About Anglicans

This Anglican denomination was founded after 1534 as the result of the Act of Supremacy in England by King Henry VIII. Anglican practices and rituals are primarily found in the Book of Common Prayer, the foundational prayer book of Anglicanism, which helps define Anglican beliefs and worship practices on every level. The book is almost as important as the Bible itself to Anglicans. The Book of Common Prayer, which defines the "common" or shared means for prayer, has changed several times through history and has different editions from nation to nation.

Anglican worship tends to be Protestant in doctrine and Catholic in appearance in the areas of rituals and readings, bishops and priests, vestments, and ornately decorated churches. Anglicans celebrate the traditional sacraments, with special emphasis being given to the Holy Eucharist, also called Holy Communion, the Lord's Supper or the Mass. The discipline of fasting before communion is practiced by some Anglicans. Some Anglican churches accept the ordination of women to the priesthood.

There is no single Anglican Church and there is no international juridical authority. Instead, the Anglican Communion is an international association of national Anglican churches. The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion in the world with between 70 and 80 million members. Some churches whose name contains the word "Anglican" are part of the Anglican Communion and some are not. The churches outside of the Anglican Communion which also consider themselves to be in the Anglican tradition are referred to as Continuing Anglican churches. "The Episcopal Church" is the official name for the Anglican Church in the United States.

Although the number varies from source to souce, a good estimate is that there are worldwide about 73 million Anglicans in the Communion, along with 21.7 million "Latent Anglicans" and 7.6 Anglicans identified as outside the Communion.