|
|
Anglicanism is a Latin word derived from the phrase ecclesia anglicana from the Magna Carta which referred to the 'English Church.' Anglicanism includes the Church of England and branches of it. King Henry VIII essentially created the Church of England when the Pope would not grant an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon in the Sixteenth Century. The bond between the Roman Catholic Church, the state church of England with the mother Church in Rome was severed by the King. Authority, according to King Henry would henceforth be held by the 'Anglican' Church leaders. Henry was also being influenced by the teachings of the Reformation. The Church of England, therefore was declared to be both Catholic and Reformed (meaning Protestant). It was Catholic in its adherence to the Apostles' Creed, the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed and the Athanasian Creed and in its claim to its place in the (universal) lineage of Jesus, the Christ and the Apostles. It was Reformed in its acceptance of certain principles of doctrine that came out of the minds of Protestant reformers.
King Henry VIII separated the English Church from the Catholic Church in 1534. Then, between 1536 and 1540, he decreed that the monasteries throughout the kingdom were dissolved allowing him to confiscate their lands and assets. Henry did not immediately give up traditional Catholicism and all its customs. It was during the reign of Henry's son, Edward VI that the Church of England became increasingly influenced by Protestantism. The mix of the two theological traditions merged and were elucidated to the common people in the book of Common Prayer, published in 1549 and 1552.
The Protestant Episcopal Church came into existence in the British Colonies during the 1770s. It, like many other denominations, had its connection to the mother church in Great Britain cut by the American Revolutionary War. The structure and doctrine of the Church of England in America did not undergo any drastic changes as a result of the severing of the ties ~ with the exception of a change of name. Since the year 1607 when the English began creating Colonies and forming settlements in the North American Continent, the Church of England / the Anglican Church was governed by the Bishop of London, the seat of the Church of England. As early as 1715 the ordination of an episcopate (i.e. bishop) in the British Colonies in North America was advocated, especially by the Scottish church leaders. But the Bishop of London steadfastly refused to permit it. That changed with the American Revolutionary War. Nearly three-quarters of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were Anglicans; their allegiance was first and foremost to the Patriot Cause. But of the approximately three hundred clergy in the Colonies, it has been estimated that at least eighty percent of those in the New England Colonies were Loyalists. Less than twenty-three percent of the clergy in the southern Colonies were Loyalist. Many congregations were dissolved and their church edifices closed due to shifting loyalties. Fearful of the collapse of the Anglican Church in America, its clergy kept advocating for their own episcopates. And finally in 1784 Samuel Seabury, of Connecticut was consecrated to conduct ordinations, making him the first Anglican Bishop permitted to minister outside of the British Isles. That was followed, on 1786, by the Consecration of Bishops Abroad Act. In 1789, at a meeting of clergy from nine dioceses (Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia) officially broke away from the Church of England. It took the name of Protestant Episcopal Church.
The next major hurdle for the Episcopal Church was the American Civil War. In 1861 the Episcopal Churches in the south separated and formed the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America. The rift lasted only as long as the War itself. On 16 May 1866 the southern branch remerged with its northern counterpart.
Through the late 1860s and early 1870s a revival of ritual practices was called for by many congregations. In 1873, that revival spurred the formation of the Reformed Episcopal Church in objection to the return to pre-Reformation Catholic ritual and dogma. The Reformed Episcopal Church was founded by George David Cummins on 02 December 1873.
The name Protestant Episcopal Church was the official name of the church until 1964. Since 1877 various alternative names had been proposed, including 'the American Catholic Church.' The General Convention in 1964 formally changed the name to The Episcopal Church.
