April 15: Intro to the Episcopal Church

Continued Easter Blessings!

This week, our "Introduction to the Episcopal Church" Class met for the first time. I offer this every spring (or so) for new parishioners and for those who are considering confirmation or reception into the Episcopal Church. We had a good sized group meet, and we started with the rather ambitious goal of covering "The beginnings of the Anglican Church and the foundations of Anglicanism, The Episcopal Church in the US: polity, governance, and our diocese." Needless to say, it was a discussion from about 50,000 feet up.

In going around the room to talk about what people hoped to get out of the class, Christie mentioned that she had been raised in a non denominational church, which was an independent congregation, and liked the idea of how the Anglican Church spans the globe--and time. This is one of the things that I love about the Episcopal Church, too, and especially Anglicanism in general. Going all the way back to the beginning of the Reformation, the Anglican tradition has shared and honored some of the same traditions and commitments. We've always been "about" respecting local communities and local desires, even when those desires differ from place to place. We've always been "about" the experience of the individual and the local community, not about the dictates from a distant hierarchy.

At every stage of Anglican history, there has been someone saying, "That can't possibly hang together as a church. All those people are too different." But we're still here and still together. This is one of the tragic things about the disputes right now in the church; I think that those who would like to see the Episcopal Church in the US excluded in some way are misreading hundreds of years of Anglican theology. We are loosely allied, but that's been our strength. The Anglican Communion is a Communion because we are all, in some way, descended from the churches that have their home in the English reformation of the 16th century. All of us, in some way, are on a continuum of being "Catholic" and "Protestant," and all of us have some form of the Book of Common Prayer, whether it be the more recent books like our own, edited in 1979, or translations of the 1662 BCP translated into local languages. All of us believe in the Creeds, the Sacraments, and Scripture--and that we have experience and reason to guide our practice. That casts a pretty wide net, and it's one I'm comfortable with.

We had some news from our own diocese this week as well. Bishop Gayle Harris had taken a leave of absence this fall, which extended through the winter. She will be back in the diocese of May 3, working in some of the same capacities as before. Bishop Shaw goes on sabbatical starting in May as well, and Bishop Cederholm will be in charge of the diocese in his absence. Please keep them all in your prayers.

Blessings,

Sara+