What is the Anglican Church?

The Anglican Church is the spiritual mother of all English speaking Christians. In the first century, about the time that St. Paul was writing his epistles, missionaries brought the Christian faith to Britain. The British (or Celtic) Church founded by these missionaries of the Apostolic era was an integral part of the ancient and undivided Church of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Later, after the Angles and Saxons migrated to Britain, claiming it as “Angle-land,” missionaries from the native British Church and the Roman Church (which arrived with St. Augustine in A.D. 597) worked to evangelize the new inhabitants. These efforts were unified at the Synod of Whitby in A.D. 664, so that in the seventh century of her life and work, the Anglican or English Church associated herself with the Church on the continent for the sake of Christian unity.

Towards the end of the Middle Ages, after erroneous teachings and practices had crept into the life of the Christian Church, it became clear that the Church needed reforming. Faithful Christians believed the Church needed to be restored to the faith and doctrine taught in the Bible and by the ancient Fathers who had succeeded Christ’s Apostles as leaders in the Church.

From the 1520’s, Anglican reformers took on the dangerous task of restoring the Church of England to a completely Biblical faith and practice. Men like Tyndale, Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley (all of whom were eventually burned at the stake) seized the opportunity of Henry VIII’s dynastic and political problems to achieve the only truly successful reformation of an entire national church. Their principles were a return to Biblical doctrine and the unified teaching and practice of the undivided Church of the first ten centuries. They did not seek division or discord within the Church, but were firm in their resolve to separate from Rome’s errors and tyranny. They claimed only their ancient, scriptural right to a free fellowship of Biblical truth within the one Body of Jesus Christ.

What is the Episcopal church?

The faith that Anglican missionaries brought to the New World in the 16th century was both “catholic” and “reformed.” It was catholic because it was the faith of the Bible universally held by Christians in all times and places since the time of the Apostles. It is the faith in Christ that is required of all people to be believed for salvation. This faith was reformed because it embraced the labors of the English reformers who restored the order and practice to the Church that gave structure to her life and worship from the beginning, all of which was scrutinized by godly men in the light of the Holy Scriptures.

The Anglicans also brought with them a form of church government that involved every member in a representative order. It was in these representative bodies that many Americans learned the lessons of self-government, including George Washington, Patrick Henry, James Madison, and many other forefathers of United States of America.

After the War for Independence, the Anglican Church became known in America as the Episcopal Church. Episcopal means “having bishops as chief pastors.” But, despite the minor change in the name, the American branch of the Anglican Church maintained the fullness of the faith recovered during the Reformation and preserved in the Book of Common Prayer and the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion.

What is the Reformed Episcopal church? Click here.