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Episcopal Church leaders claim that their earliest known celebrations of the Eucharist on North America were near San Francisco, CA in 1579 by Sir Francis Drake’s chaplain and in 1607 at Jamestown, VA. However these gatherings were simply extensions of the Church of England and nothing to do with the Episcopal Church as neither the Episcopal branch nor name would even have a mention until the America Revolutinary War of the late 18th century.
(1776) The Anglican church had many congregations in the American colonies by the 18th century, however, as tensions grew between the colonists and mother England, Church of England pressure was exerted on the American Anglican leaders to declare loyalty to England or be cut off. The American Anglican pastorates chose the latter and formed the American version of the Church of England known as the Episcopal Church.
Today, Anglicanism in America is simply referred to as “Episcopalian”. If a member of the Anglican church in England were to visit an Episcopal church in American today, they would find the belief system and liturgy to be virtually the same in most respects. Perhaps the accents would be a bit different.
The Episcopal Church is a three-level hierarchy of authority: a General Convention on the national level, the individual dioceses, and the individual parishes. The General Convention is made up of the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies and has ultimate legislative authority which authored (and continues to amend) the Church”s Constitution, establishes the Book of Common Prayer, sets out rules for the ratification of bishops, and through its canonical actions sets forth governance of the Church.
Dioceses of the Episcopal Church govern themselves through conventions (sometimes called councils), and in turn also pass canons which must fall in line with the national canons.
Today the Episcopal Church has members in the United States, as well as in Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Haiti, Honduras, Micronesia, Taiwan, Venezuela, and the Virgin Islands (both US and British).
Although it began by upholding the Bible and worship with the Book of Common Prayer, it has since gone the way of most liberal mainline denominations (including the Church of England itself) by embracing modern sinful social norms which are decidedly contrary to the Bible (homosexuality, transgenderism, women clergy and the murder of innocent babies (pro abortion since 1967).
This departure from the Biblical Historical Christian Faith has caused many to flee from this fallen denomination. To this end, many of these genuine born again believers in Christ have formed Evangelical Anglican denominations throughout American and in the UK. (Full disclosure: the author of this website regularly attends an evangelical Anglican church as of the writing of the article.)
No one receives eternal life and eternal presence with God, from who all good things come (James 1:17), by belonging to the right church, denomination, world religion, or by having a particular world view. Rather only those who trust in the Lord Jesus preached by the Apostles in the Bible, for their own sin.
We will not trust in a Savior for sins that we either don’t believe we have or that we think aren’t deserving of hell. But the Bible says that ALL have sin and the wages of that sin is eternal separation from God (death). The good news is that the Bible says that you can know that YOU have eternal life. Click the button below to see if you are genuinely saved from your sins according to the Bible: