With an unprecedented event on the horizon, the American colonies braced themselves for the shot heard around the world. In this hotbed of 1776 pre-revolution, tensions fired up and the camps were split between the Tories, or loyalists, and the Whigs, or revolutionists. The loyalists, for the most part, respected the omnipotent authority within the colonies, while the rebels saw the English hand as a symbol of nationwide oppression. From the perspective of an Anglican minister, these new revelations in economy, politics, and society spelled trouble for the Church of England within the colonial borders. As factions formed and the occurrence of a revolution became eminent, the position of the loyalist Anglican Church never wavered.

The Anglican Church was not, in a sense, economically involved in the colonies. Granted, the church held much land, but its main concern was not with the colonial economy. The English government nurtured the Anglican Church and if England lost control of the colonial economy, the church would lose needed revenue. In places such as Virginia, the Anglican Church was well supported by loyalist plantation owning aristocrats. Also, if the Revolution was successful, the Anglican church would lose its standing through a two fold effect; the plantation owners would lose English markets for crops and acquire less revenue to be passed on to the church, and the loyalist would be persecuted for supporting England, thus creating a void in the Anglican congregation. The Anglican ministers also feared those back in jolly old England who felt that America should be given its independence; America had already proven its power in being a burden to the crown through its ever rising national debt. Adam Smith believed that the colonies were a burden to England. This was best described when he said, "The last war [Seven Years War], which was undertaken altogether on account of the colonies, cost Great Britain, it has already been observed, upwards of ninety millions [of pounds]." (The American Spirit p. 135) The Anglican Church, not surprisingly, supported the English Parliament in its taxation endeavors because lack of compliance with these taxes would spell trouble for the colonial English Churches. The rebel cause, which so vehemently fought for a reduction of taxes, would, through revolution, hamper the workings of the Anglican Church in the colonies.

The Anglicans also feared the loss of political support from the ruling aristocrats. With the people rebelling, the loyalist aristocrats had little power and therefore could not supply the Anglican Church with ample protection from the crazed masses. The Anglicans, favoring a strict English rule of the colonies, was supported on the forefront by writings of Samuel Johnson. " It is, however, a little hard that, having so lately fought and conquered for their safety, we should govern them no longer…Let us restore to the French what we have taken from them. We shall see our colonists at our feet, when they have the enemy so near them." (The American Spirit p. 136) Johnson depicted the colonists as weak hypocrites who would return to the English if they were presented with any type of opposition. This ideology was comforting to the Anglicans but it did not help their political position; the Anglicans were still seen as loyalist and inevitably, as the enemy.

The Anglican Church was most frightened by the new proceedings of the "Great Awakening." In this movement, the Anglicans saw the fall of the old established church, and like a phoenix; the Anglicans panicked by the thought that a new Church might rise from the ashes left by the old regime. The Anglican ministers detested the preachings of these "New Lights." These preachers used unconventional ways and extreme emotion to convey the teachings of the Bible. One of the awakeners, George Whitefield, met the opposition of the orthodox clergy on his first few visits to America; "He was at first permitted to preach in some of our churches; but the clergy, taking a dislike to him, soon refused him in their pulpits…" (The American Spirit p. 98) The "Old Lights, " as the Anglican clergy was so cleverly named, "…were deeply skeptical of the emotionalism and the theatrical antics of the revivalists." (The American Pageant p. 93) Through the Great Awakening, the Congregationalist and Presbyterians further distressed the Anglican Church by denouncing the English government and supporting the revolution in their sermons.

The colonies, from the Anglican and English point of view, were not in a bad position. These colonies had an assured trade system, guaranteed markets for some goods in Britain, protection from outside countries, and the minuscule taxes they were complaining about were only used to pay off the debt acquired through the protection of the fledgling nation. The Anglican ministers supported the crown because the crown fed the church the vital nutrients of survival. The combination of the changing ideas and emotions in economy, policy, and society became the catalytic element that would spur the beginning of a new nation and an end to the colonial Anglican Church.