The Episcopal Church

 

Profiles of Groups in Richmond:
St. James' Episcopal
St. John's Episcopal
St. Martin's Episcopal
St. Stephen's Episcopal
St. Thomas’ Episcopal

History
During the Reformation in the 16th Century, Henry VIII declared the Church of England independent of the Roman Catholic Church with himself as its head. It was the result of many factors, some political and some theological, but it has given rise to a distinct form of Christianity, known as Anglicanism.

The Episcopal Church is a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, the churches around the world that trace their roots to the Church of England, and maintain a “communion” with it, hence the name “Anglican.” Other members of the Communion include the Anglican Church of Canada and the Anglican Church of Nigeria. In fact, most Anglicans now live in Africa.

The member churches of the Anglican Communion are joined together by choice and have no direct authority over one another. The Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Church of England, is acknowledged as the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, but the Archbishop does not have direct authority over any Anglican Church outside of England. While there are other churches that call themselves “Anglican,” only one Church in any country can be considered “in full communion” with the Church of England, and the Episcopal Church USA is the American member of the Anglican Communion. Annually, the Lambeth Conference gathers in England, consisting of Bishops representing all members of the Anglican Communion. During this conference, Bishops debate and resolve issues facing the Church and issues a set of common goals and guidelines, which each member has agreed to follow.

The Beliefs and Practices of the Protestant Episcopal Church
Anglicanism stands squarely in the Reformed Christian tradition, yet considers itself just as directly descended from the Early Church as the Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox churches. Episcopalians celebrate the “Mass” in ways similar to the Roman Catholic tradition, yet do not recognize a single authority, such as the Pope of Rome. Anglicans are often jokingly referred to as “Catholic Light.” However, Episcopalians believe that Christians should be able to worship God and read the Bible in their first language, which for most Episcopalians, is English, rather than Latin or Greek, the two earlier, “official” languages of Christianity.

Unique to Anglicanism is the Book of Common Prayer, the collection of worship services that all worshipers in an Anglican church follow. It’s called “common prayer” because all Anglicans pray it together, around the world. The first Book of Common Prayer was compiled in English by Thomas Cranmer in the 16th Century, and since then has undergone many revisions for different times and places.

The Anglican approach to reading and interpreting the Bible was first articulated by Richard Hooker in the 16th Century. While Christians universally acknowledge the Bible as the word of God, Anglicans discern that the Bible says must always speak to it’s followers in their own time and place. Therefore, Anglicans are not considered theologically fundamental in that they interpret the Bible, but do not consider all biblical teachings to be taken literally. According to the Episcopal Church of America website:



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




Episcopalians recognize and celebrate all traditionally Catholic Christian holidays, such as Christmas, Easter, and Lent. They follow the same calendar as the Holy Roman Church and recognize the divinity of the Holy Roman Saints.

Sociopolitical Impacts on the Episcopal Church
During the 19th century's racist and human rights conflicts, when many other denominations split into pro-slavery and pro-abolition groups, the ECUSA remained united in it’s stance against slavery, with the exception of the Diocese of Virginia, explained in greater detail later. In the civil rights movement, the Episcopal church took an active role in standing for equal rights for Black Americans. During the early 20th century debates over whether married couples should have access to contraception, the Church took a liberal stance on the matter.

During the 20th century's sexist debates over whether qualified women should be eligible for ordination as priests, the Episcopal Church, still taking theological, if not political, direction from the Church of England, held off on ordaining women. However, in 1974, 11 women were ordained as Episcopalian priests in Philadelphia, although the Church at large refused to recognize the validity of the ordinations and declared them“irregular.” After much debate, the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops internationally, voted to accept women into the priesthood, and the “Philadelphia Eleven” were pronounced as regular priests of the Episcopal Church of the USA. The ECUSA was the 6th Christian denomination in the United States to ordain women.

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the controversy over whether sexually active gays and lesbians in committed relationships should be eligible for consideration for ordination as priests and consecration as bishops, and whether or not the church should bless unions between committed gay and lesbian couples emerged. The worldwide Anglican Communion is seriously split on these topics. However, celibate and active gays and lesbians are welcome in the Episcopal church as members. Beginning in 1979, the church permitted the ordination of celibate homosexuals, but the church had a traditional policy of not ordaining sexually active homosexuals. In 1990, Bishop Righter ordained a gay male who was involved in a committed relationship, and a hearing was held to determine if the Bishop should be tried for heresy. The charges were dismissed five years later. In 2003, the General Convention voted on the question of consecrating Canon Gene Robinson, a homosexual in a committed relationship who had been elected bishop of New Hampshire in 2003 by his diocese. After garnering national attention, his election was affirmed by the General Convention by a majority of 3 to 1. The Lambeth Council of 2004 issued the well publicized Windsor Report, which admonished the ECUSA for taking a stance which was not agreed upon by the Anglican Communion. As a result, there is a moratorium on the consecration of any bishops by the ECUSA as of this 2005 writing.

History of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia
The first Anglican worship service in what is now the United States took place in Roanoke, Virginia in 1587. The first American Anglican congregation was established at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. Throughout the 17th century, the church spread through the British colonies. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG) brought clergy from England to establish churches in areas other than Virginia, which was most closely tied to the British homeland. However, anti-British sentiments served a terrible blow to the church, which was viewed as being sympathetic to the crown, and by the end of the Revolution, many of the SPG clergy had been forced to return to England.

On the day after the Colony of Virginia declared its independence from England, the Virginia Convention which governed both the Commonwealth and the Church of Virginia, ordered that prayers for the King and Realm of England be removed from its Book of Common Prayer. Most of the clergy took oaths of allegiance to the new Commonwealth, and a significant number of them bore arms in the Revolutionary Army, many of whose leaders were parishioners of the Anglican Church of Virginia.

The American Anglicans were in need of a Bishop, although the Church of England required any candidate to swear oath to the British crown in order to be consecrated. In 1783, the first nominated American bishop, Samuel Seabury of Connecticut, refused to do this. He traveled north from London, where he found bishops with the Anglican Church of Scotland who consecrated him without the required allegiance to the crown. In 1787, the British Parliament passed legislation that allowed consecration of bishops not swearing oath to the crown, and The Rev. James Madison, president of the College of William and Mary and rector of James City Parish, was elected, then consecrated in England in 1790, to be the first Bishop of Virginia.

The Diocese of Virginia was organized in May 1785 and was one of the nine dioceses represented at the first General Convention in September 1785 which brought together the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. Today, the Diocese of Virginia is the largest in the Episcopal Church and includes 38 counties in central and northern Virginia.

Post-Revolution and Reestablishment of the Church of Virginia
Although the Protestant Episcopal Church in Virginia was allowed to organize itself in 1785, its incorporation was not permitted because the new General Assembly feared the return of an established church. However, in 1789, the Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. was established, although the 19th century brought dissension. At the time, three distinct theological philosophies were emerging. The Anglo-Catholics, or “high church” advocates, favored the conservative course of the Church of England, with a strict line of adherence to the original teachings of the SPG. The “Low-Church” followers were influenced by the American theological movements of the times which emphasized an American brand of experiential religion, and less formality and fealty to the hierarchy that the Mother Church of England expounded, and were noted for their evangelical and missionary zeal . The third group, the “latitudinarians,” felt comfortable following the via media, or middle way, between the two. As a result, the Anglo-Catholics broke away and formed the Anglican Church of America and the “Low-Church” followers separated to establish the Reformed Episcopal Church.

The early canons of the Virginia Diocese reflected a post-revolutionary spirit of caution. Strict limits were set on the authority of the bishop, who was permitted only to ordain, confirm, and to "take precedence in ecclesiastical assemblies." Virginians saw no place for lordly bishops or episcopal palaces in their new Commonwealth. A bishop, indeed, was to have no authority over the parishes of the Diocese and was, himself, "to do the duty of a parish minister," except when called upon to exercise a particular function of his episcopal ministry. Three bishops oversaw the survival and eventual growth of the Episcopal church in Virginia during the 19th century.

As the capital of the Confederacy, and the center for much of the secessionist sentiment, the Episcopal diocese chose to break ties with the Protestant Episcopal Church at the start of the American Civil War. In 1861, the last convention of the Diocese was held and Virginia joined the other secessionist states in forming a General Council to replace the General Convention of the Church and renamed the annual diocesan meeting a "council." The General Convention took no notice of the action, and, during the Civil War years, continued simply to mark the departed dioceses "absent." In 1866, after the war, despite considerable opposition, Bishop Johns led the Diocese back into the Protestant Episcopal Church. Virginia, however, continues to call its annual diocesan meeting a Council. Since the post Civil War era, the diocese has enjoyed full participation in the Protestant Episcopal Church of the U.S.A. and has had a succession of 12 bishops.

The Current Episcopal Diocese of Virginia
With over 90,000 baptized members and 400 clergy, the Diocese of Virginia is the largest Diocese in the United States. It consists of more than 195 parishes and missions. The diocese covers 38 counties in central, northern and northwestern Virginia. The diocese is divided into 15 geographical regions. The James River, which runs directly through the City of Richmond, is the southern most border of the diocese, and where the neighboring Diocese of Southern Virginia begins.

There are approximately 200 congregations in the Diocese of Virginia. There are six Episcopal Church Schools in the diocese, and although they are governed by the Episcopal Schools of Virginia, Inc., the diocese is represented on the board of the corporation and each school individually. There are two major conference centers that serve the diocese: Shrinemont, located in the northwest mountains of Virginia, which serves host to youth camps and retreats, parish weekends, conferences, and training seminars year ‘round; and the Roslyn Center, a 150 acre park-like setting along the James River in Richmond.

The diocese serves as a source of theological guidance for it’s parishes, although the individual autonomy of each parish is recognized. The Diocesan role is to serve as a support to each congregation. Such support is provided by means of:
Clergy Search- for parishes in need of new clergy, the diocese provides guidance and support to parishes and their vestry and search committees.
Financial Management- the diocese guides individual parishes with investments, provides payroll services to parish staff, and provides employee benefits to parish staff.
Loan Services- the diocese offers low interest loans to parishes seeking to fund construction and refurbishing of their buildings.
Grants for Strengthening Growth- the diocese provides grants to churches for youth programs, scholarships for camps and conferences to parish members, money for seed outreach programs, and support for parish mission work.

Individual congregations and parishes perform the bulk of the outreach work, and the diocese provides financial and logistical support to the work of it’s member churches, although the diocese directly supports the Peter Paul Development Center in Richmond, which serves families living in the inner city of Richmond.

Headquarters
The diocesan offices are located in the Mayo Memorial Church House, a 19th century Greek Revival mansion on West Franklin Street. The Diocese also maintains an office in Alexandria.

References
The Episcopal Church of USA Website. retrieved on July 2, 2005 from http://www.episcopalchurch.org
Nancy Jenkins, Assistant to the Bishop for Communications. The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia
The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia Website. retrieved on July 2, 2005 from http://www.thediocese.net
Crew, Louie. Rutgers University. Female Priests in the Episcopal Church. retrieved on July 18, 2005 from http://newark.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/womenpr.html
The Encylcopedia of Religion.

prepared by Perry Threlfall (July, 2005)