Founding
Nova Anglicana was founded by Anglicans from many different places who believed that they could set an example to the world of how Christianity could make the world a better place. Sort of like that Puritan "city on a hill" concept, only far more comfortable and with far less murder of indigenous people. Anglicans don't go in for those sorts of things, you know. It is one of the only countries in the Terranean world that was explicitly founded as a religious nation; statistics on the multiverse are not available at this time, though Le Choix comes to mind. With religion as the basis for the foundation of the country, it would go on to play an outsized role in the lives of Nova Anglicans compared to many other countries.
Demographics
Unsurprisingly, Nova Anglicana is about 93% Christian overall, and about two-thirds Anglican Christian. The bulk of the remainder of the Christian population is made up by Roman Catholics and an amalgamated Protestant denomination called the United Church, with nondenominational evangelicals, Orthodox Christians, and "other Christian" groups such as Latter Day Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses comprising a small part of that. Of the non-Christian groups, 3-4% are non-Christian religions, such as Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, or traditional indigenous beliefs, while another 3-4% are non-religious. With immigration from places like Esportiva, the non-Christian share of the population is growing, but remains a small proportion overall.
Politics and Government
Nova Anglicana's founding as a Christian nation means that Christian influence in the government is unavoidable. The official religion is Anglicanism, though religious freedom is guaranteed for all groups within certain acceptable boundaries. There are no religious tests for office, and state support for the Anglicanism is confined to a special fund for building maintenance. The prominence of Anglicanism means that many people are already contributing to the Church, and as such, there isn't need to tax people to support the Church. Despite the official religion being Christianity, and the official national anthem being a Christian hymn, the Nova Anglican government tries to be as secular as it can in its actions. There is civil marriage and same-sex marriage, for example.
The House of Bishops is an advisory body without legislative, executive, or judicial power that consists of all bishops and archbishops in the Anglican Church of Nova Anglicana. It is also written into their charter that "the House of Bishops may extend an invitation to any religion or sect to choose a representative to be admitted to the House of Bishops," and there are some representatives of non-Anglican religions in the body.
The job of the House, which convenes three times a year for three days each, is to advise national legislators on matters of public policy based on their respective religious traditions. The members of the House meet and discuss recent legislation or pending legislation, and issue recommendations for future legislation as well as approve or disapprove of current legislation. The proclamations are entirely non-binding on the government, but do provide a good idea of how the religious community feels about issues. It is also traditional, but not required for a member or members of each political party to be present during the session and/or give a speech to the body regarding motivations for current or pending legislation and solicit opinions about future legislation.
Most political parties and voters have Anglican influence, because they are Anglican. Politicians openly proclaim their faith and speak about how it influences their decision-making. However, the Church does not have an undue or even controlling influence on the government. The Anglican Church specifically forbids its clergy from standing for office and most other religious groups do as well. The government routinely passes laws that the Anglican Church might object to. It is, after all, an independent institution. All of this is to say that Nova Anglicana is no theocracy, but rather a God-fearing and compassionate nation that seeks to better the lives of all its citizens.
Nova Anglican politics is inextricably bound up with Christianity. This quotation from former Prime Minister Allen Mumford is a good summary:
"To bring good news to the poor and oppressed, to proclaim release to the captives, to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, and care for the sick; this is the true measure of a Christian society and a Christian government." - Allen Mumford
As to the political parties, the two major parties, the Progressive Justice Party and the Nova Anglican People's Party, both proclaim Christian democracy as one of their official ideologies. They represent, respectively, more left-leaning and right-leaning versions of the ideology. The Stewardship Party practices green politics, but as the name suggests, they do it out of a motivation from God's command in the Garden of Eden to be responsible stewards of the earth. Two other right-leaning parties, the Libertarian Party and the National Party, each have confessing Christian members and use Christianity as part of their politics, but not in the same sense as the three parties mentioned above. Finally, there is the Liberal Secularist Party. These are people who are specifically dissatisfied with the level of religious influence in the government. The party members are united around the disestablishment of the Anglican Church as the official religion, promotion of science, comprehensive sex education, higher education funding, and a generally socially or culturally liberal stance on issues, with support for immigration. They are strongly progressive on LGBTQ and abortion issues. So there is resistance to the way Nova Anglicans do politics.
Culture
Living in Nova Anglicana can be quite the experience if one is not used to a prominent Christian presence in everyday life. For example, over 65% of the country claims to go to church services weekly, and therefore on Sunday mornings, one is apt to see people in various levels of dress scurrying to and fro as they try to wrangle their families to church on time. It was said that in Constantinople, theological discourse was the province of ordinary people, and that people would simply not shut up about it. It's not quite that bad in Nova Anglicana, but if you go into a coffee shop, and see two people sitting together, there's probably a one in three chance they're talking about Christianity. There are many churches, and some of them are prominent parts of the landscape.
As for entertainment, CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) is not the most popular music in the country, nor even in church pews. Many Nova Anglican Christians will make it a point of pride to tell you they prefer traditional hymns to CCM. Countrywide, pop music reigns as it does everywhere, though folk music runs a close second and CCM sells well. On the television, sports are incredibly popular, but Canon Law & Order, a show about crimesolving clergy from the Nova Anglicana Public Broadcasting Corporation, has been one of, if not the most popular show, for several years running. In Nova Anglican sitcoms, religion is often a plot point, or characters are seen going to church, though showrunners are careful not to let these scenes descend into didacticism. Religion is not a repository of trite phrases, or something akin to a secular self-help book. Most Nova Anglicans believe that religion is something that can change the world, and they treat it accordingly.
Charity work is also prominent in Nova Anglicana, and the combination of strong Christian influence plus the nature of the existing natives of the Atlantic provinces makes it so. It's not uncommon for Nova Anglicans to be personally involved in multiple charities at once, and some of the snobbier ones make it into a competition. Please be prepared for your Nova Anglican neighbors to pop around with food or to try to fix something without being asked, or to invite you to church, or to invite you to do some kind of volunteer work with them. Some people would find it annoying, but that's just how Nova Anglicans are. There is some overlap with the concept of Minnesota nice, where Nova Anglicans are more interested in living in peace with their neighbors than stirring up trouble, and this has often been attributed to the Christian command to "love thy neighbor".
If you're a non-Christian in Nova Anglicana, you might find the overwhelming presence of Christians to be a little stressful. Many Nova Anglicans are aware of this, and attempt to make religious people who aren't Christian feel comfortable. Nova Anglicans' theological dispositions also lead to interfaith dialogue as well as interfaith charity work, as they attempt to get to know their neighbors better. In some ways, the fact that Christians are a vast majority in the country makes this kind of dialogue and action more likely; sociologists suspect that if Nova Anglicana were 50% Christian, 30% non-religious, and 20% non-Christian religious, then Nova Anglicans would be far less likely to engage in the ways they do. Non-religious people can often find it difficult, as some level of religious belief is taken for granted and religion is a big part of many aspects of Nova Anglican life. The "Nova Anglican nice" concept extends somewhat less to non-religious people, though humanist groups have made some inroads in terms of dialogue and co-operation with Christian groups.
Overall, Nova Anglicana is an incredibly religious place, from the founding to who lives there, to the government and everyday life. It would be strange to many people, but for Nova Anglicans, it's what they call "normal".
