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The Episcopal Church
is the American branch of the world-wide
Anglican Communion. The
Anglican Communion traces its history through the Church of England and two
thousand years of catholic and apostolic tradition, dating from the Church
established by the Apostles in the New Testament.
Christianity came to the British Isles through
Roman Christians in the second century of the Church’s existence, and the
Church of England today traces
its origin back to that early missionary expansion. In the sixth century the
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church
submitted itself to the authority of the
Bishop of Rome, but in the sixteenth century it released itself from that
authority. It functions today as an independent Church of Christ as it did
prior to its submission to the Bishop of Rome. |
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The Church of England spread to other countries as the British Empire grew,
and national churches in communion with the Church of England arose. These
churches, although governmentally autonomous, are bound together by the
Scriptures, tradition, the
Book of Common
Prayer, and their common inheritance from the New Testament Church
and the Church of England. Together these branch churches form the Anglican
Communion, presided over by the
Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Anglican Communion has approximately eighty million members, thereby
making it the third largest Christian body in the world. |
The Episcopal Church was organized after the American Revolution. It claims
approximately 2.5 million members, and is under the jurisdiction of
Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold.
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The Episcopal Church is made of
several dioceses (clusters of congregations in a specific geographic
area), each headed by a bishop consecrated in the Apostolic Succession.
This Apostolic Succession witnesses to an unbroken line of bishops,
beginning with the Apostles themselves. All Saints' Church is in the
Diocese of UpperSouth Carolina
presided over by Bishop Dorsey F. Henderson, Jr. |
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Episcopal Church holds the
Holy Bible to be
divinely inspired. The Catechism of the Church considers the Holy Scriptures
as "the Word of God
because God inspired their human authors and because God still speaks to us
through the Bible."* However, there are often differing
interpretations within the Church regarding what the message of the Bible
means in our lives today. The Church subscribes to the historic
Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds,
and believes the Holy Eucharist (Communion) to be the principal act of
Christian worship. |
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The Church’s primary doctrinal statements are found
in the words of its worship contained in the Book of Common Prayer.
This book was first established as the norm for belief, practice, and
worship in the sixteenth century and is today the major source of unity for
the world-wide Anglican Communion. |
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*"The Catechism," The Book of Common Prayer, p. 853. |
