The Anglican churches of the world are named for their historical connection to the Church of England, which in medieval Latin was called ecclesia anglicana. Forty-one national or regional church bodies are recognised by the Archbishop of Canterbury as autonomous provinces of the worldwide Anglican Communion, along with five non-autonomous, ‘extra-provincial’ church bodies which are formally accountable to Canterbury. In North America, three Anglican denominations are recognised members of the Anglican Communion. Two are provinces: The Episcopal Church (TEC), primarily a US denomination although it operates in 16 other countries or territories as well; and the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC). The third is extra-provincial: the Anglican Church of Bermuda (ACB), a diocese with only nine parishes in an archipelago that is a British Overseas Territory.

In addition, perhaps three dozen other families or networks of Anglican churches operate in North America, most of them quite recent, small and impermanent, and some of them with overlapping memberships. These groups understand themselves as continuing in the historic Anglican tradition but are regarded as schismatic by TEC, ACC and ACB. At least two of them appear to be reasonably sizeable and institutionally stable: the Reformed Episcopal Church (REC), which seceded from TEC in 1873, and the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), founded in 2009 by 12 US and Canadian Anglican groupings that had already splintered off. Because many of its pre-existing groupings have maintained their identities and constitutions, ACNA functions as a cross between a denomination and an umbrella organisation. A significant sixth group of North American Anglicans, Indigenous members of the ACC, were promised self-determination in 1995, although that goal has been elusive.

Common Anglican characteristics include a claim of historical evolution from the primitive church; acceptance of the Western canon of the Bible; worship in accordance with a liturgical order; use of the Apostles’ and Nicene creeds; a recognition of at least two sacraments (baptism and Holy Communion or Eucharist); a sense of mission within the social order; a threefold pastoral and liturgical ministry of bishop, priest (or presbyter) and deacon; a considerable provision for lay authority; territorial organising units called dioceses; and constitutional systems of governance.