

The roots of the

16th-century Book of Common Prayer

Anglican Communion can be traced to the Reformation in the 16th century, when King Henry VIII rejected the authority of the pope in Rome and established an independent church in England. The essential teachings of the church were first set down in The Book of Common Prayer, compiled by Thomas Cranmer, and the organization of the Church of England was worked out during the 16th and 17th centuries. From the time of the Reformation, the Church of England followed explorers, traders, colonists, and missionaries into the far reaches all parts of the known world. The colonial churches generally exercised administrative autonomy within the historical and creedal context of the mother church. It was probably not until the first meeting of the Lambeth Conference ( because it was held at Lambeth Palace, the archbishop of Canterbury’s residence in London) in 1867 that there emerged among the various churches and councils a mutual consciousness of an Anglican Communion. Since its inception , the Lambeth Conference, which meets every 10 years, has constituted the principal cohesive factor in Anglicanism, even though its decisions are not binding and must be approved by the individual churches.



While population differences and other factors account for some variation in the basic structure among the churches, several elements do predominate. The diocese, under the administration authority of a bishop, is the basic administrative unit throughout the Communion. The diocese is made up of parishes, or local church communities, each under the care of a pastor. In many of the national churches, dioceses are grouped into provinces. In some, parishes may be grouped also below the diocesan level into rural deaneries and archdeaconries.

In the 20th century the Anglican Communion has played a prominent role in the ecumenical movement. In 1966 the archbishop of Canterbury, Arthur Michael Ramsey, met with Pope Paul VI, the first such meeting since the Reformation. A milestone in Anglican–Roman Catholic relations was reached in 1982 when Pope John Paul II met with Robert Runcie, the archbishop of Canterbury, at Canterbury to discuss prospects for reconciliation between the two churches. Rowan Williams, upon assuming the archbishopric of Canterbury, went to Rome to continue the work begun by Runcie. Obstacles emerged in 1989 when the Anglican Communion began to ordain women as priests and bishops and in 2003 when V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, was consecrated the Anglican bishop of New Hampshire in the United States. Robinson’s consecration also provoked controversy within the Anglican Communion, and several Anglican churches broke off relations with the church in the United States.

The Communion’s approval of blessing same-sex unions also met with opposition from Anglican and non-Anglican churches. The most vigorous opposition came from the church in Africa, where more than half of all Anglicans worldwide live in the early 21st century. The African bishops demanded that the American church repent, and they took steps to establish their own institutions and teachings, which stress a more traditional form of Anglicanism.