The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. 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). 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 held 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. Christians of the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Old Catholic, Moravian, Hussite, Anglican, Church of the East, and Scandinavian Lutheran traditions maintain that "a bishop cannot have regular or valid orders unless he has been consecrated in this apostolic succession". These traditions do not always consider the episcopal consecrations of all of the other traditions as valid.
The Nippon Sei Ko Kai, abbreviated as NSKK, sometimes referred to in English as the Anglican Episcopal Church in Japan, is the national Christian church representing the Province of Japan within the Anglican Communion.
The Continuing Anglican movement, also known as the Anglican Continuum, encompasses a number of Christian churches, principally based in North America, that have an Anglican identity and tradition but are not part of the Anglican Communion.
The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, also known as the Malankara Syrian Catholic Church, is an Eastern Catholic sui iuris particular church in full communion with the worldwide Catholic Church possessing self-governance under the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. It is one of the major archiepiscopal churches of the Catholic Church. It is headed by Major Archbishop Baselios Cardinal Cleemis Catholicos of the Major Archdiocese of Trivandrum based in Kerala, India.
A provincial episcopal visitor (PEV), popularly known as a flying bishop, is a Church of England bishop assigned to minister to many of the clergy, laity and parishes who on grounds of theological conviction, "are unable to receive the ministry of women bishops or priests". The system by which such bishops oversee certain churches is referred to as alternative episcopal oversight (AEO).
Kallistos Ware was an English bishop and theologian of the Eastern Orthodox Church. From 1982, he held the titular bishopric of Diokleia in Phrygia, later made a titular metropolitan bishopric in 2007, under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. He was one of the best-known modern Eastern Orthodox hierarchs and theologians. From 1966 to 2001, he was Spalding Lecturer of Eastern Orthodox Studies at the University of Oxford.
Alexander Mar Thoma XIX Metropolitan was the Metropolitan of the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church with its center in Kerala state in south-western India.
Juhanon Mar Thoma XVIII Metropolitan was the Metropolitan of the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church from 1949–1976, who gave leadership to the church and at the same time actively participated in social and political arenas. He was respected by people from all walks of life, from all religions and from all age groups. He is remembered for providing the church with its famous motto "Lighted to Lighten". His humanistic and socially-engaged approach to the Christian faith was embodied in his personal credo: "The Church must be interested where human life is interested."
James Parker Dees was an American bishop. He was the founder and first bishop of the Orthodox Anglican Church and the Orthodox Anglican Communion.
Saint Andrew's Theological College and Seminary (SATCS) is a church-affiliated educational institution of the Orthodox Anglican Church, the United States branch of the Orthodox Anglican Communion. Instruction began in Statesville, North Carolina in 1967 and the school was formally dedicated as Cranmer Seminary on September 19, 1971. Cranmer Seminary was officially incorporated in the state of North Carolina on September 3, 1975. A vocational school for the ministry, the seminary provided denominationally-specific theological training and education for traditional Anglican clergy. In 1996, a distance education program was initiated. From 1999 to 2003, the seminary actively assisted training clergy of the Anglican Rite Synod in the Americas, established an Internet presence and instituted open admission to the general public. The school was renamed Saint Andrew's Theological College and Seminary in 2002. Many of the bishops and leaders of the Continuing Anglican movement are past students and graduates of St. Andrew’s.
The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is a Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition in the United States and Canada. It also includes ten congregations in Mexico, two mission churches in Guatemala, and a missionary diocese in Cuba. Headquartered in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, the church reported 974 congregations and 122,450 members in 2021. The first archbishop of the ACNA was Robert Duncan, who was succeeded by Foley Beach in 2014.
Thabo Cecil Makgoba KStJ is the South African Anglican archbishop of Cape Town. He had served before as bishop of Grahamstown.
Scott Earle McLaughlin was the presiding bishop of the Orthodox Anglican Church, metropolitan archbishop of the Orthodox Anglican Communion, and chancellor of Saint Andrew's Theological College and Seminary. On 1 May 1999, McLaughlin was consecrated as a bishop by Herbert M. Groce, metropolitan archbishop of the Anglican Rite Synod in the Americas, assisted by Bishop Larry Shaver of the Anglican Rite Synod in the Americas, and Bishop Robert J. Godfrey of the Orthodox Anglican Communion. His apostolic succession is Anglican, Old Catholic, and Orthodox. McLaughlin served as suffragan bishop until 30 April 2000, when Bishop Godfrey retired. He was then elected presiding bishop of the Orthodox Anglican Church and metropolitan archbishop of the Orthodox Anglican Communion. He was the fourth archbishop to lead the Orthodox Anglican Communion and the Orthodox Anglican Church. He is married with four children; two sons and two daughters.
The Church of Ceylon is the Anglican Church in Sri Lanka. It is an extra-provincial jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who serves as its Metropolitan. It was established in 1845 with the appointment of the first Anglican Bishop of Colombo, James Chapman and until 1950 it consisted of a single diocese; in that year a second diocese was established at Kurunegala.
The Episcopal/Anglican Province of Alexandria is a province of the Anglican Communion. Its territory was formerly the Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa. On 29 June 2020 the diocese was elevated to the status of an ecclesiastical province, and became the forty-first province of the Anglican Communion. The primate and metropolitan of the province is the archbishop of Alexandria.
The ordination of women in the Anglican Communion has been increasingly common in certain provinces since the 1970s. Several provinces, however, and certain dioceses within otherwise ordaining provinces, continue to ordain only men. Disputes over the ordination of women have contributed to the establishment and growth of progressive tendencies, such as the Anglican realignment and Continuing Anglican movements.
The Ecumenical Catholic Communion (ECC) is an American-based independent Catholic church. Its members understand themselves as following the Catholic tradition without being in communion with the Bishop of Rome. The ECC is a confederation of independent communities based in the United States and Europe. The membership of the ECC is about 10,000, including seven bishops, and more than 50 communities across 20 states. In 2009, the Ecumenical Anglican Church (EAC), an independent church, joined the ECC. The ECC is a member of the National Council of Churches (NCC).
T. Creighton Jones was the Presiding Bishop of the Orthodox Anglican Church and Metropolitan Archbishop of the Orthodox Anglican Communion. His apostolic succession is Anglican, Old Catholic, and Orthodox. He was the fifth archbishop to lead the Orthodox Anglican Communion and the Orthodox Anglican Church.
Baselios Marthoma Mathews III is the present Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, serving as its primate. He was enthroned as the 22nd Malankara Metropolitan on 14 October 2021 and as the 9th Catholicos on 15 October 2021 at St. Peter and St. Paul's Church, Parumala, succeeding Baselios Marthoma Paulose II.
