Anglican Communion
The Anglican Communion is an association of all Anglican churches in full communion with the Church of England. There is no single "Anglican Church" with universal authority, because each national or regional church has full autonomy. With over one hundred and ten million members, the Anglican Communion is the third largest communion in the world, after the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches.
The status of full communion means that all rites conducted in one church are recognised by the other. Some of these churches are known as Anglican, explicitly recognising the link to England (Ecclesia Anglicana means "Church of England").
The Archbishop of Canterbury, religious head of the Church of England, has no formal authority outside that jurisdiction, but is recognised as symbolic head of the worldwide communion.
Provinces of the Anglican Communion change
All thirty-eight provinces of the Anglican Communion are independent, each with its own primate and governing structure. These provinces may take the form of national churches (such as in Canada, Uganda, or Japan) or a collection of nations (such as the West Indies, Central Africa, or Southeast Asia). They are, in alphabetical order:
- The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and Polynesia
- The Anglican Church of Australia
- The Church of Bangladesh
- The Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil (Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil)
- The Anglican Church of Burundi
- The Anglican Church of Canada
- The Church of the Province of Central Africa
- The Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central America (Anglican Church in the Central Region of America)
- The Province de L'Eglise Anglicane Du Congo (Province of the Anglican Church of Congo)
- The Church of England
- Sheng Kung Hui (Hong Kong Anglican Church (Episcopal))
- The Church of the Province of the Indian Ocean
- The Church of Ireland
- The Nippon Sei Ko Kai (The Anglican Communion in Japan)
- The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East
- The Anglican Church of Kenya
- The Anglican Church of Korea
- The Church of the Province of Melanesia
- The Anglican Church of Mexico
- The Church of the Province of Myanmar (Burma)
- The Church of Nigeria
- The Church of North India
- The Church of Pakistan
- The Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea
- The Episcopal Church of the Philippines
- The Church of the Province of Rwanda
- The Scottish Episcopal Church
- The Church of the Province of South East Asia
- The Church of South India
- The Anglican Church of Southern Africa
- Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de las Americas (Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of the Americas)
- The Episcopal Church of the Sudan
- The Anglican Church of Tanzania
- The Church of Uganda
- The Episcopal Church in the United States of America
- The Church in Wales
- The Church of the Province of West Africa
- The Church in the Province of the West Indies
In addition, there are six extraprovincial churches, five of which are under the metropolitical authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury:
- The Anglican Church of Bermuda (extraprovincial to the Archbishop of Canterbury)
- Iglesia Episcopal de Cuba (Episcopal Church of Cuba) (under a metropolitan council)
- The Parish of the Falkland Islands (extraprovincial to the Archbishop of Canterbury)
- The Lusitanian Catholic Apostolic Evangelical Church of Portugal (extraprovincial to the Archbishop of Canterbury)
- The Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church (extraprovincial to the Archbishop of Canterbury)
- The Church of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) (extraprovincial to the Archbishop of Canterbury)