What does the Church teach about Hell?

Hell is eternal death in our rejection of God (Book of Common Prayer, page 862). God offers us a choice to believe or not believe in Him. He will not force our choice. Those who choose to reject God are eternally separated from Him in the knowledge of having made that choice.

The Harrowing of Hell

The concept of Hell can be traced to the Old Testament belief that the dead existed in a pit of darkness and silence called Sheol. It was not a place of torment. Gehenna is a later Old Testament concept of a place of fiery punishment.

In the traditional language of the Anglican Church, Jesus Christ "descended into hell"; in the contemporary version it is "descended to the dead" (Book of Common Prayer, pages 53 and 96). See The Apostles Creed

The Harrowing of Hell is an Apocryphal concept found in the Lost Books of the Bible and Dead Sea Scrolls in which Christ contended with Lucifer for the souls of the righteous dead such as Abraham and Jacob, who died before the coming of Christ and/or without knowing Christ. According to these works, He had to personally deliver them to heaven because they were not baptized as Christians.