The official state Church of England, a national Church having both Protestant and Catholic features, based on episcopal authority, and with the monarch of England formally as its head. It originated when Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church (c.15324) and was declared by Parliament to be the supreme head on earth of the English Church. The Church remained largely Catholic in character, however, until reforms of doctrine and liturgy under Edward VI, when the new Book of Common Prayer appeared (1549, 1552), the later edition being significantly more Protestant in its features. Further revisions were made in 1604 and 1662. Under Elizabeth I the moderately Protestant set of doctrinal statements known as the 39 Articles emerged. She and James I resisted competing efforts towards a Catholic revival on the one hand and Puritan attempts to take a more Calvinist stance on the other; but under Charles I a presbyterian form of government was temporarily established until the episcopacy and Prayer Book were restored under Charles II. While a general attitude of toleration now exists, the tension of Catholic and Protestant inclinations tends to persist in the Church of England, as well as the tensions introduced by the newer influences of evangelicalism and liberalism.
The Church of England today consists of 44 dioceses in the two provinces of Canterbury and York, with over 16 000 churches and other places of worship. Local parishes are arranged into rural deaneries and dioceses, with each diocese led by a bishop and sometimes assisted by a suffragan or assistant bishop. The parish structure is fundamental to the organization of the church, but increasingly team ministries, priests-in-charge, and non-stipendiary priests have found a place in addition to parish priests and curates. The Church also supports its own missionary organizations and societies. The largest societies are the Mothers' Union and the Church Army, the latter being engaged in social welfare work.
In 1970 the General Synod was established for the purpose of reaching decisions and expressing views on issues of interest to the Church. It also appoints several committees, boards, and councils to advise it. There are over 500 members, divided between the three houses: the Houses of Clergy, of Bishops, and of Laity. It meets three times a year and is presided over by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York. In addition, there are synods of clergy and laity at diocesan level. In 1992 the General Synod voted to ordain women to priesthood - an event which took place for the first time in 1994. In 2005 the Synod voted to begin the legal process to ordain women as bishops. In 2006 the appointment of Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as head of the US Episcopal Church, the first woman to hold this authority, was highly controversial.
The Church of England has especially close relations in Britain with the Church in Wales and the Scottish Episcopal Church. The spread of Anglicanism more widely through the world (over 82 million in 2006), especially in Commonwealth countries, however, has given the Church of England a prominent role in the Anglican Communion at large. In 2003, the first consecration of an openly gay minister as bishop, in New Hampshire, USA, took place amid much controversy. The appointment was condemned by some Anglican leaders who warned that the issue would lead to a split in the Church.
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, and acts as the 'mother' and senior branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, as well as a founding member of the Porvoo Communion.
Theology and sociology
The Church of England considers itself to stand both in a reformed tradition and in a catholic (but not Roman Catholic) church tradition:
Reformed insofar as many of the principles of the early Protestants as well as the subsequent Protestant Reformation have influenced it, and insofar as it does not accept Papal authority.In both beliefs and practices, or forms of churchmanship, the Church of England is mixed: in some of its congregations worship remains closer to Roman Catholicism (see High Church) than most Protestant churches, but in others it is difficult to distinguish between the Anglican forms in use and the uses of other Evangelical bodies (see Low Church).
In many people's eyes the Church of England has as its primary distinguishing heritage its breadth and "open-mindedness". But this "broad church" faces various contentious doctrinal questions raised by the development of modern society, such as conflicts over the ordination of women as priests (accepted in 1992 and begun in 1994), and the status of non-celibate homosexual clergy (still unsettled today).
Governing and administration
The spiritual head of the church is the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is the Primate of All England and Metropolitan.
The British monarch (at present, Elizabeth II), has the constitutional title of "Supreme Governor of the Church of England".
The Church of England has a legislative body, the General Synod. The church has its own judicial branch, known as the Ecclesiastical courts, which likewise form a part of the UK court system, and have powers especially in relation to the care of churches and churchyards and the discipline of the clergy.
In addition to England proper, the jurisdiction of the Church of England extends to the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, and a few parishes in Flintshire, Wales. This process is described in the article Appointment of Church of England Bishops.
History
The Church of England traces its formal corporate history from the 597 Augustinian mission, stresses its continuity and identity with the primitive universal Western church, and notes the consolidation of its particular independent and national character in the post-Reformation events of Tudor England. This interpretation is disputed by the Roman Catholic Church which sees the creation of the Church of England as marking a break with English Christianity prior to the Reformation.
Christianity arrived in Britain in the first or second centuries (probably via the tin trade route through Ireland and Spain), and existed independently of the Church of Rome, as did many other Christian communities of that era. With the help of Christians already residing in Kent, he established his church in Canterbury, the former capital of Kent (it is now Maidstone), and became the first in the series of archbishops of Canterbury.
Simultaneously, the Celtic Church of St.Columba continued to evangelize Scotland. Over the next few centuries, the Roman system introduced by Augustine gradually absorbed the pre-existing Celtic Christian churches.
England adhered to the Roman Catholic church for nearly a thousand years, before the church separated from Rome in 1534, during the reign of King Henry VIII. A theological separation had been foreshadowed by various movements within the English church such as the Lollards, but the English Reformation gained political support when Henry VIII wanted his marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled. Under pressure from Catherine's nephew Emperor Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, Pope Clement VII refused the annulment and eventually Henry, although theologically a Catholic, decided to become Supreme Head of the Church of England to ensure the annulment of his marriage.
Henry maintained a strong preference for the traditional Catholic practices and, during his reign, Protestant reformers were unable to make many changes to the practices of the Church of England. Under his son, Edward VI, the church became theologically more radical, before rejoining the Roman church during the reign of Queen Mary I, in 1555.
Related churches
The Church of England's sister church in Ireland, the Church of Ireland, also went through the reformation in the sixteenth century. Unlike in England, the majority of the populace did not go along with this, preferring continued adherence to Roman Catholic, but the Church of Ireland retained official established church status in Ireland until 1871.
In Scotland, the Church of Scotland is recognised in law as the "national church" although it is not established in the same way as the Church of England. A smaller Anglican church also exists in Scotland, namely the Scottish Episcopal Church, which is in full communion with the Church of England.
When the Episcopal Church in the U.S. became independent of the Church of England after the American War of Independence, the leadership of the Church of England did not believe itself legally able to consecrate new bishops without requiring of them the standard oath of loyalty to the crown. Consequently it was the non-juring bishops of the non-established Scottish Episcopal Church who consecrated the first American bishops, until new legislation allowed the Church of England to relax its policy.
The Church in Wales, previously a part of the Church of England, was disestablished in 1920 and at the same time became an independent member of the Anglican Communion.
The Church of England stands in full communion with the other churches in the Anglican Communion, and separately with the other signatories of the Porvoo Communion. The Church of England is also a full member of the Conference of European Churches.
Financial situation
The Church of England, although an established church, does not receive any direct government support. As of 2005, the Church of England had estimated total outgoings of around £900 million.
Historically, individual parishes both raised and spent the vast majority of the Church's funding, meaning that clergy pay depended on the wealth of the parish, and parish advowsons (the right to appoint clergy to particular parishes) could become extremely valuable gifts. Since the mid-19th century, however, the Church has made various moves to 'equalise' the situation, and clergy within each diocese now receive standard stipends paid from diocesan funds. Meanwhile, the Church moved the majority of its income-generating assets (which in the past included a great deal of land, but today mostly take the form of financial stocks and bonds) out of the hands of individual clergy and bishops to the care of a body called the Church Commissioners, which uses these funds to pay a range of non-parish expenses, including clergy pensions, and the expenses of cathedrals and bishops' houses. These funds amount to around £3.9 billion, and generate income of around £164 million each year (as of 2003), around a fifth of the Church's overall income.
The Church Commissioners give some of this money as 'grants' to local parishes; but the majority of the financial burden of church upkeep and the work of local parishes still rests with individual parish and diocese, which meet their requirements from donations. Direct donations to the church (not including legacies) come to around £460 million per year, while parish and diocese reserve funds generate another £100 million.
Although asset-rich, the Church of England has to look after and maintain its thousands of churches nationwide — the lion's share of England's built heritage. but the church congregation and local fundraisers must foot the bill entirely in the case of most small parish churches. (The government, however, does provide some assistance in the form of tax breaks, for example a 100% VAT refund for renovations to religious buildings.)
In addition to consecrated buildings, the Church also controls numerous ancillary buildings attached to or associated with churches, including a good deal of clergy housing. As well as vicarages and rectories, this housing includes residences (called 'palaces') for each of the Church's 114 bishops. All three of the more grand bishop's palaces mentioned above — Lambeth Palace, Canterbury Old Palace and Auckland Castle — serve as offices for church administration, conference venues, and only in a lesser degree the personal residence of a bishop.
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