ANGLICAN COMMUNION

loosely organized family of religious bodies that represents offspring of the Church of England, one of the major branches of the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. It is a form of Christianity that includes features of both Protestantism and Catholicism. It prizes traditional worship and structure but operates autonomously and flexibly in different locales. Anglicans possess few firm rules but a cluster of historic pieties and procedural loyalties. The Book of Common Prayer, a compilation of the church's liturgical forms originally issued in the 16th century, represented the achievement of autonomy from Rome and remains the hallmark of Anglican identity. The prayer book derives from ancient English spirituality and embodies the uniqueness of Anglican Christianity. religious body of national, independent, and autonomous churches throughout the world that evolved from the Church of England. The Anglican Communion is united by a common loyalty to the archbishop of Canterbury in England as its senior bishop and titular leader and by a general agreement with the doctrines and practices defined in the 16th-century Book of Common Prayer. From the time of the Reformation, the Church of England followed explorers, traders, colonists, and missionaries into the far reaches of the known world. The colonial churches generally exercised administrative autonomy within the historical and creedal context of the mother church. It was probably not until the first meeting of the Lambeth Conference (q.v.) in 1867 that there emerged among the various churches and councils a mutual consciousness of an Anglican Communion. Since its inception, the Lambeth Conference has constituted the principal cohesive factor in Anglicanism. While population differences and other factors account for some variation in the basic structure among the churches, several elements do predominate. The diocese, under the administration of a bishop, is the basic administrative unit throughout the Communion. The diocese is made up of parishes, or local church communities, each under the care of a pastor. In many of the national churches, dioceses are grouped into provinces. In some, parishes may be grouped also below the diocesan level into rural deaneries and archdeaconries. In the 20th century the Anglican Communion has played a prominent role in the ecumenical movement. A milestone in AnglicanRoman Catholic relations was reached in 1982 when Pope John Paul II met with Robert Runcie, the archbishop of Canterbury, at Canterbury to discuss prospects for reconciliation between the two churches. Additional reading Stephen C. Neill, Anglicanism, rev. ed. (1977), the most comprehensive treatment of Anglican history; John R.H. Moorman, A History of the Church in England, 3rd ed. (1973, reissued 1980), the basic facts about Anglicanism's mother church; Marion J. Hatchett, Commentary on the American Prayer Book (1981), a detailed examination of Anglican worship and its rationale; James T. Addison, The Episcopal Church in the United States, 17891931 (1951, reissued 1969), the most thorough treatment of American Anglicanism; and Paul A. Welsby, A History of the Church of England, 19451980 (1984, reissued 1986), which explains recent changes in the Church of England. See also Raymond W. Albright, A History of the Protestant Episcopal Church (1964), the standard story of American Episcopalianism. The Most Rev. Ralph Stanley Dean The Rev. William L. Sachs