Welcome to the Episcopal Church
What is the Episcopal Church?
Like every other Christian tradition, the Episcopal Church is founded upon the affirmation that Jesus Christ is Lord. The Episcopal Church comes out of the Anglican tradition, which represents a continuous tradition of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church in England, which became a distinctive political entity during the Reformation era. As Anglican Christians, Episcopalians worship according to an authorized edition of The Book of Common Prayer and are in communion with Anglicans worldwide through the See of Canterbury (the seat or jurisdiction of a bishop).
The Episcopal Church is a church with bishops as its chief pastors. The word "episcopal" comes from the Greek word "episcopos," meaning "bishop." Through succession of our bishops, we trace our roots all the way back to the early, undivided Church of the apostles.
Most Episcopal Churches are called parishes. This church is called a Cathedral, from a Greek word that means "seat" or "throne." This is where our bishop is officially "seated" though he is with us for worship only occasionally. He is the chief pastor of our Diocese, which is a word that means "household." The Diocese of Mississippi is a household of faith with about 90 different congregations, 1 bishop, the Right Reverend Duncan M. Gray III. The Episcopal Church is governed by a General Convention that meets every 3 years. It is convened by our Presiding Bishop.
The Episcopal Church has about 2.5 million baptized members in 7,200 churches, 300 bishops, 14,000 priests, and nearly 2,000 deacons throughout the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean, Taiwan, and Europe. We make up about 1% of American Christians. Globally, however, there are about 78 million Anglicans.
The "essentials" of the Anglican approach to Christian faith can be summed up as follows:
(1) We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God, that they contain all things necessary to salvation, and that they serve as the rule and ultimate standard of faith.
(2) We affirm the Apostles' Creed as the Baptismal Symbol and the Nicene Creed as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith.
(3) We regard the two sacraments ordained by Christ himself as necessary for the Christian life. These sacraments are Holy Baptism and Holy Eucharist.
(4) We hold that the Historic Episcopate - bishops ordained in apostolic succession - insure the Church's connection to the apostles' teaching and fellowship.
The Episcopal Church also affirms the role that reason plays in discerning the mind and will of God through reflection on scripture, tradition (which includes what Christians have lived, written, and taught down through the centuries), and human experience. Human reason is not infallible and it does not stand apart from the authority of scripture and tradition. Rather, reason is a gift from God best exercised in the context of the worshiping faith community and informed by scripture and tradition.
What is Worship in the Episcopal Church?
Worship is the heart and soul of our Christian faith as Episcopalians. Our worship is liturgical, communal, and sacramental. It is liturgical, because we use set forms and patterns for worship as contained in The Book of Common Prayer or other authorized texts.
The word "liturgy" literally means, "the work of the people." It's something we all do together. So worshiping in a liturgical tradition stresses the communal character of our worship. Personal prayer arises out of communal or common prayer. The offering of our selves, our souls and bodies, to God through the praise, thanksgiving, and intercessions of common prayer is our primary vocation as Christians.
Our worship is also sacramental because we celebrate the sacrament of Holy Communion every Sunday. Sunday, or the Lord's Day, is a Feast Day of the Resurrection. We believe that the most fitting way to celebrate that feast is with the sacrament that commemorates and gives thanks for Jesus' death and resurrection.
Many Episcopal churches look similar to ours. The place where you sit for worship is the nave, from the Latin word for "ship." From the beginning, the Church has been thought of as a ship of salvation. An early Christian named Hippolytus (3rd Century) said this: "The world is a sea in which the Church, like a ship, is beaten by the waves, but not submerged." The chancel is where the choir sits, and the sanctuary is the area behind the altar rails around the high altar.
Front and center in our nave is the baptismal font. Its location reminds us that baptism is the foundation and the center of our Christian life. We believe that our life of Christian discipleship and servanthood flows out from this fountain of water to the whole world with God's love.
Holy Eucharist, also called Holy Communion or the Lord's Supper, is the meal which feeds and sustains the Christian life we receive in baptism. The word "eucharist" means "thanksgiving." When we celebrate Holy Eucharist, we give thanks by remembering what God has done for us in creation, in the calling of Israel to be His people, in the word spoken through the prophets, and in the Word made flesh in Jesus. In the Episcopal Church, all Christians baptized with water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit are welcome and invited to share in this thanksgiving meal with us. Persons who are not baptized are welcome and invited to come forward to receive a blessing.
