It should not be surprising that Anglicans share the general range of Christian doctrine that has emerged in the history of Christianity. Anglicans are part of that tradition and make a specific claim to trace their religious pedigree back to the apostles and Jesus Christ. It is commonly said that Anglican churches are not confessional in the sense that they adopt a legal statement of doctrines to which the church is committed. This is only partially true. All Anglican churches adopt certain texts or formulations of authority which are legally embedded in their constitutions or canons. Most Anglican churches adopt in one way or another the Book of Common Prayer, the ordinal and the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1662. Furthermore the canons and constitutions state that these doctrines are grounded in scripture and in the teachings of the early church fathers that are compatible with the scriptures.

In Australia the unalterable parts of the constitution assert that the church is ‘part of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ, and holds the Christian Faith as professed by the Church of Christ from primitive times and in particular as set forth in the creeds known as the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed’. This part of the constitution also receives the scriptures as the ultimate source of authority, commits to Christ's commands, doctrine and discipline, and preserves the three orders of ministry.