What is Anglicanism?

The historic Christian faith confessed by English-speaking people throughout the world—rooted in Scripture, ordered by liturgy, and nourished by the Sacraments.

Anglicanism is an expression of the historic Christian faith that developed in England and has been practiced by English-speaking people throughout the world for centuries. Today, the Anglican tradition is shared by people of many languages and cultures.

Anglicans receive the Holy Bible as the written Word of God and the record of His revelation to humanity. This revelation is perfected and fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the eternal Word of God, who became human to bring us back to God. His redeeming work continues through His Church, the visible society He founded through the Apostles and animated by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Salvation is not simply a private decision, but a life lived in fellowship within the blessed company of all faithful people. In and through His Church, the Lord pours out His grace most clearly through the Holy Sacraments, those outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace.

Holy Communion is the weekly center of Anglican worship and of the Christian life. We take seriously the words of Jesus, "This is My Body; this is My Blood," and believe He is especially present among His people in the Bread and Wine of the Lord's Supper.

Anglicans are liturgical: our worship follows ordered forms used since the earliest centuries of the Church. This joins us to Christians worshiping throughout the world and to the saints who worship God in heaven. We seek not to conform Christ to our image, but to be conformed to His image through Word and Sacrament in His Holy Church.

• Scriptural — The Holy Bible is the written Word of God and the record of His revelation to humanity.
• Liturgical — Our worship follows ancient forms that have shaped the Church since its earliest days.
• Global — A tradition born in England and now shared by Christians of many languages and cultures.

05 · History

Anglican history

37–663 · The Church in Britain

Christianity came to Britain in the first century, probably through merchants from Jerusalem. The historian Gildas wrote that the light of Christ entered the island in the final year of Emperor Tiberius, AD 37. Tertullian, writing shortly after AD 200, spoke of British lands beyond Roman reach that were nevertheless subject to Christ. Tradition also associates the arrival of the Gospel with Joseph of Arimathea.

The early Church named Aristobulus, mentioned by St. Paul in Romans 16:10 and traditionally counted among the Seventy sent by Christ, as the first bishop to the Britons. British bishops attended early councils including Arles in 314 and Nicaea in 325.

When St. Gregory the Great sent Augustine to establish a Roman mission at Canterbury in 597, Augustine encountered an established British Church with its own bishops, customs, and saints. Roman and British traditions existed side by side until the Synod of Whitby in 663 adopted Roman customs for the sake of unity.

1530s–1570 · The English Church

Relations with Rome were interrupted in the 1530s when King Henry VIII sought an annulment that Pope Clement VII denied under political pressure. Henry then renounced the jurisdiction of the pope and other foreign bishops within England. Communion with Rome was restored briefly under Queen Mary I in 1553, but after her death relations were again severed. In 1570, following the excommunication of Elizabeth I by Pope Pius V and repeated calls for rebellion, the Church of England once more stood as an independent Church.

1607 onward · Anglicanism in the United States

The Anglican Church came to the American colonies with the establishment of Jamestown in 1607. After the Revolutionary War and the birth of the United States, the Anglican Church in America became a distinct Church while remaining closely tied to the Church of England.

Anglicans increasingly used the name Episcopalian, while declaring that the new Episcopal Church did not intend to depart from the Church of England in any essential point of doctrine, discipline, or worship beyond what local circumstances required.

The word episcopal comes from the Greek episcope, meaning overseer, the New Testament term associated with the office of bishop. The word church comes from the Greek ekklesia, meaning assembly. An episcopal church is therefore a Church overseen by bishops according to the New Testament pattern.