Anglican churches belong to a family with roots in the Church of England. Episcopal means governed by bishops; it is the name used by several churches in this family, including the Episcopal Church in the United States. These churches share a tradition while maintaining their own governing structures.
Where it came from
Christianity existed in Britain long before the Reformation. In the 1530s, Henry VIII broke the English church's institutional ties with Rome. Royal power and marriage disputes mattered, but the resulting tradition also developed through debates about Scripture, worship, and Christian teaching. Thomas Cranmer's English prayer books and the religious settlement under Elizabeth I helped give it a lasting shape.
Mission, migration, colonial expansion, and local Christian leadership carried Anglican churches worldwide. Many became self-governing churches. Their history includes both educational and medical service and participation in colonial injustice.
What it emphasizes
Anglicans share the historic Christian creeds: brief statements about God, Jesus, and the church. Scripture holds a central place, interpreted with attention to inherited Christian teaching and reason. The tradition often describes itself as both catholic and reformed: catholic here means connected to the universal church, while reformed points to its Protestant inheritance.
Baptism and Communion are central. Communion, also called Eucharist, is the meal of bread and wine remembering and sharing in Christ's saving work. Anglicans differ in how they explain Christ's presence in it.
Worship and organization
Services commonly follow a liturgy, an ordered pattern of readings, prayer, song, sermon, and Communion. Prayer books provide shared words, though language, music, and ceremony vary greatly. Bishops oversee regional communities called dioceses, usually alongside representative governing bodies. The Archbishop of Canterbury has a historic role in the Anglican Communion, rather than the worldwide authority of a pope.
Differences within the family
Some Anglicans emphasize preaching and Protestant theology; others emphasize sacraments and ceremonial worship. These tendencies can overlap. Churches also disagree about biblical interpretation, women's ordination, and sexual ethics. The Episcopal Church represents one expression of this wider family; its policies should not be assumed to describe every Anglican church.
Explore the arguments in Biblical authority, Communion, and Women and ministry.
Sources & further reading
A question in the margin is a good place to begin.