The Episcopal Shield…
12/03/06
As a symbol of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, the familiar Episcopal Shield offers a brief Church history through its design...
Our Episcopal Church was born of the American Revolution; from which, Anglicans in the colonies found themselves estranged from the Church of England.
The shield's design consists of the large red-on-white Cross of St. George (symbolizing our roots in, and ties to, the Church of England) and the white-on-blue Cross of St. Andrew (symbolizing the Scottish Episcopal Church, on which we patterned our governance and who ordained our first Bishop (know his name?) in 1784; the first Anglican Bishop to serve outside the British Isles (thus beginning the world-wide Anglican Communion). The nine white crosslets reference the nine original dioceses of our Church, who met in Philadelphia in 1789 to ratify the Constitution, and later the Articles of Religion, of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America.
Our Episcopal Church was born of the American Revolution; from which, Anglicans in the colonies found themselves estranged from the Church of England.
The shield's design consists of the large red-on-white Cross of St. George (symbolizing our roots in, and ties to, the Church of England) and the white-on-blue Cross of St. Andrew (symbolizing the Scottish Episcopal Church, on which we patterned our governance and who ordained our first Bishop (know his name?) in 1784; the first Anglican Bishop to serve outside the British Isles (thus beginning the world-wide Anglican Communion). The nine white crosslets reference the nine original dioceses of our Church, who met in Philadelphia in 1789 to ratify the Constitution, and later the Articles of Religion, of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America.