An Ancient Church, catholic and reformed
The roots of the Church of England go back to the time of the
Roman Empire when Christianity entered the Roman province of
Britain. Through the influences of St Alban, St Illtud, St Ninian,
St Patrick and, later, St Augustine, St Aidan and St Cuthbert, the
Church of England developed, acknowledging the authority of the
Pope until the Reformation in the 16th century.
The religious settlement that eventually emerged in the reign of
Elizabeth I gave the Church of England the distinctive identity
that it has retained to this day. It resulted in a Church that
consciously retained a large amount of continuity with the Church
of the Patristic and Medieval periods in terms of its use of the
catholic creeds, its pattern of ministry, its buildings and aspects
of its liturgy, but which also embodied Protestant insights in its
theology and in the overall shape of its liturgical practice. The
way that this is often expressed is by saying that the Church of
England is both 'catholic and reformed.'
The changes that have taken place in the Church of England over
the centuries have been many and various. What has remained
constant, however, has been the Church's commitment to the faith
'uniquely revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set forth in the
catholic creeds,' its maintenance of the traditional three fold
order of ministry, and its determination to bring the grace of God
to the whole nation through word and sacrament in the power of the
Holy Spirit.
Read a more detailed history.