   Despite the productivity of these discussions, dialogue is strained by
   developments in some provinces of the Communion, primarily concerning
   the ordination of women and the ordination of those in public same-sex
   sexual relationships including, in one case, a bishop ( Gene Robinson).
   Pope John Paul II made a Pastoral Provision for a small number parishes
   led by former Episcopal clergy who have converted to the Roman Catholic
   Church. There are approximately a half-dozen of these Anglican Use
   parishes, so called because they have been permitted the temporary use
   of a Roman Catholic adaptation of the Book of Common Prayer, although
   not the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer itself. In addition, there is
   one Continuing Anglican church jurisdiction, the Traditional Anglican
   Communion, currently seeking to achieve full communion with Rome while
   retaining its own faith and practices.

Lutheran Churches

   Another fruitful realm of dialogue has been with various Lutheran
   churches. In 1994, the Porvoo Communion was formed, bringing the
   Anglican churches of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland and the
   Episcopal churches of Portugal and Spain into full communion with the
   Lutheran churches of Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, and
   Lithuania. In 2001, the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical
   Lutheran Church in Canada achieved full communion , as did the
   Episcopal Church in the United States and the Evangelical Lutheran
   Church in America . In addition, full communion agreements have been
   reached between various ecclesiastical provinces and smaller, mostly
   Catholic denominations, such as the Old Catholic Church after the Bonn
   Agreement of 1931.

Orthodox Churches

   Dialogue has also been fruitful with the Orthodox Churches. The current
   International Commission of the Anglican-Orthodox Theological Dialogue
   was established in 1999, building on the work of earlier commissions,
   which had published their work in the Dublin Statement, and the
   Anglican Oriental Orthodox International Commission was established in
   2001.

Other churches

   Consultations with Protestant churches other than Lutherans have also
   been fruitful. However, movements toward full communion between the
   Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada, as well as
   between the Church of England and the Methodist Church of Great Britain
   were both derailed because of the issue of episcopacy, specifically,
   apostolic succession. This, as well as Anglican stands on certain
   social issues, has likewise hindered dialogue between Anglicans and
   conservative evangelical Protestant denominations. This has not
   prevented a range of reports by bilateral commissions producing
   descriptions of converging theology and practice however, such as
   Conversations around the World (2005), a report of conversations
   between the representatives of the Anglican Communion and the Baptist
   World Alliance.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglican_Communion"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
