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The Congregational Christian Tradition-By Rev. T. S. Premarajah Source:Ceylontoday The Congregational churches trace their origins to sixteenth-century England, where they were one part of a large and diverse effort to reform the Church of England. After King Henry VIII parted ways with the Roman Catholic Church over his marriage problems, the Anglican Church, as it was also called, kept the forms of Catholicism — the celebration of the Mass, ceremonial ‘vestments’ for the clergy, and the hierarchy of Archbishops and Bishops — but under the authority of the English King rather than the Pope. What began as a political change, however, ended up forever changing the landscape of religion in Great Britain and the United States. The dissenters opposing the Church of England were known as ‘Puritans’, at the time a derogatory reference to their uncompromising zeal for simplicity in worship and church organisation. They preferred to call themselves ‘the ...