+ The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America
+ The Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Los Angeles
+ The Anglican Communion
+ The Church of England
+ The 1979 Book of Common Prayer, an online edition
Also in this section...
+ The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion
What is the Episcopal Church..?
Scripture. Reason. Tradition.
The Episcopal Church Is the American Province of the Anglican Communion. The Anglican Communion is an inheritor of 2000 years of catholic and apostolic tradition dating from Christ himself, rooted in the Church of England. When the Church of England spread throughout the British Empire, sister churches sprang up. These churches, while autonomous in their governance, are bound together by tradition, Scripture, and the inheritance they have received from the Church of England. There are 44 churches in the Anglican Communion, including the Episcopal Church in the United States, the Anglican Church of Canada, the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Church in Wales, the Church of Ireland, the Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican Episcopal Church in Japan, the Hong Kong Episcopal Church, the Church of North India, and the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem & The Middle East, among many others. They together make up the Anglican Communion, a body headed loosely by the Archbishop of Canterbury and having some 80 million members, making it the largest non Roman Catholic Christian body in the Western world.
Interior
detail of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Wickford, Rhode Island,
built in 1707.
The Episcopal Church came into
existence as an independent denomination after the American
Revolution. Today it has between two and three million members in
the United States, Mexico, and Central America, all of which are
under jurisdiction of the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal
Church.
Bishops in the American Episcopal Church are elected by individual
dioceses and are consecrated into the Apostolic Succession,
considered to witness to an unbroken line of Church leadership
beginning with the Apostles themselves. For more than two decades
the American Episcopal Church has ordained women to the
priesthood.
Although it subscribes to the historic Creeds (the Nicene Creed and
the Apostles' Creed), considers the Bible to be divinely inspired,
and holds Communion or Lord's Supper to be the central act of
Christian worship; the Episcopal Church grants great latitude in
interpretation of personal doctrine. It tends to stress less the
confession of any particular beliefs than the use of the liturgy;
the Book of Common Prayer in public worship. This book, first
published in the sixteenth century, even in its revisions, stands
today as a major source of unity for Anglicans around the
world.
The Church of England has always valued the life of the mind and
dialogue with fields of secular study. Isaac Newton was an Anglican
clergyman and theologian as were several of the founders of the
Royal Society, the earliest institution organized for the promotion
of science. The Episcopal Church maintains this tradition,
routinely requiring its clergy to hold university as well as
seminary degrees and supporting many university chaplains.
What Do Episcopalians Believe?
Though Episcopalian belief, like Episcopalians themselves, can be
quite diverse; we all believe in a balance of scripture, reason and
tradition. Basically, the Episcopal Church is a Protestant church
with Reformed beliefs and Catholic traditions. The standard is the
Book of Common Prayer, which contains excerpts of passages from the
Bible and various prayers for use in Church and at home. The Book
of Common Prayer also contains several ancient Creeds. A creed is a
statement of belief, and these ancient creeds proclaim what the
earliest Christians believed to be true.
"I believe there is no Liturgy in the
world, either in ancient or modern language, which breathes more of
a solid, scriptural, rational piety than the Common Prayer of the
Church of England." -- John Wesley, founder of the Methodist
Church.
Included in the Book of Common Prayer, as a complement to the
Creeds and Prayers, is a Catechism. A catechism states the beliefs
and practice of the Church in a very concise format. It is in the
catechism that you may find how Episcopalians view God, Jesus
Christ, death, good and evil, and sin. It also explains in a
practical fashion what the goal of human life is, and how we may
pursue that goal.
What Does It Mean to Be Episcopalian?
On a more day-to-day level, to be Episcopalian means thinking
critically about issues which confront everyone -- and responding
in a particular way. To be Episcopalian means taking responsibility
for one's own faith and how one acts upon it.
"You don’t have to check your
brains at the door..." -- Comedian Robin Williams, from his "Top
Ten Reasons for being an Episcopalian."
The Episcopal Church is quite diverse, and welcomes people of all
backgrounds, allowing them to take on responsibilities ranging from
those of the clergy, to teachers, or simply congregation members.
The Episcopal Church is not a "preachy" Church, and although it
does maintain those rituals common to the Christian Church since
its inception, it is not a "you must follow the rules or else" type
of Church. Episcopalians do practice a faith that is liturgically
and theologically a bridge between Catholicism and Protestant
traditions; a valued balance of scripture, reason and
tradition.