Editing Anglican Communion (section)

===Global spread of Anglicanism===
[[File:Anglican confirmation in Helsinki.jpg|thumb|Anglican confirmation at the [[Mikael Agricola Church]] in Helsinki, [[Finland]], in June 2013]]
The enormous expansion in the 18th and 19th centuries of the [[British Empire]] brought Anglicanism along with it. At first all these colonial churches were under the jurisdiction of the [[bishop of London]]. After the [[American Revolution]], the parishes in the newly independent country found it necessary to break formally from a church whose [[supreme governor]] was (and remains) the [[British monarch]]. Thus they formed their own dioceses and national church, the [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America]], in a mostly amicable separation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of The Episcopal Church |url=https://www.episcopalchurch.org/who-we-are/history-episcopal-church/ |access-date=22 February 2023 |website=The Episcopal Church |language=en-US |archive-date=22 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230222183654/https://www.episcopalchurch.org/who-we-are/history-episcopal-church/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

At about the same time, in the colonies which remained linked to the crown, the Church of England began to appoint colonial bishops. In 1787, [[Charles Inglis (bishop)|Charles Inglis]] ([[Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island|Bishop of Nova Scotia]]) was appointed with a jurisdiction over all of British North America;<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hebb |first=Ross N. |date=2007 |title=Bishop Charles Inglis and Bishop Samuel Seabury: High Churchmanship in Varying New World Contexts |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42613040 |journal=Anglican and Episcopal History |volume=76 |issue=1 |pages=61–88 |jstor=42613040 |issn=0896-8039}}</ref> in time several more colleagues were appointed to other cities in present-day Canada. In 1814, a [[Diocese of Calcutta (Church of North India)|bishop of Calcutta]] was made; in 1824 the first bishop was sent to the [[West Indies]] and in 1836 to Australia. By 1840 there were still only ten colonial bishops for the Church of England; but even this small beginning greatly facilitated the growth of Anglicanism around the world. In 1841, a "Colonial Bishoprics Council" was set up and soon many more dioceses were created.

In time, it became natural to group these into provinces and a [[metropolitan bishop]] was appointed for each province. Although it had at first been somewhat established in many colonies, in 1861 it was ruled that, except where specifically established, the Church of England had just the same legal position as any other church. Thus a colonial bishop and colonial diocese was by nature quite a different thing from their counterparts back home. In time bishops came to be appointed locally rather than from England and eventually national synods began to pass ecclesiastical legislation independent of England.

A crucial step in the development of the modern communion was the idea of the [[Lambeth Conference]]s (discussed above).<ref>{{Cite web |title=History and Impact of the Lambeth Conference – The Lambeth Conference |url=https://www.lambethconference.org/about/history-and-impact-of-the-lambeth-conference/ |access-date=22 February 2023 |language=en-GB |archive-date=22 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230222183701/https://www.lambethconference.org/about/history-and-impact-of-the-lambeth-conference/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> These conferences demonstrated that the bishops of disparate churches could manifest the unity of the church in their episcopal collegiality despite the absence of universal legal ties. Some bishops were initially reluctant to attend, fearing that the meeting would declare itself a council with power to legislate for the church; but it agreed to pass only advisory resolutions. These Lambeth Conferences have been held roughly every ten years since 1878 (the second such conference) and remain the most visible coming-together of the whole communion.

The Lambeth Conference of 1998 included what has been seen by [[Philip Jenkins]] and others as a "watershed in global Christianity". The 1998 Lambeth Conference considered the issue of the theology of same-sex attraction in relation to human sexuality. At this 1998 conference for the first time in centuries the Christians of developing regions, especially, Africa, Asia and Latin America, prevailed over the bishops of more prosperous countries (many from the US, Canada and the UK) who supported a redefinition of Anglican doctrine. Seen in this light, 1998 is a date that marked the shift from a West-dominated Christianity to one wherein the growing churches of the two-thirds world are predominant.{{sfnm |1a1=Jenkins |1y=2002 |1pp=202–203 |2a1=Miller |2y=2014 |2p=68}}