This isAnglicanism.Watch now

Contents

  1. iThe title pageHome
  2. 1The storyFrom the ancient British Church to the world
  3. 2WatchTeaching with the Ven. Alex Uzor
  4. 3LearnWorship, doctrine, the Prayer Book
  5. 4PlayWho Knows Anglicanism? 1,000+ questions
  6. 5The bookThis Is Anglicanism
  7. 6AboutA programme of Digital Archdeacon
Watch now Follow Digital Archdeacon on Facebook
The nave of Namirembe Cathedral in Kampala: a red carpet runs between dark wooden choir stalls towards the altar, under a high timber roof.
Plate ISt Paul’s Cathedral, Namirembe, Kampala, Uganda: the nave
Title page of the first Book of Common Prayer, 1549, printed in red and black inside a woodcut border.
Plate II The first Prayer Book, 1549

A digital journey through the Anglican tradition

This is Anglicanism.

Faith. History. Worship. Culture.

Discover Anglicanism through stories, teaching, conversation, humour and interactive experiences.

Explore AnglicanismWatch latest

Welcome · From the Ven. Alex Uzor

A word of welcome.

The Venerable Alex Uzor introduces This Is Anglicanism: what it is, who it is for, and where to begin.

0:001:40

Welcome to This Is Anglicanism

The Venerable Alex Uzor · 1 min 40 s

The Venerable Alex UzorArchdeacon of Nenwe Central · Diocese of Awgu/Aninri, Church of Nigeria

What is Anglicanism?

Anglicanism is more than a label.

Not a new church, but the ancient Church of these islands, reformed.

Anglicanism is the historic Christian faith as it has been believed and prayed in the Church of the British Isles since the earliest centuries. There were British bishops at the Council of Arles in 314, and Magna Carta already spoke of the Ecclesia Anglicana, the English Church.

In the sixteenth century that same Church was reformed by the Word of God. It kept the Creeds, the sacraments and the ministry of bishops, and gave the people Scripture and common prayer in their own tongue. Carried by missionaries and taken up by African, Asian and American believers, it is now a worldwide family of churches, catholic and reformed.

Hundreds of Anglican bishops and clergy in choir dress, many in red and white, gathered for a group photograph on a hillside with Jerusalem behind them.
Anglican bishops and clergy in Jerusalem, 2008
  1. c. 200The Gospel in Roman Britain
  2. 314British bishops at the Council of Arles
  3. 1215Magna Carta: “the English Church shall be free”
  4. 1549The Church reformed; the first Prayer Book
  5. TodayA Communion across Africa, Asia, the Americas and Oceania
Read the whole story

  1. Scripture

    Holy Scripture “containeth all things necessary to salvation” (Article VI). Nothing may be required as an article of faith that is not read therein.

  2. Worship

    Common prayer: the Book of Common Prayer and its daily offices, the Creeds and the two Sacraments of the Gospel.

  3. History

    The ancient catholic faith of the Church in these islands since the early centuries, reformed by the Word of God in the sixteenth.

  4. Communion

    A worldwide family of self-governing churches, one in the faith of Scripture, the Creeds and the historic ministry of bishops, priests and deacons.

  5. Mission

    Tell, teach, tend, transform, treasure: the gospel carried from the British Isles to Lagos, Kampala and the ends of the earth.

Discover Anglicanism

Four ways in.

Watch the teachings, laugh with the skits, play the quiz, learn the faith. Start wherever you like.

  1. Watch

    Anglican Teaching Videos

    Short, clear teachings on Anglican worship, vesture, order and devotion from the Ven. Alex Uzor.

    Watch the teachings

  2. Laugh

    Anglican Skits

    Short, humorous observations about Anglican church life and culture. In development.

    See what’s coming

  3. Play

    Who Knows Anglicanism?

    The Anglican quiz show: more than a thousand questions, from first steps to the Articles.

    Play the quiz

  4. Learn

    Anglican Teaching

    History, doctrine, liturgy, the Prayer Book and the visual language of worship.

    Start learning

Watch · Teaching videos

Anglicanism,
beyond the pew.

Short teachings from Ven. Alex Uzor on worship, vesture, order and devotion: the questions Anglicans actually ask.

Watch the teachings

Devotion

Why do we bow only at the Name of Jesus?

7:56

Vesture

The X-shaped stole: wearing the stole with cassock or alb, and how it is girded

Vesture

Why do priests kiss the stole before wearing it?

The altar

How the corporal is folded and unfolded

Church order

What is a cathedral, and can a cathedral be moved to another church?

Church order

Canon-in-residence or canon residentiary: what is the difference?

More teachings from the Ven. Alex Uzor on Digital Archdeacon

Laugh · Anglican Skits

Yes,
we’re Anglican.

We love our liturgy.

We love our hymns.

We love our traditions.

And sometimes we laugh at ourselves.

Victorian cartoon: bishops drawn as washerwomen hand away a bundle of laundry labelled with the controversies of the day and keep scrubbing a tub marked “Missions”.
“A Pan-Anglican Washing Day”, Punch, 5 October 1867

In developmentFive skits from the writers’ room. Filming soon.

  1. Clergy Life

    The vicar’s “quick word” after the service.

    Skit 01

  2. Parish Life

    Nobody sits in the front pew. Nobody.

    Skit 02

  3. Anglican Habits

    Reading the hymn board like the lottery results.

    Skit 03

  4. Liturgy

    The Peace, which passeth all understanding (and eleven minutes).

    Skit 04

  5. Church Culture

    Harvest thanksgiving: the auction runs longer than the service.

    Skit 05

Follow for the first skit

Play · The Anglican Quiz Show

Who knows Anglicanism?

Think you know Anglicanism? Test your knowledge.

1,030+ questions · eleven rounds · Beginner to Advanced

01Question
0Score
0Streak
Intermediate

Here the contestant shall choose one answer.

What is the response to “O Lord, open thou our lips”?

Play Who Knows Anglicanism?

Learn · Anglican Teaching

Go deeper.

Explore the ideas, traditions, texts and practices that shape Anglican identity.

  1. Anglican HistoryFrom the ancient British Church, through the Reformation, to the world.
  2. LiturgyThe meaning behind Anglican worship.
  3. DoctrineScripture, the Creeds, the Thirty-Nine Articles and the sacraments.
  4. Book of Common PrayerThe 1662 Prayer Book and the prayer-book tradition.
  5. VestmentsCassock and surplice, stole and chasuble: the visual language of worship.

Did you know?

Around AD 200 the North African writer Tertullian noted that places of the Britons unreached by Rome had become “subject to Christ”.

Source: Tertullian, An Answer to the Jews, ch. 7

Remember · People, places and texts

From the archives

Discover the people, places, texts and moments that shaped Anglicanism.

A hand-coloured photochrom of Canterbury Cathedral’s choir, looking east past carved stalls towards the high altar.

Places · Worship

The choir, Canterbury

Augustine founded his see here in 597, joining a Christianity already centuries old in Britain. A hand-coloured photochrom from the last years of Victoria’s reign.

Plate III Canterbury, the choir looking east. Photochrom print, c. 1890–1900

Portrait of Thomas Cranmer in a black cap and white sleeves, seated and holding a small book, painted in 1545.

People · Reformation

Thomas Cranmer

Chief architect of the Book of Common Prayer, burned at the stake in Oxford in 1556 for the reformed faith.

Plate IV Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1545

Black-and-white photograph of the nave of St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney, in 1879, with a carved pulpit and a patterned tiled floor.

Places · Global Anglicanism

St Andrew’s, Sydney

Australia’s oldest cathedral, consecrated on St Andrew’s Day 1868 and photographed eleven years later.

Plate V St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney, 1879

Photographic portrait of Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther in later life, white-haired, seated in a clerical coat against a plain studio backdrop.

People · Missions

Samuel Ajayi Crowther

Enslaved as a boy in 1821 and freed by a Royal Navy patrol the next year, he became a linguist, a translator of the Yoruba Bible and, in 1864, first African Anglican bishop.

Plate VI Samuel Ajayi Crowther, the first African Anglican bishop

See the world · A worldwide family

Anglicanism
is global.

From Lagos to Kampala, Nairobi to Sydney, Anglicanism is lived across cultures while sharing a common Christian inheritance.

The choir of the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos, in red cassocks, white surplices and ruffs, singing in their stalls under green-shaded lamps, with the choirmaster in a red gown at the lectern.
The choir of the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos
The choir of All Saints’ Cathedral, Onitsha, in red robes with white yokes and red caps, singing from their hymn books at a Sunday service.
The choir of All Saints’ Cathedral, Onitsha
A richly carved Zanzibari wooden door under a pointed arch at Christ Church Cathedral, Stone Town, with the nave visible beyond.
Christ Church Cathedral, Stone Town, Zanzibar, Tanzania
The red-brick domes and towers of St Paul’s Cathedral, Namirembe, on its hill above Kampala.
St Paul’s Cathedral, Namirembe, Kampala, Uganda: the exterior

Where the tradition is lived

  • AbujaNigeriaChurch of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
  • KampalaUgandaChurch of the Province of Uganda
  • NairobiKenyaAnglican Church of Kenya
  • KigaliRwandaAnglican Church of Rwanda
  • ZanzibarTanzaniaAnglican Church of Tanzania
  • AccraGhanaChurch of the Province of West Africa
  • KinshasaDR CongoAnglican Church of Congo
  • AlexandriaEgyptProvince of Alexandria
  • YangonMyanmarChurch of the Province of Myanmar
  • SantiagoChileAnglican Church of Chile
  • SydneyAustraliaAnglican Diocese of Sydney
  • North AmericaUnited States & CanadaAnglican Church in North America

A selection, not a complete list.

Take it with you · The Book

Cover of This Is Anglicanism by Alexander Uzor: a Reformation churchman beside an open Bible, a mitre and a cathedral tower, on deep crimson.

This Is Anglicanism

by Alexander Uzor

Anglican identity, tradition, theology and mission, explained in accessible language for clergy, students and faithful seekers.

Order on WhatsApp Explore the book

Latest · Teaching, quiz and the book

Fresh from the programme

New teaching

Why do we bow only at the Name of Jesus?

A 7:50 teaching from the Ven. Alex Uzor on the reverence Scripture asks for the Name above every name.

Watch now

  1. Play

    Who Knows Anglicanism? now has 1,030+ questions

    Eleven rounds, from the Prayer Book to the Uganda Martyrs, at Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced level.

  2. Story

    From the ancient British Church to the world

    Alban, Arles, Iona and the Reformation: why Anglicanism is not a new church.

  3. Read

    The book: This Is Anglicanism

    By Alexander Uzor. Order your copy on WhatsApp.

Keep exploring