What is the Anglican Communion?
Diocesan Press Service. August 1, 1962 [I-14]
By the Rt. Rev. Stephen F. Bayne, Jr., Executive Officer of the Anglican Communion
Written Especially for the Bulletin of the Diocese of New York
The Anglican Communion was described by the Lambeth Conference in 1930 in these words:
"A fellowship within the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, of those duly constituted Dioceses, Provinces or Regional Churches in communion with the See of Canterbury, which have the following characteristics in common:
(a) They uphold and propagate the Catholic and Apostolic faith and order as they are generally set forth in the Book of Common Prayer as authorized in their several Churches;
(b) They are particular or national Churches, and, as such, promote within each of their territories a national expression of Christian faith, life and worship; and
(c) They are bound together not by a central legislative and executive authority, but by mutual loyalty sustained through the common counsel of the Bishops in conference."
What this fellowship means in practice is a very simple thing. It means that you, an Episcopalian, will find you have a church almost anywhere you go in the world. If you come to England, the Church of England in your church. If you go to Japan, the Nippon Sei Kokai is your Church. In Kenya, you would find the Church of the Province of East Africa. In New Zealand, you would find the Church of the Province of New Zealand. The Prayer Book you used might be that of the Episcopal Church, or of any of the 17 other churches. The language might be English or Baganda or Malayan Chinese or Spanish. One thing would be certain: in all essential matters of faith and order, of life and worship, it would be the same church. Thus you, as an American Episcopalian, belong to a world-wide family - very loosely organized, indeed, with complete independence among the various churches which make up the fellowship, but still bound together by an enormous depth of loyalty and tradition, of common doctrine and common life.
The "common counsel" which sustains our mutual loyalty is principally maintained at the meetings, generally every 10 years, of the bishops of all the Anglican churches at Lambeth Palace, the London headquarters of the Archbishop of Canterbury. These "Lambeth Conferences" have no legal authority themselves; their recommendations must be acted upon by each of the 18 churches before they can have any binding force; but the counsel of the bishops has great informal authority, of course, as well as providing the possibility of the practical planning and cooperation we all need. The Archbishop of Canterbury, as the senior bishop and primate of our Communion, convokes and presides over the conference; but bishops from every continent and of nearly every race take part equally in its work.
Since 1930, when the description I quote was written, several other inter-Anglican groups and activities have been added. Chief among these is the Anglican Congress, a meeting, of all the bishops and of clerical and lay representatives from every diocese around the world. The first of these was held in Minneapolis, in 1954, with the Episcopal Church as host. The second is planned for Toronto, in 1963, at the invitation of the Anglican Church of Canada. Another agency of importance is the Advisory Council on Missionary Strategy, a body representative of and supported by all the 18 churches, with an executive officer and staff, whose chief function is the strengthening of the common life and planning of all our churches.
There are, as I say, 18 churches in this loosely-organized fellowship. The Church of England is the mother church, of course, with its two provinces of Canterbury and York. The Church in Wales was set apart as a separate church in 1920, when four (now six) Welsh dioceses were disestablished. (In England, the Church of England is the established, i.e., the legal, official Church of the Kingdom. This is no longer the case in Wales, Ireland or Scotland). The Church of Ireland was organized as a separate church in 1870; it includes 14 dioceses, in two provinces, Armagh and Dublin. In Scotland, the established Church has been Presbyterian since the 17th century, but the ancient Episcopal Church in Scotland continues, organized in six dioceses. Thus the Church of England, the church which has borne unbroken witness to the Catholic faith and order since Christianity first came to England in the first or second century, remains the legally-established church only in England itself, but shares with the three other churches of the British Isles the long apostolic tradition of nearly 20 centuries.
The oldest churches outside the British Isles are the Episcopal Church of the United States, and its twin, the Anglican Church of Canada. Both came into separate existence as a result of the American Revolution. Until then British settlers in the colonies, in Virginia or Nova Scotia, in Quebec or Connecticut, had simply been members of the Church of England, ministered to by missionaries sent out from the British Isles, and with only a shadowy chief pastor, the Bishop of London. The political changes of the Revolution necessitated ecclesiastical changes, too. The Church in the United States completed its separate organization in 1786, and the Canadian Church, following a somewhat different path, ultimately became a united, national church of Canada in 1893. Long before that, however, the four provinces of the Canadian Church had become fully self-governing units of the church's life.
In like manner, other such autonomous churches came into existence as the years went on. Some, like the churches in Australia and New Zealand, were established as the two American churches were, by colonists from England who brought their church with them. In other cases, the new provinces were established by missionary work from the older churches among the people of non-Christian areas and cultures. In both Japan and China, for example, there are self-governing national churches, whose bishops, clergy, lay people, Prayer Book, Bible are all entirely Japanese or Chinese. Other Anglican churches may and do support them, financially and with manpower as needed, but they are completely independent and self-governing.
Such churches exist in Japan and China, where their legal names in both cases are translated as "the Holy Catholic Church in (Japan or China)", in India ("The Church of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon") and in Africa, where there are now five separate churches, called simply the Church in the Province of whatever-it-is -- South Africa, East Africa, or Uganda. The last-named is the newest to be set apart, having been launched as a province in April, 1961. In the British West Indies as well, a similar and autonomous province exists. However, the American missionary dioceses in the West Indies--Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands--are still members of the American Church rather than the West Indian. The same is true of the American mission in Liberia, which does not yet belong to the Church of West Africa.
The eighteenth member of the household is the Archbishopric in Jerusalem, which links together the life of our Churches in Jerusalem, Egypt and Libya, Iran, Jordan and the Sudan.
There are still some dioceses, as well, which are not included in any province (usually because of geographical problems). Eight such are Argentina, Bermuda, Borneo, Gibraltar, Korea, Madagascar, Mauritius and Singapore and Malaya. These are all dioceses largely supported from the British Isles, whose metropolitan is the Archbishop of Canterbury. Three Australian dioceses are still isolated from any province -- Adelaide, Tasmania and Willochra. The various overseas dioceses of the Episcopal Church are included as members of the American Church, represented by their bishops and clerical and lay deputies in the American General Convention, although it is expected that in the course of time most of them will become parts of independent national or regional churches of their own. In Brazil, the three dioceses there already have a measure of self-government.
Thus, the aim of the Anglican Communion is to establish, as quickly as possible, autonomous national churches in every land. It is by "missionary" effort that these churches are born; but the aim is not to keep them as dependent colonies but to lead them swiftly to the point where they are fully and strongly established in their own soil, with their own leadership, managing their own affairs, and taking their full part in the world-wide life of our fellowship. The older churches continue to help, of course. Our Episcopal Church, for example, is very substantially involved in assistance to the Church in Japan, and to some degree we are in partnership with almost all the other Anglican churches. Similarly, missionaries and funds from the other Anglican churches flow to strengthen the brotherhood everywhere in the world. This interchange of resources and manpower, and the world-wide planning of it, is a principal concern of the Advisory Council on Missionary Strategy, of which I have the honor to be the executive officer.
Each church manages its own affairs as far as its government and finances are concerned. Although the Prayer Books in use are generally similar to one another, each church decides what its own worship is to be, and establishes its own rules for the guidance and discipline of clergy and members. In England, where the church is officially established, Parliament is the supreme governing authority, and the Queen, acting on the advice of her ministers, is the temporal head of the church -- that is, for example, she (on the advice of the Prime Minister) appoints all bishops and deans, must approve all church legislation, etc. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the spiritual head of the Church of England and Primate of all England. In addition, he has the first place in honor and dignity among all the bishops and archbishops of the Anglican Communion, and in some cases is a final authority on appeal from some of the other churches. He is, ex officio, the chairman of the Lambeth Conference and of the other principal inter-Anglican bodies. He is appointed, of course, by the Queen. In most other Anglican churches, the archbishop (or presiding bishop) and bishops are elected by the clergy and laity of the church.
In such an informal fellowship, there are no rules for admitting (or evicting!) member churches. They come into separate existence as they grow and are ready for it, and in each case the parent church or churches establish these new members. The only test of membership in the Anglican Communion, I should suppose, would be whether or not a given church sought such membership, fulfilled the very general description in the first paragraph, and was represented by its bishops in the Lambeth Conference. Any question about such a vexed matter would be finally decided by the Consultative Body of the Lambeth Conference, composed of the heads of all the. member churches (or their deputies), which is as close as the Anglican Communion comes to having a supreme court or legislature.
Two matters remain to discuss. One is the question of size -- how big is this fellowship? At present, there are 18 churches, including more than 340 dioceses. Some forty million Christians are members of these churches. The majority of these members are probably still citizens of the United Kingdom or of the British Commonwealth around the world. But there are nearly eight million Anglicans in Africa, for example, to say nothing of other continents, and nobody knows how many nationalities, languages, and dialects are included in our life and worship.
Second, what about relations with other churches? Our Anglican churches are in full communion with some other Christian bodies (i.e., we may freely receive the Holy Communion in each other's churches, and our bishops and clergy may equally freely exchange with theirs). This does not mean unity of organization or the full acceptance of what each church teaches; it means that each regards the other as a fully qualified church within the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ. This wider fellowship includes many groups of Christians in many lands -- the Old Catholic Churches of Europe or the Polish National Church in America or the Philippine Independent Church are examples. Beyond that, we are bound together closely with many other Christians in the World Council of Churches and in various National Councils. Here, although we are not in full communion with each other, we have steadily - deepening relationships of brotherly work and study and many aspects of common life.
In many parts of the world, as in India and Nigeria for instance, intensive plans are being studied looking toward the union of our Church and others in a new and very broad national church (as in South India). While this means, in one sense, the "disappearance" of the Anglican Communion, it also makes possible the emergence of a far more inclusive unity, for which all Christians prey. Only with the Roman Catholics and with some Christian groups at the other end of the spectrum are there no official contacts. Yet, even in these cases, there are warm and important unofficial relationships which may lead to a still greater unity than anything we now know.