The Anglican Communion is an international association of national and regional Anglican churches (and a few other episcopal churches) in full communion with the Church of England (which is regarded as the mother church of the worldwide communion) and specifically with its principal primate, the Archbishop of Canterbury. There is no single "Anglican Church" with universal juridical authority as each national or regional church has full autonomy.

The status of full communion means, ideally, that there is mutual agreement on essential doctrines and that full participation in the sacramental life of each church is available to all communicant Anglicans.

With a membership currently estimated at 80 million members worldwide, the Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion in the world, after the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches. Some of these churches are known as Anglican, such as the Anglican Church of Canada, due to their historical link to England (Ecclesia Anglicana means "English Church"). Some, for example the Church of Ireland, the Scottish and American Episcopal churches, and some other associated churches have a separate name. Each church has its own doctrine and liturgy, based in most cases on that of the Church of England; and each church has its own legislative process and overall episcopal polity, under the leadership of a local primate.

The Revd Nadim Nassar is the Director and Co-Founder of the Awareness Foundation, and co-author of the Awareness Course. He established the Awareness Foundation in 2003 with Bishop Michael Marshall in response to the growing need to study the Christian faith in the context of the 21st Century.

Nadim was born and raised in Lattakia, Syria and he is the only Syrian priest in the Church of England. He lectured in different universities in London, including the American Intercontinental University where he taught World Religions, and London Guildhall University where he developed the 'Faith and Citizenship' seminar. Father Nadim also taught adult formation courses in different churches in the Middle East, Europe and the US and led diocesan conferences in the US and Hong Kong. He gives frequent public lectures and is a guest blogger on Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Revd Nassar studied at the Near East School of Theology between 1981 and 1988. He became the editor of the Arabic Hymnal for a year in Limassol, Cyprus then went to Lattakia, Syria to be the minister of the National Evangelical Church in Lattakia which is a member of the National Evangelical Synod in Syria and Lebanon. He stayed in Lattakia for two years before he left to Germany to continue his theological education.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group of Christians in the world^{[citation needed]}.

The current archbishop is the Most Reverend Rowan Williams. He is the 104th in a line which goes back more than 1400 years to St Augustine of Canterbury, the "Apostle to the English", in the year 597. From the time of St Augustine until the 16th century, the Archbishops of Canterbury were in full communion with the See of Rome and thus received the pallium. During the English Reformation the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church, at first temporarily under Henry VIII and Edward VI and later permanently during the reign of Elizabeth I.

In the Middle Ages there was considerable variation in the methods of nomination of the Archbishop of Canterbury and other bishops. At various times the choice was made by the canons of Canterbury Cathedral, the King of England, or the Pope. Since the English Reformation, the Church of England has been more explicitly a state church and the choice is legally that of the British crown; today it is made in the name of the Sovereign by the Prime Minister, from a shortlist of two selected by an ad hoc committee called the Crown Nominations Commission.