Anglicanism was a Philosophy and religion good articles nominee, but did not meet the good article criteria at the time. There may be suggestions below for improving the article. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.
Article milestones Date Process Result January 4, 2007 Good article nominee Not listed August 4, 2007 Good article nominee Not listed
Current status: Former good article nominee

This  level-4 vital article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Christianity: Anglicanism / Reformed Christianity / Methodism Top‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Christianity, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Christianity on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ChristianityWikipedia:WikiProject ChristianityTemplate:WikiProject ChristianityChristianity Top This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale. This article is supported by WikiProject Anglicanism (assessed as Top-importance). This article is supported by WikiProject Reformed Christianity (assessed as Top-importance). This article is supported by Methodism work group (assessed as High-importance). England Top‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject England, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of England on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.EnglandWikipedia:WikiProject EnglandTemplate:WikiProject EnglandEngland-related Top This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale. Religion Low‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Religion, a project to improve Wikipedia's articles on Religion-related subjects. Please participate by editing the article, and help us assess and improve articles to good and 1.0 standards, or visit the wikiproject page for more details.ReligionWikipedia:WikiProject ReligionTemplate:WikiProject ReligionReligion Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

This article is written in British English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, travelled, centre, defence, artefact, analyse) and some terms may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

The CofE wiki article says 46 million people baptised in England & Wales, is this number included in 110 million total? Which would mean 64 million outside the UK... Lawrence18uk (talk) 20:42, 1 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The consensus of Reliable Sources is that the Anglican Communion is the third-largest Christian communion. The RS cited include, but are not necessarily limited to, the New York Times, The Guardian, National Catholic Register, Episcopal News Service, BBC and others. An editor, or editors, have repeatedly edited the article to put the World Communion of Reformed Churches in third. I could not find one RS to make that claim, much less a consensus. Additionally, and secondary to that fact, is the fact that the churches' self-reported numbers show that distinction: the World Communion of Reformed Churches claims 88 million members (100 million if associates are counted) while the Anglican Communion RS counts 97 million (not including the United churches which include more than 6 million members).SeminarianJohn (talk) 21:58, 13 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

On three separate occasions, the article emphatically makes the claim that Anglicanism was originally a via media between Lutheran and Reformed Christianity; and in one place even claims that it was only after the Oxford Movement that anyone saw it as a via media between Catholicism and Protestantism.

And yet, one of the sources given to back this up is this one by Lee Gibbs, which clearly says in its first paragraph that Richard Hooker - who rather predated the Oxford Movement - "gave classic expression to the via media position of Elizabethan Anglicanism. He attempted to steer a middle course ... between Roman Catholicism and the Magisterial Reformation (Lutheranism and especially Calvinism)." One of the other sources given is not really a source, but seems rather to be a WP:SYNTHESIS of different sources to make a point. The third is a McCulloch source I don't have access to (Thomas Cranmer: A Life, p. 179) - I don't know if anyone could provide a quote?

I would suggest that this claim - that, until the Oxford Movement, the Anglican via media was between Lutheran and Reformed Protestantism, not between Protestantism and Catholicism - is at best a contested viewpoint (by the Gibbs source I linked above, for one), and that we need to tone it down at the least. TSP (talk) 01:11, 10 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with your analysis. In the absence of the case being made for another position, perhaps we could say something like "Anglicanism is often cast as a via media between Catholicism and Protestantism, especially the Lutheran and Reformed traditions." HappyWanderer15 (talk) 12:43, 11 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I also agree. The idea that Anglicanism was ever seen as being a via media between Lutheranism and Calvinism has always seemed highly questionable. The viewpoint that it was ever this does not seem to have much if any support in any other sources. Anglicanus (talk) 14:57, 11 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Here is what this citation from the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church says[1]:

Others had made similar observations, Patrick McGrath commenting that the Church of England was not a middle way between Roman Catholic and Protestant, but "between different forms of Protestantism," and William Monter describing the Church of England as "a unique style of Protestantism, a via media between the Reformed and Lutheran traditions." MacCulloch has described Cranmer as seeking a middle way between Zurich and Wittenberg but elsewhere remarks that the Church of England was nearer Zurich and Geneva than Wittenberg.

After the English Reformation, Anglicanism was very Reformed. The Oxford Movement reintroduced Catholic practices into the CoE. It is neutral to state that Anglicanism navigated a middle way between Lutheranism and Calvinism, while claiming that contemporary Anglicanism is Reformed and Catholic. Durziil89 (talk) 08:27, 12 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That may have been true at one time, but Anglicanism was never as thoroughly Reformed as some would like to believe even if this was dominant for a long period. Its more Catholic character also continued to exist before the Oxford Movement to some degree (and less obviously) - and more than some historians, especially secular ones, have usually recognised. Anglicanus (talk) 03:28, 13 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Why is so much of the first paragraph spent discussing the number of Anglicans? This bit is good and important: It is one of the largest branches of Christianity, with around 110 million adherents worldwide as of 2024. Most are members of national or regional ecclesiastical provinces of the international Anglican Communion, one of the largest Christian bodies in the world, and the world's third-largest Christian communion. But shouldn't the rest of the first paragraph go at some later point in the article? It doesn't tell the reader anything about what Anglicanism actually is. It's just a statistics dump. The paragraphs after Anglicans base their Christian faith... strike me as much more useful and informative - why are they so far down? Mysterizzy (talk) 11:38, 31 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I've now edited it. I think more work still needs to be done on the it, though - if somebody wants to know what Anglicanism is, beliefs and practices are arguably more important than information about the Communion, the ABC etc. So maybe those two paragraphs should be swapped? Would appreciate input from others. Mysterizzy (talk) 13:38, 13 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

As long as information about the number of Anglicans in the world is included, I agree paragraphs could be swapped or moved to other appropriate sections. It doesn't need to be in the lede.SeminarianJohn (talk) 06:41, 18 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

On October 16, 2025, the Chair of GAFCON and Primate of Rwanda, Laurent Mbanda, announced that GAFCON intends to rebrand itself as the "Global Anglican Communion" (GAC) in March of 2026 while also asserting that they are not leaving the Anglican Communion (AC) because they are now the leadership of the "true" AC. No other Primates signed the statement. While this article is about Anglicanism generally and not exclusively the AC, the AC represents the overwhelming majority of Anglicans in the world. Available statistics indicate between 85 - 110 million in the AC and 400,000 to 1 million outside of the AC at this time. Currently, none of the 47 AC member churches (42 provinces and 5 extra-provincials) have left the AC. All are still formally affiliated according to the AC Office. However, editors should collaboratively monitor the developments as reported by reliable secondary sources. It is possible that the GAC continues to act as an organization whose members still affiliate with the AC as GAFCON has since 2008. In which case, that would be the status quo with a new name. However, it could also result in a formal and legal schism for the AC with member churches withdrawing membership. SeminarianJohn (talk) 06:46, 18 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]