The Typical Anglican
Amy and Nicholas Pye
October 1, 1998
Undoubtedly you've heard about this summer's Lambeth conference, when Canterbury Cathedral was awash in a sea of purple as some 740 Anglican bishops converged on their historic home for a once-a-decade meeting. It's likely the issue of homosexuality comes to mind as the hot topic of the conference— at least in the eyes of the Western press. But politics aside, who is the typical Anglican represented by those decked out in copes and mitres? Behind door number one: A middle-aged, white, wealthy East Coast Episcopalian. Door number two: A baptized Brit who darkens the door of her local Anglican church only on Christmas, if then. Or, door number three: a black, poor, under-thirty, evangelical African. Guess one or two? Guess again. "Typical" is changing fast. The worldwide Anglican Communion has an estimated membership of 70 million, making it the third or fourth largest denomination in the world. These figures, however, are distorted by the discrepancy between active and inactive members in the traditional heartlands of Anglicanism—England, the United States, Canada, and Australia. For instance, although the Church of England has 26 million baptized members, only 1.5 million attend regularly. As with most denominations, the strength of the Anglican Communion is shifting from the North to the South. Nigeria, for instance, with 17.5 million practicing Anglicans, has more members than England, the United States, and Canada combined. The average Anglican is between 20 and 30 years old, is brown-skinned, poor, lives in the Two-Thirds World, and is evangelical. In the late nineteenth century, the West Indian-born Liberian diplomat and educator Edward Wilmot Blyden said about "civilized nations" that "in consequence of their wonderful ...
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