What is the Episcopal Church

Frequently Asked Questions about the Episcopal Church
and the Anglican Tradition

What is The Episcopal Church?

The Episcopal Church (TEC) is one of 38 member provinces of the worldwide Anglican Communion. TEC has over 7,400 congregations in 110 dioceses with 2.2 million members. While the majority of members of TEC are located in the United States, TEC also has members in Columbia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Honduras, Micronesia, Puerto Rico, Taiwan, Venezuela, the Virgin Islands and the Convocation of Churches in Europe.
The leader of TEC is the Presiding Bishop and Primate, the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori. Bishop Schori is the first woman to lead TEC, and was elected at the 75th General Convention in June 2006.

The Anglican Communion

The Anglican Communion is made up of 70 million members in 64,000 congregations in 164 countries. The member churches of the Anglican Communion are joined together by choice in love, and trace their roots to the Church of England. Because of this shared ancestry, they maintain a “communion” with each other, but they have no direct authority over one another.

The spiritual head of the Anglican Communion is the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, 104th Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of the Church of England. However, Archbishop Williams does not have any direct authority over any Anglican Church outside of the Church of England.

Historical Background

The Episcopal Church (TEC) traces its origins back to the Church of England, which was created by King Henry VIII of England in the midst of violent religious disagreements of the 16^th century. This was the time of the Reformation, and after several disagreements with the pope, King Henry VIII cut ties with the Roman Catholic Church and declared himself the head of the newly independent Church of England – also known as the Anglican Church.
The Church of England spread through colonization. However, after the American Revolution, the Anglican congregations in the newly independent United States wanted their church to be free of the King of England as well as their country. Thus they reorganized themselves and created a new church. The word “Episcopal” was chosen to emphasize the historic ministry of bishops, priests and deacons.

Today, TEC is a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which is the third largest body of Christians in the world, after the Roman Catholic and Eastern orthodox communions.

The Book of Common Prayer

The Book of Common Prayer is unique to Anglicanism. It contains a collection of worship services that all worshipers in an Anglican church follow. It also contains the Psalms, prayers and thanksgivings and an Outline of Faith. Essentially it is a guidebook for worship, and is meant to be used in church on Sundays, as well as in daily relationship with God. It is called “common prayer” because it is used by all Anglicans around the world.
The first Book of Common Prayer was compiled in English by Thomas Cranmer in the 16th Century, and since then has undergone many revisions for different times and places. The present prayer book in the Episcopal Church was published in 1979.

Worship using the Book of Common Prayer

One of the benefits of having a Book of Common Prayer is that it provides a framework and unity for all Anglican worship services. For each Christian season, the Book of Common Prayer lays out the form that the service should take, and provides the text for most of the prayers. A calendar of readings from the Scriptures, called the “Lectionary,” lays out which biblical passages should be read each day. Typical services will mix readings, prayers, hymns and a sermon. In every case, while a priest leads the service, the congregation participates extensively – singing hymns and speaking or signing prayers, the creed, responses and psalms.

The Book of Common Prayer provides a fixed framework, but not a rigid one. The details vary from church to church and are a matter of tradition and taste. However, overall, services tend to follow the same essential form, which means that on any given Sunday an Episcopalian can walk into any Episcopal church (and likely any Anglican church in the Communion) and recognize and participate in the service.

The full text of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer can be found online.

The Episcopal Shield

The Episcopal shield was adopted in 1940.

The white field with red cross is St. George's cross - the patron saint of the Church of England.

The nine small crosses on the blue field symbolize the nine dioceses that met in Philadelphia in 1789 to ratify the first constitution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America.

The shape of the white crosses on the blue field form the St. Andrew's cross. St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland. It was a Scottish bishop who ordained Samuel Seabury as the first American Bishop in 1784.