The Episcopal Church (TEC), also known as the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America (PECUSA),
is a member of the worldwide
Anglican Communion
The Anglican Communion is a Christian Full communion, communion consisting of the Church of England and other autocephalous national and regional churches in full communion. The archbishop of Canterbury in England acts as a focus of unity, ...
, based in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. It is a
mainline Protestant
The mainline Protestants (sometimes also known as oldline Protestants) are a group of Protestantism in the United States, Protestant denominations in the United States and Protestantism in Canada, Canada largely of the Liberal Christianity, theolo ...
denomination and is divided into nine
provinces
A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provi ...
. The current
presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church is
Sean W. Rowe.
In 2023, the Episcopal Church had 1,547,779 members. it was the 14th largest denomination in the United States.
[ 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).] In 2025,
Pew Research
The Pew Research Center (also simply known as Pew) is a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the world. It als ...
estimated that 1 percent of the adult population in the United States, or 2.6 million people, self-identify as mainline Episcopalians.
The church has declined in membership and Sunday attendance since the 1960s, particularly in the
Northeast
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—eac ...
and
Upper Midwest
The Upper Midwest is a northern subregion of the U.S. Census Bureau's Midwestern United States. Although the exact boundaries are not uniformly agreed upon, the region is usually defined to include the states of Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wi ...
.
The church was organized after the
American Revolution
The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...
, when it separated from the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
, whose clergy are required to swear allegiance to the
British monarch
The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the form of government used by the United Kingdom by which a hereditary monarch reigns as the head of state, with their powers regulated by the British con ...
as
. The Episcopal Church describes itself as "
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
, yet
catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
", and asserts it has
apostolic succession
Apostolic succession is the method whereby the Christian ministry, ministry of the Christian Church is considered by some Christian denominations to be derived from the Twelve Apostles, apostles by a continuous succession, which has usually been ...
, tracing the authority of its bishops back to the
apostles
An apostle (), in its literal sense, is an emissary. The word is derived from Ancient Greek ἀπόστολος (''apóstolos''), literally "one who is sent off", itself derived from the verb ἀποστέλλειν (''apostéllein''), "to se ...
via
holy orders
In certain Christian denominations, holy orders are the ordination, ordained ministries of bishop, priest (presbyter), and deacon, and the sacrament or rite by which candidates are ordained to those orders. Churches recognizing these orders inclu ...
. The
''Book of Common Prayer'', a collection of
rite
Rite may refer to:
Religion
* Ritual, an established ceremonious act
* Rite (Christianity), sacred rituals in the Christian religion
* Ritual family, Christian liturgical traditions; often also called ''liturgical rites''
* Catholic particular ch ...
s, blessings,
liturgies
Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a community, communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, ...
, 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
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...
,
Anglo-Catholic
Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholicism, Catholic heritage (especially pre-English Reformation, Reformation roots) and identity of the Church of England and various churches within Anglicanism. Anglo-Ca ...
, and
broad church
Broad church is latitudinarian churchmanship in the Church of England in particular and Anglicanism in general, meaning that the church permits a broad range of opinion on various issues of Anglican doctrine.
In the American Episcopal Churc ...
views.
Historically, members of the Episcopal Church have played leadership roles in many aspects of American life, including politics, business, science, the arts, and education.
[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.] About three-quarters of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence
A declaration of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another state or failed state, or are breaka ...
were affiliated with the Episcopal Church, and over a quarter of all
Presidents of the United States
The president of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States, indirectly elected to a four-year term via the Electoral College. Under the U.S. Constitution, the officeholder leads the executive bra ...
have been Episcopalians.
Historically, Episcopalians were overrepresented among American scientific elite and
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...
winners.
Numbers of the most
wealthy and affluent American families, such as
Boston Brahmin
The Boston Brahmins are members of Boston's historic upper class. From the late 19th century through the mid-20th century, they were often associated with a cultivated New England accent, Harvard University, Anglicanism, and traditional Britis ...
,
Old Philadelphians,
Tidewater, and
Lowcountry
The Lowcountry (sometimes Low Country or just low country) is a geographic and cultural region along South Carolina's coast, including the Sea Islands. The region includes significant salt marshes and other coastal waterways, making it an impor ...
gentry
Gentry (from Old French , from ) are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past. ''Gentry'', in its widest connotation, refers to people of good social position connected to Landed property, landed es ...
or
old money
Old money is a social class of the rich who have been able to maintain their wealth over multiple generations, in contrast with new money whose wealth has been acquired within its own generation. The term often refers to perceived members of th ...
, are Episcopalians.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many Episcopalians were active in the
Social Gospel
The Social Gospel is a social movement within Protestantism that aims to apply Christian ethics to social problems, especially issues of social justice such as economic inequality, poverty, alcoholism, crime, racial tensions, slums, unclean en ...
movement.
Since the 1960s and 1970s, the church has pursued a more
liberal Christian
Liberal Christianity, also known as liberal theology and historically as Christian modernism (see Catholic modernism and fundamentalist–modernist controversy), is a movement that interprets Christian teaching by prioritizing modern knowledg ...
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 marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...
s and approved two official liturgies to bless such unions.
It has opposed the
death penalty
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...
and supported the
civil rights movement. The church calls for the full legal equality of
LGBT
LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...
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
The Anglican Church of South America () is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion that covers six dioceses in the countries of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.
Formed in 1981, the province has 35,000 members. The ...
. Twelve other jurisdictions, serving an estimated 100,000 persons at that time, formed the
Anglican Church in North America
The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is a Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition in the United States and Canada. It also includes ten congregations in Mexico, two mission churches in Guatemala, and a missionary diocese in Cuba. ...
(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 or , and in French or .
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
A ''high church'' is a Christian Church whose beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, Christian liturgy, liturgy, and Christian theology, theology emphasize "ritual, priestly authority, ndsacraments," and a standard liturgy. Although ...
members advocated changing the name, which they felt did not acknowledge the church's
catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
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
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
and the
Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
, 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
The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
in the
American colonies, and it stresses continuity with the early universal
Western Church
Western Christianity is one of two subdivisions of Christianity (Eastern Christianity being the other). Western Christianity is composed of the Latin Church and Western Protestantism, together with their offshoots such as the Old Catholic C ...
and claims to maintain
apostolic succession
Apostolic succession is the method whereby the Christian ministry, ministry of the Christian Church is considered by some Christian denominations to be derived from the Twelve Apostles, apostles by a continuous succession, which has usually been ...
(while the Scandinavian Lutheran and
Moravian churches accept this claim, the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches do not recognize this claim).
The first
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...
was founded in
Jamestown, Virginia
The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent British colonization of the Americas, English settlement in the Americas. It was located on the northeast bank of the James River, about southwest of present-day Willia ...
, in 1607, under the charter of the
Virginia Company of London
The Virginia Company of London (sometimes called "London Company") was a Division (business), division of the Virginia Company with responsibility for British colonization of the Americas, colonizing the east coast of North America between 34th ...
. The tower of
Jamestown Church
Jamestown Church, constructed in brick from 1639 onward, in Jamestown in the Mid-Atlantic state of Virginia, is one of the oldest surviving building remnants built by Europeans in the original Thirteen Colonies and in the United States overal ...
( 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
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
in 1609, in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
in 1693, in
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...
in 1702, in
South Carolina
South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...
in 1706, in
North Carolina
North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...
in 1730, and in
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States
Georgia may also refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
in 1758.
From 1635 the
vestries
A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spent nearly one-fi ...
and the clergy came loosely under the diocesan authority of the
Bishop of London
The bishop of London is the Ordinary (church officer), ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury. By custom the Bishop is also Dean of the Chapel Royal since 1723.
The diocese covers of 17 boroughs o ...
. After 1702, the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts
United Society Partners in the Gospel (USPG) is a United Kingdom-based charitable organisation (registered charity no. 234518).
It was first incorporated under Royal Charter in 1701 as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Pa ...
(SPG) began missionary activity throughout the colonies. On the eve of
Revolution
In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...
about 400 independent congregations were reported throughout the colonies.

Under the leadership of
Lutheran
Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...
bishop
Jesper Swedberg, parishes in colonial America that belonged to the Evangelical Lutheran
Church of Sweden
The Church of Sweden () is an Evangelical Lutheran national church in Sweden. A former state church, headquartered in Uppsala, with around 5.5 million members at year end 2023, it is the largest Christian denomination in Sweden, the largest List ...
established
ecumenical dialogue that resulted in
altar and pulpit fellowship
Altar and pulpit fellowship describes an ecumenical collaboration between two Christian organizations, and is a Lutheran term for full communion, or ''communio in sacris.'' ''Altar'' refers to the altar in Christian churches, which holds the sacram ...
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
More than any other denomination, the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...
internally divided both clergy and laity of the Church of England in America, and opinions covered a wide spectrum of political views:
patriots
A patriot is a person with the quality of patriotism.
Patriot(s) or The Patriot(s) may also refer to:
Political and military groups United States
* Patriot (American Revolution), those who supported the cause of independence in the American R ...
, conciliators, and
loyalists
Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cr ...
. While many Patriots were suspicious of Loyalism in the church, about three-quarters of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence
A declaration of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another state or failed state, or are breaka ...
were nominally Anglican laymen, including
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...
,
William Paca
William Paca ( or ; October 31, 1740 – October 13, 1799) was a Founding Father of the United States who was a signatory to the Continental Association and the United States Declaration of Independence. He was a Maryland delegate to the First ...
, and
George Wythe
George Wythe (; 1726 – June 8, 1806) was an American academic, scholar, and judge who was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. The first of the seven Signing of the United States Declaration of Independence, signatories of the ...
. It was often assumed that persons considered "
High Church
A ''high church'' is a Christian Church whose beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, Christian liturgy, liturgy, and Christian theology, theology emphasize "ritual, priestly authority, ndsacraments," and a standard liturgy. Although ...
" were Loyalists, whereas persons considered "
Low Church
In Anglican Christianity, the term ''low church'' refers to those who give little emphasis to ritual, often having an emphasis on preaching, individual salvation, and personal conversion. The term is most often used in a liturgical sense, denot ...
" 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
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of ...
. 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
The Glorious Revolution, also known as the Revolution of 1688, was the deposition of James II and VII, James II and VII in November 1688. He was replaced by his daughter Mary II, Mary II and her Dutch husband, William III of Orange ...
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
Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...
elected
Samuel Seabury
Samuel Seabury (November 30, 1729February 25, 1796) was the first American Episcopal bishop, the second Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, and the first Bishop of Connecticut. He was a leading Loyalis ...
as their bishop in 1783, he sought
consecration
Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects ( ...
in England. The
Oath of Supremacy
The Oath of Supremacy required any person taking public or church office in the Kingdom of England, or in its subordinate Kingdom of Ireland, to swear allegiance to the monarch as Supreme Governor of the Church. Failure to do so was to be trea ...
prevented Seabury's consecration in England, so he went to Scotland; the
non-juring bishops of the
Scottish Episcopal Church
The Scottish Episcopal Church (; ) is a Christian denomination in Scotland. Scotland's third largest church, the Scottish Episcopal Church has 303 local congregations. It is also an Ecclesiastical province#Anglican Communion, ecclesiastical provi ...
consecrated him in
Aberdeen
Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...
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
Middletown is a city in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. Located along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, 16 miles (25.749504 km) south of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. Middletown is the largest city in the L ...
.
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
Philander Chase (December 14, 1775 – September 20, 1852) was an Episcopal Church bishop, educator, and pioneer of the United States western frontier, especially in Ohio and Illinois.
Early life and family
Born in Cornish, New Hampshire, t ...
(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
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
and
Samuel Provoost of
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
– were consecrated as bishops by the
Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...
, the
Archbishop of York
The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers the ...
, and the
Bishop of Bath and Wells
The Bishop of Bath and Wells heads the Church of England Diocese of Bath and Wells in the Province of Canterbury in England.
The present diocese covers the overwhelmingly greater part of the (ceremonial) county of Somerset and a small area of D ...
, 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
Apostolic succession is the method whereby the Christian ministry, ministry of the Christian Church is considered by some Christian denominations to be derived from the Twelve Apostles, apostles by a continuous succession, which has usually been ...
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
James Madison (June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison was popularly acclaimed as the ...
(not the future President). 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
The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...
.
On 17 September 1792, at the triennial General Convention (
synod
A synod () is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word '' synod'' comes from the Ancient Greek () ; the term is analogous with the Latin word . Originally, ...
) of the Episcopal Church at
Trinity Church on
Wall Street
Wall Street is a street in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs eight city blocks between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the west and South Street (Manhattan), South Str ...
, in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
,
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
The Lambeth Conference convenes as the Archbishop of Canterbury summons an assembly of Anglican bishops every ten years. The first took place at Lambeth in 1867.
As regional and national churches freely associate with the Anglican Communion, ...
. 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
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
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
A ''high church'' is a Christian Church whose beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, Christian liturgy, liturgy, and Christian theology, theology emphasize "ritual, priestly authority, ndsacraments," and a standard liturgy. Although ...
Tractarianism
The Oxford Movement was a theological movement of high-church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the Uni ...
, 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
The Reformed Episcopal Church (REC) is an Anglican Church. It was founded in 1873 in New York City by George David Cummins, a former bishop of the Episcopal Church (United States), Protestant Episcopal Church.
The REC is a founding member of the ...
.
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
The House of Bishops is the third House in a General Synod of some Anglican churches and the second house in the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. . 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.
was formed in 1887.
[ ]
During the
Gilded Age
In History of the United States, United States history, the Gilded Age is the period from about the late 1870s to the late 1890s, which occurred between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was named by 1920s historians after Mar ...
, highly prominent laity such as bankers
J. P. Morgan
John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. As the head of the banking firm that ...
, industrialist
Henry Ford
Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American Technological and industrial history of the United States, industrialist and business magnate. As the founder of the Ford Motor Company, he is credited as a pioneer in making automob ...
, 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
The president of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States, indirectly elected to a four-year term via the Electoral College. Under the U.S. Constitution, the officeholder leads the executive bra ...
have been Episcopalians (see
religious affiliations of presidents of the United States
Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural, ...
). 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
Thoroughgood "Thurgood" Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme C ...
, 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
ngthe 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
The ordination of women to ministerial or priestly office is an increasingly common practice among some contemporary major religious groups. It remains a controversial issue in certain religious groups in which ordination was traditionally res ...
and the
place of homosexuals in the church. The 1976 General Convention also passed a resolution calling for an end to
apartheid
Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
and in 1985 called for "dioceses, institutions, and agencies" to create
equal opportunity employment
Equal employment opportunity is equal opportunity to attain or maintain employment in a company, organization, or other institution. Examples of legislation to foster it or to protect it from eroding include the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity ...
and
affirmative action
Affirmative action (also sometimes called reservations, alternative access, positive discrimination or positive action in various countries' laws and policies) refers to a set of policies and practices within a government or organization seeking ...
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
ould neitherrepresent
he Communionon ecumenical and interfaith bodies…
ortake part in decision making on any issues pertaining to doctrine or
polity
A polity is a group of people with a collective identity, who are organized by some form of political Institutionalisation, institutionalized social relations, and have a capacity to mobilize resources.
A polity can be any group of people org ...
."
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
The Liturgical Movement was a 19th-century and 20th-century movement of scholarship for the reform of worship. It began in the Catholic Church and spread to many other Christian churches including the Anglican Communion, Lutheran and some other Pro ...
, which had been discussed at
Vatican II
The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent Catholic ecumenical councils, ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilic ...
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, Presbyterian/ Reformed traditions and Methodist 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 woman canonically ordained to the Episcopal priesthood was
Jacqueline Means on January 1, 1977, followed shortly thereafter by
Tanya Vonnegut Beck. Both were ordained at All Saints Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. 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.
[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.
In 2006, the General Convention elected
Katharine Jefferts Schori as
Presiding Bishop. She was the first woman to become a
primate
Primates is an order (biology), order of mammals, which is further divided into the Strepsirrhini, strepsirrhines, which include lemurs, galagos, and Lorisidae, lorisids; and the Haplorhini, haplorhines, which include Tarsiiformes, tarsiers a ...
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
The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is a Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition in the United States and Canada. It also includes ten congregations in Mexico, two mission churches in Guatemala, and a missionary diocese in Cuba. ...
(ACNA), three U.S. dioceses did not ordain women as priests or bishops:
San Joaquin,
Quincy, and
Fort Worth
Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...
. 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
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" exc ...
are "children of God" who deserve acceptance and
pastoral care
''The Book of Pastoral Rule'' (Latin: ''Liber Regulae Pastoralis'', ''Regula Pastoralis'' or ''Cura Pastoralis'' — sometimes translated into English ''Pastoral Care'') is a treatise on the responsibilities of the clergy written by Pope Greg ...
from the church and
equal protection
The Equal Protection Clause is part of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause, which took effect in 1868, provides "nor shall any State... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal pr ...
under the law. The first openly
gay person ordained as a priest was
Ellen Barrett in 1977. Despite such an affirmation of
gay rights
Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality.
Not ...
, the General Convention affirmed in 1991 that "physical sexual expression" is only appropriate within the
monogamous
Monogamy ( ) is a relationship of two individuals in which they form a mutual and exclusive intimate partnership. Having only one partner at any one time, whether for life or serial monogamy, contrasts with various forms of non-monogamy (e.g. ...
lifelong "union of husband and wife".

The church elected its first openly gay bishop,
Gene Robinson
Vicky Gene Robinson (born May 29, 1947) is a retired bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire. Robinson was elected Coadjutor bishop, bishop coadjutor in 2003 and succeeded as bishop diocesan in March 2004. Before becoming bishop, he se ...
, in June 2003. News of Robinson's election caused a crisis in both the American church and the wider
Anglican Communion
The Anglican Communion is a Christian Full communion, communion consisting of the Church of England and other autocephalous national and regional churches in full communion. The archbishop of Canterbury in England acts as a focus of unity, ...
. 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
Bulletproofing is the process of making an object capable of stopping a bullet or similar high velocity projectiles (e.g. Fragmentation (weaponry), shrapnel). The term bullet resistance is often preferred because few, if any, practical materials ...
vest beneath his
vestments
Vestments are liturgical garments and articles associated primarily with the Christian religion, especially by Eastern Churches, Catholics (of all rites), Lutherans, and Anglicans. Many other groups also make use of liturgical garments; amo ...
, and he also received numerous death threats following his installation as bishop of the
Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire
The Episcopal Church of New Hampshire, a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA), covers the entire state of New Hampshire. It was originally part of the Diocese of Massachusetts, but became independent in 1841. Th ...
.
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
A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homo ...
. ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' 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
Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth (born 14 June 1950) is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian and poet, who served as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury from 2002 to 2012. Previously the Bishop of Monmouth and Archbishop of W ...
'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 then archbishop of Canterbury,
Justin Welby
Justin Portal Welby (born 6 January 1956) is an Anglican bishop who served as the 105th archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England from 2013 to 2025.
After an 11-year career in the oil industry, Welby trained for ordination at St John ...
, 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
A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth.
The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...
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. In 2022, the 80th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, affirmed its position in favor of access to gender affirming care, including all forms of medical transition for people of any age, as a part of the Baptismal call to "respect the dignity of every human being."
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
Canon law (from , , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical jurisdiction, ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its membe ...
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."
[Episcopal News Service (November 15, 2012)]
"Presiding Bishop's Pastoral Letter to Episcopalians in South Carolina"
. 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
The Continuing Anglican movement, also known as the Anglican Continuum, encompasses a number of Christian churches, principally based in North America, that have an Anglican identity and tradition but are not part of the Anglican Communion. The ...
or advocated
Anglican realignment
The Anglican realignment is a movement among some Anglicans to align themselves under new or alternative oversight within or outside the Anglican Communion. This movement is primarily active in parts of the Episcopal Church (United States), Episco ...
, claiming alignment with overseas Anglican provinces including the
Anglican Province of the Southern Cone of America and the
Church of Nigeria
The Church of Nigeria is the Anglicanism, Anglican Church body, church in Nigeria. It is the second-largest Province (Anglican), province in the Anglican Communion, as measured by baptised membership (not by attendance), after the Church of Englan ...
. Some former members formed the
Anglican Church in North America
The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is a Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition in the United States and Canada. It also includes ten congregations in Mexico, two mission churches in Guatemala, and a missionary diocese in Cuba. ...
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 2023, the Episcopal Church had 1,547,779 active baptized members,
[
] of whom 1,394,769 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
The ''Journal of Anglican Studies'' is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal focusing on the history, theology and practice of Anglicanism. It was established in Australia in 2003, and was initially published by Continuum Publishers. It is now ...
'', and published by
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...
, 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 American Religious Identify Survey or 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
s Episcopalians.
Church Pension Group also cited having 3.5 million adherents in 2002. In 2008, ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' reported that The Episcopal Church claimed 4 million total members. Also in 2008, ARIS counted 2,405,000 self-identified Episcopalians.
More recently, in 2025, Pew Research found that approximately 1 percent of 260 million U.S. adults, around 2.6 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
The Episcopal Diocese of Haiti ( or ''Dyosèz Ayiti'' or ''Diocèse d'Haïti'') is the Anglican Communion diocese consisting of the entire territory of Haiti. It is part of Province 2 of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. Its ...
was the largest single diocese, with 84,301 baptized members, which constitute slightly over half of the church's foreign membership.
Roughly half of those identifying as Episcopalian are converts; the vast majority of converts (93%) were raised in another Christian denomination, with 37% coming from
Mainline Protestantism
The mainline Protestants (sometimes also known as oldline Protestants) are a group of Protestant denominations in the United States and Canada largely of the theologically liberal or theologically progressive persuasion that contrast in history ...
, 29% from
Roman Catholicism
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
, 24% from
Evangelical Protestantism
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of the Christian g ...
, and 3% from some other Christian tradition. In the years preceding 2012 over 225,000 Roman Catholics became Episcopalians and as of 2012, there are "432 living Episcopal priests
hohave been received
s priestsfrom the Roman Catholic Church."
According to 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 2025
Pew Research Center
The Pew Research Center (also simply known as Pew) is a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the world. It ...
study with 627 self-identified Episcopalians, 57% describe themselves as
Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents, 37% describe themselves as
Republicans or Republican-leaning independents, and 6% state that they do not identify with either party.
Influence

In the twentieth century, Episcopalians tended to be wealthier
and more educated (having more
graduate and
postgraduate
Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor' ...
degrees per capita) than most other religious groups in the United States,
[Irving Lewis Allen, "WASP—From Sociological Concept to Epithet," ''Ethnicity,'' 1975 154+] and were disproportionately represented in the upper reaches of American
business
Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for ...
, law, and politics. Many of the nation's oldest
educational institutions
An educational institution is a place where people of different ages gain an education, including preschools, childcare, primary-elementary schools, secondary-high schools, and universities. They provide a large variety of learning environments a ...
, such as
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
and
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
, were founded by Episcopal clergy or were associated with the Episcopal Church. According to
Pew Research Center
The Pew Research Center (also simply known as Pew) is a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the world. It ...
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
The president of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States, indirectly elected to a four-year term via the Electoral College. Under the U.S. Constitution, the officeholder leads the executive bra ...
(11) were members of the Episcopal Church.
Historically, Episcopalians were overrepresented among American scientific elite and
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...
winners.
According to ''Scientific Elite: Nobel Laureates in the United States'' by
Harriet Zuckerman, between 1901 and 1972, 72% of American
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...
laureates have come from a
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
background, mostly from Episcopalian,
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
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
The Anglican Communion is a Christian Full communion, communion consisting of the Church of England and other autocephalous national and regional churches in full communion. The archbishop of Canterbury in England acts as a focus of unity, ...
, Episcopalianism has the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
to thank for the ancestors of fully 49 percent of its members. ... The stereotype of the
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
In the United States, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants or Wealthy Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASP) is a Sociology, sociological term which is often used to describe White Americans, white Protestantism in the United States, Protestant Americans of E ...
(WASP) finds its fullest expression in the Episcopal Church."
The ''
Boston Brahmin
The Boston Brahmins are members of Boston's historic upper class. From the late 19th century through the mid-20th century, they were often associated with a cultivated New England accent, Harvard University, Anglicanism, and traditional Britis ...
s'', who were regarded as the nation's social and cultural elites, were often associated with the
American upper class
The American upper class is a social group within the United States consisting of people who have the highest social rank, due to economic wealth, lineage, and typically educational attainment. The American upper class is estimated to be the ri ...
,
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
; and the Episcopal Church.
Old Philadelphians were often associated with the Episcopal Church.
Old money
Old money is a social class of the rich who have been able to maintain their wealth over multiple generations, in contrast with new money whose wealth has been acquired within its own generation. The term often refers to perceived members of th ...
in the United States was typically associated with
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
In the United States, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants or Wealthy Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASP) is a Sociology, sociological term which is often used to describe White Americans, white Protestantism in the United States, Protestant Americans of E ...
("WASP") status, particularly with the Episcopal and
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
Church. In the 1970s, a ''
Fortune
Fortune may refer to:
General
* Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck
* Luck
* Wealth
* Fate
* Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling
* Fortune, in a fortune cookie
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''The Fortune'' (19 ...
'' 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
The Rockefeller family ( ) is an American Industrial sector, industrial, political, and List of banking families, banking family that owns one of the world's largest fortunes. The fortune was made in the History of the petroleum industry in th ...
are mostly
Baptist
Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...
s, 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
Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor' ...
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
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' Episcopalians tend also to be better educated and they have a high number of
graduate (76%) and
post-graduate
Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor' ...
degrees (35%) per capita. According to a 2014 study by the
Pew Research Center
The Pew Research Center (also simply known as Pew) is a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the world. It ...
, 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
An episcopal polity is a hierarchical form of church governance in which the chief local authorities are called bishops. The word "bishop" here is derived via the British Latin and Vulgar Latin term ''*ebiscopus''/''*biscopus'', . It is the ...
with its own system of
canon law
Canon law (from , , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical jurisdiction, ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its membe ...
. This means that the church is organized into
dioceses
In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...
led by
bishop
A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...
s 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
A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...
.
Parishes and dioceses
At the local level, there are 6,447 Episcopal congregations, each of which elects a
vestry
A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...
or bishop's committee. Subject to the approval of its
diocesan bishop, the vestry of each
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...
elects a
priest
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...
, called the
rector, who has spiritual jurisdiction in the parish and selects assistant clergy, both
deacon
A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions.
Major Christian denominations, such as the Cathol ...
s 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
A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provi ...
. Each province has a
synod
A synod () is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word '' synod'' comes from the Ancient Greek () ; the term is analogous with the Latin word . Originally, ...
and a mission budget, but it has no authority over its member dioceses.
There are 106 dioceses in the United States,
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
, the
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...
,
Ecuador
Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...
,
Haiti
Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...
,
Honduras
Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...
,
Puerto Rico
; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...
,
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...
,
Venezuela
Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...
, Cuba and the
Virgin Islands
The Virgin Islands () are an archipelago between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and northeastern Caribbean Sea, geographically forming part of the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean, Caribbean islands or West Indie ...
. The
Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe and the
Navajoland Area Mission are jurisdictions similar to a diocese.
Governance
The
Washington National Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Episcopal Diocese of Washington, commonly known as Washington National Cathedral or National Cathedral, is a cathedral of the Episcopal Church. The cathedral is located in Wa ...
is the
seat
A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e " seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation.
Types of seat
The ...
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
The House of Bishops is the third House in a General Synod of some Anglican churches and the second house in the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. . All active (whether
diocesan,
coadjutor The term "coadjutor" (literally "co-assister" in Latin) is a title qualifier indicating that the holder shares the office with another person, with powers equal to the other in all but formal order of precedence.
These include:
* Coadjutor bishop ...
,
suffragan
A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations.
In the Catholic Church, a suffragan bishop leads a diocese within an ecclesiastical province other than the principal diocese, the metropolitan archdiocese; the diocese led ...
, 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
An ''ex officio'' member is a member of a body (notably a board, committee, or council) who is part of it by virtue of holding another office. The term '' ex officio'' is Latin, meaning literally 'from the office', and the sense intended is 'by r ...
'' 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.
[Joint Rule IX of the General Convention]
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
Primates is an order (biology), order of mammals, which is further divided into the Strepsirrhini, strepsirrhines, which include lemurs, galagos, and Lorisidae, lorisids; and the Haplorhini, haplorhines, which include Tarsiiformes, tarsiers a ...
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 Episcopal Church (2009), ''Constitution and Canons'', Title I Canon 2.] 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
sacrament
A sacrament is a Christian rite which is recognized as being particularly important and significant. There are various views on the existence, number and meaning of such rites. Many Christians consider the sacraments to be a visible symbol ...
al 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 court
In organized Christianity, an ecclesiastical court, also called court Christian or court spiritual, is any of certain non-adversarial courts conducted by church-approved officials having jurisdiction mainly in spiritual or religious matters. Histo ...
s 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
The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the title given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christianity, Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The Book of Common Prayer (1549), fi ...
'' (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
Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a community, communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, ...
) used in the Episcopal Church.
The Episcopal Church has a sacramental understanding of worship. The Episcopal
catechism
A catechism (; from , "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of Catholic theology, doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult co ...
defines a
sacrament
A sacrament is a Christian rite which is recognized as being particularly important and significant. There are various views on the existence, number and meaning of such rites. Many Christians consider the sacraments to be a visible symbol ...
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
Baptism (from ) is a Christians, Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by aspersion, sprinkling or affusion, pouring water on the head, or by immersion baptism, immersing in water eit ...
and the
Eucharist
The Eucharist ( ; from , ), also called Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament or the Lord's Supper, is a Christianity, Christian Rite (Christianity), rite, considered a sacrament in most churches and an Ordinance (Christianity), ordinance in ...
as the "two great sacraments of the Gospel".
Confirmation
In Christian denominations that practice infant baptism, confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant (religion), covenant created in baptism. Those being confirmed are known as confirmands. The ceremony typically involves laying on o ...
,
ordination
Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...
,
holy matrimony,
reconciliation of a penitent, and
unction
Anointing is the ritual act of pouring aromatic oil over a person's head or entire body. By extension, the term is also applied to related acts of sprinkling, dousing, or smearing a person or object with any perfumed oil, milk, butter, or oth ...
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
The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...
readings and preaching. At each service, four scripture passages are read from the
Old Testament
The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...
and the
New Testament
The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
. 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
The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, sometimes shortened Real Presence'','' is the Christian doctrine that Jesus Christ is present in the Eucharist, not merely symbolically or metaphorically, but in a true, real and substantial way.
Th ...
doctrine—that the bread and wine truly become the
body
Body may refer to:
In science
* Physical body, an object in physics that represents a large amount, has mass or takes up space
* Body (biology), the physical material of an organism
* Body plan, the physical features shared by a group of anim ...
and
blood of Christ
Blood of Christ, also known as the Most Precious Blood, in Christian theology refers to the physical blood actually shed by Jesus Christ primarily on the Cross, and the salvation which Christianity teaches was accomplished thereby, or the sacram ...
. 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
''Versus populum'' (Latin for "towards the people") is the liturgy, liturgical stance of a priest who, while celebrating Mass (liturgy), Mass, faces the people from the other side of the altar. The opposite stance, that of a priest facing in the ...
'' orientation.
Often a congregation or a particular service will be referred to as ''Low Church'' or ''High Church''. In theory:
*
High Church
A ''high church'' is a Christian Church whose beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, Christian liturgy, liturgy, and Christian theology, theology emphasize "ritual, priestly authority, ndsacraments," and a standard liturgy. Although ...
, especially the ''very'' high
Anglo-Catholic
Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholicism, Catholic heritage (especially pre-English Reformation, Reformation roots) and identity of the Church of England and various churches within Anglicanism. Anglo-Ca ...
movement, is ritually inclined towards the use of incense, formal hymns, and a higher degree of ceremony such as ''
ad orientem
''Ad orientem'', meaning 'to the east' in Ecclesiastical Latin, is a phrase used to describe the eastward orientation of Christian prayer and Christian worship, comprising the preposition ''ad'' (toward) and ''oriens'' (rising, sunrise, east), p ...
'' in relation to the priest and altar. In addition to clergy vesting in
alb
An Alb is a liturgical vestment.
ALB, Alb or alb may also refer to:
* Alb, Alpine transhumance in Allemannic German
Places
* Alb (Upper Rhine), a tributary of the Upper Rhine in northern Black Forest near Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany
* Al ...
s,
stoles, and
chasuble
The chasuble () is the outermost liturgical vestment worn by clergy for the celebration of the Eucharist in Western-tradition Christian churches that use full vestments, primarily in Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches. In the Eastern ...
s, the lay assistants may also be vested in
cassock
The cassock, or soutane, is a Christian clerical clothing, clerical coat used by the clergy and Consecrated life, male religious of the Oriental Orthodox Churches, Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church, in addition to some clergy in ...
and
surplice
A surplice (; Late Latin ''superpelliceum'', from ''super'', "over" and ''pellicia'', "fur garment") is a liturgical vestment of Western Christianity. The surplice is in the form of a tunic of white linen or cotton fabric, reaching to the kn ...
. The sung Eucharist tends to be emphasized in High Church congregations, with Anglo-Catholic congregations and celebrants using sung services almost exclusively.
Marian devotion
Marian devotions are external pious practices directed to the person of Mary, mother of Jesus, by members of certain Christian traditions. They are performed in Catholicism, High Church Lutheranism, Anglo-Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Orie ...
is sometimes seen in the Anglo-Catholic and some High Church parishes.
*
Low Church
In Anglican Christianity, the term ''low church'' refers to those who give little emphasis to ritual, often having an emphasis on preaching, individual salvation, and personal conversion. The term is most often used in a liturgical sense, denot ...
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
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...
theology (see
Evangelical Anglicanism
Evangelical Anglicanism or Evangelical Episcopalianism is a tradition or Churchmanship, church party within Anglicanism that shares affinity with broader evangelicalism. Evangelical Anglicans share with other evangelicals the attributes of "co ...
). The spoken Eucharist tends to be emphasized in Low Church congregations.
Altar rails
The altar rail (also known as a communion rail or chancel rail) is a low barrier, sometimes ornate and usually made of stone, wood or metal in some combination, delimiting the chancel or the sanctuary and altar in a church, from the nave and ot ...
may be omitted in this type.
*
Broad Church
Broad church is latitudinarian churchmanship in the Church of England in particular and Anglicanism in general, meaning that the church permits a broad range of opinion on various issues of Anglican doctrine.
In the American Episcopal Churc ...
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
The Tridentine Mass, also known as the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite or ''usus antiquior'' (), Vetus Ordo or the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) or the Traditional Rite, is the liturgy in the Roman Missal of the Catholic Church codified in ...
, 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
Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
. 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
Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing valid conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, religion, scien ...
, and to live in harmony with creation and with God."
* Belief that
sin
In religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law or a law of the deities. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered ...
, 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
Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions involving the same person or deity returning to another body. The disappearance of a body is anothe ...
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
The Holy Spirit, otherwise known as the Holy Ghost, is a concept within the Abrahamic religions. In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is understood as the divine quality or force of God manifesting in the world, particularly in acts of prophecy, creati ...
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
The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...
and the
New Testament
The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
and were written by people "under the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit." The
Apocrypha
Apocrypha () are biblical or related writings not forming part of the accepted canon of scripture, some of which might be of doubtful authorship or authenticity. In Christianity, the word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to ...
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
A sacrament is a Christian rite which is recognized as being particularly important and significant. There are various views on the existence, number and meaning of such rites. Many Christians consider the sacraments to be a visible symbol of ...
are "outward and visible signs of God's inward and spiritual grace." The two necessary sacraments are
Baptism
Baptism (from ) is a Christians, Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by aspersion, sprinkling or affusion, pouring water on the head, or by immersion baptism, immersing in water eit ...
and
Holy Communion
The Eucharist ( ; from , ), also called Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament or the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite, considered a sacrament in most churches and an ordinance in others. Christians believe that the rite was instituted by J ...
(the latter is also called the Eucharist, the Lord's Supper, and the Mass).
Infant baptism
Infant baptism, also known as christening or paedobaptism, is a Christian sacramental practice of Baptism, baptizing infants and young children. Such practice is done in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches, va ...
is practiced and encouraged. Holy Communion is celebrated each Lord's Day (Sunday) and is open to all baptized persons.
* Other sacraments are
confirmation
In Christian denominations that practice infant baptism, confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant (religion), covenant created in baptism. Those being confirmed are known as confirmands. The ceremony typically involves laying on o ...
,
ordination
Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...
,
marriage
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
,
confession
A confession is a statement – made by a person or by a group of people – acknowledging some personal fact that the person (or the group) would ostensibly prefer to keep hidden. The term presumes that the speaker is providing information that ...
, and
unction
Anointing is the ritual act of pouring aromatic oil over a person's head or entire body. By extension, the term is also applied to related acts of sprinkling, dousing, or smearing a person or object with any perfumed oil, milk, butter, or oth ...
. 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
Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...
and
Hell
In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...
. 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
The Sermon on the Mount ( anglicized from the Matthean Vulgate Latin section title: ) is a collection of sayings spoken by Jesus of Nazareth found in the Gospel of Matthew (chapters 5, 6, and 7). that emphasizes his moral teachings. It is th ...
and on living out the
Great Commandment
The Great Commandment (or Greatest Commandment) is a name used in the New Testament to describe the first of two commandments cited by Jesus in Matthew 22 (), Mark 12 (), and in answer to him in Luke 10 (),
According to Jesus of Nazareth, th ...
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
Apostolic succession is the method whereby the Christian ministry, ministry of the Christian Church is considered by some Christian denominations to be derived from the Twelve Apostles, apostles by a continuous succession, which has usually been ...
: the belief that the Episcopal and wider Anglican bishops continue the apostolic tradition of the ancient church as spiritual heirs to the
Twelve Apostles
In Christian theology and ecclesiology, the apostles, particularly the Twelve Apostles (also known as the Twelve Disciples or simply the Twelve), were the primary disciples of Jesus according to the New Testament. During the life and minist ...
of Jesus Christ.
*Strong emphasis on
prayer
File:Prayers-collage.png, 300px, alt=Collage of various religionists praying – Clickable Image, Collage of various religionists praying ''(Clickable image – use cursor to identify.)''
rect 0 0 1000 1000 Shinto festivalgoer praying in front ...
with specific reverence for the
Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer, also known by its incipit Our Father (, ), is a central Christian prayer attributed to Jesus. It contains petitions to God focused on God’s holiness, will, and kingdom, as well as human needs, with variations across manusc ...
both in its original form and as a model for all prayer; principal kinds of prayer include
adoration
Adoration is respect, reverence, strong admiration, and love for a certain person, place, or thing. The term comes from the Latin ''adōrātiō'', meaning "to give Homage (arts), homage or worship to someone or something".
Ancient Rome
In class ...
, praise, gratitude, thanksgiving, penitence, oblation, intercession, and supplication, petition.
*Observance of the ancient Church Year (Advent, Christmas, Easter, Lent, etc.) and the celebration of calendar of saints, holy days dedicated to saints.
*Belief that Grace in Christianity, 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
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
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 sola scriptura, 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:
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 Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher, Friedrich Schleiermacher.
A public example of this struggle between different Christian positions in the church has been the 2003 consecration of
Gene Robinson
Vicky Gene Robinson (born May 29, 1947) is a retired bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire. Robinson was elected Coadjutor bishop, bishop coadjutor in 2003 and succeeded as bishop diocesan in March 2004. Before becoming bishop, he se ...
, 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#Anglicanism, clergy and Laity#Anglicanism, 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 (insurance), 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.
["Religious Groups' Official Positions on Same-Sex Marriage"](_blank)
Pew Research Center. December 7, 2012. Accessed October 28, 2014.
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, Jim Crow" laws, segregation, and racial discrimination. In 2018, following the Unite the Right rally, 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.
In May 2025, the Episcopal Church announced that they would be terminating their participation in the United States Refugee Admissions Program, as they were morally opposed to resettling white Afrikaners that the Second presidency of Donald Trump, Donald Trump administration was bringing into the country.
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 climate change, 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 social inequality, 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 Anglicanism, 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
Full communion
Under the leadership of
Lutheran
Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...
bishop
Jesper Swedberg, parishes in colonial America that belonged to the Evangelical Lutheran
Church of Sweden
The Church of Sweden () is an Evangelical Lutheran national church in Sweden. A former state church, headquartered in Uppsala, with around 5.5 million members at year end 2023, it is the largest Christian denomination in Sweden, the largest List ...
established
ecumenical dialogue that resulted in
altar and pulpit fellowship
Altar and pulpit fellowship describes an ecumenical collaboration between two Christian organizations, and is a Lutheran term for full communion, or ''communio in sacris.'' ''Altar'' refers to the altar in Christian churches, which holds the sacram ...
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 (Old Catholic), 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, 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, 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
Vicky Gene Robinson (born May 29, 1947) is a retired bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire. Robinson was elected Coadjutor bishop, bishop coadjutor in 2003 and succeeded as bishop diocesan in March 2004. Before becoming bishop, he se ...
to the episcopate. A former relation of full communion with the Polish National Catholic Church (once a part of the Utrecht Union, 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, 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 order, Anglican Religious Orders
* List of bishops of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, 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
Sources
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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.). ([1999]). New York: Church Publishing Incorporated.
* ''About the Concordat: 28 Questions about the Agreement between the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Church of America [i.e. the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America]'', prepared by the Ecumenical Relations Office of the Episcopal Church. Cincinnati, Ohio: Forward Movement Publications, [1997?]. 43 p. Without ISBN
* ''A Commentary on [the Episcopal Church/Evangelical Lutheran Church in America] Concordat of Agreement'', ed. by James E. Griffes and Daniel Martensen. Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg-Fortress; Cincinnati, Ohio: Forward Movement Publications, 1994. 159 p.
* ''Concordat of Agreement [between the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America]: Supporting Essays'', ed. by Daniel F. Martensen. Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg-Fortress; Cincinnati, Ohio: Forward Movement Publications, 1995. 234 p.
* 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.
*
* ''Historical Dictionary of Anglicanism'' by Colin Buchanan; (2nd ed. 2015
excerpt* ''Jamestown Commitment: the Episcopal Church [i.e. the Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.] and the American Indian'', by Owanah Anderson. Cincinnati, Ohio: Forward Movement Publications (1988). 170 p.
* 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
* "The Forgotten Evangelicals: Virginia Episcopalians, 1790–1876". Waukechon, John Frank. ''Dissertation Abstracts International,'' 2001, Vol. 61 Issue 8, pp 3322–3322
*
* ''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''. Savitri Hensman. Ekklesia. 2007.
External links
*
Church Publishing, Inc.Profile on the Association of Religion Data Archives website*
{{Authority control
Episcopal Church (United States),
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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
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Affirming Christian denominations in the United States
Christian denominations founded in the United States