Ask me anything: Episcopalian Edition

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GKMotley said:
What did I say about choosing the correct Anglican to ask?
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Yeah, ACNA has some issues. Still much better than the Episcopal Church, though I’d prefer something that much more strongly embraces our Catholic heritage. Still, since my wife grew up Presbyterian and is reflexively anti-Catholic, ACNA has been a good way to get us going to church together in a church that has weekly communion and lets me be a happy little Anglo-Catholic.
 
Depends on the Anglican you ask. Engrave this on your heart.

I have never met an Anglican Continuum priest who said “two”, but I would never avow that there are none. I have often met those who make the Dominical distinction. With others, it has not arisen.
 
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If my mom and grandparents hadn’t baptized me as an infant into Catholicism, I would have chosen Episcopalian had I been given a choice in what denomination I wanted to be.
 
He is described as having been of a group that were predecessors to hobbits . . . and then he saw the ring that warped him . . .
 
I’m not the OP, but I can answer this for myself. Mainly because I was born into it: I’m a cradle Episcopalian. There are many things I love about it, and some I don’t really care for, but it’s my home.
 
As somebody who’s dipped feet numerous times into the Episcopal Church, I’ve been struck by their differing approach to dogma.

The Catholic Church will say, “What the Magisterium says is true and infallible. Anything apart from it is heresy, with limited cases allowed for applying probabilism or prudential judgment.”

The Episcopal Church will say, “Here is what we find in the Gospels and the Book of Common Prayer. Here’s are the explanations for how these conclusions were reached based on Scripture, reason, and tradition. If you’ve given this a lot of thought and you’re still personally skeptical, that’s OK, too.”
 
I’ve gotta think this thread has not gone as OP hoped.

I will say in the Episcopalians’ favor that theirs tend to be quite beautiful churches, and, as has always been the case in the Anglican Communion, the liturgy is beautiful, 1979 modernization notwithstanding.

Well, looks like I’ve used up my list of the things I like about the Episcopal Church.
 
I have some questions in specific reference to the Episcopal Church of America:
  1. Back in the day, First Communion and Confirmation were treated as the same sacrament and occurred at about age 10. Now, any baptized child, from a very young age, may receive Holy Eucharist. How, when, and why did this change?
  2. I know of an Anglican Bishop who split from the Episcopal Church over an irreconcilable difference over procedure. Back in the day, the Episcopalian leaders voted to allow the ordination of women. This bishop took issue not so much with ordaining women but with the concept that a church’s teachings, not to mention major eternal truths, could be subject to the fickle whims of a simple popular vote based on the biases, beliefs, and prejudices of individual humans.
I suppose that the Catholic Church gets accused of the same. But do you believe this Bishop’s take on the matter is valid? In the current day, what all goes into formulating the positions and teachings of the ECA?
  1. The ECA offers Confession as an option, but sometimes one can be hard-pressed to find an Episcopal priest willing to administer this sacrament. In my own experience, it’s not at all promoted, for example by bulletin announcements: "To schedule and individual confession, please contact . . . "
My mom once tried to confess, only to have the priest look at he quizzically and say, "Well . . . . I guess I could hear your confession . . . . " (Try not to show too much enthusiasm there, Padre!)

I understand that Episcopalians believe in the validity of confessing directly to God as well as through clergy. But why do you think the option of the latter is underplayed and even a best-kept secret?
  1. I’m familiar with the Anglican Rosary, but why don’t Episcopalians say the traditional Catholic one?
 
Question 2: This is a major issue, and I think his point is valid; the idea that the church can simply democratically override matters of Scripture, such as gay marriage, is ridiculous.
Question 3: Cynical answer? Because Episcopalians are uncomfortable with the discussion of sin, choosing instead to pretend that our actions don’t matter as long as we’re nice to people.
Question 4: Most Episcopalians, like most Protestants, reject the idea of prayers to the saints. Some Episcopalians do – I know of one Anglo-Catholic ECA church in my area that hosts weekly Marian rosary corporate prayer sessions.
 
There are still some sad remnants of orthodoxy, trapped in there.A diminishing breed.
 
HopkinsReb said:
Question 3: Cynical answer? Because Episcopalians are uncomfortable with the discussion of sin, choosing instead to pretend that our actions don’t matter as long as we’re nice to people.
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The ECA, in particular, is heterodoxic, leaving one wondering what to expect from one church to the next.

The one that I attended has a beautiful Lenten rite, (with which I’m sure you’re familiar), of opening the service by having everybody kneel, listen to each of the Ten Commandments, and then reply, “Lord have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.” And they could say the S-word without flinching. Like I said, it varies from church to church.

The one my mom attended spent Lent hosting a lecture series about global warming. I’m very much for the social justice and eco-justice issues, but . . . time and place, people!
 
blackforest said:
The one that I attended has a beautiful Lenten rite, (with which I’m sure you’re familiar), of opening the service by having everybody kneel, listen to each of the Ten Commandments, and then reply, “Lord have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.” And they could say the S-word without flinching. Like I said, it varies from church to church.
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It’s a funny thing about a liberal liturgical church: they’re fine talking about sin in the context of prayers they’ve said a million times, but try to actually discuss outside of a rote setting what sin is and why it matters, and things change pretty fast.
 
I’ve been enrolled in a theology class at an Episcopal Church. They know I’m Catholic and receive my perspectives with open minds. Sin is quite candidly addressed and discussed in class. But yes, I would certainly like to hear more about it in their sermons.
 
Yeah, my main experience with the Episcopal Church is the church I grew up in in a college town in Mississippi. It was basically a handful of devout folks like my parents plus a bunch of university faculty who were far more concerned with the quality of the music than with Christian orthodoxy.
 
Meanwhile, Catholics have jettisoned any consideration over quality of music . . .

<<Ducking into bunker to dodge inevitable bullets from the music ministry folks . . . >>
 
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