What is Anglicanism?
Anglicanism is the expression of the historic Christian faith that developed in England and that has been practiced by English-speaking people the world over for centuries. Today, the Anglican tradition is shared by people of many languages and cultures.
Anglicans regard the Holy Bible as the written Word of God and as the record of His revelation to humanity. This revelation is perfected and fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the eternal Word of God Himself, who became a human like us in real time and space to bring us back to God.
This work of redemption happens through His Church, which is the organic, visible society that our Lord founded through his Holy Apostles while still on earth and which was animated by the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Anglicans believe that salvation is not mainly a decision made on one’s own, but a life lived in fellowship in the “blessed company of all faithful people.”
In and by His Church the Lord pours out His grace most clearly through the Holy Sacraments, those “outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace.” The Sacrament of Holy Communion is for Anglicans the weekly Sunday celebration and is, in fact, the center of the whole Christian life. We take Jesus’ words “This is my Body, this is my Blood” seriously and believe that He is especially present among His people in the Bread and Wine of the Lord’s Supper.
This weekly (or sometimes even daily) celebration is our chief liturgy. Anglicans are liturgical; our order of worshiping God is uniform and made of forms that have been used since the very earliest days of the Church. This connects us both to our brethren who worship God on earth and those who worship Him in the heavens.
Anglicans seek not to conform Christ to their own image, but to be conformed to the image of Christ through His Word and Sacrament in His Holy Church.
Anglican History
Anglican Christianity, which stems from the Protestant Reformation, is one of the largest Christian traditions in the world. Christianity came to Britain in the first or second century, probably brought by merchants from Jerusalem. Tradition says that the gospel was brought there by Joseph of Arimathea. When Pope St. Gregory the Great sent a monk named Augustine to England in 597 to establish a Roman mission at Canterbury, he found an already established and robust British church with its own bishops and customs.
The two church traditions (Rome and Britain) existed side-by-side until the Synod of Whitby in 663, when it was decided that Roman customs would be followed for the sake of Christian unity. That relationship continued through most of Anglican church history. In 1208, a confrontation arose between King John and Pope Innocent III over rights in the Church, which led to England being placed under interdict and King John’s five-year excommunication.
Good relations were interrupted again in the 1530s when King Henry VIII, desiring to obtain an annulment of his marriage, renounced the jurisdiction of the pope or any other foreign bishop in the English realm. Communion was restored briefly in 1553, but unfortunately, relations were severed again in 1570 with the excommunication of Elizabeth I by Pope Pius V. The Church of England became an independent body at that point and would continue to follow its own laws and customs after that.
Anglicanism In The United States
The Anglican Church in the American colonies became a separate ecclesial body along with the birth of the United States after the Revolutionary War. Anglicans used the name “Episcopalian” almost exclusively after the war. However, they noted that this new Episcopal Church “is far from intending to depart from the Church of England in any essential point of doctrine, discipline, or worship, or further than local circumstances allow” (The Book of Common Prayer, p.11). The word “episcopal” comes from the Greek word episcope (overseer), which the New Testament uses for the office of bishop who oversees a local church. The word “church” comes from the Greek word ekklesia (assembly), which the New Testament uses for God’s people gathered into an assembled congregation. So, the term “episcopal church” means a church overseen by bishops, according to the New Testament model.