Anglican Orders - History and Background

History and Background

The effect of Henry VIII's Act in Restraint of Appeals and first Act of Supremacy was to establish royal authority in all matters spiritual and temporal, even assigning the power of ecclesiastical visitation over the Church in the English Realm. Queen Elizabeth I, while declining the title of Supreme Head, was declared to be "Supreme Governor of this realm ... as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things or causes as temporal". Thus, although the Church of England was regarded in the sixteenth century as a church of the Reformation, it nonetheless maintained the historic church structure including the maintenance of the threefold order of the ministry, with bishops, consecrated in Apostolic Succession, ordaining deacons and priests. Thus, Anglican ordained ministry resembles that found in churches of the Catholic tradition (see Minister (Catholic Church)). While the Puritan ascendency in England briefly introduced a parallel presbyterian polity, Anglicanism worldwide is defined in part by the historic structure, although outside the British Isles it has no Supreme Governor.

In recent years, due to increasing theological differences within the Anglican communion, there have been a number of instances of "valid but irregular" ordinations performed by clergy acting outside the normal authority structures of the church.