What is the Church of England?

The Church of England is part of the worldwide community of all Christ’s followers. 

It is also part of a major Christian ‘denomination’ or institution, known as ‘the Anglican Church or Communion’, which looks to the Archbishop of Canterbury as its figurehead.  (There are Anglicans on every continent, and there are more Anglicans in Africa than there are in England!)

The roots of the Church of England go back to the time of the Roman Empire, when the Christian faith first came to Britain through the preaching of St Alban, St Augustine and St Aidan.  Until the sixteenth century, it was part of the western ‘catholic’ church which universally acknowledged the authority of the Pope in Rome.

As a distinct denomination, the Church of England was established during the reign of King Henry VIII, when it separated from the Roman Catholic Church by rejecting the authority of the Pope.  After further upheaval during the reigns of Edward VI and Mary, the denomination took something like its present shape during the reign of Elizabeth I.

The Church of England is both