The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Formally founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other autocephalous national and regional churches in full communion. The traditional origins of Anglican doctrine are summarised in the Thirty-nine Articles (1571) and The Books of Homilies. The archbishop of Canterbury in England acts as a focus of unity, recognised as primus inter pares, but does not exercise authority in Anglican provinces outside of the Church of England. Most, but not all, member churches of the communion are the historic national or regional Anglican churches.
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. Justin Welby was enthroned as archbishop of Canterbury at Canterbury Cathedral on 21 March 2013. In late 2024, he announced his resignation, to take effect on 6 January 2025. Welby is the 105th person to hold the position, as part of a line of succession going back to Augustine of Canterbury, the "Apostle to the English", who was sent to England by Pope Gregory the Great and arrived in 597.
The Lambeth Conference convenes as the Archbishop of Canterbury summons an assembly of Anglican bishops every ten years. The first took place at Lambeth in 1867.
Robert Henry Alexander Eames, Baron Eames, is an Anglican bishop and life peer, who served as Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh from 1986 to 2006.
A Lambeth degree is an academic degree conferred by the Archbishop of Canterbury under the authority of the Ecclesiastical Licences Act 1533 (25 Hen. 8. c. 21) as successor of the papal legate in England. The degrees conferred most commonly are DD, DCL, DLitt, DMus, DM, BD and MA. The relatively modern degree of MLitt has been conferred in recent years, and the MPhil and PhD are now available.
The Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa (REACH-SA), known until 2013 as the Church of England in South Africa (CESA), is a Christian denomination in South Africa. It was constituted in 1938 as a federation of churches. It appointed its first bishop in 1955. It is an Anglican church and it relates closely to the Sydney Diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia, to which it is similar in that it sees itself as a bastion of the Reformation and particularly of reformed doctrine.
Stephen George Platten, is a retired Anglican prelate, the last to serve as diocesan Bishop of Wakefield in the Church of England.
St Augustine’s College in Canterbury, Kent, United Kingdom, was located within the precincts of St Augustine's Abbey about 0.2 miles ESE of Canterbury Cathedral. It served first as a missionary college of the Church of England (1848–1947) and later as the Central College of the Anglican Communion (1952–1967).
The Archbishop of Canterbury's Award for Outstanding Service to the Anglican Communion is the highest award within the Anglican Communion. It was created by Archbishop George Carey to mark the retirement of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was its first recipient.
Colin William Fletcher is a British retired Anglican bishop. He served as area Bishop of Dorchester in the Diocese of Oxford.
Gregory Kenneth Cameron is a Welsh Anglican bishop. He is Bishop of the Diocese of St Asaph in Wales, having been elected on 5 January 2009 and confirmed as bishop on 16 March 2009.
Michael Gay Bourke was the second area and third overall Bishop of Wolverhampton from 1993 until 2007.
Graham Kings is an English Church of England bishop, theologian and poet. In retirement in Cambridge, having served as Bishop of Sherborne and then Mission Theologian in the Anglican Communion, he is an Honorary Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Ely and Research Associate at the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide, which he founded in 1996. His latest books are: Nourishing Connections , Nourishing Mission: Theological Settings , Exchange of Gifts: The Vision of Simon Barrington-Ward , edited with Ian Randall.
Josiah Atkins Idowu-Fearon is a Nigerian Anglican bishop. From 2015 until 2022, he was Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council. He was previously the Bishop of Kaduna diocese and the Archbishop of the Province of Kaduna in the Church of Nigeria.
Gerald James Ian Ernest is a Mauritian Anglican bishop. In 2001 he was consecrated as the 15th bishop of Mauritius. From 2006 to 2017 he was archbishop of the Province of the Indian Ocean. Since October 2019 he has been the Archbishop of Canterbury's Personal Representative to the Holy See and Director of the Anglican Centre in Rome.
St Augustine's, Queen's Gate, is a Grade II* listed Anglican church in Queen's Gate, Brompton, London, England. The church was built in 1865, and the architect was William Butterfield.
Joanne Caladine Bailey Wells is a British Anglican bishop, theologian, and academic. Since January 2023, she has served at the Anglican Communion Office in London as "Bishop for Episcopal Ministry". Previously, she was a lecturer in the Old Testament and biblical theology at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, and then associate professor of Bible and Ministry at Duke Divinity School, Duke University, North Carolina; From 2013 until 2016, she had served as Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury; she was then Bishop of Dorking, a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Guildford, 2016–2023.
An ecclesiastical decoration is an order or a decoration conferred by a head of a church.
The Lambeth Awards are awarded by the Archbishop of Canterbury. In addition to the Lambeth degrees, there are a number of non-academic awards. Before 2016, these awards consisted of the Lambeth Cross, the Canterbury Cross, and the Cross of St Augustine. In 2016, these awards were expanded with six new awards named after previous Archbishops of Canterbury.
Patrick Pervez Augustine is an Anglican Missionary Bishop of the Diocese of Diocese of Bor in the Episcopal Church of South Sudan.
