The churches in communion with the See of Canterbury, holding the historic episcopate, the Book of Common Prayer, and a formularies tradition between Reformation and catholic order.
The Anglican Communion is a worldwide family of autonomous churches descended from the Church of England. Its placement is contested, and this page records both positions: many classify it as a Protestant family of the Reformation, while the Communion's own formularies and much of its self-understanding claim a catholic and reformed identity that is not simply Protestant.
A contested placement
Where this entity belongs is itself disputed, so both positions stand here with their sources rather than one being silently chosen.
Placed under Protestant
Anglicanism is a family of the Protestant Reformation, born of the English Reformation's break with Rome.
Source: The classification used by most comparative surveys of the Christian families.
Placed under Christianity
The Anglican Communion is its own branch of Christianity, catholic and reformed, standing beside the Protestant families rather than inside them.
Source: The self-description carried in the Communion's own formularies and the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral (1888).
This movement also stands under Christianity, because a movement crosses branches and is never forced into one.
Produced by English Reformation
1534 and after · Royal supremacy against papal jurisdiction, and the doctrine of the eucharist and the ministry.
Current status of that division: In dialogue.
Denomination / School
Anglican across the site
Libraries (3) · Prayers & Creeds (2) · History of Worldviews (11)
Sources
Primary
- The Book of Common Prayer (1662).
Secondary
- Paul Avis, The Identity of Anglicanism (2008).