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The Episcopal Church
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Denominations |
The Anglican church started in 1534 when the Church of England broke away from
the Roman Catholic Church. Officially the king of England is the head of the
church. Their reform was based mainly on the writings of Tertullian from about
210AD.
The Episcopal church, also known as
the Protestant Episcopal Church, started in 1789 when Anglicans broke from
England and started the Episcopal church in America. They have orders of Monks
and Nuns.
Their beliefs include:
- Uphold the Trinity and deity of Christ
- Uphold Apostolic Succession
- Uphold baptism and the Eucharist as sacraments (imparting some Grace)
- Uphold the Apocrypha (Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox)
- Uphold the Assumption of the Virgin Mary
- Upholds sacraments of Baptism (pouring, sprinkling, or immersion)
and Eucharist as agencies of divine grace
- Upholds the sacramental nature of confirmation, penance, orders,
matrimony, and unction.
- Upholds the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist
- Episcopal priests do not have to be celibate
- Practice Infant Baptism
- Deny Papal Infallibility, Purgatory, Immaculate Conception of Mary, Mary
as Co-Redemptrix, and Calvinism
In the last hundred years or so they have shifted to the allegorical
interpretation of scripture allowing these changes:
- Teach Theistic Evolution
- Most tend to be Pro-Choice
- Ordination of women deacons since 1970, priests since 1976, and as bishops
since 1988
- Tend to demythologize scripture
- The church may start allowing homosexual ordination.
- Take no position on eschatology (avoiding the issue as much as possible)
- The Episcopal church ECUSA came into full communion with the Lutheran
church ELCA in 2000. So now the Lutheran church can trace its apostolic
succession back through the Episcopal church.
Other Denominations that broke from the Episcopal Church:
- Anglican Catholic
Church, founded 1977
Rejects ordination of women, reaffirms the 7 ecumenical councils, and
catholic principals.
-
Charismatic Episcopal Church, founded
1992
Sacramental Charismatic
-
Episcopal Orthodox Church, founded 1963
Affirms (KJV) Virgin Birth, Atoning Sacrifice, Trinity, 2nd coming,
salvation by faith alone, (anti-social gospel and communism)
- Reformed Episcopal Church, founded
1873
Sacramental, baptismal regeneration, and affirms priesthood of all
believers, Calvinist
-
Southern Episcopal Church,
founded 1962
Reaffirmed truth of scripture, usefulness of Apocrypha, and the ancient creeds
Date: 2001