The thesis addresses controversies within Anglicanism over overlapping identities and whose differences are included or excluded as Anglicans. Overlapping identities have been perceived as challenges to ecclesial identity coherence, but the thesis asks if these might alternatively be viewed as an unrecognized manifestation of postcolonial hybrid ecclesiologies. The thesis engages Stephen Sykes' search for a systematic, ontological question as to the way the Anglican Communion is a "part" of the universal church of Christ. The thesis demonstrates the shift of whole-parts from an ontological foundation in medieval ecclesiology to a manipulation of power in contemporary ecclesiologies to exclude offensive parts and maintain coherence in identity.