Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central America

Infobox Anglican Church‎
show_name =Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central America


caption =
primate=Martin de Jesus Barahona
headquarters=
territory=Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Diocese of Nicaragua, and Panama
population=24,800
website= The Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central America is a province of the Anglican Communion, covering 5 sees in Central America. The current primate of the province is Archbishop Martin de Jesus Barahona.

Official names

Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central America is also known as the Anglican Church of Central America.

History

Four of the five dioceses of the Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central America were founded by the Episcopal Church of the United States of America. Anglicanism was also introduced by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel when England administered two colonies in Central America, British Honduras and Miskitia. In later years, immigrants brought the Anglican Church with them.

Membership

Today, there are over 24,800 Anglicans out of an estimated population of 30.1 million.

tructure

The polity of the Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central America is Episcopalian church governance, which is the same as other Anglican churches. The church maintains a system of geographical parishes organized into dioceses. There are 5 of these, each headed by a bishop:

* The Diocese of Costa Rica
* The Diocese of El Salvador
* The Diocese of Guatemala
* The Diocese of Nicaragua
* The Diocese of Panama

Worship and liturgy

The Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central America embraces three orders of ministry: deacon, priest, and bishop. A local variant of the Book of Common Prayer is used.

Doctrine and practice

The center of the Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central America's teaching is the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The basic teachings of the church, or catechism, includes:
*Jesus Christ is fully human and fully God. He died and was resurrected from the dead.
*Jesus provides the way of eternal life for those who believe.
*The Old and New Testaments of the Bible were written by people "under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit". The Apocrypha are additional books that are used in Christian worship, but not for the formation of doctrine.
*The two great and necessary sacraments are Holy Baptism and Holy Eucharist
*Other sacramental rites are confirmation, ordination, marriage, reconciliation of a penitent, and unction.
*Belief in heaven, hell, and Jesus's return in glory.

The threefold sources of authority in Anglicanism are scripture, tradition, and reason. These three sources uphold and critique each other in a dynamic way. This balance of scripture, tradition and reason is traced to the work of Richard Hooker, a sixteenth century apologist. In Hooker's model, scripture is the primary means of arriving at doctrine and things stated plainly in scripture are accepted as true. Issues that are ambiguous are determined by tradition, which is checked by reason. [ [http://www.anglicanlistening.org/anglican_listening_61766_ENG_HTM.htm Anglican Listening] Detail on how scripture, tradition, and reason work to "uphold and critique each other in a dynamic way".]

Ecumenical relations

Unlike many other Anglican churches, the Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central America is not a member of the ecumenical World Council of Churches. [http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=3587 World Council of Churches]

References

Further reading

*"Anglicanism", Neill, Stephen. Harmondsworth, 1965.