Here are some key facts about the Anglican church.

STRUCTURE

4 There are approximately 77 million baptised Anglicans.

The denomination has 38 self-governing churches, made up of 500 dioceses, 30,000 parishes and 64,000 individual congregations in 164 countries.

The Anglican Communion's largest provinces are England (26 million), Nigeria (17.5 million), Uganda (8 million), Sudan (5 million), Kenya (2.5 million) and Tanzania (2 million). Regular church-goers in Africa easily outnumber those in Britain. There are also 2.4 million adherents in the Episcopal Church, the United States member church in the Communion.

The Anglican Communion is loosely linked by four "instruments of unity" the Archbishop of Canterbury (currently Dr Rowan Williams), the decision-making Anglican Consultative Council, the 10-yearly Lambeth Conferences and the more frequent Primates' Meetings.

The Archbishop of Canterbury calls the Lambeth Conference and heads the Anglican Consultative Council. He is a "first among equals" (primus inter pares) but does not have doctrinal or organisational powers such as those of a Roman Catholic pope.

WHAT IS ANGLICANISM?

Anglicanism became the established church in England after King Henry VIII broke with Rome in 1534 to divorce his first wife. It is a "broad church" with elements common both to Catholicism (liturgy, sacraments, bishops) and Protestantism (more flexible doctrinal interpretation, married clergy, decentralised structure). Its links to Catholic tradition have fostered dialogue with the Vatican, but the issues of women clergy and gay bishops have strained relations in recent years.

DIVISIONS INSIDE THE CHURCH:

The Anglican Communion is deeply divided over homosexuality. In North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, some Anglican churches ordain non-celibate gay clergy and bless same-sex unions. The Church of England accepts gay clergy if they are celibate.

The Episcopal Church broke ranks in 2003 to ordain Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the first openly gay bishop in Anglican history. This raised the issue of authority within the Communion and raised the spectre of a schism.

Most Anglican churches in Africa, West Indies and Asia condemn homosexuality as sinful and reject it for their priests. In some of the most prominent defections, the conservative Falls Church and Truro Church, both in Virginia, voted to break away from the Episcopal Church in 2006 and affiliate with the Anglican Church of Nigeria, led by Archbishop Peter Akinola.