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What Do We Believe?

anglican-communion-logo-1The Episcopal Church is a member of the world-wide Anglican Communion, with 70 million members in 164 countries. We are a community of Christians bound together by our belief that Holy Scripture contains the very core of all Christian

Provinces of the Anglican Communion

Provinces of the Anglican Communion (click to expand)

faith and thought, by the many ancient and modern stories that connect us to Jesus and his teachings, and by discovering daily God’s hope and call to us through our life together.

The Central Role of Scripture

In response to actions at the Lambeth Conference in 1998, a Hermeneutics Study Group of the diocese developed a scholarly statement of interpretive principles by which we understand the Holy Scriptures,titled “Let the Reader Understand,” which was published in 2002. Read the full text of “Let the Reader Understand.

 The Bible is the Defining Text Episcopalians agree that the Bible, in the words of Article VI of the Articles of Religion, “containeth all things necessary to salvation.” But the Bible Must be Interpreted: Scripture, Tradition and Reason One of the defining ideas of Anglicanism is the theory, expounded by the 16th century theologian Richard Hooker, of a middle way (or, in Latin, a via media) between the extremes of the Roman Catholics on the one hand, and of the Puritans on the other.

Portrait of Richard Hooker

Richard Hooker, engraved by Wenceslas Hollar

Hooker argued that while the Scriptures were paramount, reason and tradition should be used to interpret them, and that they should be read as products of the historical contexts in which they were written (as, indeed, should the traditions that we receive and the reasoning that we develop within our own context). Constant Tension Since Hooker’s day, the tension has never ceased between Anglicans who emphasize the divine origin and immutability of Scripture alone, those who believe that Scripture should hold sway in combination with the particular tradition that they in their small corner of the world happen to have received, and those who believe that the Holy Spirit continues to work through the power of reason to set aside the injustices of humankind and transform the world. Disagreements Historically, these issues have been seen as ones of emphasis, resolved by agreeing to disagree; in recent years, however, gaps have undeniably increased within the Anglican Communion and inside individual national churches or provinces as more conservative members have fought what they see as the sacrifice of timeless truths to the moral relativism of contemporary society. Sparking points in this debate have been the ordination of women (and their later consecration as bishops), the new edition of the Book of Common Prayer issued in 1979 (which introduced modern language while simultaneously looking back to the Episcopal Church’s Catholic roots with its replacement of Morning Prayer with the Holy Eucharist (i.e. Holy Communion) as the main Sunday service), and the open acceptance of actively homosexual clergy, culminating in the election of an openly homosexual bishop in 2003. Throughout all this, though, as throughout its history, the church remains essentially united by its agreement on one thing: that the Book of Common Prayer should be the guide to religious practice for all Anglicans. For more information on the Anglican Communion, visit its website. For a basic but cogent explanation of the ever-shifting interplay between Scripture, Tradition and Reason, you might consider viewing this short YouTube video by Father Matthew Moretz. For a more “traditional” treatment of the subject, the Episcopal Diocese of Texas offers this.

commoncup402dCelebrating God through water, bread and wine

In our worship service, we celebrate God with us through water, bread and wine. Jesus shared bread and wine with his first followers and is with us today in this family meal we call Holy Communion. Through it we receive the forgiveness of our sins and a strengthening of our union with God and one another as we remember Christ’s life, death and resurrection.

Any baptized person is welcome to share in this meal. Episcopalians believe that Holy Baptism in any denomination represents the complete entrance of an individual into membership of the Church.

An individual becomes part of the Church through the sacrament of baptism by water. Our Lord Jesus Christ tells us that through baptism we are united with God. The Episcopal Church believes that through baptism—in any Christian denomination—we become brothers and sisters in God’s family. Episcopalians therefore welcome and encourage all those who have been baptized, in whatever church to join us in taking communion.

The Book of Common Prayer

United by a Prayer Book

1549 BCP

Title Page of the 1549 Book of Common Prayer

All Episcopal services whatever their style—and they vary from simple spoken ceremonies to elaborate sung ones—follow those laid out in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. It ultimately traces its history back to the first Prayer Book of the English church, produced in 1549, following its split with Rome. Services involve participation from the congregation and follow almost exactly the same essential forms. This means that on any given Sunday an Episcopalian can walk into any Episcopal church in the land (and with small local variations, any Anglican church in the Communion) and take part in the service.