In this country, an Anglican is a person who is a baptised member of a congregation which is part of the Church of England. This baptism may have occurred when that person was brought as an infant to be baptised, or if he/she was baptised as an adult.

However, it is necessary for each person so baptised to enter into a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. This involves repentance for our sin and trust  in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by the Holy Spirit brings about a change of heart that issues in a life given over to God's service. It is this that gives meaning and importance to baptism.

This change, which can occur at any age, and either be dramatically sudden or a process over a period of time, ought to be witnessed to publicly, usually, in our Anglican Church family, by Confirmation. It takes a believer into a relation of child - Father with God and gives us the great hope of heaven, eternal life. That public witness must be carried forward into daily life, conduct and speech.

An Anglican will take part in two ceremonies, both of which were instituted by Jesus Christ. One is Baptism, mentioned above, and which will only occur once in a person's life. The other, for all baptised people, is The Lord's Supper or Holy Communion (called the "Eucharist" in some circles), at which bread and wine are eaten and drunk as signs or symbols of the Body and Blood of Christ, pointing specifically to his death on the Cross, by which he obtained forgiveness of our sin and which we receive with deep thanksgiving.

An Anglican Christian will regard the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, as the Word of God to humankind. In this book, known often as "the Scriptures", God reveals his purposes from before creation to the end of time, and his will for those who believe as his chosen people. This book is the foundation, rule and ultimate standard of our faith, our worship and our lives as Christian people. Therefore it is to be treasured, read daily, studied and obeyed. Its teaching must be applied to all the moral and ethical issues that face Christian people in a rapidly changing world.

Over two millenia, Christian faith has been tested and tried against new theories and ideologies. Christians of the early centuries after Christ crystallised their beliefs into three sets of belief or Creeds, all of which are held by Anglicans because they are in full accord with the Scriptures. They centre on the nature of God the Father, as Creator, God the Son, Jesus Christ as both God and man, and God the Holy Spirit as life-giver and guide for the church.

One of the exciting things about being an Anglican is that our own Church of England is part of a family of 38 churches across the world known as the Anglican Communion. It has about 70 million members over 161 countries and embraces many languages, races and cultures. There were two main stages in its development. Beginning in the seventeenth century, Anglicanism was established alongside colonisation in the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. The second stage began in the eighteenth century when missionaries worked to establish churches in Asian, Africa and Latin America.

There are, of course, different expressions of Anglicanism in this country and overseas. They are described as being Evangelical, Anglo-Catholic or Liberal. The last named would give less attention to the authority of the Bible to govern the life of the church and its members. Anglo-Catholics would pay a great deal of attention to the writings of the leaders of the church in the early centuries after Christ and give expression to their faith in ritual and ceremonial.

Evangelical would describe the person whose characteristics are outlined above in the early paragraphs of this section. An evangelical would see him/herself as a true successor of the New Testament Christian and seek to form the life of the church after the pattern described in that part of the Bible. Further they would claim to be the true successors of the leaders of the sixteenth century Reformation in Europe, particularly in terms of their attitude to the Scriptures, the worship, ministry and life of the church and the meaning of and means to obtain salvation through Jesus Christ.

The Book of Common Prayer, produced in 1662, was for four centuries the instrument that guided our worship in each church. Since then, a series of new services have been produced and churches have developed their own freer forms of worship. But the Anglican service would normally be characterised by the use of different ingredients: Confession of sin and some words that assure forgiveness; worship in song, in psalm and music; confession of faith; prayer; prayer, the reading and preaching from Scripture. In Anglican churches, the whole congregation is encouraged to participate wholeheartedly; nothing should be done which conflicts with the Word of God, and everything should be done with a view to building up the faith of Christian people.

While we are very pleased to be part of the Anglican Church, we remember that the Church of Jesus Christ includes many other denominations; in fact, it includes all who have been baptised into the faith of Jesus Christ, all over the world and all down the centuries of history, as well as true believers from Old Testament times, who looked forward to the coming of Jesus as Son of God and Saviour - God's own Messiah.