Origin of the Episcopal Church

The Episcopal Church is the American branch of the Anglican Communion. The Anglican Communion is an inheritor of 2000 years of catholic and apostolic tradition dating from Christ himself, rooted in the Church of England. When the Church of England spread throughout the British Empire, sister churches sprang up. These churches, while autonomous in their governance, are bound together by tradition, Scripture, and the inheritance they have received from the Church of England. They together make up the Anglican Communion, a body headed spiritually by the Archbishop of Canterbury and having some 70 million members, making it the second largest Christian body in the world.

The Episcopal Church came into existence as an independent denomination after the American Revolution. Today it has between two and three million members in the United States, Mexico, and Central America, all of which are under jurisdiction of the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Frank Tracy Griswold.

The Book of Common Prayer

Unique to Anglicanism, though, is the Book of Common Prayer, the collection of worship services that all worshipers in an Anglican church follow. It’s called “common prayer” because we all pray it together, 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. But its original purpose has remained the same: To provide in one place the core of the instructions and rites for Anglican Christians to worship together.

The present prayer book in the Episcopal Church was published in 1979. Many other worship resources and prayers exist to enrich our worship, but the Book of Common Prayer is the authority that governs our worship. The prayer book explains Christianity, describes the main beliefs of the Church, outlines the requirements for the sacraments, and in general serves as the main guidelines of the Episcopal life.

Scripture, Tradition, and Reason

The Anglican approach to reading and interpreting the Bible was first articulated by Richard Hooker, also in the 16th Century. While Christians universally acknowledge the Bible (or the Holy Scriptures) as the Word of God and completely sufficient to our reconciliation to God, what the Bible says must always speak to us in our own time and place.

The Church, as a worshiping body of faithful people, has for two thousand years amassed experience of God and of loving Jesus, and what they have said to us through the centuries about the Bible is critical to our understanding it in our own context. The traditions of the Church in interpreting Scripture connect all generations of believers together and give us a starting point for our own understanding.

Episcopalians believe that every Christian must build an understanding and relationship with God’s Word in the Bible, and to do that, God has given us intelligence and our own experience, which we refer to as “Reason.” Based on the text of the Bible itself, and what Christians have taught us about it through the ages, we then must sort out our own understanding of it as it relates to our own lives.

Why do so many Episcopal Churches have red doors?

It's because red doors traditionally mean "sanctuary" -- the ground beyond the doors is holy, and anyone who goes through them is safe from physical (and spiritual) harm. In ancient times, no one could pursue an enemy past red doors into a church, and certainly no one could be harmed or captured inside of a church. Today, the red reminds us of the blood of Christ and that we are always safe in God's care!

The Compass Rose Anglican Emblem

The emblem of this Anglican family of churches is the Compass Rose. The compass rose in its original form is well-known to many as it has appeared on charts and maps since the 1300’s. It is the familiar north, south, east, west cross-symbol used to show direction. Its many compass points indicate the many directions of the winds.

In its Anglican form, the red cross of St. George sits on a silver shield at the center, a reminder of the origins of the Anglican Communion and a unifying link of the past within the communion today. Encircling the cross is a band bearing the inscription “The Truth shall make you free” in the original New Testament Greek. From the band radiate the points of the compass. The compass symbolizes the worldwide spread of the Anglican faith. Atop the shield is a mitre, the symbol of the Apostolic Order (the role of the Episcopate) which is essential to all the churches which constitute the Anglican Communion.

The Episcopal Shield

Several crosses appear on the shield. The large, red cross that divides the shield is a cross of St. George, the cross of the Church of England, and it represents our ties with our mother church.

There are nine small crosses in the upper left quadrant arranged in a St. Andrew's cross, the cross of the Church of Scotland. When no Anglican bishop would ordain a bishop for the fledgling Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA, bishops of the Church of Scotland agreed to lay hands on Samuel Seabury, ordaining him the first bishop of the ECUSA. This cross honors the part the Church of Scotland played in the birth of our church.

Each of the nine small crosses that comprises the St. Andrew's cross represents one of the nine dioceses that in 1789 founded the ECUSA.

The shield's layout, which is reminiscent of the American flag (the founding fathers of the ECUSA were also the founding fathers of our country), and its red, white, and blue motif signify that the ECUSA is the American representative to the Anglican Communion. The colors each have a symbolic meaning: Red is for the blood Christ shed for us and for the lives of the martyrs of our faith; White is the color of purity; Blue is the traditional color of the Virgin Mary, the mother of the Son of Man.

Above information taken from:  www.episcopalchurch.org
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