The mother church of the Anglican Communion, the Church of England, has maintained close connections with the state. It has representative bishops in the House of Lords and can properly be called the established church, even though, contrary to much popular opinion, it is in no sense supported financially by the state. The Church of England itself is without question the church of the English people, even though many of the country’s citizens do not so regard it.

The Anglican Communion has never had much worldwide structure—indeed, it has been characterized by its lack of structure. Even meetings of Anglican church leaders have been restricted, except in very recent times, to the Lambeth Conferences and to pan-Anglican congresses, which involve clergy and laity as well as bishops. Only three such meetings were held in the 20th century: in London in 1908, in Minneapolis, Minn., U.S., in 1954, and in Toronto in 1963. The Lambeth Conference of 1968 recommended the formation of the Anglican Consultative Council, an advisory body of about 60 members, including bishops, clergy, and laypersons; its president is the archbishop of Canterbury. The council shares information, coordinates policy, and develops unified mission strategies. Although it lacks binding authority, the council increases the Anglican tendency toward consultation in matters of faith and life. It meets at two- or three-year intervals between Lambeth Conferences. It replaced the Lambeth Consultative Body, whose members were the primates or presiding bishops of the various national churches, and the Advisory Council on Missionary Strategy, which came into being after World War II. The Lambeth Conference of 1978 recommended that the primates of all Anglican provinces meet regularly, and they have since done so in various countries of the Anglican Communion.

The importance of conversation among Anglicans is reflected in the extent of change in some branches of the Anglican Communion. In the second half of the 20th century, most churches of the Anglican world revised their versions of The Book of Common Prayer. In the United States, revision of the Episcopalian prayer book was extensive. The new prayer book of 1979 reflected years of liturgical study, trial drafts, and discussion. It offered unprecedented liturgical options, including the use of modern English liturgies and opportunities for informal worship. The controversy generated by the book abated only slowly.

Equally controversial were the admission of women to the church’s priesthood and the prospect of women bishops. Women had been ordained priests in Hong Kong in 1944 and in 1971. By the mid-1970s, women in various parts of the Anglican world called for the priesthood to be opened to them. The impact was greatest in the United States and Canada, where women eventually constituted a significant percentage of seminary students. American Episcopalians approved women as priests in 1976 after heated debate. While several other Anglican churches took a similar course, the Church of England preferred to study the issue. Opponents of the ordination of women feared the loss of the church’s Catholic heritage, while advocates saw a chance for Anglican leadership in expanding the ministries open to women in the church. After two decades of debate, the Church of England ordained its first women priests in 1994.

The Lambeth Conference of 1988 confronted the possibility that a woman would become a bishop in the United States. That possibility became a reality in 1989, when Barbara C. Harris was ordained a bishop. (She was elected as a suffragan bishop of Massachusetts but did not head a diocese.) In subsequent years, other women were consecrated as bishops. In 1990 New Zealander Penelope Jamieson became the first diocesan bishop, and in 2006 the ECUSA elected Katharine Jefferts Schori as the first woman presiding bishop of any member church of the Anglican Communion. The Church of England formally approved the consecration of women as bishops in 2014. The election of women as bishops or presiding bishops was welcomed by some members of the Anglican Communion and strongly opposed by others. In 2010 the Church of Nigeria decided to admit women to the diaconate in limited roles but continued to bar them from the priesthood and the episcopate.

The consecration in 2003 of V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, as the bishop of the U.S. state of New Hampshire, posed another challenge to Anglican solidarity. Robinson’s consecration met with strong opposition throughout the church—especially in Africa, where bishops called for the ECUSA to repent and came close to forging a schism over the matter. Like the elevation of women to the bishopric, the consecration of homosexuals to the office of bishop also created an obstacle to improved relations with the Roman Catholic Church. In 2004 the leaders of the Anglican Communion member churches agreed to a moratorium on the ordination as bishops of individuals in same-sex relationships. In 2009 American and Canadian traditionalists who had previously left their respective national churches over the issue founded the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). After the ordination of Mary Glasspool, who was in a same-sex relationship, as a suffragan bishop in the diocese of Los Angeles in 2010, the Anglican Communion imposed sanctions on the ECUSA, barring its members from participating in ecumenical dialogue and in discussions about Anglican doctrine.

Despite the importance that the Anglican Communion places on its global mission, the penetration of Latin America has been only a recent development. Although Anglicans recognize and respect the pervasive influence of Roman Catholicism, they have found a niche among religiously uncommitted people in the area. There has also been impressive growth in Africa and Asia, all sparked by indigenous leadership, and Anglicanism has thus become as much a non-Western as a Western form of Christianity.

Relations with other churches

Because the Anglican Communion consists of a cluster of related churches, it does not, as a worldwide communion, have membership in the World Council of Churches; each of the Anglican churches, however, holds such membership. This type of ecumenical relationship is in keeping with one of the consistent goals of Anglicanism. Anglicans see themselves as catalysts for Christian unity, and the Anglican blend of Catholic liturgy and Protestant procedure appears to afford the basis of a broad ecumenical encounter. Anglicanism has points in common with virtually all other expressions of the Christian faith. Anglicans readily engage Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant leaders in theological discussion and joint liturgy. Ecumenical processes involving the Roman Catholic Church have been regular and intensive, though without prospect of organic reunion.

Committees involving the Lutheran and Reformed traditions have met regularly. In North America, Lutheran-Episcopalian dialogue has led to a formal “concordat” that entailed the mutual recognition of sacraments and ministry. For Anglicans, ecumenical discussion is the appropriate context for advancing the Christian mission.

World Anglicanism

The Anglican Communion has tried to bridge the gulfs between Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox churches. As noted above, in 1947 Anglican dioceses were included in the new Church of South India, a communion that also included Methodist and Congregationalist mission churches. In other areas the Anglican Communion has special interchurch relations, as with the Lusitanian Catholic Apostolic Evangelical Church in Portugal, the Mar Thoma Syrian Church in India, the Old Catholic churches in Europe and the United States, the Philippine Independent Church, and the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church. In 1974 the Church of England and English Roman Catholics, Baptists, United Reformed, and Methodists agreed to form a national commission for discussions of the possibility of practical reunion. Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie and Pope John Paul II, following their historic meeting in England in 1982, emphasized the importance of the reconciliation effort. This effort was continued by Runcie’s successors, including Rowan Williams, who made a trip to Rome soon after his elevation to the position of archbishop of Canterbury in 2002.