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The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and is the mother branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion as well as a founding member of the Porvoo Communion. The Church of England was originally part of the Roman Catholic Church, but first broke from Rome in the reign of Henry VIII, fully rejoined with the Act of Reunion in the reign of Mary I and was eventually separated again by the excommunication of Elizabeth
The current Archbishop of Canterbury is Dr. Rowan Douglas Williams.
Although Christians were present in England since the 4th century or earlier, the Church of England traces its roots to Augustine of Canterbury, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, in the 7th century.
The Church of England retains a form of worship closer to the Roman Catholic form than Protestant churches. For example, the church has a hierarchical organization, with Bishops - hence its alternate name, the episcopal church. Traditionally too, the organisation has been divided into High Church and Low Church factions that reflect the historical controversy over the forms of worship and expression.
Today the Church of England contains those of Evangelical, Anglo-Catholic and Liberal persuasions as well as a flourishing Charismatic wing. These groups however have been deeply divided on moral issues such as gay marriage; indeed, such was the rift over Canon Gene Robinson's appointment in the US (in 2003) that some considered a split had only been narrowly avoided.
The head of the Church of England is officially the reigning monarch who is the Supreme Governor, but its effective chief cleric remains the Archbishop of Canterbury. It has its own court system known as the Ecclesiastical courts.
In addition to England proper, the jurisdiction of the Church of England extends to the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, and many congregations on the continent of Europe known as the consecration in the Bishops' Orders, not seniority of appointment, determines who may serve in the House of Lords. Even if a Bishop is translated to another see, he does not lose seniority.) Finally, the Bishop is enthroned in a symbolic ceremony.
On March 12, 1994 the Church of England ordained its first female priests.
On September 04, 2004 The Church of England Newspaper reported that,"In response to a question about whether Muslims can go to heaven, Dr Williams, said yes." "...how God leads people through Jesus to heaven, that can be quite varied, I think."
Although Christianity arrived in the British Isles around 200 during the Roman Empire, developing roots in Wales and Ireland, and from Ireland to Scotland and the north of England, which survived the departure of the Romans, the Church of England usually marks its foundation with the mission of Augustine, sent to Ethelbert of Kent by Pope Gregory the Great in 597. The Synod of Whitby in 664 was notable in that Oswiu of Northumbria decided to follow Roman rather than Celtic practices.
As with other parts of medieval Europe, there was tension between the English king and the Pope about civil judicial authority over clerics, taxes and the wealth of the Church, and appointments of bishops, notably during the reigns of Henry II and John.
The English Church was in union with Rome until the reign of Henry VIII. The first break with Rome (subsequently reversed) came when Pope Clement VII refused, over a period of years, to annul Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, not purely as a matter of principle, but also because he was living in fear of Catherine's nephew, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, as a result of events in the Italian Wars.
Henry first asked for an annulment in 1527. After various failed initiatives he stepped up the pressure on Rome, in the summer of 1529, by compiling a manuscript from ancient sources proving in law that spiritual supremacy rested with the monarch, and that Papal authority was illegal. In 1531 Henry first challenged the Pope when he demanded 100,000 pounds from the clergy in exchange for a royal pardon for their illegal jurisdiction, and that he should be recognised as their sole protector and supreme head. Henry VIII was recognized by the clergy as supreme head of the Church of England on February 11, 1531, however in 1532 he was still attempting to seek a compromise with the Pope.
In May 1532 the Church of England agreed to surrender their legislative independence and canon law to the authority of the monarch. In 1533 the Statute in Restraint of Appeals removed the right of the English clergy and laity to appeal to Rome on matters of matrimony, tithes and oblations, and gave authority over such matters to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York. This finally allowed Thomas Cranmer, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, to issue Henry's annulment; and upon procuring it, Henry married Anne Boleyn. Henry VIII was excommunicated by Pope Clement VII in 1533.
In 1534 the Act of Submission of the Clergy removed the right of all appeals to Rome, effectively ending the Pope's influence. Henry was confirmed by statute as Supreme Head of the Church of England by the first Act of Supremacy in 1536.
Becoming the head of the church not only made it possible for Henry to divorce but also gave him access to the considerable wealth that the Church had amassed, and Thomas Cromwell, as Vicar General, launched a commission of enquiry into the nature and value of all ecclesiastical property in 1535, which was followed by the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
Despite the original schism with Rome, Henry's Church of England was not protestant in nature. Henry himself had earlier been awarded the title of fidei defensor (defender of the faith) by Pope Leo X partly for attacking Lutheranism. Protestant innovations under Henry included a limited iconoclasm, the abolition of pilgrimages, and pilgrimage shrines, and the extinction of many saints' days. However only minor changes in liturgy were made during Henry's reign, and he was responsible for the Six Articles of 1539 which reaffirmed the Catholic nature of the church.
This was, however, a time of major religious upheaval in Western Europe called the Reformation and once the schism had occurred, some reform was probably inevitable.
Only under Henry's son, Edward VI, were the first major changes to the church made, including translation and thorough revision of the liturgy along more Protestant lines. The resulting Book of Common Prayer was issued in 1549 and revised in 1552, and was issued by authority of Parliament.
Following the death of Edward, the Roman Catholic Mary came to the throne. She renounced the Henrician and Edwardian changes, first by by repealing her brother's reforms then by re-establishing unity with Rome. She is commonly known as "Bloody Mary" because of her widespread torture and execution of many of those opposed to Roman Catholicism. However, such behaviour was not unduly severe according to the standards of the time, and had she lived longer the return to Rome might well have been peacably accepted by her people.
The second schism, from which the present Church of England originates, came later. Upon Mary's death in 1558, her sister Elizabeth came to power. Elizabeth became a determined opponent of papal rule, but despite reintroducing separatist ideas, Elizabeth was not excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church until February 25, 1570, by Pope Pius V, after Charles V withdrew his protection. The Church of England officially broke with Rome again in 1559, when Parliament recognized Elizabeth as being supreme governor, with a new Act of Supremacy that also repealed the remaining anti-Protestant legislation. In the same year a new Book of Common Prayer was issued. Elizabeth presided over the "Elizabethan Settlement", an attempt to satisfy the Puritan and Catholic forces in England within a single national Church.
During the Commonwealth of England and The Protectorate, the ascendant Puritans replaced the Episcopalian government of the Church with a Presbyterian form, but retained the principle of ultimate state control of religious matters. When Charles II came to power, the Episcopalian government was re-established, and the Book of Common Prayer was issued in a new revision in 1662.
In Scotland, the established Church of Scotland is Presbyterian, but there is a smaller Anglican church known as the Scottish Episcopal Church.
The Church in Wales was disestablished in 1920 and Wales is now an independent province of the Anglican communion.
The Church of Ireland was the estabished church in Ireland until 1871, although Ireland remained mostly Roman Catholic.
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