FOUNDED: Sixteenth century C.E.
RELIGION AS A PERCENTAGE OF WORLD POPULATION: 1.3 percent

Overview

Anglicanism is a tradition of worldwide churches that trace their history to the Christian church in England. It sees itself as the via media ("middle way") between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Although the Church of England broke ties with the Catholic Church during the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation, the English and subsequent Anglican churches have maintained customs and a liturgy similar to those in Roman Catholicism. Also like Catholics, Anglicans believe they are connected through an unbroken succession of bishops to the early church of the apostles. The Protestant Reformation, however, has informed Anglican belief and teachings.

As a result of British colonial expansion and missionary activity from the seventeenth through the twentieth century, the Church of England spread across the world, eventually resulting in a global family of interdependent churches called the...