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.
The Free Church of England (FCE) is an episcopal church based in England. The church was founded when a number of congregations separated from the established Church of England in the middle of the 19th century.
Since the 1990s, the Anglican Communion has struggled with controversy regarding homosexuality in the church. In 1998, the 13th Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops passed a resolution "rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture". However, this is not legally binding. "Like all Lambeth Conference resolutions, it is not legally binding on all provinces of the Communion, including the Church of England, though it commends an essential and persuasive view of the attitude of the Communion." "Anglican national churches in Brazil, South Africa, South India, New Zealand and Canada have taken steps toward approving and celebrating same-sex relationships amid strong resistance among other national churches within the 80 million-member global body. The Episcopal Church in the U.S. has allowed same-sex marriage since 2015, and the Scottish Episcopal Church has allowed same-sex marriage since 2017." "Church of England clergy have appeared to signal support for gay marriage after they rejected a bishops' report which said that only a man and woman could marry in church." At General Synod in 2019, the Church of England announced that same-gender couples may remain recognised as married after one spouse experiences a gender transition. In 2023, the Church of England announced that it would authorise "prayers of thanksgiving, dedication and for God's blessing for same-sex couples."
The Anglican Church of Southern Africa, known until 2006 as the Church of the Province of Southern Africa, is the province of the Anglican Communion in the southern part of Africa. The church has twenty-five dioceses, of which twenty-one are located in South Africa, and one each in Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and Saint Helena. In South Africa, there are between 3 and 4 million Anglicans out of an estimated population of 45 million.
The Anglican Church of Mexico, originally known as Church of Jesus is the Anglican province in Mexico and includes five dioceses. The primate is Francisco Manuel Moreno, interim bishop of Northern Mexico, while Julio César Martín-Trejo, Ricardo Joel Gomez Osnaya, Enrique Treviño and Alba S. Hernández, are the other bishops of the Church. Although Mexican in origin and not the result of any foreign missionary effort, the Church uses the colors representing Mexico as well as those of the United States-based Episcopal Church in its heraldic insignia or shield, recognizing a historical connection with that US church which began with obtaining the apostolic succession.
The Anglican Church of South America is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion that covers six dioceses in the countries of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.
The Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil is the 19th province of the Anglican Communion, covering the country of Brazil. It is composed of nine dioceses and one missionary district, each headed by a bishop, among whom one is elected as the Primate of Brazil. The current Primate is Marinez Rosa dos Santos Bassotto. IEAB is the oldest non-Catholic church in Brazil, originating from the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation signed in 1810 between Portugal and the United Kingdom which allowed the Church of England to establish chapels in the former Portuguese colony. In 1890 American missionaries from the Episcopal Church established themselves in the country aiming to create a national church; unlike the English chapels, they celebrated services in Portuguese and converted Brazilians. The Anglican community of Brazil was a missionary district of the Episcopal Church until 1965, when it gained its ecclesiastical independence and became a separate province of the Anglican Communion. Twenty years later, IEAB began to ordain women. It preaches a social gospel, being known for its commitment to fight against problems that affect vast portions of the Brazilian society, such as social inequality, land concentration, domestic violence, racism, homophobia and xenophobia. Its stance as an Inclusive Church has caused both schisms and the arrival of former Catholics and Evangelicals in search of acceptance.
The Episcopal Church of Cuba is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States. The diocese consists of the entire country of Cuba. From 1966 to 2020, it was an extra-provincial diocese under the archbishop of Canterbury. As of 2021, it had nearly 1,600 members and an average worship attendance of more than 600 in forty-four parishes, including the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Havana.
Michael Bruce Curry is an American bishop who is the 27th and current presiding bishop and primate of The Episcopal Church. Elected in 2015, he is the first African American to serve as presiding bishop in The Episcopal Church. He was previously bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina.
The Anglican Church in Central America is a province of the Anglican Communion, covering five sees in Central America.
The Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans is a communion of conservative Anglican churches that formed in 2008 in response to ongoing theological disputes in the worldwide Anglican Communion. Conservative Anglicans met in 2008 at the Global Anglican Future Conference, creating the Jerusalem Declaration and establishing the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA), which was rebranded as GAFCON in 2017.
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 calendar of saints of the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil follows the tradition of The Episcopal Church (TEC), of which it was a missionary district until 1965.
William Matthew Merrick Thomas was an American missionary bishop of the diocese which eventually became the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil.
The Anglican Church of Chile is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion that covers four dioceses in Chile. Formed in 2018, the province is the 40th in the Anglican Communion. The province consists of four dioceses. Its primate and metropolitan is the Archbishop of Chile, Héctor Zavala.
The Anglican Church in Brazil is an evangelical Anglican denomination in Brazil. It is not a member of the Anglican Communion, but is in full communion with other provinces of the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans and the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches.
Edward Robinson de Barros Cavalcanti was a Brazilian Anglican bishop. He was the conservative bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Recife, in the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil. He led his diocese to a schism because of the pro-homosexuality policies of the province, who were against the official stance of the Anglican Communion, in 2005. He was expelled the same year and renamed his departing diocese as Anglican Church – Diocese of Recife, who became associated with the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of America and the Global Anglican Future Conference, and would lead the way to the creation of the Anglican Church in Brazil.
Julio César Martín Trejo is an Anglican bishop in Mexico identified as a strong pro-LGBTQ advocate.
The Anglican Church of Mozambique and Angola [Igreja Anglicana de Moçambique e Angola (IAMA)] is the 42nd ecclesiastical province of the world-wide Anglican Communion. Established in 2021, is the newest province to have been erected. Previously the dioceses which constitute this new province were parts of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. The new province adopted its constitution and canons at a special synod, and was formally inaugurated on 24 September 2021, in an online teleconference including Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Josiah Idowu-Fearon, Secretary-General of the Anglican Consultative Council.
Miguel Uchôa Cavalcanti is a Brazilian Anglican bishop and author. Since 2012, he has been diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Recife, which broke away from the Anglican Communion-recognized Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil (IEAB), and since 2018, he has been the first primate of the GAFCON-recognized Anglican Church in Brazil (IAB). Uchôa is also rector of the Anglican Parish of the Holy Spirit in greater Recife, which is considered one of the largest Anglican churches in Latin America with more than 1,000 worshipers.
