The Anglican Communion Worldwide

St. Gregory's Episcopal Church
Boca Raton, Florida

St. Gregory's Church is one of 80 parish congregations in the Diocese of Southeast Florida of the Episcopal Church of the United States, a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, represented in green on the map.

The Episcopal Church
in the United States

The Fourth Province along with eight other Provinces become The Episcopal Church in the United States with a total of 7,413 parishes and 2,517,520 baptized members. The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori is the presiding bishop.

The Episcopal Church came into existence as an independent denomination after the American Revolution. Today it has between two and three million members in the United States, Mexico, and Central America, all of which are under jurisdiction of the Presiding Bishop..

Bishops in the American Episcopal Church are elected by individual dioceses and are consecrated into the Apostolic Succession, considered to witness to an unbroken line of Church leadership beginning with the Apostles themselves.

Other branches on the
Anglican tree

 The Episcopal Church is just one branch of the World Wide Anglican Communion, These are the Churches that, together become the World Wide Anglican Communion: Aotearoa, New Zealand, and Polynesia; Australia; Brazil; Burundi; Canada; Central Africa; China (Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui); Cuba; England; Indian Ocean; Ireland; Japan (Nippon Sei Ko Kai); Jerusalem (Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East); Kenya; Korea; Melanesia; Mexico; Myanmar; Nigeria; Papua New Guinea; Philippines; Rwanda; Scotland; Southern Africa; South America (Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sud de las Americas);South East Asia (The Council of the Church in East Asia); South Pacific Anglican Council; Sri Lanka; Sudan; Tanzania: Uganda; United States of America; Wales; West Africa; West Indies; Zaire; Extra-Provincial Dioceses, Bermuda, Lusitanian Church, Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church.

There are 527 Dioceses with 49,804,487 baptized members in this Communion.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, with whom all Anglicans are in Communion, is the Most Revd and Rt Hon Rowan Douglas Williams. He is the 104th archbishop since St Augustine brought the Christianity of the Church in Rome to the British Isles in 597 AD , where it eventually was united with earlier Celtic Christianity.

Rowan Douglas Williams was born in Swansea on 14 June 1950. He was educated at Dynevor Secondary School, then at Christ's College Cambridge, where he read Theology. After research in Oxford (on Christianity in Russia), he spent two years as a lecturer at Mirfield Theological College near Leeds. From 1977, he spent nine years in academic and parochial work in Cambridge. From 1986-1992, Dr Williams was Professor of Theology at Oxford. He was enthroned as Bishop of Monmouth in 1992 and Archbishop of Wales in 2000.

He was elected as Archbishop of Canterbury on 23 July 2002. Confirmed as 104th Archbishop of Canterbury on 2 December 2002 in St Paul’s Cathedral, London. Enthroned as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury on 27 February 2003 in Canterbury Cathedral .

Since 1981, Dr Williams has been married to Jane Paul, a lecturer in theology, whom he met while living and working in Cambridge. They have a son and a daughter. His interests include music, fiction and languages.

The Anglican Communion began when England established an Empire in the Americas, Australasia, East Africa, India and other parts of the world. English settlers brought their church with them. But colonial ties with the Church of England evolved into a voluntary association as these far - flung lands became the separate nations of Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Southern Africa and the United States of America.

This new Anglican Communion grew rapidly in the Nineteenth Century as the passion for mission to unknown places and people seized the developed world. Most of these missionary churches became constitutionally independent after World War II, usually after the attainment of political independence. But this desire for autonomy always carried with it the desire for mutual support which has led to the Anglican Communion.

Anglicans trace their roots to apostolic times. Christianity grew into the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church throughout the Western world. The Anglicans separated from that Church, centred in Rome, when it tried to exert political control over England. Thus England herself was the prototype of the autonomous Anglican Communion church.

The English followed the example of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and, later, of reformers such as Martin Luther, in developing without especial reference to the Roman Catholic Church. Our creed calls us catholic because we are a part of the universal Body of Christ. The Anglican Communion today is composed of 36 autonomous, yet interdependent and closely - knit provinces and 19 additional church entities around the world, united through communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the instruments of unity