The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. The church is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second largest religious denomination on the island after the Roman Catholic Church. Like other Anglican churches, it has retained elements of pre-Reformation practice, notably its Episcopal polity, while rejecting papal authority. Nevertheless, in theological and liturgical matters, it incorporates many reforms of the Reformation, in particular the English Reformation. In accommodating both influences, the church formally identifies as both Catholic and Reformed. Within the church, divisions exist between those members whose subculture is more Catholic-leaning and those members whose subculture is more Protestant-leaning. For particular historical and cultural reasons, the Church of Ireland is generally identified as a Protestant church. The Church of Ireland is the second largest and fastest growing Christian community in Ireland.
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Famous quotes containing the words church and/or ireland:
“The Anglican Church is marked by the grace and good sense of its forms, by the manly grace of its clergy. The gospel it preaches is, “By taste are ye saved.” ... It is not in ordinary a persecuting church; it is not inquisitorial, not even inquisitive, is perfectly well bred and can shut its eyes on all proper occasions. If you let it alone, it will let you alone. But its instinct is hostile to all change in politics, literature, or social arts.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“In Ireland they try to make a cat cleanly by rubbing its nose in its own filth. Mr. Joyce has tried the same treatment on the human subject. I hope it may prove successful.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)