From the Beginning until the Middle Ages

The Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil is an Anglican Church, whose roots can be traced back to the early Christian Church that existed in England since Patristic times. They were the ones who first spread the message of the Gospel to far and different places of the known world. One of those places was the British Isles, where Christianity had arrived in the late 2nd Century and early 3rd Century. There, it evolved in a local and independent way (the Celtic Church). At the end of the VIth Century, Saint Augustine of Canterbury led a group of forty monks to the Kingdom of Kent – in what is now Southern England – to convert the Anglo-Saxons.  Upon St. Augustine's arrival he was met by Celtic Christians from St. Martin’s Church (named for St. Martin of Tours), in Canterbury.

The Celtic Church had simply avoided the christological heresies of the IVth and Vth centuries, which were condemned at the Councils of Nicea, Ephesus and Chalcedon.  In 603, St. Augustine called representatives from the Celtic Church in order to convince them to submit to Roman practice and discipline, but they refused to comply.  St. Augustine died in 605, but the differences between the Celtic and Roman Churches continued to spot controversy. Finally, in 664, in Whitby, Northumbria, the matter was solved at a council, and through a decree by King Oswy.

The missionary work started by St. Augustine was consolidated by Theodore of Tarsus, a Greek monk who was sent by the Pope in 669 to become Augustine's successor as the second Archbishop of Canterbury.  He was sent to remove the peculiar characteristics of Celtic Christianity and to call the first national Synod of the Church in England: the Council of Hertford (673).

Throughout the Middle Ages, the English Church was under the rule of the Roman Church. England, like most European countries, was part of and sponsored the papal system. However, due to the distance between England and Rome, a Church with national and autonomous characteristics was developed from the beginning.  The Church of England has always claimed historical independence, and, even having been nominally under Roman Catholic rule for 850 years, its relationship with the papacy was always full of conflicts.  Henry VIII formally separated the church that existed there from Rome.


Liturgical and Theological Variability

The 16th century English reformation had produced three parties, or tendencies among Anglicans: the Broad Church Party, the High Church Party and the Low Church Party.
The High Church gained strength in the 19th Century, after the Oxford Movement.  Anglo-catholics encourage the usage of imagery, candles, crucifixes, incense, holy water, invocation of Mary and the saints, private confession, monastic life and celibacy.
The Low Church preferred a simpler form of liturgy.  Anglo-evangelicals were responsible for the awakenings that happened in England and in some other countries.  They also were strongly missionary.

The Broad Church was, at first, a minority.  They were, however, very influent, due to their moderate positions.  They have always been in the middle of Anglo-Catholic ritualism and Evangelical simplicity.  Most churches today belong to this group: they do preserve certain rituals and liturgical garments, but do not intend to be fully Anglo-Catholics or fully Evangelicals.

Today, it is possible to say that most of our churches belong to this group, allowing the moderate usage of crosses, liturgical vestments, incense, candles and other regalia.
Anglicanism is also characterized by its theological flexibility.  Since it is not a confessional church, Anglicans are allowed to disagree over non-essential subjects of our faith, as described in the historical creeds.  We also do not have a special theologian or great reformer, upon which we trace our theology.  On the contrary, we rely upon what great Christian men and women (not necessarily Anglicans) have written throughout Church History.
The so-called three-legged stool Scripture-Tradition-Reason is the kernel of the Anglican way of doing theology.  It symbolizes that these three elements must be in a state of constant equilibrium, in order to discern what the Holy Spirit is saying to the Church.


A family of Autonomous Churches

When America was being colonized, the Church of England (or the Anglican Church) was established in many colonies as the State Church. After the United States became independent, the Anglican Church in the United States likewise became an independent denomination, creating dioceses, parishes and institutions. Its name was the Episcopal Church of the United States of America. It was from one of its institutions, the Virginia Theological Seminary, that the missionaries who founded the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil (in 1890) came.

The Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, a family of national churches in historical communion with the See of Canterbury.  The word “Anglican” represents, more than just England, a large Christian international family. Such communion was formed by the independence of missionary works and ex-colonies of the British Empire, composing 44 national or regional churches around the world, encompassing more than 160 countries. With around 80 million members, the Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian family of the world, behind the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.

There are currently three Instruments of Communion of the Anglican Communion:
The Lambeth Conference, which meets every 10 years, is a gathering for the bishops of the Anglican Communion. It held its first meeting in 1867.

The Primates Meetings, which are regular meetings for the senior archbishops and bishops of the 38 Provinces, who first met in 1979.

And, the Anglican Consultative Council, which meets every 3 years or so, and includes bishops,
clergy and laity, as members appointed by the 38 provinces of the Communion. It first met in 1971.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the Focus for Unity for these three Instruments of Communion, and is therefore a unique focus for Anglican unity. He calls the once-a-decade Lambeth Conference, chairs the meeting of Primates, and is President of the Anglican Consultative Council. The Most Rev. Rowan Williams is the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury. He was enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral on 27th February 2003.

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Text adapted from articles “Apontamentos de História da IEAB”, by the Rev. Oswaldo Kickhofel and “Reforma Anglicana”, by Gecionny Pinto and from the Anglican Communion website.
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