Misplaced Pages

The Episcopal Church
Arms of The Episcopal Church: Argent a cross throughout gules, on a canton azure nine cross crosslets in saltire of the field.
Abbreviation	TEC, PECUSA
Classification	Protestant
Orientation	Anglican
Scripture	Holy Bible
Theology	Anglican doctrine (with various theological and doctrinal identities, including Anglo-Catholic, Liberal and Evangelical)
Polity	Episcopal
Governance	Unitary (General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America)
Presiding bishop	Sean W. Rowe
President of the House of Deputies	Julia Ayala Harris
Chief of Mission	Rev. Lester V. Mackenzie
Distinct fellowships	Anglican Communion
Provinces	9
Dioceses	106
Parishes	6,789 (2022)
Associations	Anglican Communion National Council of Churches World Council of Churches Christian Churches Together in the USA
Full communion	Church of Sweden Union of Utrecht Philippine Independent Church Mar Thoma Syrian Church Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Northern and Southern Provinces of the Moravian Church in America Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria
Region	United States Further dioceses in Cuba Haiti Taiwan Latin America and the Caribbean Europe
Language	English (main communications), Spanish, and French (both metropolitan and Canadian) as major spoken languages but parishes are open to use the language they please.
Liturgy	1979 Book of Common Prayer
Headquarters	815 Second Avenue New York, New York United States
Origin	1785; 239 years ago (1785)
Branched from	Church of England
Absorbed	Church of Hawaii (1890s)
Separations	Reformed Episcopal Church (1873) Anglican Continuum (1977) Anglican Church in North America (2009) Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter in the Catholic Church (2012) Branched-outs: Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil (1965) Episcopal Church in the Philippines (1990)
Members	1,584,785 active members (2022) 1,432,082 active baptized members in the U.S. (2022)
Other name(s)	The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, La Iglesia Episcopal, La Iglesia Episcopal Protestante de los Estados Unidos de América, L'Église épiscopale, L'Église protestante épiscopale des États-Unis d'Amérique
Official website	www.episcopalchurch.org
The Archives of the Episcopal Church	www.episcopalarchives.org
Constitution and Canons

Part of a series on
Anglicanism
TheologyChristian theology Anglican doctrine Thirty-nine Articles Books of Homilies Caroline Divines Chicago–Lambeth Quadrilateral Episcopal polity Sacraments Mary
Ministry and worshipMinistry Music Eucharist King James Version (Book of Common Prayer) Liturgical year Churchmanship (High, Low, Central, Broad) Monasticism Saints Jesus Prayer
ChristianityJesus Christ Paul Christian Church First seven ecumenical councils
Background and historyCeltic Christianity Augustine of Canterbury Bede Medieval cathedral architecture Apostolic succession Henry VIII English Reformation Thomas Cranmer Dissolution of the monasteries Church of England Edward VI Elizabeth I Matthew Parker Richard Hooker James I Charles I William Laud Nonjuring schism Latitudinarian Anglo-Catholicism (Liberal) Oxford Movement
Anglican CommunionAnglican Communion history Archbishop of Canterbury Anglican Communion Primates' Meetings Lambeth Conference Bishops Anglican Consultative Council Ecumenism Ordination of women Windsor Report
Other Anglican denominationsContinuing Anglican movement Anglican realignment Bartonville Agreement Congress of St. Louis North American Anglican Conference
Christianity portal
v t e

The Episcopal Church (TEC), also officially the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America (PECUSA), is a member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion based in the United States with additional dioceses elsewhere. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is divided into nine provinces. The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church is Sean W. Rowe.

As of 2022, the Episcopal Church had 1,584,785 members, of whom 1,432,082 were in the United States. In 2011, it was the nation's 14th largest denomination. In 2015, Pew Research estimated that 1.2 percent of the adult population in the United States, or 3 million people, self-identify as mainline Episcopalians. The church has recorded a regular decline in membership and Sunday attendance since the 1960s, particularly in the Northeast and Upper Midwest.

The church was organized after the American Revolution, when it became separate from the Church of England, whose clergy are required to swear allegiance to the British monarch as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. The Episcopal Church describes itself as "Protestant, yet catholic" and asserts apostolic succession, tracing its bishops back to the apostles via holy orders. The 1979 Book of Common Prayer, a collection of rites, blessings, liturgies, and prayers used throughout the Anglican Communion, is central to Episcopal worship. A broad spectrum of theological views is represented within the Episcopal Church, including evangelical, Anglo-Catholic, and broad church views.

Historically, the members of the Episcopal Church have played leadership roles in many aspects of American life, including politics, business, science, the arts, and education. About three-quarters of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were affiliated with the Episcopal Church, and over a quarter of all Presidents of the United States have been Episcopalians. Historically, Episcopalians were overrepresented among American scientific elite and Nobel Prize winners. Numbers of the most wealthy and affluent American families, such as Boston Brahmin, Old Philadelphians, Tidewater, and Lowcountry gentry or old money, are Episcopalians. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many Episcopalians were active in the Social Gospel movement.

Since the 1960s and 1970s, the church has pursued a more liberal Christian course; there remains a wide spectrum of liberals and conservatives within the church. In 2015, the church's 78th triennial General Convention passed resolutions allowing the blessing of same-sex marriages and approved two official liturgies to bless such unions. It has opposed the death penalty and supported the civil rights movement. The church calls for the full legal equality of LGBT people. In view of this trend, the conventions of four dioceses of the Episcopal Church voted in 2007 and 2008 to leave that church and to join the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of America. Twelve other jurisdictions, serving an estimated 100,000 persons at that time, formed the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) in 2008. The ACNA and the Episcopal Church are not in full communion with one another.

Names

The "Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America" (PECUSA) and "The Episcopal Church" (TEC) are both official names specified in the church's constitution. The latter is much more commonly used. In other languages, an equivalent is used. For example, in Spanish, the church is called Iglesia Episcopal Protestante de los Estados Unidos de América or Iglesia Episcopal, and in French Église protestante épiscopale des États-Unis d'Amérique or Église épiscopale.

Until 1964, "The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America" was the only official name in use. In the 19th century, high church members advocated changing the name, which they felt did not acknowledge the church's catholic heritage. They were opposed by the church's evangelical wing, which felt that the "Protestant Episcopal" label accurately reflected the Reformed character of Anglicanism. After 1877, alternative names were regularly proposed and rejected by the General Convention. One proposed alternative was "the American Catholic Church". Respondents to a 1961 poll in The Living Church favored "The American Episcopal Church." By the 1960s, opposition to dropping the word "Protestant" had largely subsided. In a 1964 General Convention compromise, priests and lay delegates suggested adding a preamble to the church's constitution, recognizing "The Episcopal Church" as a lawful alternate designation while still retaining the earlier name.

The 66th General Convention voted in 1979 to use the name "The Episcopal Church" in the Oath of Conformity of the Declaration for Ordination. The evolution of the name can be seen in the church's Book of Common Prayer. In the 1928 BCP, the title page read, "According to the use of The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America", whereas on the title page of the 1979 BCP it states, "According to the use of The Episcopal Church".

"The Episcopal Church in the United States of America" (ECUSA) has never been an official name of the church but is an alternative commonly seen in English. Since several other churches in the Anglican Communion also use the name "Episcopal", including Scotland and the Philippines, some, for example the Anglicans Online directory, add the phrase "in the United States of America".

The full legal name of the national church corporate body is the "Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America", which was incorporated by the legislature of New York and established in 1821. The membership of the corporation "shall be considered as comprehending all persons who are members of the Church". This should not be confused with the name of the church itself, as it is a distinct body relating to church governance.

According to TEC's style guide, "Episcopal" is the adjective that should be used to describe something affiliated with the church, whereas "Episcopalian" is to be used "only as a noun referring to a member of The Episcopal Church."

History

Colonial era

The Episcopal Church has its origins in the Church of England in the American colonies, and it stresses continuity with the early universal Western Church and claims to maintain apostolic succession (while the Scandinavian Lutheran and Moravian churches accept this claim, the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches do not recognize this claim).

The first parish was founded in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, under the charter of the Virginia Company of London. The tower of Jamestown Church (c. 1639–1643) is one of the oldest surviving Anglican church structures in the United States. The Jamestown church building itself is a modern reconstruction.

Although no American Anglican bishops existed in the colonial era, the Church of England had an official status in several colonies, which meant that local governments paid tax money to local parishes, and the parishes handled some civic functions. The Church of England was designated the established church in Virginia in 1609, in New York in 1693, in Maryland in 1702, in South Carolina in 1706, in North Carolina in 1730, and in Georgia in 1758.

From 1635 the vestries and the clergy came loosely under the diocesan authority of the Bishop of London. After 1702, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG) began missionary activity throughout the colonies. On the eve of Revolution about 400 independent congregations were reported throughout the colonies.

Under the leadership of Lutheran bishop Jesper Swedberg, parishes in colonial America that belonged to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sweden established ecumenical dialogue that resulted in altar and pulpit fellowship with the Episcopal Church in the 1700s, which led to a merger of all of the Swedish Lutheran churches there into the Episcopal Church by 1846.

Revolutionary era

Embracing the symbols of the British presence in the American colonies, such as the monarchy, the episcopate, and even the language of the Book of Common Prayer, the Church of England almost drove itself to extinction during the upheaval of the American Revolution. More than any other denomination, the War of Independence internally divided both clergy and laity of the Church of England in America, and opinions covered a wide spectrum of political views: patriots, conciliators, and loyalists. While many Patriots were suspicious of Loyalism in the church, about three-quarters of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were nominally Anglican laymen, including Thomas Jefferson, William Paca, and George Wythe. It was often assumed that persons considered "High Church" were Loyalists, whereas persons considered "Low Church" were Patriots: assumptions with possibly dangerous implications for the time.

Of the approximately three hundred clergy in the Church of England in America between 1776 and 1783, over 80 percent in New England, New York, and New Jersey were loyalists. This is in contrast to the less than 23 percent loyalist clergy in the four southern colonies. Many Church of England clergy remained loyalists as they took their two ordination oaths very seriously. Anglican clergy were obliged to swear allegiance to the king as well as to pray for the king, the royal family, and the British Parliament. In general, loyalist clergy stayed by their oaths and prayed for the king or else suspended services. By the end of 1776, some Anglican churches were closing. Anglican priests held services in private homes or lay readers who were not bound by the oaths held morning and evening prayer. During 1775 and 1776, the Continental Congress issued decrees ordering churches to fast and pray on behalf of the Patriots. Starting July 4, 1776, Congress and several states passed laws making prayers for the king and British Parliament acts of treason. The patriot clergy in the South were quick to find reasons to transfer their oaths to the American cause and prayed for the success of the Revolution. One precedent was the transfer of oaths during the Glorious Revolution in England. Most of the patriot clergy in the South were able to keep their churches open and services continued.

Early Republic era

In the wake of the Revolution, American Episcopalians faced the task of preserving a hierarchical church structure in a society infused with republican values.

When the clergy of Connecticut elected Samuel Seabury as their bishop in 1783, he sought consecration in England. The Oath of Supremacy prevented Seabury's consecration in England, so he went to Scotland; the non-juring bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church consecrated him in Aberdeen on November 14, 1784, making him, in the words of scholar Arthur Carl Piepkorn, "the first Anglican bishop appointed to minister outside the British Isles". On August 3, 1785, the first ordinations on American soil took place at Christ Church in Middletown, Connecticut.

That same year, 1785, deputations of clergy and laity met in the first General Convention. They drafted a constitution, proposed a first draft of an American Book of Common Prayer, and began negotiating with English Bishops for the consecration of three bishops. The convention met again in 1786 to make several changes that made their liturgy acceptable to the English bishops and to recommend three clergy (who had been elected by state meetings in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York) for consecration as bishops. General Convention met again in 1789, beginning a regular process of meeting every three years. At the 1789 convention they adopted a constitution and canons, and reorganized as a House of Deputies and a House of Bishops. The structure of the Episcopal Church was then complete.

Later, through the efforts of Bishop Philander Chase (1775–1852) of Ohio, Americans successfully sought material assistance from England for the purpose of training Episcopal clergy. The development of the Protestant Episcopal Church provides an example of how Americans in the early republic maintained important cultural ties with England.

In 1787, two priests – William White of Pennsylvania and Samuel Provoost of New York – were consecrated as bishops by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of York, and the Bishop of Bath and Wells, the legal obstacles having been removed by the passage through Parliament of the Consecration of Bishops Abroad Act 1786. Thus there are two branches of apostolic succession for the American bishops: through the non-juring bishops of Scotland who consecrated Samuel Seabury and through the English bishops who consecrated William White, Samuel Provoost, and James Madison. All bishops in the American church are ordained by at least three bishops. The succession of each bishop can be historically traced back to Seabury, White, Provoost, and Madison. (See Succession of Bishops of the Episcopal Church.)

From July 28 to August 8, 1789, representative clergy from nine dioceses met in Philadelphia to ratify the church's initial constitution; they also formally adopted the name Protestant Episcopal Church. The fourth bishop of the Episcopal Church was James Madison, the first bishop of Virginia. Madison was consecrated in 1790 by the Archbishop of Canterbury and two other Church of England bishops. This third American bishop consecrated within the English line of succession occurred because of continuing unease within the Church of England over Seabury's non-juring Scottish orders. The Episcopal Church thus became the first Anglican province outside the British Isles.

On 17 September 1792, at the triennial General Convention (synod) of the Episcopal Church at Trinity Church on Wall Street, in New York City, Thomas John Claggett who had been elected by the clergy and laity of Maryland, was consecrated by all four of the existing bishops. He was the first bishop of the Episcopal Church ordained and consecrated in America and the fifth bishop consecrated for the Episcopal Church in the United States.

Nineteenth century

In 1856, the first society for African Americans in the Episcopal Church was founded by James Theodore Holly. Named The Protestant Episcopal Society for Promoting The Extension of The Church Among Colored People, the society argued that blacks should be allowed to participate in seminaries and diocesan conventions. The group lost its focus when Holly emigrated to Haiti, but other groups followed after the Civil War. The current Union of Black Episcopalians traces its history to the society. Holly went on to found the Anglican Church in Haiti, where he became the first African-American bishop on November 8, 1874. As Bishop of Haiti, Holly was the first African American to attend the Lambeth Conference. However, he was consecrated by the American Church Missionary Society, an Evangelical Episcopal branch of the Church.

Episcopal missions chartered by African-Americans in this era were chartered as a Colored Episcopal Mission. All other missions (white) were chartered as an Organized Episcopal Mission. Many historically Black parishes are still in existence to date.

When the American Civil War began in 1861, Episcopalians in the South formed the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America. However, in the North, the separation was never officially recognized. In particular, the Episcopalian communities in Pennsylvania supported free black communities and the Underground Railroad. By May 16, 1866, the southern dioceses had rejoined the national church.

By the middle of the 19th century, evangelical Episcopalians disturbed by High Church Tractarianism, while continuing to work in interdenominational agencies, formed their own voluntary societies, and eventually, in 1874, a faction objecting to the revival of ritual practices established the Reformed Episcopal Church.

Samuel David Ferguson was the first black bishop consecrated by the Episcopal Church, the first to practice in the U.S. and the first black person to sit in the House of Bishops. Bishop Ferguson was consecrated on June 24, 1885, with the then-Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church acting as a consecrator.

In the following year, Henry C. Potter, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, addressed his clergymen upon the question of Labor. Church Association for the Advancement of the Interests of Labor was formed in 1887.

During the Gilded Age, highly prominent laity such as bankers J. P. Morgan, industrialist Henry Ford, and art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner played a central role in shaping a distinctive upper class Episcopalian ethos, especially with regard to preserving the arts and history. These philanthropists propelled the Episcopal Church into a quasi-national position of importance while at the same time giving the church a central role in the cultural transformation of the country. Another mark of influence is the fact that more than a quarter of all presidents of the United States have been Episcopalians (see religious affiliations of presidents of the United States). It was during this period that the Book of Common Prayer was revised, first in 1892 and later in 1928.

Era of change (1958–1970s)

In 1955, the church's general convention was moved from Houston to Honolulu, due to continuing racial segregation in the former city. At the 1958 general convention, a coalition of liberal church members succeeded in passing a resolution recognizing "the natural dignity and value of every man, of whatever color or race, as created in the image of God". It called on Episcopalians "to work together, in charity and forbearance, towards the establishment ... of full opportunities in fields such as education, housing, employment and public accommodations". A 2,500-word pastoral letter was sent by the House of Bishops to be read at all 7,290 Episcopal churches, urging justice in racial matters, with reference to the Supreme Court decision on integration in public schools. In response, the Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity (ESCRU) was founded in December 1959 in order to eliminate racial, ethnic, and class barriers within the Episcopal Church. Opposition from southern church leaders prevented the Episcopal Church from taking a strong stand on civil rights prior to 1963. One prominent opponent of the movement was Charles C.J. Carpenter, the Bishop of Alabama. By 1963, many church leaders felt more comfortable speaking out in support of racial equality. That year, Presiding Bishop Arthur Lichtenberger wrote a pastoral letter urging Christians to work "across lines of racial separation, in a common struggle for justice", and the House of Bishops endorsed civil rights legislation. Tensions around the civil rights movement persisted, however. At the 1964 General Convention, when the House of Deputies rejected a resolution sanctioning civil disobedience under special circumstances, Thurgood Marshall, a deputy to the convention, led many African-American deputies in a "walk out" protest of the convention.

In 1967, Lichtenberger's successor, John Hines, led the Episcopal Church to implement the General Convention Special Program (GCSP). The program was designed to redirect nine million dollars over a three-year period (a quarter of the church's operating budget at the time) to fund special grants for community organizations and grassroots efforts facilitating black empowerment in America's urban ghettos. The effectiveness of the GCSP was limited due to the reluctance of conservative bishops in southern dioceses, who objected to the awarding of grants to groups perceived as radical. The GCSP drew opposition from the recently formed Foundation for Christian Theology, a conservative organization opposed to "involv the Church in the social, political, and economic activities of our times". The Special General Convention also witnessed protests of the Vietnam War. During this time period, African-American clergy organized the Union of Black Episcopalians to achieve full inclusion of African Americans at all levels of the Episcopal Church.

Women were first admitted as delegates to the church's general convention in 1970.

In 1975, Vaughan Booker, who confessed to the murder of his wife and was sentenced to life in prison, was ordained to the diaconate in Graterford State Prison's chapel in Pennsylvania after having repented of his sins, becoming a symbol of redemption and atonement.

Recent history

In recent decades, the Episcopal Church, like other mainline churches, has experienced a decline in membership as well as internal controversy over women's ordination and the place of homosexuals in the church. The 1976 General Convention also passed a resolution calling for an end to apartheid in South Africa and in 1985 called for "dioceses, institutions, and agencies" to create equal opportunity employment and affirmative action policies to address any potential "racial inequities" in clergy placement. Because of these and other controversial issues including abortion, individual members and clergy can and do frequently disagree with the stated position of the church's leadership. In January 2016, the Anglican Primates Meeting at Canterbury decided that in response to the "distance" caused by what it called "unilateral action on matters of doctrine without catholic unity", "for a period of three years, The Episcopal Church represent on ecumenical and interfaith bodies… take part in decision making on any issues pertaining to doctrine or polity."

Revised prayer book

In 1976, the General Convention adopted a new prayer book, which was a substantial revision and modernization of the previous 1928 edition. It incorporated many principles of the ecumenical movement and liturgical movement, which had been discussed at Vatican II as well. This version was adopted as the official prayer book in 1979 after an initial three-year trial use. As such, the liturgies used by the Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopal, Methodist and Reformed traditions are "nearly identical". Several conservative parishes, however, continued to use the 1928 version. In Advent of 2007, the use of the ecumenical Revised Common Lectionary in the Episcopal Church became the standard. In 2018, the General Convention authorized a Task Force for Liturgical and Prayer Book Revision to consider further revisions, particularly to use more inclusive language and to give more attention to the stewardship of God's creation.

Ordination of women

On July 29, 1974, a group of women known as the Philadelphia Eleven were irregularly ordained as priests in the Episcopal Church by bishops Daniel Corrigan, Robert L. DeWitt, and Edward R. Welles, assisted by Antonio Ramos. On September 7, 1975, four more women (the "Washington Four") were irregularly ordained by retired bishop George W. Barrett. In the wake of the controversy over the ordination of the Philadelphia Eleven, the General Convention permitted the ordination of women in 1976 and recognized the ordinations of the 15 forerunners. The first women were canonically ordained to the priesthood in 1977. The first woman to become a bishop, Barbara Harris, was consecrated on February 11, 1989.

At the same time, there was still tolerance for those dioceses which opposed women's ordination. In 1994, the General Convention affirmed that there was value in the theological position that women should not be ordained. In 1997, however, the General Convention then determined that "the canons regarding the ordination, licensing, and deployment of women are mandatory" and required noncompliant dioceses to issue status reports on their progress towards full compliance.

In 2006, the General Convention elected Katharine Jefferts Schori as Presiding Bishop. She was the first woman to become a primate in the Anglican Communion. Schori's election was controversial in the wider Anglican Communion because not all of the communion recognized the ordination of women.

At the time of the formation of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), three U.S. dioceses did not ordain women as priests or bishops: San Joaquin, Quincy, and Fort Worth. Following the departures of their conservative majorities, all three dioceses now ordain women. With the October 16, 2010, ordination of Margaret Lee, in the Peoria-based Diocese of Quincy, Illinois, women have been ordained as priests in all dioceses of the Episcopal Church in the United States.

LGBT issues

The Episcopal Church affirmed at the 1976 General Convention that homosexuals are "children of God" who deserve acceptance and pastoral care from the church and equal protection under the law. The first openly gay person ordained as a priest was Ellen Barrett in 1977. Despite such an affirmation of gay rights, the General Convention affirmed in 1991 that "physical sexual expression" is only appropriate within the monogamous lifelong "union of husband and wife".

The church elected its first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, in June 2003. News of Robinson's election caused a crisis in both the American church and the wider Anglican Communion. In October 2003, Anglican primates (the heads of the Anglican Communion's 38 member churches) convened an emergency meeting. The meeting's final communiqué included the warning that if Robinson's consecration proceeded, it would "tear the fabric of the communion at its deepest level". The news of his ordination caused such an outrage that during the ceremony Robinson wore a bullet-proof vest beneath his vestments, and he also received numerous death threats following his installation as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire.

In 2009, the General Convention charged the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music to develop theological and liturgical resources for same-sex blessings and report back to the General Convention in 2012. It also gave bishops an option to provide "generous pastoral support", especially where civil authorities have legalized same-gender marriage, civil unions, or domestic partnerships.

On July 14, 2009, the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops voted that "any ordained ministry" is open to gay men and lesbians. The New York Times said the move was "likely to send shockwaves through the Anglican Communion". This vote ended a moratorium on ordaining gay bishops passed in 2006 and passed in spite of Archbishop Rowan Williams's personal call at the start of the convention that, "I hope and pray that there won't be decisions in the coming days that will push us further apart."

On July 10, 2012, the Episcopal Church approved an official liturgy for the blessing of same-sex relationships. This liturgy was not a marriage rite, but the blessing included an exchange of vows and the couple's agreement to enter into a lifelong committed relationship.

On June 29, 2015, at the 78th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, a resolution removing the definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman was passed by the House of Bishops with 129 in favor, 26 against, and 5 abstaining. The current archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, expressed "deep concern" over the ruling. In 2016, Anglican leaders temporarily suspended the Episcopal Church from key positions in their global fellowship in response to the church changing its canons on marriage.

Transgender people have also joined the priesthood in the Episcopal Church. The Rev. Cameron Partridge, who transitioned in 2001 and was ordained in 2005, was the first openly transgender priest to preach at the Washington National Cathedral.

Separations from the church

Following the ordination of Bp. Gene Robinson in 2003, some members of a number of congregations left the Episcopal Church. For example, in Cleveland, Ohio, four parishes "with about 1,300 active members, decided to leave the U.S. church and the local diocese because of 'divergent understandings of the authority of scripture and traditional Christian teaching.'" Four dioceses also voted to leave the church; Pittsburgh, Quincy, Fort Worth, and San Joaquin. The stated reasons included those expressed by the Pittsburgh diocese, which complained that the church had been "hijacked" by liberal bishops. A few years later, in 2012, the Diocese of South Carolina voted to withdraw.

The Episcopal Church did not acknowledge any of the purported diocesan withdrawals, stating that under canon law an Episcopal diocese cannot withdraw itself from the larger Episcopal Church. In a "pastoral letter" to the South Carolina diocese, Presiding Bishop Schori wrote that "While some leaders have expressed a desire to leave The Episcopal Church, the Diocese has not left. It cannot, by its own action. The alteration, dissolution, or departure of a diocese of The Episcopal Church requires the consent of General Convention, which has not been consulted." She further wrote that the South Carolina diocese "continues to be a constituent part of The Episcopal Church, even if a number of its leaders have departed. If it becomes fully evident that those former leaders have, indeed, fully severed their ties with The Episcopal Church, new leaders will be elected and installed by the action of a Diocesan Convention recognized by the wider Episcopal Church, in accordance with our Constitution and Canons."

Many departing members joined the Continuing Anglican movement or advocated Anglican realignment, claiming alignment with overseas Anglican provinces including the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone of America and the Church of Nigeria. Some former members formed the Anglican Church in North America which, as of 2017, claimed over 1,000 congregations and 134,000 members. Episcopal Church leaders, particularly former Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, responded by taking a firm stance against the separatists. Litigation between the church and departing dioceses and parishes cost all parties tens of millions of dollars; one estimate has the Episcopal Church spending over $42 million and separatists roughly $18 million, for a total of over $60 million in court costs. Litigation has largely centered on church properties. Episcopal leadership asserts that, as a hierarchical church, they retain ownership of parish property when parishioners leave. Departing groups, in contrast, assert that they should be able to retain ownership of individual church facilities and diocesan property.

Church property disputes

In a letter to the House of Bishops during summer 2009, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori instructed local dioceses not to sell parish property to departing groups. She stated: "We do not make settlements that encourage religious bodies who seek to replace The Episcopal Church".

Before Schori took this stand, prior bishops had treated parish property disputes as internal diocesan matters that are "not subject to the review or oversight of the presiding bishop". One example was when then-Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold told the Diocese of Western Louisiana on May 11, 2006, that the national church involved itself in parish property disputes only upon invitation of the local bishop and diocesan standing committees. Schori's letter stated that her firm stance was the consensus of the Council of Advice and expressed hope that "those who have departed can gain clarity about their own identity".

After the South Carolina diocese voted to withdraw, it sued the national Episcopal Church to retain control over its property. The departing diocese mostly won on appeal to the South Carolina Supreme Court. Multiple parishes affiliated with the departing group were allowed to keep their property. Other church and diocesan property in the lawsuit remained with the Episcopal Church and its affiliated local diocese. The name "Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina" and related names and marks were initially claimed by the departing group. In 2019, a federal court ruled that they legally belonged to The Episcopal Church. The departing diocese was renamed The Anglican Diocese of South Carolina.

Membership

As of 2022, the Episcopal Church had 1,584,785 active members, of whom 1,432,082 were in the United States. Total average Sunday attendance (ASA) for 2018 was 962,529 (933,206 in the U.S. and 29,323 outside the U.S.), a decrease of 24.7% percent from 2008. In 2016, a data-based quantitative study for the Journal of Anglican Studies, and published by Cambridge University Press, reported that The Episcopal Church had 2,405,000 total baptized members, including inactive members, and 1,588,057 active members in the United States.

According to a report by ARIS/Barna in 2001, 3.5 million Americans self-identified as Episcopalians, highlighting "a gap between those who are affiliated with the church (on membership rolls), versus those who self-identify ". Church Pension Group also cited having 3.5 million adherents in 2002. More recently, in 2014, Pew Research found that approximately 1.2 percent of 245 million U.S. adults, around 3 million people, self-identified as mainline Episcopalian/Anglican.

According to data collected in 2000, the District of Columbia, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Virginia have the highest rates of adherents per capita, and states along the East Coast generally have a higher number of adherents per capita than in other parts of the country. New York was the state with the largest total number of adherents, over 200,000. In 2013, the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti was the largest single diocese, with 84,301 baptized members, which constitute slightly over half of the church's foreign membership.

As of 2012, around 12% of members in the Episcopal Church are former Catholics who became Episcopalians. In the years preceding 2012 over 225,000 Roman Catholics became Episcopalians and as of 2012, there are "432 living Episcopal priests have been received from the Roman Catholic Church."

According to the latest statistics U.S. membership dropped 2.7 percent from a reported 1,866,758 members in 2013 to 1,745,156 in 2016, a loss of 121,602 persons. Attendance took an even steeper hit, with the average number of Sunday worshipers dropping from 623,691 in 2013 to 570,454 in 2016, a decline of 53,237 persons in the pews, down 8.5 percent. Congregations dropped to 6,473.

The Episcopal Church experienced notable growth in the first half of the 20th century, but like many mainline churches, it has had a decline in membership in more recent decades. Membership grew from 1.1 million members in 1925 to a peak of over 3.4 million members in the mid-1960s. Between 1970 and 1990, membership declined from about 3.2 million to about 2.4 million. Once changes in how membership is counted are taken into consideration, the Episcopal Church's membership numbers were broadly flat throughout the 1990s, with a slight growth in the first years of the 21st century. A loss of 115,000 members was reported for the years 2003–2005. Some theories about the decline in membership include a failure to sufficiently reach beyond ethnic barriers in an increasingly diverse society, and the low fertility rates prevailing among the predominant ethnic groups traditionally belonging to the church. In 1965, there were 880,000 children in Episcopal Sunday School programs. By 2001, the number had declined to 297,000.

Political leanings

Members of the Episcopal Church are generally more progressive than members of other Christian denominations in the United States. Despite the church's progressive reputation, though, a significant portion of members do describe themselves as conservative although they generally tend to skew moderate. According to a 2014 Pew Research Center survey with 494 self-identified Episcopalians, 49% describe themselves as Democrats, 39% describe themselves as Republicans, and 12% stated no preference.

Influence

In the twentieth century, Episcopalians tended to be wealthier and more educated (having more graduate and postgraduate degrees per capita) than most other religious groups in the United States, and were disproportionately represented in the upper reaches of American business, law, and politics. Many of the nation's oldest educational institutions, such as University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University, were founded by Episcopal clergy or were associated with the Episcopal Church. According to Pew Research Center Episcopal Church "has often been seen as the religious institution most closely associated with the American establishment, producing many of the nation's most important leaders in politics and business." About a quarter of the presidents of the United States (11) were members of the Episcopal Church.

Historically, Episcopalians were overrepresented among American scientific elite and Nobel Prize winners. According to Scientific Elite: Nobel Laureates in the United States by Harriet Zuckerman, between 1901 and 1972, 72% of American Nobel Prize laureates have come from a Protestant background, mostly from Episcopalian, Presbyterian or Lutheran background. Citing Gallup polling data from 1976, Kit and Frederica Konolige wrote in their 1978 book The Power of Their Glory, "As befits a church that belongs to the worldwide Anglican Communion, Episcopalianism has the United Kingdom to thank for the ancestors of fully 49 percent of its members. ... The stereotype of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) finds its fullest expression in the Episcopal Church."

The Boston Brahmins, who were regarded as the nation's social and cultural elites, were often associated with the American upper class, Harvard University; and the Episcopal Church. Old Philadelphians were often associated with the Episcopal Church. Old money in the United States was typically associated with White Anglo-Saxon Protestant ("WASP") status, particularly with the Episcopal and Presbyterian Church. In the 1970s, a Fortune magazine study found one-in-five of the country's largest businesses and one-in-three of its largest banks was run by an Episcopalian. Numbers of the most wealthy and affluent American families such as the Vanderbilts, Astors, Du Ponts, Whitneys, Morgans, Fords, Mellons, Van Leers, Browns, Waynes and Harrimans are Episcopalians. While the Rockefeller family are mostly Baptists, some of the Rockefellers were Episcopalians.

According to a 2014 study by the Pew Research Center, the Episcopal Church also has the highest number of graduate and post-graduate degrees per capita (56%) of any other Christian denomination in the United States, as well as the most high-income earners. According to The New York Times Episcopalians tend also to be better educated and they have a high number of graduate (76%) and post-graduate degrees (35%) per capita. According to a 2014 study by the Pew Research Center, Episcopalians ranked as the third wealthiest religious group in the United States, with 35% of Episcopalians living in households with incomes of at least $100,000. In 2014, roughly 70% of Episcopalians were living in households with incomes of $50,000 or above. In recent years, the church has become much more economically and racially diverse through evangelism, and has attracted many Hispanic immigrants who are often working-class.

Structure

The Episcopal Church is governed according to episcopal polity with its own system of canon law. This means that the church is organized into dioceses led by bishops in consultation with representative bodies. It is a unitary body, in that the power of the General Convention is not limited by the individual dioceses. The church has, however, a highly decentralized structure and characteristics of a confederation.

Parishes and dioceses

At the local level, there are 6,447 Episcopal congregations, each of which elects a vestry or bishop's committee. Subject to the approval of its diocesan bishop, the vestry of each parish elects a priest, called the rector, who has spiritual jurisdiction in the parish and selects assistant clergy, both deacons and priests. (There is a difference between vestry and clergy elections – clergy are ordained members usually selected from outside the parish, whereas any member in good standing of a parish is eligible to serve on the vestry.) The diocesan bishop, however, appoints the clergy for all missions and may choose to do so for non-self-supporting parishes.

The middle judicatory consists of a diocese headed by a bishop who is assisted by a standing committee. The bishop and standing committee are elected by the diocesan convention whose members are canonically resident clergy of the diocese and laity selected by the congregations. The election of a bishop requires the consent of a majority of standing committees and diocesan bishops. Conventions meet annually to consider legislation (such as revisions to the diocesan constitution and canons) and speak for the diocese. Dioceses are organized into nine provinces. Each province has a synod and a mission budget, but it has no authority over its member dioceses.

There are 106 dioceses in the United States, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Honduras, Puerto Rico, Taiwan, Venezuela, Cuba and the Virgin Islands. The Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe and the Navajoland Area Mission are jurisdictions similar to a diocese.

Governance

The Washington National Cathedral is the seat of the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church as well as the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.

The highest legislative body of the Episcopal Church is the triennial General Convention, consisting of the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops. All active (whether diocesan, coadjutor, suffragan, or assistant) and retired bishops make up the over 300 members of the House of Bishops. Diocesan conventions elect over 800 representatives (each diocese elects four laity and four clergy) to the House of Deputies. The House of Deputies elects a president and vice-president to preside at meetings. General Convention enacts two types of legislation. The first type is the rules by which the church is governed as contained in the Constitution and Canons; the second type are broad guidelines on church policy called resolutions. Either house may propose legislation. The House of Deputies only meets as a full body once every three years; however, the House of Bishops meets regularly throughout the triennium between conventions.

The real work of General Convention is done by interim bodies, the most powerful being the Executive Council, which oversees the work of the national church during the triennium. The council has 40 members; 20 are directly elected by the General Convention, 18 are elected by the nine provinces, and the Presiding Bishop and President of the House of Deputies are ex officio members. Other interim bodies include a number of standing commissions ordered by the canons and temporary task forces formulated by resolutions of General Convention. Both types of bodies study and draft policy proposals for consideration and report back to the convention. Each standing commission consists of five bishops, five priests or deacons, and ten laypersons. Bishops are appointed by the Presiding Bishop while the other clergy and laypersons are appointed by the president of the House of Deputies. Task forces vary in size, composition, and duration depending on the General Convention resolution that orders them.

The Presiding Bishop is elected from and by the House of Bishops and confirmed by the House of Deputies for a nine-year term. The Presiding Bishop is the chief pastor and primate of the Episcopal Church and is charged with providing leadership in the development of the church's program as well as speaking on behalf of the church. The Presiding Bishop does not possess a territorial see; since the 1970s, however, the Presiding Bishop has enjoyed extraordinary jurisdiction (metropolitical authority) and has authority to visit dioceses for sacramental and preaching ministry, for consulting bishops, and for related purposes. The Presiding Bishop chairs the House of Bishops as well as the Executive Council of the General Convention. In addition, the Presiding Bishop directs the Episcopal Church Center, the national administrative headquarters of the denomination. Located at 815 Second Avenue, New York City, New York, the center is often referred to by Episcopalians simply as "815".

A system of ecclesiastical courts is provided for under Title IV of the canons of General Convention. These courts are empowered to discipline and depose deacons, priests, and bishops.

Worship and liturgy

Worship according to the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) is central to the Episcopal Church's identity and its main source of unity. The current edition of the BCP was published in 1979 and is similar to other Anglican prayer books in use around the world. It contains most of the worship services (or liturgies) used in the Episcopal Church.

The Episcopal Church has a sacramental understanding of worship. The Episcopal catechism defines a sacrament as "an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given to us". Episcopalians believe that sacraments are material things that God uses to act in human lives. The BCP identifies Baptism and the Eucharist as the "two great sacraments of the Gospel". Confirmation, ordination, holy matrimony, reconciliation of a penitent, and unction are identified as "sacramental rites". Private confession of sin is available in the Episcopal Church, though it is not as commonly practiced as in the Roman Catholic Church. This is in part due to the general confession provided for in Episcopal services.

The prayer book specifies that the Eucharist or Holy Communion is "the principal act of Christian worship on the Lord's Day". The service has two parts. The first is centered on Bible readings and preaching. At each service, four scripture passages are read from the Old Testament and the New Testament. The readings are organized in a three-year cycle during which much of the Bible will have been read in church. The second part of the service is centered on the Eucharist. The Episcopal Church teaches the real presence doctrine—that the bread and wine truly become the body and blood of Christ. However, it does not define how this happens, which allows for different views to coexist within the church. Generally, Episcopal churches have retained features such as the altar rail, the inclusion or exclusion of which does not elicit much controversy, but usually celebrate in the versus populum orientation.

Often a congregation or a particular service will be referred to as Low Church or High Church. In theory:

• High Church, especially the very high Anglo-Catholic movement, is ritually inclined towards the use of incense, formal hymns, and a higher degree of ceremony such as ad orientem in relation to the priest and altar. In addition to clergy vesting in albs, stoles, and chasubles, the lay assistants may also be vested in cassock and surplice. The sung Eucharist tends to be emphasized in High Church congregations, with Anglo-Catholic congregations and celebrants using sung services almost exclusively. Marian devotion is sometimes seen in the Anglo-Catholic and some High Church parishes.
• Low Church is simpler and may incorporate other elements such as informal praise and worship music. "Low" parishes tend towards a more "traditional Protestant" outlook with its emphasis of Biblical revelation over symbolism. A few "low" parishes even subscribe to traditional Evangelical theology (see Evangelical Anglicanism). The spoken Eucharist tends to be emphasized in Low Church congregations. Altar rails may be omitted in this type.
• Broad Church indicates a middle ground. These parishes are the most common within The Episcopal Church. However, unlike the Anglican Church in England, most Episcopal "broad church" parishes make use of a liturgy that includes eucharistic vestments, chant, and a high view of the sacraments, even if the liturgy is not as solemn or lacks some of the other accoutrements typical of Anglo-Catholic parishes. Unlike many Roman Catholic churches, the altar rail has usually been retained and communion is usually served kneeling at the altar rail similar to a Tridentine Mass, because the Episcopal Church teaches, through its Book of Common Prayer, a theologically high view of the church and its sacraments, even if not all parishes carry this out liturgically.

The Book of Common Prayer also provides the Daily Offices of Morning and Evening Prayer. The daily offices can be said by lay people at home.

The veneration of saints in the Episcopal Church is a continuation of an ancient tradition from the early church which honors important people of the Christian faith. The usage of the term "saint" is similar to Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions. There are explicit references in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer to invoking the aid of the prophets, patriarchs, saints, martyrs and the Virgin Mary as in an optional prayer in the committal at a funeral, p. 504. In general Anglicans pray with the saints in their fellowship, not to them, although their intercessions may be requested. Those inclined to the Anglo-Catholic traditions may explicitly invoke saints as intercessors in prayer. The 1979 edition contains a provision for the use of "traditional" (Elizabethan) language under various circumstances not directly provided for in the book.

Belief and practice

At the center of Episcopal belief and practice are the life, teachings and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The doctrine of the Episcopal Church is found in the canon of scripture as understood in the Apostles' and Nicene creeds and in the sacramental rites, the ordinal and catechism of the Book of Common Prayer. Some of these teachings include:

• Belief that human beings "are part of God's creation, made in the image of God," and are therefore "free to make choices: to love, to reason, and to live in harmony with creation and with God."
• Belief that sin, defined as "the seeking of our own will instead of the will of God," has corrupted human nature, "thus distorting our relationship with God, with other people, and with all creation," resulting in death.
• Belief that "sin has power over us because we lose our liberty when our relationship with God is distorted," and that redemption is any act of God which "sets us free from the power of sin, evil, and death."
• The doctrines of the Incarnation and Resurrection of Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ is fully human and fully God.
• Jesus provides forgiveness of sin and the way of eternal life for those who believe and are baptized.
• The Trinity: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit are one God in three distinct persons, collectively called the Holy Trinity ("three and yet one").
• The Holy Scriptures, commonly called the Bible, consist of the Old Testament and the New Testament and were written by people "under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit." The Apocrypha are additional books that are used in Christian worship, but not for the formation of doctrine.
• The Bible contains "all things necessary to salvation" and nothing can be taught as pertaining to salvation which cannot be proven by scripture.
• Sacraments are "outward and visible signs of God's inward and spiritual grace." The two necessary sacraments are Baptism and Holy Communion (the latter is also called the Eucharist, the Lord's Supper, and the Mass). Infant baptism is practiced and encouraged. Holy Communion is celebrated each Lord's Day (Sunday) and is open to all baptized persons.
• Other sacraments are confirmation, ordination, marriage, confession, and unction. Regarding these other sacraments the Book of Common Prayer states "Although they are means of grace, they are not necessary for all persons the same way that Baptism and the Eucharist are."
• A general belief in an afterlife of Heaven and Hell. Heaven is defined as the resurrection of the faithful to eternal life in the presence of God. Hell is defined as "eternal death" due to a willful rejection of God.
• Emphasis on the contents of the Sermon on the Mount and on living out the Great Commandment to love God and to love one's neighbor fully.
• Belief in an episcopal form of church government and in the offices and ministries of the early church, namely the threefold order of bishops, priests and deacons; both men and women are eligible for ordination to the clergy. Clergy are permitted to marry.
• Apostolic Succession: the belief that the Episcopal and wider Anglican bishops continue the apostolic tradition of the ancient church as spiritual heirs to the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ.
• Strong emphasis on prayer with specific reverence for the Lord's Prayer both in its original form and as a model for all prayer; principal kinds of prayer include adoration, praise, thanksgiving, penitence, oblation, intercession, and petition.
• Observance of the ancient Church Year (Advent, Christmas, Easter, Lent, etc.) and the celebration of holy days dedicated to saints.
• Belief that grace is "God's favor toward us, unearned and undeserved," by which God "forgives our sins, enlightens our minds, stirs our hearts, and strengthens our wills," and is continually conferred to Christians through the sacraments, prayer, and worship.

The full catechism is included in the Book of Common Prayer and is posted on the Episcopal website.

In practice, not all Episcopalians hold all of these beliefs, but ordained clergy are required to "solemnly engage to conform" to this doctrine. The Episcopal Church follows the via media or "middle way" between Protestant and Roman Catholic doctrine and practices: that is both Catholic and Reformed. Although many Episcopalians identify with this concept, those whose convictions lean toward either evangelical Anglicanism or Anglo-Catholicism may not.

A broad spectrum of theological views is represented within the Episcopal Church. Some Episcopal members or theologians hold evangelical positions, affirming the authority of scripture over all. The Episcopal Church website glossary defines the sources of authority as a balance between scripture, tradition, and reason. These three are characterized as a "three-legged stool" which will topple if any one overbalances the other. It also notes:

The Anglican balancing of the sources of authority has been criticized as clumsy or "muddy." It has been associated with the Anglican affinity for seeking the mean between extremes and living the via media. It has also been associated with the Anglican willingness to tolerate and comprehend opposing viewpoints instead of imposing tests of orthodoxy or resorting to heresy trials.

This balance of scripture, tradition and reason is traced to the work of Richard Hooker, a 16th-century apologist. In Hooker's model, scripture is the primary means of arriving at doctrine and things stated plainly in scripture are accepted as true. Issues that are ambiguous are determined by tradition, which is checked by reason. Noting the role of personal experience in Christian life, some Episcopalians have advocated following the example of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral of Methodist theology by thinking in terms of a "Fourth Leg" of "experience". This understanding is highly dependent on the work of Friedrich Schleiermacher.

A public example of this struggle between different Christian positions in the church has been the 2003 consecration of Gene Robinson, an openly gay man living with a long-term partner. The acceptance/rejection of his consecration is motivated by different views on the understanding of scripture. This struggle has some members concerned that the church may not continue its relationship with the larger Anglican Church. Others, however, view this pluralism as an asset, allowing a place for both sides to balance each other.

Comedian and Episcopalian Robin Williams once described the Episcopal faith (and, in a performance in London, specifically the Church of England) as "Catholic Lite – same rituals, half the guilt".

Social positions

Economic issues

In 1991, the church's general convention recommended parity in pay and benefits between clergy and lay employees in equivalent positions. Several times between 1979 and 2003, the convention expressed concern over affordable housing and supported work to provide affordable housing. In 1982 and 1997, the convention reaffirmed the church's commitment to eradicating poverty and malnutrition, and challenged parishes to increase ministries to the poor.

The convention urged the church in 1997 and 2000 to promote living wages for all. In 2003, the convention urged U.S. legislators to raise the national minimum wage, and to establish a living wage with health benefits as the national standard.

Marriage equality, gender, and sexuality

The Episcopal Church opposes laws in society which discriminate against individuals because of their sex, sexual orientation, or gender expression. The Episcopal Church enforces this policy of non-discrimination; women are ordained to all levels of ministry and church leadership. The church maintains an anti-sexism taskforce. Similarly, openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals are eligible to be ordained. The Episcopal Church affirms that marriage is the historic Christian standard for sexual intimacy between two people but does encourage clergy and laity to maintain ministry and dialogue with "the growing number of persons entering into sexually intimate relationships other than marriage."

At its 2015 triennial general convention, the church adopted "canonical and liturgical changes to provide marriage equality for Episcopalians". The "two new marriage rites" contain language that allows "them to be used by same-sex or opposite-sex couples". The blessing of same-sex relationships is not uniform throughout the Episcopal Church. Following the 2015 general convention, bishops were able to determine whether churches and priests within their dioceses were permitted to use the new liturgies. Bishops who did not permit their use were to connect same-sex couples to a diocese where the liturgies were allowed. However, following the 2018 general convention, resolution B012 was amended to "make provision for all couples asking to be married in this church to have access to these liturgies". This effectively granted all churches and clergy, with or without the support of their bishop, the ability to perform same-sex marriages. They may, however, refuse to do so. The church also opposes any state or federal constitutional amendments designed to prohibit the marriages of same-sex couples.

Racial equality

In 1861, John Henry Hopkins wrote a pamphlet entitled, A Scriptural, Ecclesiastical, and Historical View of Slavery, attempting to give a view of slavery from his interpretation of the New Testament: he argued that slavery was not a sin per se. Rather, Hopkins argued that slavery was an institution that was objectionable and should be abrogated by agreement, not by war. Bishop Hopkins' Letter on Slavery Ripped Up and his Misuse of the Sacred Scriptures Exposed, written by G.W. Hyer in 1863, opposed the points mentioned in Hopkins' pamphlet and revealed a startling divide in the Episcopal Church, as in other American churches, over the issue of slavery. It was not, however, strong enough to split the church into Northern and Southern wings even after the war, as many other denominations did. And though the church did divide into two wings during the war, Hopkins was active in re-uniting them in 1865.

The Social Gospel movement within American Christianity was a mainstay of racial justice and reconciliation activism amongst Episcopal clergy and laity alike throughout in the nineteenth and early to mid-twentieth century, it stressed a view of sin as being "more than individual" and "to be the consequence of forces of evil in human society so that salvation must involve the redemption of the social order as well as the redemption of the individual."

In 1991, the General Convention declared "the practice of racism is sin", and in 2006, a unanimous House of Bishops endorsed Resolution A123 apologizing for complicity in the institution of slavery, and silence over "Jim Crow" laws, segregation, and racial discrimination. In 2018, following the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, then-Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry said that "the stain of bigotry has once again covered our land" and called on Episcopalians to choose "organized love intent on creating God's beloved community on Earth" rather than hate.

In April 2021, the Episcopal Church released the findings of a Racial Justice audit after three years of study, it cited nine areas of needed improvement within the church regarding systemic racism.

Abortion

The Episcopal Church affirms that human life is sacred "from inception until death" and opposes elective abortion. As such, the Episcopal Church condemns the use of abortion as a method of birth control, gender selection, family planning, or for "any reason of convenience". The Church acknowledges the right of women to choose to undergo the procedure "only in extreme situations". It has stated that laws prohibiting abortions fail to address the social conditions which give rise to them. The 1994 resolution establishing the Episcopal Church's position gave "unequivocal opposition to any legislative, executive or judicial action on the part of local, state or national governments that abridges the right of a woman to reach an informed decision about the termination of pregnancy or that would limit the access of a woman to safe means of acting on her decision." In 2022, the 80th General Convention of the Episcopal Church approved a resolution calling for the protection of "abortion services and birth control with no restriction on movement, autonomy, type, or timing."

Euthanasia

The Episcopal Church disapproves of assisted suicide and other forms of euthanasia, but does teach that it is permissible to withdraw medical treatment, such as artificial nutrition and hydration, when the burden of such treatment outweighs its benefits to an individual.

Evolution

The Episcopal Church accepts the empirical findings of biology and does not consider the theory of evolution to be in conflict with its understanding of Holy Scripture in light of reason. In 1982, the Episcopal Church passed a resolution to "affirm its belief in the glorious ability of God to create in any manner, and in this affirmation reject the rigid dogmatism of the 'Creationist' movement." The church has also expressed skepticism toward the intelligent design movement.

Capital punishment

Holding that human life is sacred, the Episcopal Church is opposed to capital punishment. At the 1958 General Convention, Episcopal bishops issued a public statement against the death penalty, a position which has since been reaffirmed.

Climate change

The Episcopal Church website's Creation Care Glossary of Terms defines climate change as a "crisis" consisting of "severe problems that arise as human activity increases the level of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, and the world's average global temperature soars", a statement which places the church's stance on climate change in line with global scientific consensus on the matter. According to the church's website glossary, the climate crisis is one of "triple urgency" resulting from "the intersection of climate change, poverty and inequality, and biodiversity loss." The church's range of advocacy areas with respect to the environment include public support for net carbon neutrality, environmental justice, opposition to environmental racism, support for renewable energy and for setting and meeting sustainability goals, and support for workers, communities, and economies as they undergo a "just transition" toward eco-friendly policies.

Vaccinations

The Episcopal Church "recognizes no claim of theological or religious exemption from vaccination for our members and reiterates the spirit of General Convention policies that Episcopalians should seek the counsel of experienced medical professionals, scientific research, and epidemiological evidence", while similarly condemning the "spreading of fraudulent research that suggested vaccines might cause harm." In a similar vein, the church has expressed "grave concern and sorrow for the recent rise in easily preventable diseases due to anti-vaccination movements which have harmed thousands of children and adults." The Episcopal Church has endorsed stronger government mandates for vaccinations and has characterized the choice to be inoculated as "a duty not only to our own selves and families but to our communities", while describing the choice to not vaccinate, when it is medically safe to do so, as a decision which "threatens the lives of others."

Agencies and programs

The Society for the Increase of the Ministry (SIM) is the only organization raising funds on a national basis for Episcopal seminarian support. SIM's founding purpose in 1857 – "to find suitable persons for the Episcopal ministry and aid them in acquiring a thorough education". SIM has awarded scholarships to qualified full-time seminary students.

Episcopal Relief & Development is the international relief and development agency of the Episcopal Church in the United States. It helps to rebuild after disasters and aims to empower people by offering lasting solutions that fight poverty, hunger and disease. Episcopal Relief and Development programs focus on alleviating hunger, improving food supply, creating economic opportunities, strengthening communities, promoting health, fighting disease, responding to disasters, and rebuilding communities.

There are about 60 trust funds administered by the Episcopal Church which offer scholarships to young people affiliated with the church. Qualifying considerations often relate to historical missionary work of the church among Native Americans and African-Americans, as well as work in China and other foreign missions. There are special programs for both Native Americans and African-Americans interested in training for the ministry.

There are three historical societies of American Episcopalianism: Historical Society of the Episcopal Church, the National Episcopal Historians and Archivists (NEHA), and the Episcopal Women's History Project.

Church Publishing Incorporated (Church Publishing Inc., CPI) began as the Church Hymnal Corporation in 1918, dedicated initially to publishing a single work, The Hymnal 1918, which still remains in print. It is the official publisher for the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States. Imprints include Church Publishing, Morehouse Publishing (independently founded in 1884) and Seabury Books (the "trade" imprint).

Ecumenical relations

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Full communion

Under the leadership of Lutheran bishop Jesper Swedberg, parishes in colonial America that belonged to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sweden established ecumenical dialogue that resulted in altar and pulpit fellowship with the Episcopal Church in the 1700s, which led to a merger of all of the Swedish Lutheran churches there into the Episcopal Church by 1846. The Episcopal Church entered into a full communion agreement with the Church of Sweden at its General Convention in Salt Lake City on June 28, 2015.

Like the other churches of the Anglican Communion, the Episcopal Church has entered into full communion with the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht, the Philippine Independent Church, and the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar. The Episcopal Church is also in a relationship of full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Northern and Southern Provinces of the Moravian Church in America.

In 2006 a relation of interim Eucharistic sharing was inaugurated with the United Methodist Church, a step that may ultimately lead to full communion. In 2024, the United Methodist Church's General Conference approved full communion with the Episcopal Church, effective upon mutual approval by the General Convention, which is scheduled for as early as 2027.

Other ecumenical relations

The Episcopal Church maintains ecumenical dialogues with the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Moravian Church in America, and participates in pan-Anglican dialogues with the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Roman Catholic Church.

Historically Anglican churches have had strong ecumenical ties with the Eastern Orthodox Churches, and the Episcopal Church particularly with the Russian Orthodox Church, but relations in more recent years have been strained by the ordination of women and the ordination of Gene Robinson to the episcopate. A former relation of full communion with the Polish National Catholic Church (once a part of the Union of Utrecht) was broken off by the PNCC in 1976 over the ordination of women.

The Episcopal Church was a founding member of the Consultation on Church Union and participates in its successor, Churches Uniting in Christ. The Episcopal Church is a founding member of the National Council of Churches, the World Council of Churches, and the new Christian Churches Together in the USA. Dioceses and parishes are frequently members of local ecumenical councils as well.

See also

• Christianity in the United States
• Episcopal Youth Community
• Anglican Religious Orders
• Historical List of bishops of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America
• List of colleges and seminaries affiliated with the Episcopal Church
• List of Episcopal bishops of the United States
• List of the Episcopal cathedrals of the United States
• Protestantism in the United States

References

1. "Journal of the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America" (PDF). The Episcopal Church. 1940. p. 288.
2. "Annual Table of Statistics". The General Convention of The Episcopal Church. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
3. Lasserre, Matthieu (March 27, 2023). "The American Cathedral in Paris celebrates 100 years". La Croix. Paris. Retrieved March 28, 2023.
4. ^ Baptized Members by Province and Diocese 2013-2022 (pdf), The Episcopal Church, retrieved December 22, 2023
5. ^ FAST FACTS From Parochial Report Data 2022, The Episcopal Church, retrieved December 22, 2023
6. "Episcopal Church, The". The Episcopal Church. May 22, 2012. Retrieved July 28, 2024.
7. Paulsen, David (June 26, 2024). "Breaking: Sean Rowe elected 28th presiding bishop, will begin nine-year term Nov. 1". Episcopal News Service. Retrieved June 26, 2024.
8. "Trends continue in church membership growth or decline, reports 2011 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches", News from the National Council of Churches, National Council of Churches News Service, February 14, 2011, archived from the original on January 19, 2012, retrieved December 29, 2011, 14. The Episcopal Church, 2,026,343 members, down 2.48 percent. Note: The number of members given here is the total number of baptized members in 2012 (cf. Baptized Members by Province and Diocese 2002–2013).
9. ^ "Religious Landscape Study". Pew Research. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
10. Millard, Egan (October 16, 2020). "2019 parochial reports show continued decline and a 'dire' future for The Episcopal Church". Episcopal News Service. The Episcopal Church. Retrieved November 3, 2022.
11. "What makes us Anglican? Hallmarks of the Episcopal Church". Episcopalchurch.org. Archived from the original on June 6, 2017. Retrieved June 1, 2016.
12. McKinney, William. "Mainline Protestantism 2000", Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 558, Americans and Religions in the Twenty-First Century (July, 1998), pp. 57–66.
13. ^ Ayres, B. Drummond Jr. (April 28, 1981). "The Episcopalians: An American Elite with Roots Going Back to Jamestown". The New York Times. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
14. Hacker, Andrew (1957). "Liberal Democracy and Social Control". American Political Science Review. 51 (4): 1009–1026. doi:10.2307/1952449. JSTOR 1952449. S2CID 146933599.
15. Davidson, James D.; Pyle, Ralph E.; Reyes, David V. (1995). "Persistence and Change in the Protestant Establishment, 1930-1992". Social Forces. 74 (1): 157–175. doi:10.1093/sf/74.1.157. JSTOR 2580627.
16. ^ "Almost all U.S. presidents, including Trump, have been Christians". Pew Research Center. January 20, 2017.
17. ^ Kivisto, Peter; Swatos J., William H.; Christiano, Kevin J. (2015). Kivisto, Peter; Swatos J., Willaiam H. (eds.). Sociology of Religion: Contemporary Developments. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 97. ISBN 978-1-4422-1693-8.
18. ^ Zuckerman, Harriet (1977). Scientific Elite: Nobel Laureates in the United States. New York: The Free Press. p. 68. ISBN 978-1-4128-3376-9. Protestants turn up among the American-reared laureates in slightly greater proportion to their numbers in the general population. Thus 72 percent of the seventy-one laureates but about two thirds of the American population were reared in one or another Protestantone denomination mostly Presbyterian, Episcopalian, or Lutheran rather than Baptist or Fundamentalist.
19. ^ Baltzell, E. Digby (2011). Philadelphia Gentlemen: The Making of a National Upper Class. Transaction Publishers. p. 236. ISBN 978-1-4128-3075-1.
20. ^ W. Williams, Peter (2016). Religion, Art, and Money: Episcopalians and American Culture from the Civil War to the Great Depression. University of North Carolina Press. p. 176. ISBN 978-1-4696-2698-7. The names of fashionable families who were already Episcopalian, like the Morgans, or those, like the Fricks, who now became so, goes on interminably: Aldrich, Astor, Biddle, Booth, Brown, Du Pont, Firestone, Ford, Gardner, Mellon, Morgan, Procter, the Vanderbilt, Whitney. Episcopalians branches of the Baptist Rockefellers and Jewish Guggenheims even appeared on these family trees.
21. Bourgeois 2004.
22. ^ Helfand, Duke (October 10, 2009). "Conservative worshipers prepare for their exodus". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 26, 2018.
23. ^ "General Convention wrap-up: Historic actions, structural changes". Episcopal News Service. July 7, 2015. Archived from the original on August 2, 2015.
24. ^ "Constitution & canons (2006) Together with the Rules of Order for the government of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America otherwise Known as The Episcopal Church" (PDF). The General Convention of The Episcopal Church. 2006. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
25. ^ "Episcopal Church USA". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
26. ^ F. L. Cross; E. A. Livingstone, eds. (March 13, 1997). The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd ed.). USA: Oxford University Press. p. 554. ISBN 0-19-211655-X.
27. ^ "Episcopal Church". The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Columbia University Press. May 2001. Archived from the original on December 5, 2008. Retrieved September 9, 2007.
28. "Episcopal Church webpage in Spanish". Episcopalchurch.org. Archived from the original on December 14, 2005. Retrieved November 16, 2008.
29. "Episcopal Church webpage in French". Episcopalchurch.org. Archived from the original on December 12, 2006. Retrieved November 16, 2008.
30. TIME (September 22, 1961). "Religion: Is Protestant a Bad Word?". TIME. Retrieved June 16, 2024.
31. White, Edwin; Dykman, Jackson (1981). The Annotated Constitution and Canons for the Episcopal Church. New York: Church Publishing Incorporated. pp. 4–6. ISBN 978-0-89869-298-3.
32. "Acts of Convention # 1979-A125". 1979.
33. Zahl 1998, pp. 56, 69: "Protestant consciousness within ECUSA, which used to be called PECUSA (i.e., the Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.) is moribund With the approval and lightning ascent of the 1979 Prayer Book came to the end, for all practical purposes, of Protestant churchmanship in what is now known aggressively as ECUSA".
34. "Anglicans Online|The online centre of the Anglican / Episcopal world". Morgue.anglicansonline.org. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
35. "About Us—The Episcopal Church: History/Profile". The Episcopal Diocese of Chicago. Archived from the original on July 26, 2011. Retrieved July 7, 2007.
36. "Episcopal / Episcopalian". The Episcopal Church. April 14, 2023. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
37. Allen, David (May 28, 2016). "The United Methodist Church takes a step towards full communion with the Moravian Church in North America". Episcopal Cafe. Retrieved January 25, 2022. The Moravian Church is a full communion partner of the Episcopal Church. ... the Moravian Church's bishops are part of the historic Apostolic Succession.
38. Hamilton, J. Taylor (1925). "The Recognition of the Unitas Fratrum as an Old Episcopal Church by the Parliament of Great Britain in 1749". Moravian Historical Society.
39. Sydnor 1980, p. 64.
40. Sydnor 1980, p. 72.
41. Douglas 2005, p. 188.
42. Bente, Friedrich, 1858–1930. American Lutheranism Volume 1: Early History of American Lutheranism: Lutheran Swedes in Delaware. St. Louis: Concordia, 1919, pp. 13–16.
43. Bell 2008.
44. ^ Hein & Shattuck 2004.
45. "Looking Back: First Overseas Bishop – Life and Work". www.lifeandwork.org.
46. Piepkorn 1977, p. 199.
47. Clark 1994.
48. "Journal of a Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina" (PDF). Retrieved December 6, 2024.
49. The Archbishops' Group on the Episcopate (1990). Episcopal Ministry: The Report of the Archbishops' Group on the Episcopate, 1990. Church House Publishing. p. 123. ISBN 0-7151-3736-0.
50. "A history of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington". History of the Diocese. Episcopal Diocese of Washington. Archived from the original on February 4, 2012. Retrieved December 26, 2011.
51. "UBE History". The Union of Black Episcopalians – National. The Union of Black Episcopalians. Retrieved July 17, 2012.
52. "UBE History". Episcopalchurch.org. Archived from the original on July 10, 2008. Retrieved November 16, 2008.
53. "The Church Awakens: African Americans and the Struggle for Justice | Historical African American Parishes". www.episcopalarchives.org. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
54. "Van Leer Archives". November 8, 2021.
55. Lepley, Kristin. "The Charming Small Town In New Jersey That Is Home To One Of The State's Oldest Log Cabins And Churches". MSN.
56. Mason 1990.
57. Butler 1995.
58. New York (State) Dept of Labor (1912). Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor. State Department of Labor. pp. 610–11. Retrieved November 3, 2022. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
59. Williams 2006.
60. TIME (June 21, 1954). "Religion: The Eyes of the World". TIME. Retrieved June 16, 2024.
61. TIME (October 27, 1958). "Religion: The Bishops' Five". TIME. Retrieved June 15, 2024.
62. Hein & Shattuck 2004, p. 134.
63. Hein & Shattuck 2004, p. 135.
64. "MARSHALL QUITS CHURCH SESSION; Judge Is Reported Upset by Action of Episcopalians". Marshall The New York Times. October 21, 1964.
65. Hein & Shattuck 2004, p. 136.
66. Hein & Shattuck 2004, p. 137-8.
67. "News Coverage from the 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church". Episcopalchurch.org. Archived from the original on January 17, 2011. Retrieved November 28, 2010.
68. Rose, Christopher (February 26, 1995). "He's a Walking Contradiction". The Living Church. 210 (9): 11.
69. Frum 2000, p. 17.
70. "Statement from Primates 2016".
71. ^ Black, Vicki K. (August 1, 2005). Welcome to the Book of Common Prayer. Church Publishing. p. 129. ISBN 978-0-8192-2601-3. The ecumenical movements of the second half of the twentieth century led to a shared reading of Scripture in worship as well, with the current lectionaries for all liturgical denominations today having certain elements in common.
72. Ramshaw, Gail (2004). The Three-Day Feast: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter. Augsburg Books. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-8066-5115-6. Many Christians are already familiar with the ancient, and now recently restored, liturgies of the Three Days: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the great Easter Vigil service of light, readings, baptism, and communion. The worship resources published by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. and the Catholic Church include nearly identical versions of these liturgies.
73. The Revised Common Lectionary: Years A, B, C, and Holy Days According to the Use of the Episcopal Church. Church Publishing. 2007. ISBN 978-0-89869-554-0. The RCL goes into official use in the Episcopal Church on the First Sunday of Advent 2007...
74. "The Task Force for Prayer Book and Liturgical Revision". TASK FORCE FOR LITURGICAL AND PRAYER BOOK REVISION. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
75. "Episcopal Church Women's Ministries: The Philadelphia 11". Episcopalchurch.org. Archived from the original on October 19, 2010. Retrieved November 16, 2008.
76. "Episcopal Church Women's Ministries: The Washington 4". Episcopalchurch.org. Archived from the original on January 14, 2011. Retrieved November 16, 2008.
77. "Office of Black Ministries". August 8, 2009. Archived from the original on August 8, 2009. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
78. The Archives of the Episcopal Church, Acts of Convention: Resolution #1997-A053, Implement Mandatory Rights of Women Clergy under Canon Law. Retrieved 2008-10-31.
79. "Episcopal Diocese of Quincy seeks alternative oversight". Episcopalchurch.org. September 19, 2006. Archived from the original on November 12, 2008. Retrieved November 16, 2008.
80. "Last Episcopal Holdout Ordains Female Priest". Huffingtonpost.com. October 21, 2010. Retrieved August 12, 2014.
81. General Convention, Journal of the General Convention of...The Episcopal Church, Minneapolis 1976 (New York: General Convention, 1977), p. C-109.
82. Navarro, Mireya (December 17, 1989). "Openly Gay Priest Ordained in Jersey". The New York Times.
83. "Acts of Convention: Resolution # 1991-A104". Episcopalarchives.org. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
84. Adams 2006.
85. "ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE". Archived from the original on November 3, 2003.
86. Alston, Macky (October 29, 2012). "Love Free Or Die". PBS. Retrieved September 16, 2023.
87. "Resolution C056: Liturgies for Blessings". 76th General Convention Legislation. Archived from the original on April 24, 2012.
88. Goodstein, Laurie (July 15, 2009). "Episcopal Vote Reopens a Door to Gay Bishops". The New York Times. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
89. Kaleem, Jaweed (July 10, 2012). "Episcopal Church Approves Gay Couples' Same-Sex Blessings". Huffington Post. Retrieved May 19, 2016.
90. "The Tablet – News". thetablet.co.uk.
91. Grundy, Trevor (July 2, 2015). "Anglican Head Expresses Concern About Episcopal Vote on Gay Marriage". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 19, 2016.
92. "Health Index". ABC News.
93. "Primates Meeting Outcome: Episcopal Church suspended from full participation in Anglican Communion". February 1, 2017.
94. McGowan, Andrew. "No, the Episcopal Church has not been suspended from the Anglican Communion". Saint Ronan Street Diary.
95. "Crossing Boundaries: A Transgender Priest Becomes a University Chaplain | Religion & Politics". January 3, 2013. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
96. Hafiz, Yasmine (June 6, 2014). "Washington National Cathedral Welcomes First Trans Priest To Preach". HuffPost. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
97. "Four Episcopal congregations leave U.S. church over gay bishop". Cleveland 19 News. Associated Press. November 10, 2005. Retrieved December 26, 2018.
98. Hamill, Sean D. (November 3, 2007). "Pittsburgh Episcopal Diocese Votes to Leave the Church". The New York Times. Retrieved December 26, 2018.
99. Episcopal News Service (November 15, 2012). "Presiding Bishop's Pastoral Letter to Episcopalians in South Carolina" Archived November 18, 2012, at the Wayback Machine.
100. Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina. "Episcopal Church Takes Action Against the Bishop and Diocese of SC". Archived from the original on October 29, 2014. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
101. "Anglican Church in North America". Anglicanchurch.net. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
102. A.S. Haley (June 1, 2015). "What Is ECUSA Spending on Lawsuits? (Updated for General Convention 2015)". Anglican Ink. Archived from the original on July 5, 2015. Retrieved June 1, 2015.
103. "Twenty-First Century Excommunication". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
104. Reeder 2006.
105. ^ Harmon, Kendall (August 3, 2009). "TitusOneNine – The Presiding Bishop Writes the House of Bishops". Kendallharmon.net. Retrieved February 4, 2014.
106. Conger, George (August 7, 2009). "Presiding Bishop steps in to prevent church sales". Church of England Newspaper. p. 7. Retrieved November 24, 2012.
107. Berry Hawes, Jennifer; Parker, Adam (August 2, 2017). "State Supreme Court rules The Episcopal Church can reclaim 29 properties from breakaway parishes".
108. ^ Statistical Totals for the Episcopal Church by Province and Diocese: 2012–2013 (PDF), The Episcopal Church, 2014, p. 5, archived from the original (PDF) on October 28, 2014, retrieved October 27, 2014
109. Muñoz, Daniel (May 2016). "North to South: A Reappraisal of Anglican Communion Membership Figures". Journal of Anglican Studies. 14 (1): 71–95. doi:10.1017/S1740355315000212. ISSN 1740-3553. S2CID 147105475.
110. Gledhill, Ruth (November 12, 2015). "Anglican membership figures could be out by millions". www.christiantoday.com. Retrieved July 27, 2021.
111. "Largest denominations/denominational families in U.S." Adherents.com. ARIS/Barna. Archived from the original on May 8, 1999. Retrieved February 11, 2016. n 2001, 3.5 million American adults said they were Episcopalians. But in 2000 the Episcopal Church reported a total constituency of 2,317,794 people, including fully-committed [sic] members and inclusive adherents. This signifies a gap between those who are affiliated with the church (on membership rolls), versus those who self-identify with a particular denominational label but in most cases have no practical connection to the denomination and do not attend services.
112. Price, Matthew J (2002). "Will There Be a Clergy Shortage?". www.cpg.org. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
113. "Episcopal Church—Rates of Adherence Per 1000 Population (2000)". The Association of Religion Data Archives. Archived from the original on June 30, 2009. Retrieved July 7, 2012.
114. "Episcopal Church States (2000)". The Association of Religion Data Archives. Archived from the original on December 6, 2010. Retrieved July 7, 2012. Congregational "adherents" include all full members, their children, and others who regularly attend services.
115. Webster, Dan (January 4, 2012). "Catholic 'and' Episcopalian". Episcopal News Service.
116. "Numbers: Episcopalians who join the ordinariate, Catholics who become Episcopalians". Episcopal Café. January 23, 2012. Retrieved May 14, 2021.
117. "Table of Statistics of the Episcopal Church" (PDF). episcopalchurch.org. December 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 13, 2018. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
118. "Mainline Protestant churches no longer dominate". Episcopalchurch.org. March 30, 2005. Archived from the original on December 31, 2007. Retrieved November 16, 2008.
119. ^ "Data from the National Council of Churches' Historic Archive CD and Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches". thearda.com. Archived from the original on April 24, 2021. Retrieved November 11, 2009.
120. "Table of Statistics of the Episcopal Church" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on November 7, 2011.
121. "Is the Episcopal Church Growing (or Declining)? by C. Kirk Hadaway Director of Research, The Episcopal Church Center" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on November 7, 2011. Retrieved October 25, 2007.
122. "Q&A Context, analysis on Church membership statistics". Archived from the original on October 13, 2007. Retrieved October 25, 2007.
123. "Episcopal Fast Facts: 2005" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 28, 2008. Retrieved October 25, 2007.
124. "Text Summary of Episcopal Statistics 2005" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 28, 2008.
125. Articles by John Dart (November 14, 2006). "Episcopal membership loss 'precipitous'". The Christian Century. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
126. Louie Crew (February 14, 1996). "Who Caused the Decline in Membership in the Episcopal Church?". Rci.rutgers.edu. Retrieved April 23, 2012.
127. Irving Lewis Allen, "WASP—From Sociological Concept to Epithet," Ethnicity, 1975 154+
128. Hacker, Andrew (1957). "Liberal Democracy and Social Control". American Political Science Review. 51 (4): 1009–1026 . doi:10.2307/1952449. JSTOR 1952449. S2CID 146933599.
129. Baltzell (1964). The Protestant Establishment. New York, Random House. p. 9.
130. Hochstedt Butler, Diana (1995). Standing Against the Whirlwind: Evangelical Episcopalians in Nineteenth-Century America. Oxford University Press. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-19-535905-3. Of all these northern schools, only Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania were historically Anglican; the rest are associated with revivalist Presbyterianism or Congregationalism.
131. Khalaf, Samir (2012). Protestant Missionaries in the Levant: Ungodly Puritans, 1820–1860. Routledge. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-136-24980-8. Princeton was Presbyterian, while Columbia and Pennsylvania were Episcopalian.
132. Lipka, Michael (July 2, 2018). "5 facts about Episcopalians". Pew Research Center.
133. Konolige, Kit and Frederica (1978). The Power of Their Glory: America's Ruling Class: The Episcopalians. New York: Wyden Books. p. 28. ISBN 0-88326-155-3.
134. B. Rosenbaum, Julia (2006). Visions of Belonging: New England Art and the Making of American Identity. Cornell University Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-8014-4470-8. By the late nineteenth century, one of the strongest bulwarks of Brahmin power was Harvard University. Statistics underscore the close relationship between Harvard and Boston's upper strata.
135. C. Holloran, Peter (1989). Boston's Wayward Children: Social Services for Homeless Children, 1830–1930. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. p. 73. ISBN 978-0-8386-3297-0.
136. J. Harp, Gillis (2003). Brahmin Prophet: Phillips Brooks and the Path of Liberal Protestantism. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-7425-7198-3.
137. Irving Lewis Allen, "WASP—From Sociological Concept to Epithet", Ethnicity, 2.2 (1975): 153–162.
138. Davidson, James D.; Pyle, Ralph E.; Reyes, David V. (1995). "Persistence and Change in the Protestant Establishment, 1930–1992". Social Forces. 74 (1): 157–175. doi:10.1093/sf/74.1.157. JSTOR 2580627.
139. "America's Changing Religious Landscape". Pew Research Center: Religion & Public Life. May 12, 2015.
140. US Religious Landscape Survey: Diverse and Dynamic (PDF), The Pew Forum, February 2008, p. 85, retrieved September 17, 2012
141. Leonhardt, David (May 13, 2011). "Faith, Education and Income". The New York Times. Retrieved May 13, 2011.
142. Leonhardt, David (May 13, 2011). "Faith, Education and Income". Economix | The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017.
143. ^ Masci, David (October 11, 2016). "How income varies among U.S. religious groups". Pew Research Center.
144. Griffiss, James E. (1997). The Anglican Vision. Boston, Massachusetts: Cowley Publications. pp. 15–18. ISBN 1-56101-143-6.
145. Korkzan, Shireen (June 3, 2020). "Episcopal farmworker ministries respond to needs during COVID-19 pandemic". Episcopal News Service. Retrieved June 21, 2020.
146. Lehman, Chris. "Episcopal Church Courts Latinos". NPR.org. Retrieved June 21, 2020.
147. Podmore 2008, p. 130.
148. "Governance Documents of the Church – The Archives of the Episcopal Church" (PDF).
149. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on April 18, 2012. Retrieved February 4, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
150. "The Anglican Communion Official Website: Iglesia Episcopal de Cuba". Anglicancommunion.org. Retrieved November 16, 2008.
151. Swatos 2005, p. 212.
152. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on June 8, 2012. Retrieved February 4, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
153. Joint Rule IX of the General Convention
154. "Church Governance". episcopalchurch.org. Archived from the original on October 31, 2010.
155. The Episcopal Church (2009), Constitution and Canons, Title I Canon 2.
156. Swatos 2005, p. 202.
157. "What's Happening at 815?". Episcopalchurch.org. Archived from the original on July 9, 2008. Retrieved November 16, 2008.
158. Webber 1999, pp. 28–31.
159. ^ Webber 1999, pp. 34.
160. ^ Webber 1999, pp. 37.
161. Webber 1999, p. 28.
162. Webber 1999, pp. 44.
163. Webber 1999, pp. 31–33.
164. "Grace Church in Newark". Archived from the original on May 14, 2013.
165. Webber 1999, pp. 37–38.
166. "A Basic Introduction to Christianity". Archived from the original on August 18, 2010.
167. Constitution and Canons (PDF). pp. 132–133. Retrieved January 5, 2019.
168. The Book of Common Prayer. New York: Oxford University Press. January 15, 2008. p. 854. ISBN 978-0-19-528777-6.
169. The Book of Common Prayer. London: Oxford University Press. February 2008. ISBN 978-0-19-528777-6.
170. The Book of Common Prayer. New York: Oxford University Press. February 2008. p. 849. ISBN 978-0-19-528777-6.
171. The Book of Common Prayer. London: Oxford University Press. February 2008. pp. 848–850. ISBN 978-0-19-528777-6.
172. The Book of Common Prayer. London: Oxford University Press. February 2008. p. 850. ISBN 978-0-19-528777-6.
173. The Book of Common Prayer. London: Oxford University Press. February 2008. pp. 846–853. ISBN 978-0-19-528777-6.
174. The Book of Common Prayer. London: Oxford University Press. February 2008. p. 853. ISBN 978-0-19-528777-6.
175. The Book of Common Prayer. London: Oxford University Press. February 2008. p. 868. ISBN 978-0-19-528777-6.
176. The Book of Common Prayer. New York: Oxford University Press. February 2008. p. 868. ISBN 978-0-19-528777-6.
177. The Book of Common Prayer. New York: Oxford University Press. January 15, 2008. p. 857. ISBN 978-0-19-528777-6.
178. The Book of Common Prayer. London. February 2008. pp. 857–860. ISBN 978-0-19-528777-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
179. The Book of Common Prayer. London: Oxford University Press. February 2008. p. 858. ISBN 978-0-19-528777-6.
180. "What We Believe: Communion". The Episcopal Church. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
181. The Book of Common Prayer. London: Oxford University Press. February 2008. p. 860. ISBN 978-0-19-528777-6.
182. The Book of Common Prayer, Episcopalchurch.org. 2006. p. 860. Retrieved September 10, 2021.
183. "Hell". An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church. Retrieved January 6, 2022.
184. Joseph Buchanan Bernardin, An Introduction to the Episcopal Church (2008) p. 63
185. The Book of Common Prayer. London: Oxford University Press. February 2008. p. 855. ISBN 978-0-19-528777-6.
186. The Book of Common Prayer. London: Oxford University Press. February 2008. p. 874. ISBN 978-0-19-528777-6.
187. The Book of Common Prayer. London: Oxford University Press. February 2008. p. 854. ISBN 978-0-19-528777-6.
188. The Book of Common Prayer. New York: Oxford University Press. February 2008. p. 856. ISBN 978-0-19-528777-6.
189. The Book of Common Prayer. London: Oxford University Press. February 2008. p. 211. ISBN 978-0-19-528777-6.
190. The Book of Common Prayer. New York: Oxford University Press. February 2008. p. 858. ISBN 978-0-19-528777-6.
191. "Visitors' Center". Episcopalchurch.org. Archived from the original on June 11, 2011. Retrieved November 16, 2008.
192. The Book of Common Prayer. New York: Church Publishing, Inc. p. 513.
193. "What makes us Anglican? Hallmarks of the Episcopal Church". Episcopalchurch.org. Archived from the original on June 12, 2011. Retrieved November 16, 2008.
194. Authority, Sources of (in Anglicanism) on the Episcopal Church site, accessed on April 19, 2007, which in turn credits Church Publishing Incorporated, New York, NY, from An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church, A User Friendly Reference for Episcopalians, Don S. Armentrout and Robert Boak Slocum, editors.
195. Anglican Listening on the Episcopal Church site goes into detail on how scripture, tradition, and reason work to "uphold and critique each other in a dynamic way".
196. As stated in section 2.16 of To Set Our Hope On Christ (PDF), because "the biblical writers write at different times and in different circumstances, they do not always agree with one another. For example, it is helpful to know that when Ezra (chapter 10) commands the men of Israel to divorce their wives, it is because they had married foreign wives, who are seen to be a danger to Israel in exile. But there is another belief about foreign wives in the Book of Ruth, probably written at about the same time. Today, in some situations, it may be faithful to follow Ezra, while in most situations it is faithful to follow Ruth."
197. Robin Williams: Live on Broadway
198. General Convention Resolution 1991-D066 Support a Policy of Pay Equity in the Church and Society
199. General Convention Resolution 2003-D040 Reaffirm Commitment to Provide Affordable Housing for the Poor
200. General Convention Resolution 1997-D030 Challenge Congregations to Establish Direct Ministries to the Poor
201. General Convention Resolution 1997-D082 Urge Church-wide Promotion of the Living Wage
202. General Convention Resolution 2000-A081 Urge Bishops and Diocesan Leaders to Support the National Implementation of a Just Wage
203. General Convention Resolution 2003-A130 Support the Establishment of a Living Wage
204. General Convention Resolution 2003-C030 Urge Legislation to Raise the Federal Minimum Wage
205. "Acts of Convention: Implement Mandatory Rights of Women Clergy under Canon Law, 1997-A053". Archives of the Episcopal Church. The Episcopal Church. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
206. "Acts of Resolution: Create an Anti-Sexism Task Force, 2018-D023". Archives of the Episcopal Church. The Episcopal Church. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
207. Wan, William (July 16, 2009). "Episcopalians in Va. Divided Over Decision Allowing Ordination of Gay Bishops". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
208. "Episcopal Church Takes Bold Step On Transgender Priests". The Huffington Post. July 9, 2012. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
209. "Acts of Convention: Call for Guidance on Intimate Relationships Other Than Marriage, 2018-A087". The Archives of the Episcopal Church. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
210. "The Episcopal Church approves religious weddings for gay couples after controversial debate". Washington Post. Retrieved December 11, 2016.
211. "Some same-sex couples will still face hurdles accessing church's marriage rites". The Episcopal Church. Retrieved December 30, 2018.
212. "Religious Groups' Official Positions on Same-Sex Marriage". Pew Research Center. December 7, 2012. Accessed October 28, 2014.
213. G.W. Hyer, Bishop Hopkins' Letter on Slavery Ripped up and His Misuse of the Sacred Scriptures Exposed by a Clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal Church (New York: John F. Trow, 1863).
214. "Social Gospel". An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
215. The 70th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, "Resolution #1991-B051, Call for the Removal of Racism from the Life of the Nation", Acts of Convention, The Archives of the Episcopal Church, retrieved October 31, 2008{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
216. "Bishops Endorse Apology for Slavery Complicity". Archived from the original on October 13, 2007.
217. "Presiding Bishop reflects on Charlottesville and its aftermath". Episcopal News Service. August 17, 2017. Retrieved September 5, 2018.
218. Paulsen, David (April 19, 2021). "Episcopal Church releases racial audit of leadership, citing nine patterns of racism in church culture". Episcopal News Service. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
219. "The Acts of Convention: Resolution #1994-A054". The Archives of the Episcopal Church. Retrieved June 21, 2016.
220. "D083: Addressing the erosion of reproductive rights and autonomy". The Episcopal Church. Archived from the original on June 25, 2022. Retrieved December 19, 2022.
221. "Religious Groups' Views on End-of-Life Issues". Pew Research Center. November 21, 2013. Retrieved October 28, 2014.
222. "Religious Groups' Views on Evolution". Pew Research Center: Religion & Public Life. February 4, 2009. Retrieved January 6, 2022.
223. "Religious Groups' Official Positions on Capital Punishment". Pew Research Center: Religion & Public Life. November 4, 2009. Retrieved April 8, 2021.
224. "An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church". Creation Care & Eco-Justice Glossary of Terms. Retrieved February 21, 2022.
225. "Advocacy for Stronger Governmental Vaccination Mandates, EXC062019.12". The Archives of the Episcopal Church. Retrieved February 21, 2022.
226. designthemes. "The Society for the Increase of the Ministry – Investing in the future ordained leaders of The Episcopal Church since 1857". simministry.org.
227. "Episcopal Relief & Development". Er-d.org. Retrieved November 28, 2010.
228. "Young Adults". The Episcopal Church. Archived from the original on July 2, 2011. Retrieved August 19, 2010.
229. Scholarship Trust Funds (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on November 7, 2011, retrieved August 19, 2010
230. "The Indigenous Theological Training Institute". The Episcopal Church. Archived from the original on November 7, 2011. Retrieved August 19, 2010.
231. "Office of Black Ministries". The Episcopal Church. Archived from the original on June 11, 2011. Retrieved August 19, 2010.
232. "Historical Society of the Episcopal Church – TriHistory Conference". May 28, 2022.
233. "Church Publishing Inc". ChurchPublishing.org. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
234. Bente, Friedrich, 1858–1930. American Lutheranism Volume 1: Early History of American Lutheranism: Lutheran Swedes in Delaware. St. Louis: Concordia, 1919, pp. 13–16.
235. "Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (2001)". Office of Ecumenical & Interreligious Relations of The Episcopal Church. 2001. Archived from the original on November 25, 2009. Retrieved October 6, 2009.
236. Schjonberg, Mary Frances (September 10, 2010). "Moravian Church's Southern Province enters full communion with Episcopal Church". Episcopal Life Online. Archived from the original on October 28, 2011. Retrieved September 11, 2010.
237. "April 30 wrap-up: Some LGBTQ bans lifted, Episcopal communion approved". United Methodist News Service. Retrieved May 1, 2024.
238. "Full communion with Episcopalians gets closer". United Methodist News Service. Retrieved May 1, 2024.
239. Woerman, Melodie (May 1, 2024). "Full communion between Methodists, Episcopalians gets closer". Episcopal News Service. Retrieved May 6, 2024.
240. "Presbyterian-Episcopal Dialogue". The Episcopal Church. Retrieved May 6, 2024.

Sources

• Adams, Elizabeth (2006). Going to Heaven: The Life and Election of Bishop Gene Robinson. Brooklyn, New York: Soft Skull Press. ISBN 978-1-933368-22-1.
• Baltzell, E. Digby (1964). The Protestant Establishment: Aristocracy and Caste in America. New York: Random House.
• Bourgeois, Michael (2004). All Things Human: Henry Codman Potter and the Social Gospel in the Episcopal Church. Studies in Anglican History. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-02877-9.
• Butler, Diana Hochstedt (1995). Standing Against the Whirlwind: Evangelical Episcopalians in Nineteenth-Century America. Religion in America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-508542-6.
• Bell, James B. (2008). A War of Religion: Dissenters, Anglicans, and the American Revolution. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-54297-6.
• Clark, Jennifer (1994). "'Church of Our Fathers': The Development of the Protestant Episcopal Church Within the Changing Post-Revolutionary Anglo-American Relationship". Journal of Religious History. 18 (1): 27–51. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9809.1994.tb00225.x.
• Davidson, James D.; Pyle, Ralph E.; Reyes, David V. (1995). "Persistence and Change in the Protestant Establishment, 1930–1992". Social Forces. 74 (1): 157–175. doi:10.1093/sf/74.1.157. JSTOR 2580627.
• Douglas, Ian T. (2005). "Anglican Mission in Changing Times: A Brief Institutional History of the Episcopal Church, USA". In Roozen, David A.; Nieman, James R. (eds.). Church, Identity, and Change: Theology and Denominational Structures in Unsettled Times. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. pp. 188–197. ISBN 978-0-8028-2819-4.
• Frum, David (2000). How We Got Here: The '70s. New York City: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-04195-4.
• Hacker, Andrew (1957). "Liberal Democracy and Social Control". American Political Science Review. 51 (4): 1009–1026. doi:10.2307/1952449. JSTOR 1952449. S2CID 146933599.
• Hein, David; Shattuck, Gardiner H Jr. (2004). The Episcopalians. New York: Church Publishing. ISBN 978-0-89869-497-0.
• Mason, Lockert B. (1990). "Separation and Reunion of the Episcopal Church, 1860–1865: The Role of Bishop Thomas Atkinson". Anglican and Episcopal History. 59 (3): 345–365. JSTOR 42610426.
• Piepkorn, Arthur Carl (1977). Profiles in Belief: The Religious Bodies of the United States and Canada. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 978-0-06-066580-7.
• Podmore, Colin (2008). "A Tale of Two Churches: The Ecclesiologies of The Episcopal Church and the Church of England Compared". International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church. 8 (2): 124–154. doi:10.1080/14742250801930822. S2CID 214652376.
• Reeder, Kathleen E. (2006). "Whose Church Is It, Anyway? Property Disputes and Episcopal Church Splits". Columbia Journal of Law and Social Problems. 40 (2): 125–171.
• Swatos, William H Jr. (2005). "A Primacy of Systems: Confederation, Cooperation, and Communion". In Roozen, David A.; Nieman, James R. (eds.). Church, Identity, and Change: Theology and Denominational Structures in Unsettled Times. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. pp. 198–226. ISBN 978-0-8028-2819-4.
• Sydnor, William (1980). Looking at the Episcopal Church. Morehouse Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8192-1279-5.
• Webber, Christopher L. (1999). Welcome to the Episcopal Church: An Introduction to Its History, Faith, and Worship. Morehouse Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8192-1820-9.
• Williams, Peter W. (2006). "The Gospel of Wealth and the Gospel of Art: Episcopalians and Cultural Philanthropy from the Gilded Age to the Depression". Anglican and Episcopal History. 75 (2): 170–223. JSTOR 42612970.
• Zahl, Paul F. M. (1998). The Protestant Face of Anglicanism. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. ISBN 978-0-8028-4597-9.

Further reading

• Anglican & Episcopal History—The Journal of the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church (articles, church reviews, and book reviews).
• Articles on leading Episcopalians, both lay (e.g., George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Frances Perkins) and ordained, in American National Biography. (1999). Edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. New York: Oxford Univ. Press. Also 100 biographical articles in Hein and Shattuck, The Episcopalians: see below.
• A Brief History of the Episcopal Church. Holmes, David L. (1993). Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International.
• A Dictionary for Episcopalians. Wall, John N. (2000). Boston, MA: Cowley Publications.
• Documents of Witness: A History of the Episcopal Church, 1782–1985. Armentrout, Don S., & Slocum, Robert Boak. (1994). New York: Church Hymnal Corporation.
• Readings from the History of the Episcopal Church. Prichard, Robert W. (Ed.). (1986). Wilton, CT: Morehouse-Barlow.
• The Episcopal Clerical Directory. New York: Church Publishing.
• An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church: A User Friendly Reference for Episcopalians. Armentrout, Don S., & Slocum, Robert Boak. (Eds.). (). New York: Church Publishing Incorporated.
• About the Concordat: 28 Questions about the Agreement between the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Church of America , prepared by the Ecumenical Relations Office of the Episcopal Church. Cincinnati, Ohio: Forward Movement Publications, . 43 p. Without ISBN
• A Commentary on Concordat of Agreement, ed. by James E. Griffes and Daniel Martensen. Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg-Fortress; Cincinnati, Ohio: Forward Movement Publications, 1994. 159 p. ISBN 0-8066-2690-9
• Concordat of Agreement : Supporting Essays, ed. by Daniel F. Martensen. Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg-Fortress; Cincinnati, Ohio: Forward Movement Publications, 1995. 234 p. ISBN 0-8066-2667-4
• Seltser, Barry Jay (May 19, 2006). "Episcopalian Crisis: Authority, Homosexuality & the Future of Anglicanism". Commonweal. 133 (10). Archived from the original on October 20, 2007. Retrieved December 19, 2006. An essay on Hooker and the present discontents.
• The History of the Episcopal Church in America, 1607–1991: A Bibliography. Caldwell, Sandra M., & Caldwell, Ronald J. (1993). New York: Garland Publishing.
• Shattuck, Gardiner H Jr. (2000). Episcopalians and Race: Civil War to Civil Rights. Religion in the South. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-2149-9.
• Historical Dictionary of Anglicanism by Colin Buchanan; (2nd ed. 2015) excerpt
• Jamestown Commitment: the Episcopal Church and the American Indian, by Owanah Anderson. Cincinnati, Ohio: Forward Movement Publications (1988). 170 p. ISBN 0-88028-082-4
• Mullin, Robert Bruce. "Trends in the Study of the History of the Episcopal Church," Anglican and Episcopal History, June 2003, Vol. 72 Issue 2, pp 153–165, historiography
• New Georgia Encyclopedia article on the Episcopal Church in the U.S. South Archived May 11, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
• "The Forgotten Evangelicals: Virginia Episcopalians, 1790–1876". Waukechon, John Frank. Dissertation Abstracts International, 2001, Vol. 61 Issue 8, pp 3322–3322
• Tarter, Brent (2004). "Reflections on the Church of England in Colonial Virginia". Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 112 (4): 338–371. JSTOR 4250211.
• Noble Powell and the Episcopal Establishment in the Twentieth Century. Hein, David. (2001, 2007). Urbana: University of Illinois Press; paperback reprint, Eugene, Ore.: Wipf & Stock.
• Rewriting History: Scapegoating the Episcopal Church Archived November 9, 2020, at the Wayback Machine. Savitri Hensman. Ekklesia. 2007.

External links

• Official website
• Church Publishing, Inc.
• Profile on the Association of Religion Data Archives website

Media related to Episcopal Church (United States) at Wikimedia Commons

v t e Anglican Communion
General	Supreme Governor of the Church of England Episcopal polity Archbishop of Canterbury Anglican Communion Primates' Meeting Lambeth Conferences (2022) Anglican Consultative Council Homosexuality Windsor Report Ordination of women Ecumenism Dioceses
African provinces	Alexandria Burundi Central Africa Congo Indian Ocean Kenya Mozambique and Angola Nigeria Rwanda Southern Africa South Sudan Sudan Tanzania Uganda West Africa
Pan-American provinces	Brazil Canada Central America Chile Mexico South America United States of America West Indies
Asian provinces	Bangladesh (United) Hong Kong and Macao Japan Jerusalem and the Middle East Korea Myanmar (Burma) North India (United) Pakistan (United) Philippines South East Asia South India (United)
European provinces	England (including the Diocese in Europe) Ireland Scotland Wales
Oceanian provinces	Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia Australia Melanesia Papua New Guinea
Extra-provincial churches	Bermuda Ceylon (Sri Lanka) Falkland Islands Portugal Spain
Churches in full communion	Mar Thoma Syrian Church Malabar Syrian Church Union of Utrecht Philippine Independent Church Porvoo Communion
Christianity portal

• Episcopal Church (United States)
• Anglican denominations in North America
• Anglicanism in the United States
• Protestantism in the United States
• Members of the World Council of Churches
• Religious organizations established in 1789
• Christian denominations established in the 18th century
• Anglican organizations established in the 18th century
• Members of the National Council of Churches
• 1789 establishments in Pennsylvania
• Affirming Christian denominations in the United States