Anglican Church in Central America

Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central de America

Logo IARCA
Primate	Rt. Rev. Armando Guerra
Territory	Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Panama
Members	24,800
Anglicanism Portal

The Anglican Church in Central America (Spanish: Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central de America) is a province of the Anglican Communion, covering 5 sees in Central America. The Bishop of Guatemala, the Rt. Rev. Armando Guerra was elected to a four year term of office as primate and has succeeded Archbishop Martin de Jesus Barahona. of El Salvador, who has served as primate for the past eight years.

History

Four of the five dioceses of the Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central de America were founded by the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. Anglicanism was also introduced by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel when England administered two colonies in Central America, British Honduras and Miskitia. In later years, immigrants brought the Anglican Church with them.

Membership

Today, there are over 24,800 Anglicans out of an estimated population of 30.1 million.

Structure

The polity of the Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central de America is Episcopalian church governance, which is the same as other Anglican churches. The church maintains a system of geographical parishes organized into dioceses. There are 5 of these, each headed by a bishop:

• The Diocese of Costa Rica
• The Diocese of El Salvador
• The Diocese of Guatemala
• The Diocese of Nicaragua
• The Diocese of Panama

Some countries of Central America are part of other Anglican churches:

• The Anglican Diocese of Belize is part of the Church in the Province of the West Indies
• The Episcopal Diocese of Honduras is part of Province 9 of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America

Worship and liturgy

The Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central de America embraces three orders of ministry: deacon, priest, and bishop. A local variant of the Book of Common Prayer is used.

Doctrine and practice

See also: Anglicanism and Anglican doctrine

The center of the Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central de America's teaching is the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The basic teachings of the church, or catechism, includes:

• Jesus Christ is fully human and fully God. He died and was resurrected from the dead.
• Jesus provides the way of eternal life for those who believe.
• The Old and New Testaments of the Bible were written by people "under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit". The Apocrypha are additional books that are used in Christian worship, but not for the formation of doctrine.
• The two great and necessary sacraments are Holy Baptism and Holy Eucharist
• Other sacramental rites are confirmation, ordination, marriage, reconciliation of a penitent, and unction.
• Belief in heaven, hell, and Jesus's return in glory.

The threefold sources of authority in Anglicanism are scripture, tradition, and reason. These three sources uphold and critique each other in a dynamic way. This balance of scripture, tradition and reason is traced to the work of Richard Hooker, a sixteenth century apologist. In Hooker's model, scripture is the primary means of arriving at doctrine and things stated plainly in scripture are accepted as true. Issues that are ambiguous are determined by tradition, which is checked by reason.

Ecumenical relations

Unlike many other Anglican churches, the Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central de America is not a member of the ecumenical World Council of Churches.

External Links

• Diocesis de Costa Rica Website
• Diocesis de Guatemala Website
• Diocesis de El Salvador Website
• Diocesis de Panama Website

Further reading

• Anglicanism, Neill, Stephen. Harmondsworth, 1965.