Англиканская церковь в Тринадцати колониях: развитие, упадок и реорганизация

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The paper is devoted to the history of the Anglican Church in the Thirteen Colonies, its development, systemic crisis and decline during the American Revolution. Being the first religious organization to begin its activities in the English colonies of North America, by the beginning of the War of Independence the Church of England was inferior in growth to other Protestant churches, becoming only one of the three largest denominations in the region. During the American Revolution the English Church was on the verge of collapse, and only the reorganization of the 1780s saved the Anglican tradition in the United States from complete extinction. The purpose of the article is to identify the causes of the crisis of the Church of England in the colonies based on the analysis of its history in the region using statistical data. Particular attention was paid to the regional features of the development of the Anglican Church, since its position depended on the structure of the colony, its legislation and ethnic composition. The causes of the crisis of the Church of England in the Thirteen Colonies had institutional roots – being episcopal in its structure, the Church of England did not have a separate episcopal see in the colonies and was governed directly from London, which created a shortage of personnel and increased the distance between the colonial flock and the church leadership in the metropolis. The growth of other denominations, reinforced by largescale immigration to the colonies of people of non-English origin, contributed to the intensification of religious competition, which undermined the monopoly of the Anglican Church over religious life in the Thirteen Colonies.