# Anglicanism The Protestant denominational tradition originating in the 16th-century English Reformation — distinguished by the historic episcopate, liturgical worship structured around the Book of Common Prayer, the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, and a self-conception (the "*via media*" — middle way) between Catholic and Reformed extremes. Anglicanism is structured globally as the Anglican Communion — a fellowship of 42 autonomous national or regional provinces in communion with the See of Canterbury — with roughly 85 million adherents. Its US right-wing political footprint operates through two contrasting denominations: the Episcopal Church (the historic Anglican Communion province in the US, theologically and politically progressive) and the breakaway Anglican Church in North America (ACNA, formed 2009 from conservative Episcopal congregations that rejected progressive sexuality and biblical-authority developments). The ACNA-Episcopal split is the largest US conservative-mainline denominational rupture of the 21st century. ## Founding and origins The English Reformation began with Henry VIII's break with Rome over the Pope's refusal to grant his marriage annulment from Catherine of Aragon. The Act of Supremacy (1534) declared the king Supreme Head of the Church of England, transferring papal jurisdiction to the crown. Henry's break was initially political and institutional more than doctrinal — Henry remained substantially Catholic in personal theology and required clerical celibacy and traditional sacramental practice through much of his reign. The doctrinal Reformation of the Church of England came under Henry's successors: - **Edward VI (1547–1553)** — child king under Protestant regency; Thomas Cranmer (Archbishop of Canterbury) produced the first Book of Common Prayer (1549) and the more thoroughly Reformed Book of Common Prayer (1552). The Forty-Two Articles (1553) established Reformed Protestant doctrine. - **Mary I (1553–1558)** — Catholic restoration; Cranmer and other Reformers burned at the stake; brief reversal of the English Reformation - **Elizabeth I (1558–1603)** — the Elizabethan Settlement (1559) established the broadly-Protestant Church of England as Elizabeth would maintain it. The Thirty-Nine Articles (1571) — Reformed Protestant in doctrine but maintaining the episcopate and the Book of Common Prayer's liturgical Catholic-inheritance — became the foundational Anglican confessional document. The 1559 and (especially) 1662 Books of Common Prayer became the foundational liturgical-doctrinal expression. The 17th century brought further Anglican consolidation against both Catholic and Puritan-Presbyterian pressures: the English [[American Civil War]] (1642–1651) saw the Church of England disestablished and the Westminster Assembly (1643–1653) attempt Reformed-Presbyterian reform; the Restoration (1660) reestablished the Church of England with the 1662 Book of Common Prayer; the Glorious Revolution (1688) and the Act of Settlement (1701) consolidated the Anglican religious-political establishment. The **Anglican Communion** developed as the British Empire spread Anglican Christianity globally. American colonies had Church of England parishes; the [[American Revolution]] produced the Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA (1789) as autonomous national church. Subsequent imperial and missionary expansion produced Anglican provinces across Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and the Americas. **Theological currents within Anglicanism** developed across the 19th and 20th centuries: - **High Church / Anglo-Catholic** — emphasizes the Catholic-tradition inheritance, sacramental theology, liturgical formality; the Oxford Movement (1833–1845; Newman, Pusey, Keble) was the seminal modern Anglo-Catholic moment; Newman's conversion to Roman Catholicism (1845) was a watershed. - **Low Church / Evangelical** — emphasizes the Reformed-Protestant inheritance, biblical preaching, evangelical conversion. The Evangelical Anglican tradition (Charles Simeon, the Clapham Sect, John Stott in the 20th century) has been substantial. - **Broad Church / Liberal** — emphasizes the *via media*, theological accommodation to modern scholarship and culture - **Anglican Charismatic** — late-20th-century renewal incorporating Pentecostal/charismatic spirituality into Anglican context ## Core beliefs and distinctives **Anglican theological distinctives.** Within the broader Protestant framework, Anglicanism distinctively holds: - **Historic episcopate** — Anglican churches maintain bishops in apostolic succession; the episcopate is "of the *bene esse*" (well-being) of the church for some Anglican traditions, "of the *esse*" (essence) of the church for Anglo-Catholic traditions - **The *via media*** — the self-understanding of Anglicanism as middle way between Catholic and Reformed extremes; preserves Catholic tradition where scripture does not forbid and Reformed scripture-priority where it does - **Lex orandi, lex credendi** — "the rule of prayer is the rule of belief"; Anglican doctrine is substantially carried in the Book of Common Prayer's liturgical content rather than in a confessional document parallel to Augsburg or Westminster - **Anglican comprehensiveness** — the historic effort to accommodate Catholic-leaning and Reformed-leaning Anglicans within a single ecclesial communion; under significant pressure from late-20th-century theological-cultural conflicts - **The Book of Common Prayer** — the 1662 BCP is the historic doctrinal standard for Church of England and many Anglican provinces; subsequent Anglican prayer books (1928 US, 1979 US, common worship texts, ANCA's 2019 BCP) vary by province - **The Thirty-Nine Articles** — Reformed-Protestant doctrinal statement; binding doctrinally in varying degrees across Anglican provinces (clerical subscription has been variously interpreted historically) - **Sacramental theology** — two dominical sacraments (Baptism and the Lord's Supper / Eucharist); five "lesser" sacramental rites (Confirmation, Penance, Holy Orders, Matrimony, Anointing) acknowledged but not held as sacraments in the strict sense **Polity and authority.** Episcopal polity (governance by bishops, with priests and deacons). Anglican Communion provinces are autonomous; the Archbishop of Canterbury serves as primary point of unity but lacks juridical authority over other provinces. The Lambeth Conferences (decennial meetings of bishops), the Anglican Consultative Council, and the Primates' Meetings constitute the four "Instruments of Communion." ## Major internal divisions The Anglican Communion in the early 21st century has been substantially divided over questions of biblical authority, sexuality, and ecclesial discipline. The **GAFCON** (Global Anglican Future Conference) movement, founded in 2008, represents the conservative Anglican alignment — primarily Global South provinces (Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Southeast Asia provinces) along with breakaway North American jurisdictions. GAFCON-aligned provinces have substantially reduced communion with the Episcopal Church (US), the Church of England, the Anglican Church of Canada, the Scottish Episcopal Church, and the Anglican Church of Aotearoa-New Zealand-Polynesia over the latters' progressive sexuality decisions. Major US Anglican-tradition denominations: - **Episcopal Church (US)** — the historic Anglican Communion province in the US; ~1.5 million members; politically and theologically progressive; ordains women (since 1976), has consecrated openly gay bishops (Gene Robinson, 2003 — a defining moment in the global Anglican rupture), permits same-sex marriage - **Anglican Church in North America (ACNA)** — formed 2009 from Episcopal-conservative breakaway congregations; ~135K members; theologically traditional, GAFCON-aligned; not recognized as Anglican Communion province by Canterbury but recognized by GAFCON provinces - **Continuing Anglican churches** — Anglican Catholic Church, Anglican Province of America, Anglican Church in America, and others; formed mostly in the 1970s–1980s from Episcopal-conservative breakaway congregations - **Episcopal Missionary Church** — earlier (1990s) conservative breakaway **Cross-cutting theological tendencies** continue to operate across institutional boundaries: Anglo-Catholic, Evangelical, Charismatic, Liberal, with each present in varying degrees in Episcopal Church and ACNA both. ## Demographic footprint **Global:** ~85 million Anglicans across 42 Anglican Communion provinces. The largest Anglican populations: Nigeria (~25 million — the largest Anglican province globally), England (~25 million nominal, ~1 million active churchgoers), Uganda (~12 million), Kenya (~5 million), Tanzania (~5 million), South Sudan, Rwanda, [[Sudan]], Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the US, and many other provinces. Rapid growth in sub-Saharan Africa; long-term institutional decline in England and most Western provinces. The Global South has become the demographic center of contemporary Anglicanism — Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, and other African provinces vastly outnumber Western Anglican populations and have driven the conservative theological-political alignment within the Communion. **United States:** ~1.5–1.7 million Anglicans across all US Anglican-tradition denominations. Episcopal Church is the larger body; ACNA is the major conservative alternative. The US Anglican population is small relative to other Protestant families but historically influential — Episcopal Church members have been disproportionately represented in the US political, business, and educational establishment historically. ## Right-wing politics tributaries Anglicanism's US right-wing political footprint operates through several distinct channels: **ACNA and the conservative-Anglican realignment.** The Anglican Church in North America formed in 2009 from conservative Episcopal-breakaway congregations responding to the Episcopal Church's 2003 consecration of openly gay bishop Gene Robinson, subsequent same-sex marriage and ordination decisions, and broader progressive theological-cultural drift. ACNA is theologically conservative across multiple traditions (Anglo-Catholic, Evangelical, Charismatic) united by traditional biblical and sexual teaching. It is GAFCON-aligned, in communion with conservative Global South Anglican provinces but not in formal communion with Canterbury. ACNA constitutes a substantial conservative-Anglican institutional voice in US religious-political life. **Episcopal Church as progressive religious voice.** Episcopal Church — politically and theologically progressive — represents one of the most consistent left-of-center voices in US religious-political life. Its public-policy positions (LGBTQ inclusion, women's ordination, immigration, climate, refugee resettlement, racial justice) align with progressive US politics. The denomination has shed substantial membership over the past two decades (~50% decline in active membership since 1965) but retains institutional prominence. **Anglo-Catholic and traditional-Anglican intellectual presence.** A distinctive intellectual presence of Anglican-tradition figures in US religious-conservative life — including the Mere Anglicanism conference circuit, the *Anglican Way* and similar publications, the broader Anglo-Catholic and Evangelical Anglican intellectual production. Smaller in volume than the Catholic-integralist or Reformed-traditionalist intellectual movements but with significant individual figures. **[[George Weigel]], Ross Douthat, and the Anglican-Catholic intellectual crossover.** While Weigel and Douthat are Roman Catholic, the broader intellectual ecosystem that engages traditional liturgical Christianity, biblical authority questions, and religious-cultural conservatism cuts across Anglican-Catholic boundaries in ways that include substantial Anglican-tradition participation. **Conservative-Anglican Global South alignment as US right-wing reference.** The Global South Anglican provinces' conservative positions on sexuality and biblical authority are sometimes invoked by US right-wing commentators as evidence that progressive Western Christianity is a localized phenomenon rather than majority global Christian position. The argument has structural force — African Anglicans do vastly outnumber Western Anglicans and do hold conservative positions on sexuality — though it is often deployed without engagement with the Global South provinces on their own terms (immigration politics, prosperity gospel, economic theology, etc.). **Anglican-tradition political-philosophical resources.** The Anglican intellectual tradition — Richard Hooker (1554–1600), Lancelot Andrewes, the Cambridge Platonists, Joseph Butler, John Henry Newman (before his 1845 conversion to Catholicism), William Temple, C.S. Lewis (the most-quoted Anglican layman in contemporary US religious-conservative discourse) — supplies significant intellectual resources for US religious-conservative thought. **C.S. Lewis as cross-confessional touchstone.** Lewis (an Anglican layman) is arguably the single most-quoted Christian author in contemporary US religious-conservative writing. *Mere Christianity*, *The Abolition of Man*, *The Screwtape Letters*, and the Narnia chronicles function as foundational texts for substantial swaths of US religious-conservative intellectual formation across denominations. ## Connections - [[Christianity]] — parent religious tradition - [[Protestantism]] — broader denominational umbrella - [[Catholicism]] — the tradition Anglicanism emerged from in protest; Anglo-Catholic strand maintains substantial Catholic-tradition affinity ## See also - [[Protestantism]] — the umbrella tradition - [[Reformed Christianity]] · [[Lutheranism]] · [[Baptist Christianity]] · [[Methodism]] · [[Pentecostalism]] · [[Anabaptism]] — sibling Protestant traditions - [[Catholicism]] — the tradition Anglicanism's *via media* mediates against, alongside Reformed Christianity