Anglicanism

The term Anglican (from the "Angles" or English) describes those people and churches following the religious traditions developed by the established Church of England. The Anglican Communion codifies the Anglican relationship to the Church of England as a theologically broad and often diverging community of churches, which holds the English church as its mother institution. Adherents of Anglicanism number in the tens of millions worldwide.

Churches

Anglicanism is most commonly identified with the established Church of England, but Anglican churches exist in most parts of the world. In some countries (e.g., the United States, Scotland) the Anglican church is known as Episcopal, from the Latin episcopus, "bishop", which comes from a Greek word literally meaning an "overseer."

Related Topics:
Church of England - United States - Scotland - Bishop - Greek

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Each national church or province is headed by a Primate called a Primus in the Scottish Episcopal Church, an Archbishop in most countries, a Presiding Bishop in the Episcopal Church USA, and a Prime Bishop in the Philippine Episcopal Church. These churches are divided into a number of dioceses, usually corresponding to state or metropolitan divisions.

Related Topics:
National church - Province - Primate - Primus - Scottish Episcopal Church - Archbishop - Presiding Bishop - Episcopal Church USA

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There are three orders of the ordained ministry: deacon, priest and bishop. No requirement is made for clerical celibacy, and women may be ordained as deacons in almost all provinces, as priests in many, and as bishops in a few provinces. Religious orders of monks, brothers, sisters and nuns were suppressed in England during the Reformation but made a reappearance in Victorian times.

Related Topics:
Deacon - Priest - Bishop - Clerical celibacy

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Those Anglican churches "in communion" with the See of Canterbury constitute the Anglican Communion, a formal organisation made up of churches at the national level. However, there are a small number of churches which call themselves Anglican that are known as the "continuing church" movement and do not acknowledge the Anglican Communion. They consider the Church of England and the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, as well as some other member churches of the Anglican Communion, to have departed from the historic faith by ordaining women, altering the theological emphases of the historic Book of Common Prayer, and loosening the Church's traditional regulations concerning sexual and marital matters.

Related Topics:
Communion - Canterbury - Anglican Communion - Continuing church - Episcopal Church in the United States of America - Book of Common Prayer

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