Rowan Williams attempted to form an Anglican Covenant to administer the Anglican Communion worldwide but was ultimately unsuccessful.
 This view was associated  especially in the writings of Edward Bouverie Pusey  with the theory of Anglicanism as one of three "branches" (alongside the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church) historically arising out of the common tradition of the earliest ecumenical councils
 The word originally referred only to the teachings and rites of Christians throughout the world in communion with the see of Canterbury, but has come to sometimes be extended to any church following those traditions rather than actual membership in the modern Anglican Communion

