The Anglican Church
he Anglican communion is a group of worldwide catholic and reformed churches that has grown out of the national Church of England.
The process by which this came about covers the whole of the recorded history of the people of the British Isles. The Anglican Timeline provides a good overview.
The first Christian Millennium in Western Europe was characterised by many different strands of Christian missionary activity but by the end of the period, marked by the Norman invasion in Britain, the Catholic Church, headed by the Pope in Rome, had become almost the sole expression of Christianity in the region. There was a strong relationship between the power of the various kings, seen as being granted to them by God, through his representative on Earth, the Pope. Celtic Christianity, with its lack of central structures, hung on, especially in Ireland, but as Norman power spread across the British Isles, sometimes by assimilation but more often by conquest, so Celtic Christianity declined. The History section of the Scottish Episcopalian Church covers this very well.
However, from the Thirteenth Century on dissatisfaction with the structures and practices of the Church grew, eventually leading to the movement known as the Reformation. This again has far too many threads and influences to describe here but by the time of Henry VIII things were moving apace. By this time England, Ireland and Wales were ruled by one King as one nation with one set of church structures. However, Reformed Churches, such as those influenced by Calvin, were beginning to take root. This was particularly true in Scotland.
What Henry achieved, more for political than religious reasons, was a break with Rome while retaining the apostolic succession and the threefold ministry of Bishop, Priest and Deacon. It is still a catholic (universal) church. Henry and his successors became Supreme Governor of the Church of England. His son, Edward VI, was keen to promote more Protestant reforms and introduced two prayer books in the English language. His 1552 Prayer Book (developed mostly by Cranmer)was very much the basis of the 1662 Prayer Book introduced after the Restoration, which became the basis of Anglican liturgy across the world. For more on this see the Worship section of the Church of England site.
The governorship of the monarch is where the church’s links with the state come from. The Queen still, through the Prime Minister, appoints of Bishops and Archbishops and some Bishops still sit in the House of Lords. This is partly why the Church of England is known as the established church of England, i.e. that the Church of England is the state church.
With the Act of Union, Episcopalianism, the rule of bishops, was encouraged in Scotland but the Calvinist Church of Scotland remand strong and the Anglican Episcopalian church remains a minority church.
As the British empire spread so did the forms of worship and the doctrine of the Church of England. It was now more than the national Church and so the name “Anglican” came to be used. Most countries of the world, even outside the old empire, have some kind of Anglican presence.
Today, in the United Kingdom there are four Anglican churches:
The Church of Ireland is one Province of the Anglican Communion with Dioceses in the Irish Republic and the Province of Northern Ireland. It was disestablished in 1869 by Gladstone’s government. The Church in Wales was disestablished in 1919 and issued its own bilingual Prayer Book in 1929. The Episcopal Church of Scotland was never the established church in Scotland.
They are all part of the Anglican Communion, but with minor differences in the form of service, patterns of ministry and so on.
The Church of England’s central beliefs and practices are described on the Church of England Website.