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.
Apostolic succession is the method whereby the ministry of the Christian Church is considered by some Christian denominations to be derived from the apostles by a continuous succession, which has usually been associated with a claim that the succession is through a series of bishops. The Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Old Catholic traditions, as well as some Protestant traditions such as the Anglicans, and Scandinavian Lutheran, maintain that a bishop's orders are neither regular nor valid without consecration through apostolic succession. These traditions do not always consider the episcopal consecrations of all of the other traditions as valid.
Athanasius I of Alexandria, also called Athanasius the Great, Athanasius the Confessor, or, among Coptic Christians, Athanasius the Apostolic, was a Christian theologian and the 20th pope of Alexandria. His intermittent episcopacy spanned 45 years, of which over 17 encompassed five exiles, when he was replaced on the order of four different Roman emperors. Athanasius was a Church Father, the chief proponent of Trinitarianism against Arianism, and a noted Egyptian Christian leader of the fourth century.
The Church of Scotland is a Presbyterian denomination of Christianity that holds the status of the national church in Scotland. It is one of the country's largest, having 259,200 members in 2023. While active membership in the church has declined significantly in recent decades, the government Scottish Household Survey found that 20% of the Scottish population, or over one million people, identified the Church of Scotland as their religious identity in 2019.
The Scottish Episcopal Church is a Christian denomination in Scotland. Scotland's third largest church, the Scottish Episcopal Church has 303 local congregations. It is also an ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion.
George Gleig FRSE FSA LLD was a Scottish minister who transferred to the Episcopalian faith and became Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church.
Thomas Forsyth Torrance, commonly referred to as T. F. Torrance, was a Scottish Protestant theologian and Presbyterian minister. He was a member of the famed Torrance family of theologians. Torrance served for 27 years as professor of Christian dogmatics at New College, in the University of Edinburgh. He is best known for his pioneering work in the study of science and theology, but he is equally respected for his work in systematic theology.
Thought for the Day is a daily scripted slot on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 offering "reflections from a faith perspective on issues and people in the news", broadcast at around 7:45 each Monday to Saturday morning. Lasting 2 minutes and 45 seconds, it is a successor to the five-minute religious sequence Ten to Eight (1965–1970) and, before that, Lift Up Your Hearts, which was first broadcast five mornings a week on the BBC Home Service from December 1939, initially at 7:30, though soon moved to 7:47. The feature is mainly delivered by those involved in religious practice; often, these are Christian thinkers, but there have been numerous occasions where representatives of other faiths, including Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism, have presented Thought for the Day.
William Montgomery Watt was a Scottish historian and orientalist. An Anglican priest, Watt served as Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Edinburgh from 1964 to 1979 and was also a prominent contributor to the field of Quranic studies.
As of the 2022 census, None was the largest category of belief in Scotland, chosen by 51.1% of the Scottish population identifying when asked: "What religion, religious denomination or body do you belong to?" This represented an increase from the 2011 figure of 36.7%. 38.8% identified as Christian with most of them declaring affiliation with the Church of Scotland and the Catholic Church. The only other religious persuasions with more than 1% affiliation were 'Other Christian' and Muslim at 5.1% and 2.2% of the total population, respectively.
Paul Gordon Chandler is the Founding President of CARAVAN Arts. He is an author, art curator, interfaith peacemaker, social entrepreneur, and Anglican clergyman. From 2021 to 2024, he was the US Episcopal Bishop of Wyoming. He has worked on various projects concerning the Middle East and Africa, ecumenical publishing, relief and development agencies, the arts and the Anglican Communion. He wrote In Search of a Prophet: A Spiritual Journey with Kahlil Gibran on the Lebanese writer and artist Kahlil Gibran. In 2020, he was awarded by the Archbishop of Canterbury the Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation.
Ekklesia was a not-for-profit British think tank which examines the role of religion on public life and policy in the UK.
Christian atheism is an ideology that embraces the teachings, narratives, symbols, practices, or communities associated with Christianity without accepting the literal existence of God. It often overlaps with nontheism and post-theism.
Paul David Loup Avis is an English Anglican priest, theologian, and ecumenist. He was General Secretary of the Church of England's Council for Christian Unity from 1998 to 2011, theological consultant to the Anglican Communion Office, London, from 2011 to 2012, and Canon Theologian of Exeter Cathedral from 2008 to 2013. He was honorary professor in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University 2017–2021 and is currently Honorary Professor in the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh (2022-). At the University of Exeter he was visiting professor of theology from 2009 to 2017 and subsequently honorary research fellow until 2021. He is the editor of the series Anglican-Episcopal Theology and History, also published by Brill. Avis was also a chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II, 2008–2017.
William Holland Wilmer was an Episcopal priest, teacher and writer in Maryland and Virginia who served briefly as the eleventh president of the College of William and Mary.
The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical period in which they worked became known as the Patristic Era and spans approximately from the late 1st to mid-8th centuries, flourishing in particular during the 4th and 5th centuries, when Christianity was in the process of establishing itself as the state church of the Roman Empire.
Honest Doubt: The History of an Epic Struggle is a series of twenty 15-minute radio essays by the author and former Bishop of Edinburgh, Richard Holloway. It was originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 28 May and 22 June 2012, rebroadcast as four 1-hour omnibus editions on Friday evenings throughout June 2012. The series was written and presented by Richard Holloway, and produced by Olivia Landsberg at Ladbroke Productions.
John Keenan is a Scottish Roman Catholic bishop, who has served as the bishop of the Diocese of Paisley since 2014. Before becoming a bishop he was a parish priest and school then university chaplain. Since 2024, he has also been president of the Bishops' Conference of Scotland.
Donald Macleod was a Scottish theologian.
Keith Graham Riglin was an Anglican bishop in the Scottish Episcopal Church. Having ministered from 1983 within Baptist and Reformed churches, he took holy orders in the Church of England in 2008. In January 2021 he was elected Bishop of Argyll and The Isles, a post he held until his death in 2023.
