Might as well step in to say that "Anglican" (in my mind) describes a worldwide alliance of churches based upon the Church Of England, which was originally essentially a form of derived-Protestantism split from Catholicism because of old Henry VIII's little spat with the pope (and one or two of his wives), but is not
Lutheran Protestantism (something that H8 wrote against, although that might have been him currying favour with the Pope, before he snapped over the whole divorcing issue), and there are "more protestant" and Calvinistic offshoots. I believe it also counts as Reformed Catholic, under some measures.
But, anyway, as the English/British Empire rose and fell, it left behind churches modelled to some degree or other after it in many of the colonial lands[1], and they coalesced into the Anglican movement. Some of them are explicitly "Church of England in <countryname>", others are less obviously nominative in their connection. I suppose it's a kind of "Coalition of the Willing" in religious terms, with each sub-church being "it's own boss", although some might argue that the Archbishop Of Canterbury is its formally ordained head much as The Queen is of The Commonwealth (
as well as "Defender Of The Faith" and titular head of the CofE, and others), even while each Commonwealth country has its own political leaders.
And, as per the Commonwealth countries not having to take orders from the Queen, there's nothing to say the AoC is going to be listened to. There are always little spits and spats going on (there was a problem with the Zimbabwe church, but ditto with, and doubtless related to, the non-ecumenical spats between the Commonwealth and Zimbabwe) but it has held itself together. I think the ordination of women is one of the biggest fractures.
There's been historic integration of women into posts for a couple of centuries, but it only really started to be 'serious' in the late '80s and early '90s[2], but the concept of "Women Bishops" came to be fully-formed a mere handful of years ago, late in the last decade. The Queen's role has (despite some doo-daa with holy oil, etc, during her coronation) no truly
ordained manner to it, and more figurehead on the ship than a captain at the wheel, IYSWIM. (Charles, next in line, expressed an interest in being identified as "Defender Of The Faith
s", IIRC, as and when (and if) he ascends to the throne. Which would include everything from Buddhism to Bahai.)
But for the purposes of the OP of mine, I was very much boiling it down to whether a 'speciation' might occur, due to the enforced separation (although, technically, gender-strict members could re-integrate into gender-free areas[3]), and whether the relative pressures might allow both sub-populations to dominate, or just one.
It
could of course go the way of the non-explosive 'fragmentation' that occurred within the Church Of Scotland (having a complicated history already) to produce "The Wee Frees" out of the (largely) Evangelical factions. Although on their facebook pages the words "It's complicated" would generally appear where the relationships information resides.
But bear in mind, in all my attempts to describe these things above, that I'm not personally a God-fearing person of
any denomination (you could pretty much put me down as a "God-disregarding" individual), I just happen to have an interest in mass-psychology that totally eclipses any ability/interest I have in deciphering any particular individual's mindset.
But, anyway, it looks like other questions have come to the for. If you could keep the judgemental bits down a bit in volume, I don't otherwise mind where this thread is currently wandering. I realise I didn't really give as many opportunities to add something new to the exact issues I posted in my initial contribution.
[1] Probably including the US, although of course, famously, the Pilgrim Fathers were most definitely not "CofE". They also weren't actually "escaping religious persecution", but were arguably going somewhere where their own
more strict religious doctrine was no longer going to be a problem...
[2] With, arguably, the most profound effect of this as far as
I am concerned having been the envisaging and creation of the sitcom "The Vicar of Dibley". Which
I consider brilliant, but YMMV.
[3] A bit like Rugby League accepts former Rugby Union players, but not vice-versa.