Just what is The Episcopal Church?
The Episcopal Church is an independent church, yet we are part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. We are tied to one another through common practice of worship with some form of the Book of Common Prayer and in our structure of ministry of the ordained (Bishops, Priests and Deacons) and non-ordained (Laity). Although the Anglican branch of the church began with the early church in England and was transformed by the influence of the Reformation in England, and still has a strong English connection, we are multi-cultural and throughout the world have a unified yet distinctive presence.
We have both elements of the Protestant and Catholic tradition manifested in our worship, identity and beliefs. Also, there is often a feel of the Orthodox/Eastern presence in our approach to mystery and the revelation of God. If you think of the church as a tree trunk with many branches and offshoots, the Anglican Church is the fourth of four main parts of that trunk:
Eastern Orthodox Christians and the groups they divide into;
Roman Catholic Christians and the groups they divide into;
Protestant Christians who have two major branches - the Reformed Churches and the Anabaptist Church and all the branches that go off these;
and the Anglican Church, with The Episcopal Church as the name of the church in the USA.
The Episcopal Church is a Community of Practice.
Our focus tends to be less on doctrine (right belief) and more on worship. We are part of a stream of Christian Trinitarian faith and practice, which intersects the ancient stories of faith and life (such as scriptures and lives of the saints) with a sacramental understanding of life (expressed most completely in the word and gesture of Baptism and Holy Communion). All this is to say that being a worshipping community is at the center our understanding of who we are as a people. You would hear Episcopalians say "If you want to know who we are, come worship with us...then we'll study doctrine and theology. We live with daily life, work and prayer. What does an Episcopalian believe? Go get the Book of Common Prayer."
As Christians in the Anglican tradition, what is our understanding of authority?
Our understanding of God is Trinitarian: God is One in Three, Three in One (God known through the metaphors of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit). With this as our starting point, our question would be more "Who is our Authority?" rather than "What is our authority?" When we ask how do we discern the mind of the Triune God in order that we may live life faithfully our answer is along the line that we try to hold in creative tension
Scripture (see the following paragraph)
Reason (which includes life & religious experience and our contemplation of experience and the work of the Holy Spirit)
and Tradition (liturgy, practice, the story of our faith community).
We are a religion of a Person. Our primary knowledge of the Trinitarian God is mediated through Jesus Christ, the Son - rather than a book. We do take scripture very seriously, and believe that scripture has primacy. Our tradition, however, has never held with verbal inerrancy or literal inspiration (although there are those with in the tradition who are attempting to shift this perspective). We've always understood story and metaphor, that scripture is historically conditioned, and we've never really been bothered by contradictions in the text. Episcopalians have generally been comfortable with some believing and others not. Because ours is a religion of a Person, we give more weight to the Gospels then look at other writings through the prism of the Gospel. Historically we have stated that all that is needed for salvation is located in scripture, but scripture doesn't answer all the questions that we have in life.
What is our spirituality like?
In other words, how do we relate to God and grow toward God?
Anglican spirituality is rooted in the tradition of daily prayer; always informed by scripture; and in the liturgy of prayer, in particular The Book of Common Prayer.
We are a communal tradition, We are shaped by prayer and make our decisions in council.
Our spirituality is pastoral, meaning that how we grow in relation to God is how we grow in relation to others.
Our spirituality is incarnational. We are world affirming, that God looks upon creation and says, "This is good." We care about the physical world, the earth, and see the extraordinary in the ordinary. Christ is known in the world through nature, through the faces of others, through our hands and feet in service.
We are a mystical tradition. We see life as a long slow pilgrimage of spiritual discipline over time.
What are some of the characteristics of how we behave and think?
Comprehensiveness: We are always living into our baptism; always becoming who we already are. We believe that truth is found in the tension of paradox. For example, we are both fully Protestant and fully Catholic; we have both personal freedom and communal responsibility.
Ambiguity: We are willing to live with uncertainty. Episcopalians are tolerant of the messiness of belief and life. When faced with complexity we are open to various interpretations. We live by trial and error and are willing to be patient.
Open-mindedness: We take seriously the secular world and its work. We are open to new ways of thinking and intuitive ways of knowing. You might say that we prefer art to philosophy.
Aesthetic: We begin with Beauty, then truth and goodness. We express our faith through music, poetry, prose, the visual arts, as well as, the many textures of life, which inform us of the incarnational nature of God.
Naturalistic: We have a reverence and delight in the natural world, natural theology and natural law.
Historical Tradition: We practice and believe in Apostolic Succession as being both through the historical laying on of hands for lay and clergy and the traditions of our faith passed down through the ages which inform and enrich our lives today. In other words, we are concerned about our roots.
Political Tradition: We affirm free and peaceful debate of issues of faith and secular life. We believe that civic virtues are part of who we are, and that freedom of consciousness and practice are important for the common good of a people.
St. Mark's Episcopal Church
39 Commercial Street, P.O. Box 191, Adams, Massachusetts 01220
© 2007 St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Adams Ma.