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EnglishWhat Is anglicancommunion.org and How Is the Anglican Communion Structured?
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anglicancommunion.org is the official website of the Anglican Communion, a global family of churches organised into 42 provinces and present in more than 165 countries. The site is the entry point for news, resources, the Communion's shared "pillars," and the work of the Communion Office. Use it when you need an authoritative overview of how these churches relate to one another, or when you want to find official news and resource material rather than commentary from a single congregation or province.
What the Anglican Communion is
The Communion is not a single church with a central headquarters. It is a fellowship of churches that share Anglican heritage and identity, and it describes itself as a global family. That framing matters: member churches are autonomous in their own governance, and the Communion is the network that connects them rather than a body that directs them.
The site presents this identity directly, so it is the right place to check the Communion's own self-description before relying on secondary summaries.
Provinces as the member units
The basic building block of the structure is the province. The Communion is made up of 42 provinces, and each province is a church body that may span one country or several. This is why the Communion's geographic footprint is much larger than its count of member units: 42 provinces reach across more than 165 countries.
A practical consequence for readers:
- If you are looking for a specific national or regional church, search by province, not by country count.
- A single province can cover multiple countries, so one country may not map to one province.
- The 42 figure describes member provinces, while the 165+ figure describes countries reached — the two numbers answer different questions.
The Communion Office and its work
The Communion Office supports the life of the family of churches and is the body behind the work described on the site. The website groups its content around three things worth knowing before you browse:
- News — official updates from across the Communion.
- Resources — material produced for and about the member churches.
- Pillars — the shared commitments that frame the Communion's common life.
If your task is to understand what the Communion actually does collectively, the pillars and the Communion Office pages are the most direct route; news gives you current activity rather than structure.
How to use the site for a specific question
| If you need… | Go to… | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| A definition of the Communion | The site's main overview | The Communion's own description of itself as a global family of churches |
| The list of member churches | Province information | The 42 provinces as member units |
| Current official updates | News | Communion-wide announcements |
| Shared commitments and teaching frames | Pillars | The organising principles of the Communion's common work |
| Background material for study or teaching | Resources | Official resource material |
Verification step: after reading an overview page, confirm the specific province or country you care about against the province listing, since country counts and province counts are not interchangeable.
Common sticking points
- Expecting a central authority. The Communion is a family of churches, not a single governing body; pages describe shared life and work, not directives to member churches.
- Confusing provinces with countries. With 42 provinces across 165+ countries, a country-by-country search can mislead. Start from the province.
- Treating the site as a directory of local congregations. It covers the Communion level — news, resources, pillars, and the Communion Office — rather than individual parish listings.
The site does not publish pricing information, and nothing in its description indicates that access requires payment or login; treat any specific access condition as something to confirm on the page itself rather than assume.