what is the basic doctrine of the Anglican Communion? i kept readings about the 39 articles and i am really confused. what sacraments do they do, do they believe in the trinity...basic stuff like that. anything will help
We're basically the same as most other Protestant denominations and yes, of course we believe in the Trinity. The difference is that there are tendencies towards liberalism, evangelism and sympathy for Catholicism within the Anglican church. Also, we don't generally agree with Calvinism. The sacraments for us are baptism and communion, but we also recognize that certain other practices are commonly called sacraments but aren't actually in the strictest sense of the word. These include confirmation, marriage, confession and absolution (which is done in public and in a general sense rather than private confession of specific sins), ordination and anointing of the sick. The Sydney Anglicans don't accept that there are any sacraments at all.
Well the Anglican communion varies greatly in it's beliefs from place to place, usually dependent on the incumbent vicar. The Archbishop of Canterbury loosely governs the Anglican See but his rulings don't claim to have any infallibility like those of the Pope. High church / Anglo Catholics some times pray the Rosary, use Roman Missle's, believe in transubstantiation, confession, extreme unction etc. but while others embrace the fact women and openly homosexual people can be ordained. They have bands as apposed to choirs and organs. More 'Catholic' liturgical practices are ignored etc... anymore information needed please contact me.
The best way to describe it is sort of halfway between catholic and protestant, though it is basically a protestant church. Understanding its history helps, as this will explain how it ended up like it is.
The Reformation in England went a very different way from the Protestant Reformation in the rest of Europe. There, protestant churches were started from scratch. In England, the national church itself went protestant but kept a lot of what it already had. This happened because King Henry VIII broke with the pope over wanting an annulment of his marriage and declared the English church independent with himself at the head of it. Everything carried on as before until Henry died, at which point the Archbishop of Canterbury was able to stop being secretly protestant and change the Church of England in a protestant direction, but he never really changed how it was actually run. The Church of England is the mother church of the Anglican Communion which spread around the world because of the British Empire - the British took their church with them, including to the USA where it is known as the Episcopal Church.
So it still has the traditional catholic organization of bishops, priests and deacons, and it has set service books which the clergy must follow, unlike other protestant churches where there are either no service books at all or they're optional. It is also required that the clergy robe for services, and originally this meant black cassock, white surplice and black scarf, but over the last century and a half parts of the Anglican Communion have gone back to more ceremonial services and wearing the same kinds of vestments as catholic priests. So you can go to a communion service in one of those churches and it will look very like catholic mass (some Anglican churches even call it mass).
The basic doctrines are the same as Methodists - in fact the Methodist church was accidentally started by John Wesley, an Anglican priest. So there is belief in the bible alone and not church tradition as well like catholics do, 2 sacraments - baptism and holy communion, the trinity, clergy are allowed to be married, children can be baptized and are then brought into full membership of the church by confirmation when they are old enough to decide... all the same things as any mainstream moderate protestant church.
That's the official beliefs. Where it can get confusing is that it holds a very wide range of opinion within it. This is largely because the Church of England is the official state church in England, and at one time you had to belong to it to attend Oxford or Cambridge University or hold any high post in government. So it became a top people's club rather than a church and tolerant of almost anything (which is one reason religion became discredited in the UK and why only a tiny minority of British people go to church). It now has within it everything from people who are almost baptist to almost catholic, and sometimes seems to believe anything. This is why it has so many internal arguments, mostly at the moment over acceptance of homosexuality and whether women should be allowed to be bishops. I know the Episcopal Church is OK with both and it is probably the most liberal part of the Anglican Communion in the world. Other parts aren't - the Church of England is currently tearing itself apart over these, with some of the Anglo-catholics considering leaving altogether and joining the catholic church.
The official beliefs are indeed set out in the 39 Articles of Religion but you have to read them in historical context. They were never intended to set out everything, and they were written over 400 years ago when the C of E first started with the intention of setting out where it is different from the catholic church and where the catholics have got it "wrong".
The Anglican Communion, also known as the Church of England, evolved from the Roman Catholic Church and, liturgically, is indistinguishable from it. In the United States it is known as the Episcopal Church, coming from the Greek word Episcopos, meaning Bishop. Our Priests trace their linage through Apostolic Succession. We observe all the sacraments.
The simplest way to define the distinction between the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, which is Catholic (aka Universal) and Apostolic, is that we are not headed by the Pope, but our head is the Archbishop of Canterbury. Our Ordained Orders are Bishop, Priest and Deacon. Therefore, we do not have the ranks of Monsignor, Cardinal or any of the other multiple levels of authority utilized in the RCC.
Anglican Communion beliefs?
