Anglican
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anglicanism is a branch or denomination of Christianity. It is sometimes seen as being the middle way, or "via media" between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism because, in the English Reformation, the English Church kept the early Catholic ministry of bishops, priests, and deacons, while rejecting some parts of Catholicism, and making some reforms in the worship of God close to those made by the Protestants.
The main worship of Anglicans includes prayer, Bible reading, singing, preaching , and the sharing of the bread and wine that is the Body and Body of Jesus Christ in a ceremony called Holy Communion. Anglican beliefs range from the bread and wine becoming the actual Body and Blood of Christ in the course of worship to the idea of these two being shared at Holy Communion only as a memorial of the life that Jesus Christ gave for all humanity on the Cross. The first is more or less the same as the belief of Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy. The second is like the belief of most Protestants. Because Anglicanism allows both beliefs, and more, it is hard to place in the range of Christian denominations, and is often called Reformed Catholic. It believes that it is closest to Christ's original or primitive Christian Church in having balanced the best of Catholicism and the Reformation.
The name Anglican for this Church comes from the Latin word for English because the Church started in England. In the history of the British Isles, Anglican, or Episcopal (from the Latin word for bishop), Churches have been the official or State religion in all parts at one time or another. Anglican Church leaders, "Church", and the royal government, "State", worked together in what is called the alliance of "Throne" and "Altar" or "Church" and "State". Together, they tried to make the Anglican denomination as broad and welcoming as possible to a wide range of Christian believers. They did this to try to get as many citizens as they could to worship in the official church. At the time (from 1534 until quite recently, that is, the 1800s), most rulers and churches everywhere believed that this was a good idea both for religious truth and for national peace and security.
In the British Isles, and early British colonies, this was done to try to defeat both the followers of the Roman Catholic Church and all the kinds of Protestants too by including their best ideas, traditions, and practices in the Anglican Church. Now, the only place in Britain or Ireland where Anglicanism is still the official religion is England, where the monarch, Queen Elizabeth II is, on earth, and through the British parliament, the head, or more correctly, Supreme Governor of the Church of England.
In the rest of the world, Anglicanism was spread by overseas colonisation, settlement, and missionary work. It functions there as an ordinary denomination of Christianity without special status. Anglicans around the world join together in a group of national churches in countries where there are Anglican Churches to make the world-wide Anglican Communion. There are more than 80 million Anglicans in the world today. Most live in Africa and Asia and are not of British ethnic heritage anymore.
The Anglican Communion is struggling today with questions about the role of women and gay people in the Church. There is a great chance that the Anglican Communion will not survive the stress of these serious issues, and will split into liberal and conservative groups. Already, there are Anglicans who have broken from the main Churches to form their own separate groups of believers. Some use the term Anglican combined with the word Catholic, Christian, Reformed, or Episcopal.
At the same time, leaders from the Anglican Communion hold talks with the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches to try to work toward Christian unity. At times, there has been some progress. Also, the Anglican and Lutheran Churches have agreed to a high level of shared beliefs, leadership, and practices called intercommunion.
