Are there any members of the Episcopal Church out there?

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EOvsRC1054

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Hi everyone! I was just curious to see if there are any members of the Episcopal Church out there. Or if there is anyone looking into it.
If you would like, share your opinions of the church or your stories of being in it (positive or negative).

Please no arguing about Apostolic Succession or sacrament validity (that happens alot).

Thank you! 🙂
 
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? I don’t understand. I tagged an Episcopal church member (username “Episcopalian” ) who regularly posts here in hopes he would see your thread and respond to it. The tag shows up in his notifications, so when he’s on here next he will more easily see your thread.

I’m not Episcopalian myself so cannot respond.
 
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Cradle Episcopalian, here. I worship God as an Episcopalian because I was born into it, and because I don’t see any better option out there.
 
Yep, Episcopalian here (ex-Catholic who left the RCC about 18 years ago now).

My opinion of the Episcopal church is that I love it. It’s been my spiritual home officially after Reception for about 5 years now, but I’ve been attending church with the Episcopalians for close to 8 years now. I’ve never been more at peace with my faith or closer to Christ than since joining the community I’m a member of now. The via-media and big tent application of Christ’s teachings have always resonated with me, and even more so now that I’ve seen their application from the inside and how they color everything TEC does.
 
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If you’d like to know more about the Episcopal Church, a good place to start would be to take a look at the Book of Common Prayer, particularly the catechism in the back. Be aware that the 39 Articles, which is included in the section of historical documents, is not binding on members of TEC. It’s worth considering what is included in the BCP, and also what isn’t. There’s a good youtube video on this subject, but I don’t have the link right now.
 
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Padres1969 said:
My opinion of the Episcopal church is that I love it
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There are a couple of Episcopal ministers I’ve always admired, the late Marcus Borg being the prime one. Bishop Spong has always fascinated me as well. I was introduced to those two gentlemen precisely because my evangelical friends told me how awful they were and not to read anything by them. LOL
 
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As a practising Catholic who is not American, I’ve observed the following about The Episcopal Church:
  1. It is liturgically more Anglo-Catholic than the Church of England or the Anglican Church in my country.
  2. It has, unfortunately, tossed away most Christian teachings. Bishop Spong is basically an agnostic or atheist. Bishop Pike was more or less the same. I find it unbelievable that The Episcopal Church could conduct what is basically a heresy trial against Bishop Love of the Albany Diocese - his only ‘crime’ being defending Christian marriage.
  3. The Episcopal Church is very different from the Church of England and other Anglican Communion member churches. The Church of England still, to my knowledge, teaches that marriage is between one man and one woman, that sexual relations are only possible in marriage, that abortion is immoral, and that divorce is not possible (even though it often doesn’t care about these things on a day-to-day basis). However, The Episcopal Church is on another level. It has literally changed the definition of marriage. The Archbishop of Canterbury has refused to allow them to represent the Anglican Communion because of their theological liberalism.
It’s strange when you have Anglican Churches in Africa who believe and preach the same social doctrines as us Catholics, and yet they are in communion with the Episcopal Church.

I’m glad I’m Catholic!
 
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CelticWarlord said:
Bishop Spong has always fascinated me as well.
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He certainly has some interesting ideas. I wouldn’t say that I agree with a lot of what he says, but I admire his intellectual integrity and his willingness to look at things in new ways and not be afraid to speak his mind. Even in TEC, it seems that he is pretty far outside the mainstream.

P.S. Also worth looking at is Richard Holloway, former Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church. He has some rather similar ideas. The former bishop of Oxford, Lord Harries of Pentregarth, is more like what I think of as mainstream liberal Anglicanism.
 
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I am an ex-Episcopalian. I was baptized and confirmed in the church in the 1950’s and 1960’s. The Book of Common Prayer was very important to.me. As a child, I
loved the church. In the 60’s and 70’s, the liberal progressives began gaining influence in the church like in the rest of society. I left the church and returned
briefly in 1981 and 1998.

It is similar liturgically to the Catholic Mass.

There are Bishops, priests and deacons. It is protestant and Catholic - we have the creeds, community confession, saints, holy communion. l

The Bible has the Apocrypha.

In the Episcopal church you can believe theologically what you are comfortable
with. I don’t know how many conservative priests or parishes or Bishops are left.
 
I thought there was some kind of split between the conservative and liberal Episcopal churches. I also think the United States Episcopal Church is more liberal, while the Episcopal Church in other countries and continents (Africa, for example) is more conservative. At least I recall reading something like that.
 
meltzerboy2 said:
I thought there was some kind of split between the conservative and liberal Episcopal churches.
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It’s essentially a de facto schism: African Anglican churches have missions in some Episcopal dioceses, and they are in communion with the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA, part of the continuing Anglican movement).
meltzerboy2 said:
I also think the United States Episcopal Church is more liberal
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Generally, yes. But there are theologically orthodox Episcopal diocese, like Albany under +Love. Likewise Nashotah House is a theologically orthodox Episcopal seminary in the Anglo-Catholic tradition.
 
meltzerboy2 said:
I thought there was some kind of split between the conservative and liberal Episcopal churches. I also think the United States Episcopal Church is more liberal, while the Episcopal Church in other countries and continents (Africa, for example) is more conservative. At least I recall reading something like that.
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Well, I belonged to an Episcopal church and part of the congregation left and we
formed an Anglican church and we were assciated with an Anglican Bishop from
Uganda for a time until there was an Anglican Bishop here in the in the U.S.

In the U.S. there are different branches of Anglicanism also. Not sure how
many.

You are correct @meltzerboy2 in Africa both the Catholic church and the Anglican church
are conservative.
 
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Technically, the ACNA is not considered part of the Continuum. It is attempting to remain a part of the Anglican Communion. But it is certainly a similar sort of thing.
 
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