Church of England: Encyclopedia - Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, and acts as the 'mother' and senior branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, as well as a founding member of the Porvoo Communion.

Church of England - Theology and sociology

The Church of England considers itself to stand both in a reformed tradition and in a catholic (but not Roman Catholic) church tradition: Reformed insofar as many of the principles of the Protestant Reformation have influenced it, and insofar as it does not accept Papal authority; Catholic, in that it views itself as the 'unbroken continuation of the early apostolic and later medieval' "universal church", rather than as a 'new formation'. In its practices, furthermore, the Church of England remains closer to Roman Catholicism than most Protestant Churches. It holds many relatively conservative theological beliefs, its liturgical form of worship can feature tradition and ceremony, and its organisation embodies a belief in apostolic succession through the historical episcopal hierarchy of archbishops, bishops, and dioceses.

In many people's eyes, however, the Church of England has as its primary distinguishing mark its breadth and 'open-mindedness'. In addition to the traditional mainstream, the church has long included "high church" and "low church" factions with their own particular preferences. Today, practices range from those of the Anglo-Catholics, who emphasise liturgy and sacraments, to the far less ceremonial services of Evangelicals and Charismatics. But this "broad church" faces various contentious doctrinal questions raised by the development of modern society, such as conflicts over the ordination of women as priests (accepted in 1992 and begun in 1994), and the status of noncelibate homosexual clergy (still unsettled today). In July 2005, the divisions were once again apparent, as the General Synod voted to "set in train" the process of allowing the ordination of women as bishops, scheduling debate on the specific legislation for February, 2006.

Church of England - Governance and administration

The British monarch (at present, Elizabeth II), has the constitutional title of "Supreme Governor of the Church of England".

In practice, however, the administrative leadership of the church falls to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The worldwide Anglican Communion of independent national or regional churches recognises the Archbishop of Canterbury as a kind of 'symbolic' leader. The Most Revd and Rt Hon. Dr Rowan Williams has served as Archbishop of Canterbury since 2002.

The Church of England has a legislative body, the General Synod. However, fundamental legislation still has to pass through the UK Parliament. The church has its own judicial branch, known as the Ecclesiastical courts, which likewise form a part of the UK court system, but are largely moribund, since the provisions for the enforcement of ecclesiastical rulings were mostly removed a century ago by various High Court decisions.

In addition to England proper, the jurisdiction of the Church of England extends to the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, the Isles of Scilly, and a small part of Wales. In recent years, expatriate congregations on the continent of Europe have become the Diocese in Europe.

Church of England - Appointments

All clergy are in theory appointed by the crown. Indeed no clergyman can be inducted into a parish without the reading of the royal warrant. For practical purposes parish clergy are appointed by the bishops.

The process of appointing diocesan bishops is more complex, and is handled by a body called the Crown Nominations Committee, which submits names to the Prime Minister (acting on behalf of the Crown) for consideration. This process is described in the article Appointment of Church of England Bishops.

Church of England - History

Main article: History of the Church of England

The Church of England traces its formal corporate history from the 597 Augustinian mission, stresses its continuity and identity with the primitive universal Western church, and notes the consolidation of its particular independent and national character in the post-Reformation events of Tudor England.

Christianity arrived in Britain in the first or second centuries (probably via the tin trade route through Ireland and Spain), and existed independently of the Church of Rome, as did many other Christian communities of that era. Records note British bishops as attending the Council of Arles in 314. The Pope sent Saint Augustine from Rome in the 6th century to evangelise the Angles in (597). With the help of Christians already residing in Kent, he established his church in Canterbury, the capital of Kent, and became the first in the series of archbishops of Canterbury.

Simultaneously, the Celtic Church of St.Columba continued to evangelise Scotland. The Celtic Church of North Britain submitted in some sense to the 'authority' of Rome at the Council of Whitby in 644. Over the next few centuries, the Roman system introduced by Augustine gradually absorbed the pre-existing Celtic Christian churches.

England remained a Roman Catholic country for nearly a thousand years, but then the church separated itself from Rome in 1534, during the reign of King Henry VIII, though it briefly rejoined Rome during the reign of Queen Mary I, in 1555. Since that time, England has been known as a 'stronghold' of Protestantism, and of world-wide Christian evangelism, eventually being eclipsed in these activities during the twentieth century by one of her former colonies, the United States.

Church of England - Related churches

In Scotland, the Church of Scotland is recognised in law (Church of Scotland Act 1921) as the "national church", but since 1929 it has not been "established" in the same manner as the Church of England. In particular, the state 'recognises' the independence of the Church of Scotland in matters spiritual, thus no ministers are appointed by the Crown or the State. The Church of Scotland has a Presbyterian system of government. A smaller Anglican church also exists in Scotland, known as the Scottish Episcopal Church, which is in full communion with the Church of England.

The Church in Wales underwent disestablishment in 1920, and became an independent member of the Anglican Communion.

The Church of Ireland had official established church status in Ireland until 1871, although the bulk of the Irish people in practice remained mostly Roman Catholic.

The Church of England stands in full communion with the other churches in the Anglican Communion, and separately with the other signatories of the Porvoo Communion. The Church of England is also a full member of the Conference of European Churches.

Church of England - Financial situation

The Church of England, although an established church, does not receive any direct government support. Donations comprise its largest source of income, though it also relies heavily on the income from its various historic endowments. As of 2005, the Church of England had estimated total outgoings of around £900 million.

Historically, individual parishes both raised and spent the vast majority of the Church's funding, meaning that clergy pay depended on the wealth of the parish, and parish advowsons (the right to appoint clergy to particular parishes) could become extremely valuable gifts. Individual dioceses also held considerable assets: the Diocese of Durham possessed such vast wealth and temporal power that its Bishop became known as the 'Prince-Bishop'. Since the mid-19th century, however, the Church has made various moves to 'equalise' the situation, and clergy within each diocese now receive standard stipends paid from diocesan funds. Meanwhile, the Church moved the majority of its income-generating assets (which in the past included a great deal of land, but today mostly take the form of financial stocks and bonds) out of the hands of individual clergy and bishops to the care of a body called the Church Commissioners, which uses these funds to pay a range of non-parish expenses, including clergy pensions, and the expenses of cathedrals and bishops' houses. These funds amount to around £3.9 billion, and generate income of around £164 million each year (as of 2003), around a fifth of the Church's overall income.

The Church Commissioners give some of this money as 'grants' to local parishes; but the majority of the financial burden of church upkeep and the work of local parishes still rests with individual parish and diocese, which meet their requirements from donations. Direct donations to the church (not including legacies) come to around £460 million per year, while parish and diocese reserve funds generate another £100 million. Funds raised in individual parishes account for almost all of this money, and the majority of it remains in the parish which raises it, meaning that the resources available to parishes still vary enormously, according to the level of donations they can raise.

Most parishes give a portion of their money, however, to the diocese as a 'quota'. While this is not a compulsory payment, dioceses strongly encourage and rely on it being paid; it is usually only withheld by parishes either if are unable to find the funds or as a specific act of protest. As well as paying central diocesan expenses such as the running of diocesan offices, these diocesan funds also provide clergy pay and housing expenses (which total around £260 million per year across all dioceses), meaning that clergy living conditions no longer depend on parish-specific fundraising.

Although asset-rich, the Church of England has to look after and maintain its thousands of churches nationwide — the lion's share of England's built heritage. As current congregation numbers stand at relatively low levels and as maintenance bills increase as the buildings grow older, many of these churches cannot maintain economic self-sufficiency; but their historical and architectural importance make it difficult to sell them. In recent years, cathedrals and other famous churches have met some of their maintenance costs with grants from organisations such as English Heritage; but the Church Commissioners and local fundraisers must foot the bill entirely in the case of most small parish churches. (The government, however, does provide some assistance in the form of tax breaks, for example a 100 percent VAT refund for renovations to religious buildings.)

In addition to consecrated buildings, the Church also controls numerous ancillary buildings attached to or associated with churches, including a good deal of clergy housing. As well as vicarages and rectories, this housing includes residences (called 'palaces') for each of the Church's 114 bishops. In some cases, this name seems entirely apt; buildings such as Archbishop of Canterbury's Lambeth Palace in London and Old Palace at Canterbury have truly palatial dimensions, while the Bishop of Durham's Auckland Palace has 50 rooms, a banqueting hall and 30 acres (120,000 m²) of parkland. However, many bishops have found the older palaces inappropriate for today's lifestyles, and some bishops' 'palaces' are simply ordinary 4-bedroomed houses. Many dioceses which have retained large palaces now employ part of the space as administrative offices, while the bishops and their families live in a small apartment within the palace; and in recent years some dioceses have managed to put their palaces' excess space and grandeur to profitable use as conference centres. The size of the bishops' households has also shrunk dramatically and their budgets for entertaining and servants form a tiny fraction of their pre-20th-century levels.

See also

• History of the Church of England
• List of Church of England dioceses
• British monarchy
• History of England
• Anglicanism
• Book of Common Prayer
• Common Worship
• Anglican Communion
• General Synod
• antidisestablishmentarianism
• Sydney Anglicans
• Religion in the United Kingdom
• UK topics
• List of Church of England bishops
• United Reformed Church
• John Wesley
• Appointment of Church of England bishops
• Episcopal Church in the United States of America

Church of England - External link

• Church of England website

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Church of England", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki