THE CHURCH IN THE NEXT 500 YEARS, THE CASE STUDY OF THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION

Abstract

The history of humanity is divided into two by the birth and death of Christ (AD and BC). Similarly, the history of Christianity can be divided into two by the reformation championed by Martin Luther.  This epoch event which took place 500 years ago saw the Roman Catholic Church split up and Western Europe was no longer united by one Christian religion. In these 500 years, many remarkable changes had taken place: on the positive side the church had grown tremendously in size and structure across every nation, while on the negative side   the break up within the church continues unabated and at the same time the standard of faith seems to be on the downward trend, which has caused grave concern for many especially in the Anglican Communion. Without any doubt a major development in human civilization now is the advancement in information technology and its impact in changing the entire human culture and socialization which cannot exclude the church. As a result, the Anglican Communion will witness many transformations in the next 500 years. This paper is premised on Maxwell Conceptual Framework (2004) which is a comprehensive analysis of past events using primary and secondary sources. This is in tandem with sociological and historical methods used in this research. This paper posits that the Anglican Communion and its leadership should make this church dynamic in preaching of the word and in the administration of the sacraments.