A:  The origins of the Episcopal Church lie in England.  In 1534, King Henry VIII had Parliament declare the Church of England independent of the religious authority of the Pope.  Then, in 1776, the American members of the Church of England declared themselves independent of the religious authority of the King, and created the Episcopal Church.  Today America and England are friends, and the Episcopal Church is part of the Anglican Communion, a worldwide network of independent churches whose origins lie in the Church of England.

Q:  Why are you called the "Episcopal" Church?

A:  Because our leaders are called "bishops", an office which began in early Christian times as the episkopoi, or "overseers".  Through the Church of England and, before that, the Catholic Church, our bishops trace in an unbroken line to the time of Jesus' apostles.

Q:  What does the Episcopal Church believe?

A:  We believe that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,  the ancient doctrine of the Trinity.  At the heart of our faith lies the belief in Christ as God who, taking on our humanity, lived among us, teaching and healing, then died for our sins and rose from the dead, so that those who follow his teachings and have faith in his love and his resurrection will be resurrected as he was and have eternal life when he returns.

Q:  What does the Episcopal Church mean by "Scripture, Tradition, and Reason"?

A:  Scripture, Tradition, and Reason are the foundations of Episcopal belief.  Episcopalians believe that the Holy Spirit revealed God to the Jews and to early Christians through Scripture, and that the Spirit continued to work through the teachings of the apostles and their successors, which form the Church's Tradition.  And we believe that since God is rational, His Spirit speaks to us through the voice of Reason.  Think of our faith as a tree:  The roots, anchoring us deep, are Scripture, the trunk, standing strong and tall, is Tradition, and the limbs, always reaching for the light, are Reason.

Q:  What are Episcopal worship services like?

A:  The Episcopal Church encourages its congregations to try out new ways of worshiping, but our basic service, or liturgy, is pretty traditional.  Some parts of it go all the way back to the earliest days of organized Christian worship in the time of the apostles.  That's important to us, because it means that when we use those words, it isn't just us proclaiming our love for God and our faith in Christ;  1900 years of Christians proclaim that love, and that faith, along with us.  So through our worship we affirm our community with those Christians, and we affirm that all of us, living or dead, past or present, are One Church.

The Episcopal worship liturgy is contained, along with liturgies for almost every occasion, as well as all the psalms, and hundreds of prayers (in case you ever have problems coming up with prayers on your own) in our Book of Common Prayer.

Q:  Does the Episcopal Church restrict who can take part in its worship services?

A:  No.  We invite ALL of God's children to share fully in our worship, regardless of what church they belong to, or whether they belong to any church at all. Episcopalians are conservatives as well as liberals, evangelicals as well as traditionalists, gays as well as straights, divorced people, singles, families.  Most of us started out as something else, and came to the Episcopal Church looking for a church that had ancient roots but where our diversity was welcome and where we could all share one communion.

We invite you to share it with us.