What makes an Episcopalian?

April 16, 2009 12:08 PM

EpiscopalFilter: What must one believe to be an Episcopalian? What do a significant majority of Episcopalians agree on? What (non-political) issues are members fairly evenly split on? What beliefs are left up to individual members?

I'm mostly interested in the theology, metaphysics, morality, etc., rather than the specific moral prescriptions or topics of political debate. Where do various issues of doctrine fall on the "Personally Interpreted / Essential or Prescribed" scale?

posted by Picklegnome to religion & philosophy (8 comments total)

In my experience growing up Episcopalian, there is a wide range of belief. Individual churches range from "almost Unitarian" to "almost Catholic".

I'd say you must believe in the divine nature of Jesus, but after that it's up for grabs. I was definitely taught that the Bible was largely allegorical, but I also had a Sunday School teacher chastise me for not being a Creationist.
posted by JoanArkham at 12:13 PM on April 16 [1 favorite has favorites]

This is a good start
posted by General Malaise at 12:25 PM on April 16

In a literal sense, the current core beliefs central to Episcopalianism are laid out in The Nicene Creed, which is recited during every service.
posted by toxic at 12:26 PM on April 16

I was received into the Episcopal church a couple of years ago, and one of the things I discovered was that, at least in the Episcopal Church of the USA (ECUSA), there is a huge range of theology. I would say that, at a minimum, we profess the Nicene Creed as a community. There is a basic catechism in the back of the Book of Common Prayer.

That said, the divisions in the ECUSA are deep and, while political, many become those "personally interpreted" issues you mention. For example, there were dioceses in the ECUSA that did not recognize the authority of our duly elected presiding bishop because she is a woman, although it may now be the case that those dioceses have left the ECUSA and have stepped under the authority of bishops from elsewhere in the world (Southern Cone, Africa, etc.).

Disclaimer: I belong to an extremely theologically liberal parish, in a fairly liberal diocese, that manages to serve and attract people all along the political spectrum. You may get different answers from someone who belongs to a more conservative parish or diocese, though I don't think any American Episcopalian would argue that there is NOT a huge spectrum - just about who's right.
posted by catlet at 12:30 PM on April 16

Cradle Episcopalian here, but layperson.
Technically, we believe what is in the catechism in the Book of Common Prayer and we are taught that in confirmation classes. However in practice, there is a wide spectrum of belief. I will ask a friend who was rcently confirmed - I believe you have to at least state you are in accord to be confirmed, but in real life, I think there is still a wide range of belief. In practical terms, I would say most Episcopalian believe Jesus was the Son of God and we should follow his teachings. (personally, I am on the deist end of things and focus on trying to be a good person and worry less about who or what is divine).

Some prominent Episcopalians are very liberal on theological matters like retired Bishop John Shelby Spong while others are quite conservative. My own family is definitely on the conservative end but I was still taught when I was young that Genesis, etc was a story and not historical fact.

As for what must one believe, I think unless one is a clergy person, one isn't likely to be cast out or be made unwelcome for unortodox beliefs. In fact, although ne can be denied communion/Eucharist for being a notorious unrepetent "sinner", I don't know how often, if ever, that actually happens.

I attend a very liberal (theologically) church and we welcome anyone "wherever you are on your journey" as our priests say. I think unless you are wanting to go into seminary a VERY wide range is OK, and I do think quite a lot is left to individual members. We talk, at least in my parish, a lot less about what you must believe to be an episcopalian and more about what outlooks and behaviors are a good idea to have to live a life of kindness to others and to our world.

(sorry this was long!)
posted by pointystick at 12:38 PM on April 16

Depending upon your particular church, almost everything or almost nothing could be left up to you to decide. Even whether or not the scriptures should be taken literally or not. I guess you could say that the most commonly accepted, non-negotiable tenets (that statement is not self-contradicting given the fractured nature of the Communion) are probably:

The Nicene Creed as the core statement of faith (some would add the Apostles' Creed)
Belief in the Holy Trinity
Belief in the Holy Scriptures as containing everything you need to know for salvation
The use of the sacraments
The authority of the episcopate (your local branch's particular form, anyway)

So not a lot. Even the Book of Common Prayer isn't any more.
posted by pandanom at 12:40 PM on April 16

Ultimately, the answer is "very little," but your phrasing of the question admits two constructions.

One would be "What must you affirm in order to be received as a member?" Here, a look at the Book of Common Prayer is helpful. When a person is baptized/reaffirms their baptism to be confirmed as a member of an Episcopal church, the priest asks the candidate the following:

"Do you reaffirm your renunciation of evil?"

and

Do you renew your commitment to Jesus Christ?

without much in the way of clarification as to what the candidate actually has to mean by that. He then leads the candidate through the Apostle's Creed:

Bishop: Do you believe in God the Father?
People: I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

Bishop: Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?
People: I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

Bishop: Do you believe in God the Holy Spirit?
People: I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.

followed by these questions, the "correct" answers to which should be intuitive:

Will you continue in the apostles' teaching and
fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?

Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever
you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?

Will you proclaim by word and example the Good
News of God in Christ?

Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving
your neighbor as yourself?

Will you strive for justice and peace among all
people, and respect the dignity of every human being?

Okay, fair enough. Again, not a ton of detail there. This is significant because the other way of constructing your basic question is "What must I continue to believe/do or refrain from believing/doing to avoid getting kicked out?" I'm not aware of anyone who has been excommunicated from the Episcopal church for theological reasons in decades. An anti-gay activist was excommunicated in North Carolina in 2000 for refusing to curb his activism, and Lewis Green was excommunicated for... making an ass of himself, as far as I can tell. but I can't find any reference to anyone being excommunicated for, say, denying the divinity of Christ. For crying out loud, an Episcopalian priest in Seattle was just defrocked because she converted to Islam, and even she wasn't excommunicated. The ECUSA refuses to keep records of excommunications, which makes tracking incidents down pretty difficult, but as far as I can tell the only way of getting yourself actually kicked out is by being a pain in the ass. What you believe doesn't seem to be that significant. What you do is.

I'd be happy to be shown counterexamples, but as far as I can tell, one's theology is largely irrelevant to one's continued membership in the ECUSA, suggesting that the bar for what you have to believe to be Episcopalian is so low as to be essentially non-existent.
posted by valkyryn at 1:30 PM on April 16

Others have already said lots of good stuff, but I wanted to point you to Bishop John Shelby Spong as an exemplar of how critically someone within the Episcopal hierarchy itself can view the denomination's history and tenets, and the history and tenets of Christianity in general.
posted by Sidhedevil at 2:40 PM on April 16