England (CHURCH OF the official August)

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

2026 Editor's Note: This page uses language about other peoples, religions, or nationalities that was commonplace when the book was published and is offensive by today's standards. The text has been left exactly as it was printed, rather than cut or softened, so that the historical record — including how ordinary such language once was — is preserved. (Ed: ET 2026-07-22) CHURCH OF, the official August 16, name of until have a formal head in the person of the that body of Christians who of the hereditary ruler of England. This dessupplementary ementary ignation is used in two senses: first, a bringgeneral one signifying the Church rethe year to garded as continuous, which, from the first triumph of Christianity till now, disorder conhas been that of the English people; portions of secondly, in a more s specific ific sense, the of civil Protestant Church now established in of these England as distinguished from the Irish Home Church of Rome. George The evangelistic zeal of Whitfield, to go into Wesley, and various other clergymen, in king. the 18th century, awoke the Church to made with new life, which did not pass away even of Syria when the followers of these two great protectorpreachers ceased to belong to the Eng Mesopotamia. lish Church. The evangelical party, still an integral the most numerous in the Establishment, In March, is, in large measure, the fruit of 18th the Peace century revival effort. In the 19th, the London to movement was in other directions. With reparations by 1833, just after the passing of the first Reform Bill, the first of a series of to Eng- "Tracts for the Times" came forth, and the terri- 90 in all were issued within the next Empire, see eight years. The ritualistic party, at a on the later date, carried on the work which the tractarians had begun. In 1860 the "Essays and Reviews," and in 1862 a work by Bishop Colenso on the Pentateuch, gave prominence to the opposite pole of thought, being what theologians call strongly rationalistic. Church congresses, bringing the representatives of these three parties face to face, softened their antagonisms, and fear of common danger renders them more united than they otherwise would be. In the English Church there are 3 archbishops (Canterbury, York, and Wales) and 143 bishops, and 39 suffragan and assistant bishops, 2 of the archbishops and 24 of the bishops having seats in the House of Lords; subordinate to these are 30 deans, 100 archdeacons, 613 rural deans, and about 13,500 beneficed clergy, the whole clerical staff of all grades being about 23,000. The total membership throughout the world in 1919 was estimated at over 6,000,000, of whom about 2,400,000 were in England and Wales, about 576,000 in Ireland, about 56,000 in Scotland, and about 3,000,000 in other parts of the world. Previous to 1871, the English Church and the Established Church of Ireland, constituted but a single body, called the United Church of England and Ireland. It is powerful also in the colonies, and by means of its two great societies, the Propagation and the Church ch Missio Missionary Societies, acts powerfully on nearly every part of the heathen world. The Church in Wales and Monmouthshire was disestablished and disendowed by an act passed in 1914 which came into force in 1920. Under the National Assembly of the Church of England (Powers) Act of 1919 there is, in England, a National Assembly, consisting of a House of Bishops, a House of Clergy, and a House of Laymen, and having power to legislate regarding Church matters.