Anglican Communion

The Anglican Communion is a world-wide organization of Anglican Churches. There is no single "Anglican Church" since each national or regional church has full autonomy; as the name suggests, rather, the Anglican Communion is an association of these churches in full communion with each other and particularly with the Church of England, which may be regarded as the "mother church" of the worldwide communion. For membership, see the box at the bottom of this page.

What holds the Communion together?

The Anglican Communion has no official legal existence nor any formal governing structure. (There is an "Anglican Communion Office" in London, under the aegis of the Archbishop of Canterbury; but it serves merely a supporting and organizational role.) Some have asked what holds the communion together.

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The first attempt at an answer was the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral of 1888. Proposed by the American Episcopal Church in 1886 and adopted by the Lambeth Conference of 1888, it set out four principles for future Christian unity. Although wider union has not followed, the quadrilateral has been useful within the communion itself.

Related Topics:
Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral - 1888 - Lambeth Conference

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The quadrilateral, according to the wording adopted in Lambeth (http://anglicansonline.org/basics/Chicago_Lambeth.html), consists of:

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• "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."
• "The Apostles' Creed, as the Baptismal Symbol; and the Nicene Creed, as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith."
• "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."
• "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."

This, then, is the theoretical basis for unity. But what holds it together organizationally? In the last few years people have began to refer to four "Instruments of Unity", which are effectively symbols to which all the churches of the communion can feel tied. In order of antiquity, they are:

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• The Archbishop of Canterbury (ab origine)
• The Lambeth Conference (first held in 1867)
• The Anglican Consultative Council (first met in 1971)
• The Primates' Meeting (first met in 1979)

Since each province is legally independent and free to chart its own course, the stress on these instruments of unity can easily be imagined. In recent years, for example, some Anglicans (particularly in Africa and Asia) have been displeased with the American and Canadian branches, upset by their welcoming attitudes towards homosexuals, and by the confident way the changes have been made — the conservatives condemmed the action as unilateral and called for wider consultation within the communion before such steps were taken. After the North American churches reaffirmed their belief that their actions had been righteous and "prophetic", they were asked to withdraw their delegates from the 2005 meeting of the Anglican Consultive Council. They were permitted at the meeting with voice, but no vote. But they have not been expelled or even suspended from the communion; indeed, no church ever has. It is unclear, moreoever, how such an expulsion could ever be carried out, since the communion is such a theoretical construct.

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