Is the Church of England the true church?

Answer 1

If you define the "true church" as the church established by Jesus Christ, and guaranteed by Him until the end of the world, that was established in 33 A.D. and Our Blessed Lord appointed St. Peter and his successors to watch over it and guide it until the end of the world, that would be the Catholic Church.

The Church of England was established by King Henry VIII and his daughter, Elizabeth I in the 16th century, over 1,500 years too late for it to be the "true church".

Answer 2

No the Church of England is independent of the Catholic Church.

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AnswerActually, the Church of England is and always has been a mamber of the catholic Church (wiith a small 'c') in the sense that catholic means 'universal'.

However the Church of England is not a member of the Roman Catholic Church that is under the jurisdiction of the Pope as the Church of England does not recognise the authority of the pope and never has done.

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Secular AnswerNo the Church of England, sometimes called the Anglican Church, has many aspects that are very similar to the Roman Catholic Church, but it split of as a separate and distinct entity under Henry VIII over the question of divorce.

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Catholic AnswerOf course not, there is only one Catholic Church. By the very definition and in Christ's founding of it, it must of necessity be One, Holy, Apostolic, and Catholic. The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ and His Bride. Christ only has one Body and one Bride - to say anything else is to make a mockery of Jesus' entire message. He appointed Peter (and his successors) as head of His Church: the Catholic Church, then, is the visible unity of people under the authority of the Holy Father. To explain further:

　

from

A Catholic Dictionary, edited by Donald Attwater, Second edition, revised 1957

The Church of Christ

The visible religious society, distinct from the Synagogue, instituted directly by Christ, under one head, St. Peter and his successors, the popes, for the purpose of preserving and propagated his teaching, and of safeguarding and using the same means of salvation (sacrifice and sacraments). It has certain marks (unity, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity) by which it can be know. It enjoys the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and Christ has promised to be with it "all days, even to the consummation of the world" (Matt. 28:20), so that it is indefectible. He has commanded all men to join the Church, which is the one ark of salvation for all.

Anglicanism

I. The body of Protestant episcopal churches deriving from and in communion with the Church of England, including the churches of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the United States, South Africa, etc. with their missions and dependencies.

ii. The system of faith and morals professed by these bodies. These it is impossible to summarize owing to the diversity of belief and (to a lesser degree) of conduct taught, permitted, and tolerated in Anglicanism. From the definite "romanizing" of a section of the high-church party to the extreme liberalism of certain dignitaries and professors, many varieties of Christian thought can be found. They are usually very roughly classified as high-church, broad-church, and low-church; but, as Father Humphry Johnson has justly observed, there exists within the Church of England "a larger and more important party than any of these, though a less articulate one. This party serves as a cement between the others." According to the official Book of Common Prayer the articles of the three creeds are to be believed; The Bible contains all things necessary to salvation; Purgatory, indulgences, veneration of images and relics, and the invocation of saints are "vainly invented" and "repugnant to the word of God"; two sacraments necessary for salvation were ordained by Christ, Baptism and the Supper of the Lord; transubstantiation "is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture"; the "sacrifices of Masses . . . were blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits"; "the Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in this realm of England," etc. These still represent the belief of many Anglicans.

Answer 3

Yes, the Church of England is a Christian faith.