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As a result, all rites conducted in one member church are to be recognized by the others. Some of these churches are known as Anglican, others call themselves Episcopal. The ultimate head of any Anglican church is believed to be Jesus Christ, with his representative taken to be the Primate, head of the church at the national level; but Anglican primates acknowledge the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury as primus inter pares, or "first among equals". The Archbishop of Canterbury is a symbolic leader among Anglicans, with no authority outside England and cannot be accurately compared to other religious leaders such as the pope.
Some non-Anglican churches have entered into full communion with the Anglican Communion and are treated as members despite having non-Anglican origins and traditions. There are also a number of Anglican bodies which separated from a member church of the Anglican Communion and are no longer in communion with the Church of England. They are usually known as " continuing churches."
Recent disagreements over the church's views concerning homosexuality have strained the unity of the communion as well as its relationships with other Christian denominations; see Anglican views of homosexuality.
"The Episcopal [or Anglican] Church has a long tradition, and over that time has inherited, created, or retained many words that might not be familiar...These special terms, though confusing at first, are part of [the church's] rich heritage."
Efforts have been underway at least since 1966 to effect a reconciliation with the Roman Catholic Church, focusing on theological issues [1] and ways "to further the convergence on authority in the Church. Without agreement in this area we shall not reach the full visible unity to which we are both committed." [2]
The necessity for such a phrase as "Anglican Communion," first used in the 19th century, marked at once the immense development of the Anglican Church in modern times and the change which has taken place in the traditional conceptions of its character and sphere. For more than two centuries after the Reformation the history of AnglicanismThe term Anglican describes those people and churches following the religious traditions of the Church of England, especially following the Reformation. Anglicans trace these traditions back to the first followers of Jesus, but acknowledge that schisms oc is practically confined to its developments within the limits of the British Isles. Even in IrelandThe island of Ireland ire in Irish, Airlann in Ulster Scots) is the third-largest island in Europe. It lies on the west side of the Irish Sea, close to the island of Great Britain. It is composed of the Republic of Ireland in the south and Northern Irelan, where it was for over three centuries the established religion, and in ScotlandScotland or in Scottish Gaelic, Alba is a country and former independent kingdom of northwest Europe, and one of the four nations comprising the United Kingdom. Scotland occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. Scotland took part in a p, where it early gave way to the dominant PresbyterianismPresbyterianism is part of the Reformed churches family of denominations of Christian Protestantism based on the teachings of John Calvin which traces its institutional roots to the Scottish Reformation, especially as led by John Knox. There are many sepa, its religious was long overshadowed by its political significance. To the native Irishman and the Scotsman, as indeed to most Englishmen, the Anglican Church was one of the main buttresses of the supremacy of the English crown and nation. When English churchmen passed beyond the seas, they carried with them their creed, but not their ecclesiastical organization. The churchmen of the colonies often had to make the best of the fact that their spiritual needs rested with the bishop of London who occasionally sent commissaries to visit them.
The change which has made it possible for Anglican churchmen to claim that their communion ranks with those of Rome and the Orthodox East as one of the three great historical divisions of the Catholic Church, was due, in the first instance, to the American revolution. The severance of the colonies from their allegiance to the crown brought the English bishops for the first time face to face with the idea of an Anglican Church which should have nothing to do either with the royal supremacy or with British nationality. When, on the conclusion of peace, the church-people of ConnecticutConnecticut is a state of the United States, part of the New England region. Connecticut was one of the thirteen colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution. USS Connecticut was named in honor of this state. History Main article sent Dr. Samuel Seabury to England, with a request to the archbishop of Canterbury to consecrate him, Archbishop Moore refused. In the opinion of prelates and lawyers alike, an act of parliament was necessary before a bishop could be consecrated for a see abroad; to consecrate one for a foreign country seemed impossible, since, though the bestowal of the potestas ordinis would be valid, the crown, which, according to the law, was the source of the episcopal jurisdiction, could hardly issue the necessary mandate for the consecration of a bishopA bishop is an ordained person who holds a specific position of authority in any of a number of Christian churches. Bishops in the New Testament The bishop's role is typically called the " episcopacy", because the word "bishop" is derived ultimately from to a see outside the realm.
The Scottish bishops, however, being hampered by no such legal restrictions, were more amenable; and on November 11th 1784 Seabury was consecrated by them to the see of Connecticut. In 1786, on the initiative of the archbishop, the legal difficulties in England were removed by the act for the consecration of bishops abroad; and, on being satisfied as to the orthodoxy of the church in America and the nature of certain liturgical changes in contemplation, the two English archbishops proceeded, on February 14th 1787, to consecrate William White and Samuel Prevoost to the sees of Pennsylvania and New York (see Protestant Episcopal Church).
This act had a significance beyond the fact that it established in the United States of America a flourishing church, which, while completely loyal to its own country, is bound by special ties to the religious life of England. It marked the emergence of the Church of England from what may be called the territorial principles of the Reformation.
Since the Church of England, whatever her attitude towards the traditional Catholic doctrines, never disputed the validity of Catholic orders whether Roman or Orthodox, nor the jurisdiction of Catholic bishops in foreign countries, the expansion of the Anglican Church has been in no sense conceived as a Protestant aggressive movement against Rome. Occasional exceptions, such as the consecration by Archbishop Plunket of Dublin of a bishop for the reformed church in Spain, raised so strong a protest as to prove the rule. In the main, then, the expansion of the Anglican Church has followed that of the British empire, or, as in America, of its daughter states; its claim, so far as rights of jurisdiction are concerned, is to be the Church of England and the English race, while recognizing its special duties towards the non-Christian populations subject to the empire or brought within the reach of its influence. As against the Church of Rome, with its system of rigid centralization, the Anglican Church represents the principle of regional autonomy, which it holds to be both more primitive and more catholic.