“While I’m sure there have been faithful bishops in Anglicanism over the centuries, the honest question is: can we really be shocked at this, since their forefather were the all the bishops who cowtowed to Henry VIII? The only bishop who stood up to that scoundrel was St. John Fisher.”
An Orthodox hierarch recently told me that Anglicanism has carried with it the seeds of its own destruction from the day Henry VIII established it...but I have to say, this time with all due and real respect to the Orthodox hierarch, that any group which could produce a +JC Ryle had and likely has elements of holiness worthy of both note and profound respect by both Latins and the Orthodox.
A common misconception (perpetrated by Catholics) is that Henry VIII “created” Anglicanism. That is simply not true. Anglican Christianity dates to St Alban in the year 303. By the 16th Century, the Anglican Church had its own liturgical tradition- the Sarum Rite- apart from the Roman Rites used on the continent.
Henry VIII’s reforms amounted to nothing more than eliminating the Bishop of Rome from all affairs in England. All else remained the same (see Six Articles). Anglicanism as we know it today is a product of the Elizabethan Settlement and the Restoration.
While there have been (and currently are) some Anglican bishops and leaders whose actions and beliefs are questionable (to put it mildly), if their existence invalidates Anglicanism, then by the same reasoning Roman Catholcis and Eastern Orthodox are pretty much screwed.