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    The history of the Episcopal Church of the United States reaches back to the Church of England, since the English church came over to this country with the early settlers. The Church of England was originally  Roman Catholic, answering to the Pope,  but the reformation placed strains on that relationship. The refusal of the Pope (Clement VII) to grant an annulment of Henry VIII's, marriage to Catherine of Aragorn resulted in a complete repudiation of the authority of the Pope in 1533. Henry desperately desired a male heir to the throne. His union with Catherine had resulted in only one surviving child, Mary. It should be noted here that such requests were routinely granted in Henry's time, but the Pope was in the power of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and nephew of Catherine of Aragorn. Henry's repudiation of Papal authority was not the last word though. Mary, Catherine's daughter, eventually became Queen and returned the Church of England to the authority of the Pope in 1554. Mary died in 1558, and when Elizabeth took the throne, the authority of the Pope was again severed. The settlement reached during Elizabeth's reign shaped the Church of England in ways that remain to this day. The Church of England retains the catholic creeds, catholic patterns of ministry, and aspects of catholic liturgy, but it also includes some of the Protestant insights in its theology and the overall shape of its liturgical practice.Thus the church is described as both catholic and reformed.
  This was not the end of controversy though. In the English civil war, the Church of England was on the losing royalist side. When the Commonwealth was established, the church's bishops were abolished, and the Book of Common Prayer was banned. For the period of  the Commonwealth (1649-1660) the church had no legal existence in England. All that was changed when the Monarchy was re-established, and from 1662 till 1689 the shoe was on the other foot, churches other than Church of England being persecuted in their turn. In 1689 the Toleration act was passed that gave legal existence to other Christian churches that accepted the doctrine of the Trinity. The Church of England remains the established church in England, but other churches, other faiths, and those without faith have been granted ever increasing civil and religious rights.
    The Church of England is the root of the Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church of the United States is a Member. The Church of England expanded worldwide in two main stages. Beginning in the 17th century, Anglicanism was established at the same time English colonies were founded in Australia, Canada, New Zeland, South Africa and the United States. The second wave began in the 18th century as established churches sent missionaries to establish Anglican churches in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. These expansions were successful to the extent that there are now 70 million Anglicans in 161 countries across the globe.
    Although Anglican Churches are self-governing, they are tied together by their history, their theology, their worship,  and their relationship to the ancient See of Canterbury