What is Anglicanism?
Christianity was planted in England in the first few centuries after the Apostles (Anglican means "of the Angles," or "of England"). Having grown closer to the Roman Catholic Church in the 7th century, the English Church reformed itself from aspects of late-Medieval Roman Catholicism in the 16th and 17th century. As the Gospel was spread from England to other nations, a characteristically "Anglican" tradition of preserving, practicing, and propagating the historic Faith spread with it, being adapted locally, and growing into what we know today as global Anglicanism. A few notable Anglicans include C. S. Lewis, Jane Austin, John Newton (author of "Amazing Grace"), Bishop Lancelot Andrews, Susanna Wesley, George Washington, and Eleanor Roosevelt.
Central to the Anglican Church's reform of itself was the translation of the Bible into English, along with the Church's ancient liturgy (pattern of worship), preserving continuity with Christians from the earliest times, and providing a comprehensible and elevating way for people to worship God and encounter him in Word and Sacrament. Liturgy means "the work of the people," hence the term "worship service." Liturgical worship is participatory in nature, as we offer our "sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving" before the throne of God.
What is known to many as the Anglican Way is a path of Christian faith, piety, and practice that is most recognizably connected to the use of the Book of Common Prayer of 1662 and its subsequent revisions and adaptations into the various language and cultures of the nations where Christianity spread from the British Isles. The Book of Common Prayer (hereafter, BCP) provides patterns of prayer and Scripture reading for daily, weekly, annual/seasonal, and occasional use (life events like birth, marriage, and burial), filled with grace and truth. The BCP provides a consistent "prayer rule" for individual, family, and parish use. It has been called "the Bible arranged for worship," because almost every phrase is either a direct quotation or an echo of some place in Scripture. The entire Book of Psalms is printed in the core of the BCP. Alongside it, one traditionally carries a Bible and a Hymnal.