Church Of England

Church of England Handout
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History and role
St Botolph's Church, Boston, England ©
The Church of England is the established or state church in England. It is divided into two provinces - Canterbury in the South of England and York in the North. Each province has a head or Primate - the Archbishops of Canterbury and York.
The Church of England is part of the AnglicanCommunion, which is a worldwide family of churches in more than 160 different countries. On any one Sunday more than a million people attend Church of England services, making it the largest Christian denomination in the country.
The Established Church
The Church of England is the established church, meaning, amongst other things:
* the Monarch is the Supreme Governor of the church(theologically Jesus is the head),
* the Church performs a number of official functions,
* Church and State are linked

History
The Church of England traces its roots back to the early church, but its specifically Anglican identity and its links to the State date back to the Reformation.
Henry VIII started the process of creating the Church of England after his split with the Pope in the 1530s.Henry was anxious to ensure a male heir after his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, had borne him only a daughter. He wanted his marriage annulled in order to remarry. In 1534 after several attempts to persuade the Pope to grant an annulment, Henry passed the Act of Succession and then the Act of Supremacy. These recognised that the King was "the only supreme head of the Church of England calledAnglicana Ecclesia". Henry adopted the title given to him by the Pope in 1521, that of Defender of the Faith.
Legislative role
The Church of England also has a law-making role in Britain. Twenty-six bishops (including the two Archbishops) sit in the House of Lords and are known as the Lords Spiritual. They are thought to bring a religious ethos to the secular process of law.
However, in anincreasingly multi-cultural society, questions are being asked as to whether that role needs to be specifically fulfilled by Church of England Bishops. Future reform of the House of Lords could see the Lords Spiritual made up of a variety of Christian denominations and other faiths to reflect the religious make-up of Britain.
Hierarchy
There are 43 dioceses in England covering the two provinces ofCanterbury and York, plus the Diocese in Europe, with chaplaincies from the Arctic Circle to the Canaries. Each diocese has a bishop and usually at least one suffragan or assistant bishop. Each diocese is split into archdeaconries run by archdeacons. They are responsible for the administration of that part of the diocese. Each archdeaconry is split up into deaneries, which is a collection of parishes.The parish is the heart of the Church of England. Each parish is overseen by a parish priest, usually called a vicar or rector. Sometimes they are assisted by a curate or deacon or parish worker. The latter is a lay post.
Beliefs and worship
The Church of England is a broad church, representing a wide spectrum of theological thought and practice. However, as part of the Anglican Communion thereare some distinctively Anglican ideas which can be identified in the Church of England. They are:
* a belief that the Bible contains the core of all Christian faith and thought
* a loyalty to a way of worship and life that was first set out in the Book of Common Prayer
* celebration of the sacraments ordained by Jesus - that of Baptism and Eucharist or Holy Communion
* a system ofChurch order that stems from ancient times and is focused in the ordained ministry of Bishop, Priest and Deacon
* a firm commitment to the ministry of the whole people of God, lay and ordained together
* a way of Christian thinking that involves Scripture, Tradition and Reason held together in creative tension.
Individual parishes can decide how many services they hold in the week, how...