Anglican means ‘English’ or ‘of England’ and refers to the doctrine and practice that developed during the English Reformation in the sixteenth century, and in subsequent centuries the Anglican Church travelled everywhere the English language and the British Empire went around the world. It currently has an estimated 85 million members worldwide, thus becoming the third largest grouping of Christians (following the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.) Today there are more Anglicans in Africa and Asia than in the United Kingdom and North America combined. Grace Anglican Church is a member of the ACNA, the Anglican Church of North America, which was founded in 2009 for Anglicans in the United States and Canada who wish to follow the faith and practice set forth in the Book of Common Prayer and the Bible.

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As a church of the sixteenth-century English reformation the leaders of the English church wanted to make sure the liturgy of worship and the holy scriptures were in the language of the people rather than in Latin, so the first English Book of Common Prayer was published in 1549 by Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The word ‘common’ in this context does not mean ‘ordinary’ but means common to the all the English churches. Two or three English translations of the Bible were available by the second half of the sixteenth century but the official or authorized version, known as the King James Version, was not published until 1611. The King James Version became the version used by virtually all English-speaking Protestants of whatever denomination for the next three hundred and fifty years.

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The Book of Common Prayer preserves in English the liturgy and rites of the ancient church. The word ‘liturgy’ comes from an ancient Greek term meaning ‘public work’ or ‘public service’. In the Anglican church our public work is our corporate worship service. When Anglicans refer to the liturgy, we are referring to the order of service in the Book of Common Prayer. At Grace Anglican Church we use both the 1928 version of the Prayer Book and the ACNA 2019 version which is in more contemporary English. The Prayer Book contains the liturgy for daily services and worship as well liturgies for baptism, confirmation, matrimony, burial, and for special days such as Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

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Grace Anglican Church of Boise was formed in 2007and joined the ACNA when it was established in 2009, and became a parish in the Diocese of Western Anglicans. The ACNA is a province of the Global Anglican Communion, which is distinct from the Canterbury Communion, and includes parishes in North America, Mexico, South America, Africa, 

Asia and Australia.