Short history of the Church of England

The history of the Church of England is a very interesting one, since it dates far, far back in the third century of England. It was about the time that the Roman Empire when the Christian Church was first introduced. The very first member of the Christian Church was St Alban and his legacy is that he was martyred for his faith in the church and he was killed on the very spot where the Abbey stands. The church had their fair share of problems almost from the start.

The British Church was originally a missionary church with figures like St Illtud, St Niniam and St Patrick but when Wales, Scotland and Ireland were invaded by the pagan Angles, Saxons and Jutes during the 5th century they all but destroyed the organization of the church and what it meant to the people of England.

In 597, a mission by Pope Gregory the great and St Augustine ended up in Kent and they began to work on converting the pagan people. Then the Church of England had these streams of Christianity, the Roman traditions and Celtic traditions. The English Church was incorporated into the Western Christian Traditions where things like theology, architecture and the development of monasticism was born. The acknowledgement of the Pope came after the Reformation in the 16th century.

The Reformation of the Western Church soon divided people who accepted the authority of the pope and other Protestant Churches that went against it. The Church of England was one of those churches that separated from Rome. The reason for the break was the Pope's refusal to annual the marriage of Henry the 8th and Catherine of Aragon. It was during the reign of Mary Tudor that the Church of England came back and gave in to Papal ruled but when Elizabeth I came to power on 1558, the policy was then reversed.

The Church of England has faced many issues almost from the beginning, some of the issues over time have been:

• Challenges of answering to social changes in England such as the population increase of urbanism and the start of the multi cultural and multi faith society.
• Challenge of engaging in missions in a society that has become materialistic in their outlooks and their belief in God was not seen as link to the Church at all.
• Challenge of bringing proper trained clergy and lay ministers to help The Church of England carry out their duties and provide ministry and pastoral care to very parish in the country
• Challenge of overcoming the split of the Church of England and the other churches in unity.

Though there were and still are many differences in churches and religions today, the Church of England still stands and they have moments of strength and people who really believe in what the Church does and what it stands for. As long as it has followers and believers, the Church of England continues to stay strong.