The position of the ordained ministries in Anglicanism reveals a great deal about the wider dynamics of the community and thus also the issues of identity, power and authority amongst Anglicans. The position of the ministerial offices is often an issue of contention in ecumenical dialogue. The Papal Bull Apostolic Curae of 1896, which declared that Anglican orders were null and void, has proved to be a matter of great contention. The Pope's declaration was answered by a joint statement by the archbishops of York and Canterbury, an unusual step in itself. On the other hand, many Anglicans have thought that within the Pope's own framework he had reached a reasonable conclusion, and that what was at stake was not the position of Anglican clerical orders, but the ecclesial framework and its assumptions. The position of the ordained was a matter of deep dispute in the renewal movement of the Wesleys in the eighteenth century, of the Tractarians in the nineteenth century and in the charismatic renewal of the twentieth century.

Despite these conflicts the ministerial orders continue in Anglicanism and in many respects flourish in terms of their place in the ecclesiastical order. They are crucial in missions in the fastest-growing sections of worldwide Anglicanism and retain a central place in the public liturgy of the church.

There are significant local variations in both the style and function of the various orders which in most instances arise from the way in which Anglicans have responded to their local context.