The breach with Rome

The Eastern Church, known also as the Orthodox Church, has continued more or less without change down to the present day, but not so the Western Church, and this is where the Church of England comes into the picture.  The Church had been planted in Britain by the beginning of the third century, that is, at the beginning of the two-hundreds, but the barbarian invasions almost destroyed it.  So, in the year 597 AD, Pope Gregory the Great sent St Augustine with 40 monks to replant the Church and appointed him to be the first Archbishop of Canterbury.  For over 900 years the English Church, like the rest of the Western Church, accepted the authority of the Pope, and the Archbishops of Canterbury at their appointment took an oath of obedience to the Pope in accordance with Church Law.

But in the 16th century all this came to an end, and the English Church parted company, not only with the Pope, but also with the rest of the Western Church.  There were, of course, faults on both sides.  The Popes, for example, had for many years made money out of the English Church by means of heavy taxes and fees.  Nevertheless, the separation was brought about, not by the Church, but by the State, and in particular by Henry VIII who had made the Church in England his prisoner.  This separation became complete in the year 1570 in the reign of Elizabeth I.  So we can think of this as a fork in the Western stream of the Church.

It is very important to remember that through all these troubles in the 16th century the Apostolic Succession in the Church of England was kept safe.  That is to say, the line of bishops from the Apostles was continued without a break.  This was important because it meant that the bishops and priests of the Church of England had the same right and power as Our Lord himself gave to the Apostles to administer the Sacraments of the Church; and so people in the Church of England were assured that the Sacraments they received were true and genuine.  The technical term is ‘valid’, so a valid Sacrament is one which is guaranteed by God to convey his promised gift.

During the past 300 years or so the Church of England had spread all over the world.  We call this greater Church of England the ‘Anglican Communion’.

That part of the Church which accepts the Pope as its head is usually called the Roman Catholic Church.  The Eastern (Orthodox) Church can be found in many countries of the world, notably in Russia, but also in Britain.