Anglican Free Communion International crest
Anglican Free Communion
International · Est. 1897
Cathedral nave illuminated by stained glass

Anglican Free Communion · International

One Faith. One Lord. One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Founded in England on 2 November 1897, the Communion has carried the historic apostolic faith through more than twelve decades of witness — independent of the Established Church, yet rooted in the same Catholic and Reformed inheritance.

Our CommunionWhat We Believe →

From the Archbishop Primate

A word to the faithful, in every nation.

The Most Revd. Raúl Eugenio Toro Jr. preaching from the pulpit

“The Communion is not a federation of opinions, but a fellowship of men and women who have knelt together at the same altar and received the same Body of Christ.”

— The Most Revd. Raúl Eugenio Toro Jr., Archbishop Primate

For more than a century the Anglican Free Communion has gathered the faithful around the Word rightly preached and the Sacraments duly administered. From the union of three small churches in Victorian England — under the first Primus, Mar Leon Chechemian — to the dioceses and missions of four continents today, we have kept the apostolic deposit through schism, reconciliation, and renewal. We are heirs of the Ancient British Church and of the wider Anglican settlement; we are not a federation of opinions but a fellowship gathered at one altar. In 2020, when division came for the sake of orthodoxy, the Communion held fast — and holds fast still.
1897
Founded
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Continents
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Apostolic Lines
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Primates

The Four Pillars

Built upon the Lambeth Quadrilateral.

The four marks the historic Anglican settlement holds essential to the visible unity of Christ's Church.

I

Holy Scripture

The Old and New Testaments as the revealed Word of God, containing all things necessary to salvation.

II

Creeds & Councils

The Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds, with the four Ecumenical Councils of the undivided Church.

III

Two Sacraments

Holy Baptism and the Lord's Supper — instituted by Christ Himself as effectual signs of grace.

IV

Apostolic Order

The threefold ministry of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons in unbroken succession from the Apostles.

Archbishop with faithful gathered after a parish celebration

The Episcopate

An unbroken line, an undivided faith.

Our bishops stand within the apostolic succession received through the Armenian, Syriac, and Old Catholic lines that flowed into the Communion at her foundation in 1897. Each bishop is shepherd, teacher, and guardian of the deposit of faith — a sign of the Church's continuity from Pentecost to the present hour.

The College of Bishops →

Global Communion

A church in every continent.

From her cradle in England the Communion has been carried across the Atlantic and beyond — gathered Sunday by Sunday around one altar and one cup.

Map showing the global presence of the Anglican Free Communion

Historic heartland

Europe & Britain

The cradle of the Communion. From the union of three small churches in England on 2 November 1897, the Communion's primatial leadership has been carried abroad and back again — most recently returning to the British Isles in 2015.

From the Collects

“Almighty God, who hast built thy Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone; grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their doctrine, that we may be made an holy temple acceptable unto thee.”

Book of Common Prayer · 1662