Descendant of the Church of England in the U.S. With the American Revolution, the Church of England was disestablished in the U.S. (1789), and American Anglicans renamed it the Protestant Episcopal Church.
The church accepts both the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds and a modified version of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England. The General Convention is the highest ecclesiastical authority, and it is headed by a presiding bishop, which it elects. The Reformed Episcopal Church broke away from the main body in 1873. The church accepted the ordination of women in 1976.