History of the Anglican Church
The history of the Anglican Church has its origins in the British Isles. During the first few centuries of Christianity, missionary expansion of the Church was significant and as a consequence missionaries arrived in the British Isles and planted the Christian faith. The English and Irish of this time were blessed by the Venerable Bede (673 -738) who was, amongst other things, the author of the first Ecclesiatical History of these lands. His work describes in detail the strength of the Church during this time. In addition, there are to this day a number of significant religious artifacts that allow us to look back to the spirituality of these times.
Historically, the Roman period was followed by invasions by the Vikings from Scandinavia and waves of other pagan people from mainland Europe. As a result, the Christians withdrew to remote areas of the country. In Rome, Pope Gregory the Great (560 - 604) heard of the difficulties of the Christians in England and this motivated him to send a monk named Augustine (d ca. 607) to try to convert the pagans. Augustine disembarked on the coasts of Kent in the year 597 and successfully achieved the conversion of King Ethelbert (d. 616), who had already heard the Gospel as a result of being married to a French princess Bertha, who was a Christian. With the king converted, Augustine and his monks continued their missionary work. Very soon it became clear that there was a strong Christian remnant from the period before Augustine's arrival, whose faith was in many ways similar to Augustine's, the main exception being the date on which Easter was celebrated. It was, however, not easy for Augustine to introduce the rules of the Church of Rome and the authority of the Bishop of Rome - the Pope, but in the end the Synod of Whitby, in the year 664, settled the problems.
Until the 16th Century, the Church of England was part of the Church governed by the Bishop of Rome which extended throughout Western Europe. The Separation from the Roman Church came during the movement for Religious Reform and occurred in the reign of Henry VIII. It was not, however until the reign of Elizabeth I that the Church of England's faith and practice was consolidated with the establishment of its liturgy in the Book of Common Prayer.
The English Reformation conserved much catholic tradition and order, with goverment of the church by means of Bishops that maintain the line of apostolic succession. The Reformation also established clearly the principle of the sufficency of Holy Scripture as a source inspired by God for the purpose of discerning the path of salvation.
History of the Anglican Church of Uruguay
At the end of the first half of the 19th Century English businessmen came to South America in order to invest in the railways that had recently opened, and other public services - as well as in industry, ranching and agriculture. With them they brought their faith and its traditions and consequently it was in 1843 that The Reverend William Birch was designated as the first Anglican chaplain of Montevideo. He celebrated the first religious offices on the 4th of June of that year, and weekly services continued from that time.
At the start of the following year work began on the first church in Montevideo which was located on an area of land next to the sea at the start of the street "Treinta y Tres". It remained here until 1934 when the local government ordered it to be relocated to the nearby position it now occupies further back from the sea, to permit the building of the main coastal road.
The English Chaplains in South America were originally part of a Diocese which had links to England via the Falkland Islands, but later on, when a new Diocese was formed in Argentina, it included the three congregations originally established in Uruguay i.e. in Montevideo, Fray Bentos and Salto.
More recently, in 1986, Archdeacon William Godfrey arrived and started to work towards forming a new Diocese in our country - the Anglican Church of Uruguay. This was achieved on 10th December 1989 when the Diocese of Uruguay became part of the Province of South America, with its Episcopal Seat in the old Holy Trinity Church, Montevideo, which, thus , became the Cathedral.
The first services in Spanish took place in 1970 when a Brazilian Bishop asked the Bishop of Buenos Aires for permission to visit and take services in Spanish in Montevideo for the local population. The Spanish ministry has continued and grown since that time and now most of the congregations are Spanish speaking.