Henry VIII broke from Rome during the period of the rise of Protestantism. As a result, there were essentially two different issues at stake: papal authority and the theology and hierarchy of the nascent state church. While the new Church of England rejected Papal authority, it created a "via media" or middle path between Roman theology and more extreme forms of Protestantism. In general, the new Church of England had weaker clerical authority than the Roman churches, but a more vertical hierarchical structure than some radical Protestant churches.
Liturgically, the major shift was from a Latin to a vernacular liturgy. The Eucharistic service in the Church of England is actually an English translation of a slightly modified form of the Sarum rite, the Roman Catholic liturgy as performed in the Cathedral of Salisbury. The Bible was now read in English rather than Latin, making it accessible to the laity. While Roman priests typically faced eastward (in the same direction as the congregation, and thus with their backs to the congregation), priests in the English church faced towards the congregation. Unlike the Roman church where communion was only given to the laity in one kind (bread but not wine), in the English church the laity communicated in both kinds.
While the English church did maintain the older Roman parish system and episcopal hierarchy, it made fundamental changes in theology, including rejection of the doctrine of purgatory and indulgences, a belief in salvation through grace, and a belief in single predestination (you may be predestined to salvation, but the 39 Articles do not mention predestination to damnation). Critically, the English church subscribed to a "sola scriptura" doctrine (that scripture was all that was needed for salvation), reducing the importance of the clergy.
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