Episcopal Church (United States)
The Episcopal Church, also known as the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, is a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, based in the United States. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is divided into nine provinces. The current presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church is Sean W. Rowe.
In 2024, The Church of England Yearbook reported 2.4 million total members. In 2025 the Episcopal Church was the 9th-largest Protestant denomination in the US, as measured by adherents. A total of 1% of US adults, or 2.6 million people, self-identify as mainline Episcopalians/Anglicans. The church has seen a sharp decline in membership and Sunday attendance since the 1960s, particularly in the Northeast and Upper Midwest.
The church was organized after the American Revolution, when it separated from the Church of England, whose clergy are required to swear allegiance to the British monarch as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. The Episcopal Church describes itself as "Protestant, yet Catholic", and asserts it has apostolic succession, tracing the authority of its bishops back to the apostles via holy orders. The Book of Common Prayer, a collection of rites, blessings, liturgies, and prayers used throughout the Anglican Communion, is central to Episcopal worship. A broad spectrum of theological views is represented within the Episcopal Church, including evangelical, Anglo-Catholic, and broad church views.
Historically, members of the Episcopal Church have played leadership roles in many aspects of American life, including politics, business, science, the arts, and education. About three-quarters of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were affiliated with the Episcopal Church, and over a quarter of all presidents of the United States have been Episcopalians. Historically, Episcopalians were overrepresented among American scientific elite and Nobel Prize winners. Numbers of the most wealthy and affluent American families, such as the Four Hundred, Boston Brahmin, Old Philadelphians, the First Families of Virginia, Tidewater, and Lowcountry gentry or old money, are Episcopalians. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many Episcopalians were active in the Social Gospel movement.
Since the 1960s and 1970s, the church has pursued a more liberal Christian course; there remains a wide spectrum of liberals and conservatives within the church. In 2015, the church's 78th triennial General Convention passed resolutions allowing the blessing of same-sex marriages and approved two official liturgies to bless such unions. It has opposed the death penalty and supported the civil rights movement. The church calls for the full legal equality of LGBT people. In view of this trend, the conventions of four dioceses of the Episcopal Church voted in 2007 and 2008 to leave that church and to join the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of America. Twelve other jurisdictions, serving an estimated 100,000 persons at that time, formed the Anglican Church in North America 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" and "the Episcopal Church" are both official names specified in the church's constitution. The latter is much more commonly used. In other languages, an equivalent is used. For example, in Spanish, the church is called Iglesia Episcopal Protestante de los Estados Unidos de América or Iglesia Episcopal, and in French Église protestante épiscopale des États-Unis d'Amérique or Église épiscopale.Until 1964, "the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America" was the only official name in use. In the 19th century, high church members advocated changing the name, which they felt did not acknowledge the church's catholic heritage. They were opposed by the church's evangelical wing, which felt that the "Protestant Episcopal" label accurately reflected the Reformed character of Anglicanism. After 1877, alternative names were regularly proposed and rejected by the General Convention. One proposed alternative was "the American Catholic Church". Respondents to a 1961 poll in The Living Church favored "The American Episcopal Church". By the 1960s, opposition to dropping the word "Protestant" had largely subsided. In a 1964 General Convention compromise, priests and lay delegates suggested adding a preamble to the church's constitution, recognizing "the Episcopal Church" as a lawful alternate designation while still retaining the earlier name.
The 66th General Convention voted in 1979 to use the name "the Episcopal Church" in the Oath of Conformity of the Declaration for Ordination. The evolution of the name can be seen in the church's Book of Common Prayer. In the 1928 BCP, the title page read, "According to the use of The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America", whereas on the title page of the 1979 BCP it states, "According to the use of The Episcopal Church".
"The Episcopal Church in the United States of America" has never been an official name of the church but is an alternative commonly seen in English. Since several other churches in the Anglican Communion also use the name "Episcopal", including Scotland and the Philippines, some, for example the Anglicans Online directory, add the phrase "in the United States of America".
The full legal name of the national church corporate body is the "Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America", which was incorporated by the legislature of New York and established in 1821. The membership of the corporation "shall be considered as comprehending all persons who are members of the Church". This should not be confused with the name of the church itself, as it is a distinct body relating to church governance.
According to TEC's style guide, "Episcopal" is the adjective that should be used to describe something affiliated with the church, whereas "Episcopalian" is to be used "only as a noun referring to a member of the Episcopal Church."
History
Colonial era
The Episcopal Church has its origins in the Church of England in the American colonies, and it stresses continuity with the early universal Western Church and claims to maintain apostolic succession; while the Scandinavian Lutheran and Moravian churches accept this claim, the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches do not recognize this claim.The first parish was founded in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, under the charter of the Virginia Company of London. The tower of Jamestown Church is one of the oldest surviving Anglican church structures in the United States. The Jamestown church building itself is a modern reconstruction.
Although no American Anglican bishops existed in the colonial era, the Church of England had an official status in several colonies, which meant that local governments paid tax money to local parishes, and the parishes handled some civic functions. The Church of England was designated the established church in Virginia in 1609, in New York in 1693, in Maryland in 1702, in South Carolina in 1706, in North Carolina in 1730, and in Georgia in 1758.
From 1635 the vestries and the clergy came loosely under the diocesan authority of the Bishop of London. After 1702, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts began missionary activity throughout the colonies. On the eve of American Revolution about 400 independent congregations were reported throughout the colonies.
File:Colonial Williamsburg Parish Church.jpg|thumb|left|Bruton Parish Church in Colonial Williamsburg, established in 1674. The current building was completed in 1715.
Under the leadership of Lutheran bishop Jesper Swedberg, parishes in colonial America that belonged to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sweden established ecumenical dialogue that resulted in altar and pulpit fellowship with the Episcopal Church in the 1700s, which led to a merger of all of the Swedish Lutheran churches there into the Episcopal Church by 1846.
Revolutionary era
More than any other denomination, the American Revolutionary War internally divided both clergy and laity of the Church of England in America, and opinions covered a wide spectrum of political views: patriots, conciliators, and loyalists. While many Patriots were suspicious of Loyalism in the church, about three-quarters of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were nominally Anglican laymen, including Thomas Jefferson, William Paca, and George Wythe. It was often assumed that persons considered "High Church" were Loyalists, whereas persons considered "Low Church" were Patriots: assumptions with possibly dangerous implications for the time.File:Old North Church Boston DSC 0816 ad.JPG|thumb|upright|Old North Church in Boston. Inspired by the work of Christopher Wren, it was completed in 1723.
Of the approximately three hundred clergy in the Church of England in America between 1776 and 1783, over 80 percent in New England, New York, and New Jersey were loyalists. This is in contrast to the less than 23 percent loyalist clergy in the four southern colonies. Many Church of England clergy remained loyalists as they took their two ordination oaths very seriously. Anglican clergy were obliged to swear allegiance to the king as well as to pray for the king, the royal family, and the British Parliament. In general, loyalist clergy stayed by their oaths and prayed for the king or else suspended services. By the end of 1776, some Anglican churches were closing. Anglican priests held services in private homes or lay readers who were not bound by the oaths held morning and evening prayer. During 1775 and 1776, the Continental Congress issued decrees ordering churches to fast and pray on behalf of the Patriots. Starting July 4, 1776, Congress and several states passed laws making prayers for the king and British Parliament acts of treason. The patriot clergy in the South were quick to find reasons to transfer their oaths to the American cause and prayed for the success of the Revolution. One precedent was the transfer of oaths during the Glorious Revolution in England. Most of the patriot clergy in the South were able to keep their churches open and services continued.