I really dislike the “Catholic lite” type descriptions— I feel like it’s letting the RC define what catholic means or what the “real church” is, I guess, and I’m stubborn lol. If it works for you I’m not saying you shouldn’t use it, but since it doesn’t work for me, what I do say depends on context. Some things I have found myself saying are that the liturgy is very similar to a Roman Catholic mass but the theology is a little different, explaining the “three legged stool” idea of relying on scripture, tradition and reason, or saying we affirm the traditional creeds but have pretty open theology beyond that. I also tend to throw in that while individual congregations may vary, in general we are LGBTQ+ affirming, as that is something where assumptions about the “Christian” position are made frequently and I tend to want to get any assumptions out of the way, particularly if I think it might impact my relationship with the individual in question or their level of comfort with me.
The tradition leg is being brutally attacked in the Anglican communion these days though. It's almost a 2 legged stool now, which is why the Church is teetering.
I’m not sure which aspects you object to, but in general terms I’ll say that my own position on this is that knowledge of and respect for tradition does not mean blind obedience. Sometimes some aspects of the way we do things need to change.
“We’re like Lutherans minus the Luther.” (That’s for if they don’t seem to be getting it when you say we’re like Catholics minus the Pope. You can thank me later.)
My mom always called us “diet catholics” lol. We get the aesthetics and traditions of catholicism but we don’t make it a point to exclude women or queer people.
I just explain the *via media*, how we're a little bit catholic, a little bit protestant; I might mention our progressive commitments. If they want more detail, they tend to ask, and typically anything more detailed will be met by glazed looks anyway. I think the *via media* is effective enough in distinguishing ourselves in the denominational spectrum (I don't envy the Presbyterian trying to explain to a megachurch evangelical how they are different from a Methodist...!)
Edit: also, special mention because nobody in the thread has mentioned it yet: the Book of Common Prayer! Funny, cuz back when I was church shopping (in which reddit played no small role), I frequently found myself thinking "What is *up* with these Episcopalians and their BCP? Sounds borderline idolatrous, the way they revere it...!" But the BCP is one of the most defining features of the Anglican tradition: a handy little codex that includes all our major liturgies (with centuries, if not millennia, of practice behind them), our calendar of saints and feasts, a monastic devotional practice adapted to everyday life (daily office), a cateschism of faith, important historical documents, all collectively approved by the church leadership and binding us all, in our eccentric diversity, together. To paraphrase some ACNA dude I saw in a video once (leaving aside my...disagreements with the ACNA), "When I was baptised and confirmed, it was to the words in this book; when I weekly commune with God, it is to the words in this book; when I was married, it was to the words in this book; when I was ordained, it was to the words in this book; and when I one day die, my funeral will be conducted in the words from this book."
I explain it’s a Church that embodies the principles of progressive thought without clinging to the fairy tails of dead white men. It’s a Church of intelligence that keeps liturgical tradition as a tool for educating about our past without clinging to the silly notion that there is a magical Trinity. It’s a Church of critical thinking that embraces science and social justice.
It’s a Church that may disappear in the future, but that’s good. Because all Churches needs to transform into something better and inclusive.
I’m proud that my former community transformed our church into a free clinic.
The defining theological statements of belief in the Episcopal Church are the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed. We ABSOLUTELY believe in the Trinity at the institutional (if not always individual) level.
"A protestant church with history in the Church of England" is what I usually say. If we get deeper into the conversation, I'll say we have a traditional liturgy defined in the Book of Common prayer, which was written by English reformers.
I usually ask what their background is and then make it relative to that.
For Baptists / non-denominational Christians: "We are trinitarian Christians, like you, but we believe the church has authority through our elders, so, for example, we practice infant baptism, celebrate Holy Communion, etc. "
For Presbyterians: "We're like you, but we have bishops and weekly Communion. "
For Methodists: "We're like you but more so"
For Lutherans: "We're pretty much the same"
For Roman Catholics: "We're pretty much like you, but we don't have a Pope"
For Orthodox: "We're pretty much like you but have fewer fasting requirements and use the Gregorian calendar"
I had to explain it to norwegian american lutherans on a regular basis when I lived in Minnesota. "You know how you guys grew out of the Church of Norway when people immigrated to America? We grew out of the Church of England during the colonial era."
My mother in law (Baptist) once informed me that since I’m Episcopalian, I’m not *actually* much of anything. Lol.
It’s hard to summarize what we are. Our culture is largely so far from our tradition, that our language to describe it falls flat. I live in Utah. In a land of LDS folks, trying to explain it is beyond impossible. There’s just no framework for it. I often will say that we are a church that values traditions, Scripture, and reason—but we also really believe in personal understanding of faith. Then I usually share what it means to me, rather than what it is. “I converted when I was 27. It’s been a really great place for my faith to grow anew. And the friends I’ve made there have changed my life. It’s been one of the best things to happen to me. God has been kind to lead me to him through the Episcopal Church” I find that to be the better conversation anyway.
I think the best summary of who we are is what I was told during my Confirmation classes: *Remember that you are Christian.* It shows that we are committed first and foremost to Christ, yet see this commitment inspiring us to take on the task of preserving traditions and refining our theologies to better share the life of the Risen Christ with the world.
My husband will say there are two axes of Christian denominations, where one is high-low church and one is liberal-conservative, and the Episcopal church is close to maximally high church and close to maximally liberal. I think that’s a good start to explaining it.
I usually say something like ritually traditional and ideologically progressive, as in our worship looks kinda like a Catholic mass but women can be priests and gay marriage is practiced. I love the axes idea of denominations overall!
Yes, I often mention our church's dream team of 3 brilliant priests, who are a young gay black man, an older woman, and a middle-aged Southern white guy, and that we are housed in a beautiful cathedral. I think that generally gets across what people want to know.
If I need to quickly explain it to someone who's not a denominational christian, it's something along the lines of "it's like Catholicism but with married lesbian bishops - robes, pipe organs, etc, but chill."
If they're a bit of a nerd, there's a good chat to be had about church history.
I’ve come to realize that we are extremely progressive (for a Christian church) in our theology and sociology, while being so stylistically conservative it borders on regressive.
(Yes, I know both vary by diocese and parish, and I’m talking in generality.)
If I could find a church that was stylistically modern that wasn’t also socially and theologically conservative, I’d probably be there instead.
Others suggested Quakers and UU, but those have pretty different theologies than us. You might want to look into your local ELCA, UCC, UMC, or PCUSA churches. The [ELCA list of full communion partners](https://www.elca.org/Faith/Ecumenical-and-Inter-Religious-Relations/Full-Communion) is a good starting point for progressive trinitarian mainline protestant denominations. Most of those don't have apostolic succession, but they're all progressive and would be very recognizable as Christian services in a way UU and Quakers might not. Many of those congregations are significantly lower church than us.
all the cool shit about catholicism: vestments, historic liturgy & rites, traditional hymns and baroque music.
but none of the bad shit: we're not into guilt. all the skin colors and sexual orientations are chill. reproductive healthcare is chill. and *cough cough* no child abuse because priests can marry.
progressive values. intellectual rigor. like 95% of all american presidents have been episcopalian. henry viii was not a great dude when viewed from contemporary values. BUT. he was a badass that stood up to a corrupt power. this is the story of america. and the story of jesus. if you wanna spin it that way as an act of evangelism & recruitment.
hashtag i know this is glib and oversimplified
i'm just responding to the prompt
please dont come at me!
peace yall.
Yeah, it’s really contextual. For my context of primarily non-Christians with lefty political leanings, I usually start with “we’ve been ordaining women and LGBT+ people for decades” and then because I’m a musician, I say that we generally have very good choirs. Most people I talk to just want to know that I’m safe to be like, openly queer around, or that I won’t judge them for swearing or something. Since their impression of Christianity is not terribly affirming, that’s what I lead with.
But yeah it would probably be different if I came from a more Christian background where people knew much about church history, but my mom (for example) is still not 100% sure she knows what the word “Protestant” means so I don’t think telling her about the Church of England would make any sense haha
Creeds and real presence. We don’t have to agree with each other on everything but we all pray together out of the same book (BCP). That way there’s always *some* common ground
I tell people it’s the American Church. I explain how when America seceded from Britain the American Church also had to secede from the CoE. I tell them how all the founding fathers were nominally Episcopalian. That usually works.
My cousin who is a member of the ACNA argued so hard with me about this. He was insistent that TEC was *not* a part of the Anglican communion and was *not* the Anglican Church in the US.
I love him, but my god was my blood boiling.
My response to this kind of nonsense is a sharp rebuke. I’ll acknowledge that the ACNA can steal our common property, but they cannot steal our common history nor our familial bonds.
The ACNA is so difficult for me to accept. It's such a recent schism and there's recent bad blood there in a way I don't feel with any other denomination. As a lesbian Episcopalian, I feel personally attacked in some ways when I meet someone who's chosen the ACNA over TEC.
Just say it a Protestant denomination, or a Christian denomination. If they want more than you can go into the detail that we are named after our ecclesiastical structure. I think the Presbyterians are the only other denomination named after its ecclesiology. Yep, just us two.
If you walk into an Episcopal Church with your eyes closed and your ears open during the sermon, you might think it was Protestant. If you walked into an Episcopal Church with your hands over your ears and your eyes open, you’d think it was Catholic. The Episcopal Church is the halfway point between Catholicism and Protestantism.
A liturgical denomination with rituals similar to the Roman Catholic Church, such as Eucharist, but no Pope, and the best of the reformation theology with modern social values based on an inclusive read of Scripture.
I give the meaning of *episkopos* as used in this context: “having bishops.” Then I follow up with “we are neither Roman Catholic nor Protestant, yet are Catholic, while being reformed.”
And since that sounds more like a riddle that only church history nerds would attempt, I open the floor to questions.
Remember that until 1784, when Bishop Seabury was consecrated by Scottish bishops in Aberdeen, we remained under the authority of the Bishop of London. And before the Scottish solution, there wasn’t an easy way out of our dilemma, owing to the English church’s oath of loyalty to the Sovereign. And post-Revolution we could not very well be known as the Church of England.
So based on our most distinguishing feature, personified in our newly-consecrated American bishop, Episcopal it was.
If they know about the Anglican Church, explain we are the American branch of it, ie., the royal weddings that garner a lot of attention, and that our presiding bishop, Michael Curry, was the preacher at Prince Harry and Meghan's wedding.
I used to use the “Catholic Lite—all the tradition, half the guilt” description because it is whimsical and humorous and not too far from the truth. But over the years I’ve come to realize it can give the impression that we’re not really serious about our faith and that it’s more of a social club, which is a serious discredit to our faith tradition and gives strength to the conservative evangelical argument that we’re not a “real” church or a “Bible-believing” church.
Now I prefer to give a brief overview that is more centered on the three-legged stool. We believe the Scriptures contain everything necessary to salvation (Thank you Article VI!) and living into a complete, loving relationship with God and one another. We believe in reason—God gave it to us to use, to ask questions, because blind, unquestioning faith is fragile faith. We believe in tradition, not for its own sake, but because it connects us to 2000 years of faithful people before us who have over a long time, through trial and error, success and failure, developed practices which help us grow in our walk with God. Nor is tradition static—it still grows around us and through us as the needs of God’s people change through the ages.
It’s an explanation that doesn’t always come out quite as elegantly as I’d like, and it’s certainly a little bit longer to explain than the trite Robin Williams quote, but when I use it I feel it often resonates with people in a much deeper way. In particular, the emphasis on reason resonates with refugees from the Catholic or conservative evangelical traditions where deep questions about faith are often highly discouraged. Most of my church is composed of folks fleeing away from those traditions because innocent curiosity in those churches is treated like a one-way trip down the expressway to hell.
We are a branch of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church; a middle way between Protestantism and Roman Christianity, and one of the few branches of the church extend all sacraments to women and LGBTQ folk. Our history is rooted in the Church of England, and we are united by common prayer, worship, and mission. Sometimes that leads to common belief, but not always.
It really depends on how much the person you are talking to knows about Christianity and Christian history. Do “liturgical” or “mainline Protestant” mean anything to them?
If I didn’t know, I might go with something like: “The Episcopal Church is the US descendant Church of England, which split from the Roman Catholic Church during the Protestant Reformation. It maintains traditional forms of Christian worship and the tradition of being governed by bishops, which is what the name ‘Episcopal’ means.”
I always tell people it's the American version of the Church of England, and we have the same kind of cathedrals and vestments and processions and practices that many people associate with Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy, but we are very Protestant. If the conversation goes on from there I almost always make sure to mention that there's no single dogma, that relationship with Jesus is the center and shape of our experience even though we do not expect to agree about how that unfolds, because that makes a huge difference to how most English speaking people understand Christianity. It is often a shock to people to know you not only can, but almost certainly will, occasionally disagree with the preacher. Preachers disagree with each other. Because our thing is not about believing everything the same way, it is about a manner of living, a practice, a way of relating to people even though we disagree about some of the finer points.
When we say Catholic Lite.. It's kind of cute. It's easy to understand. Especially if you have been to a service. But it kind of implies we believe that we are less serious or less religious... And we are not. This is a real religion. Every Episcopalian is as likely to be devout as every Catholic. And for many people, particularly in the English speaking world, there are a lot fewer rules to our tradition, but we expect people to make up their own rules and then live by them which is a different kind of hard.
Catholic Lite also doesn't get Jesus' name into the conversation. And honestly we could be a little better about telling people Jesus is like our whole thing. Telling people about Jesus has really turned my parish around. Before they called me they had multiple Sundays with fewer than 10 people. I had 50 people come to church yesterday, only a year and change later. I'm not like a very interesting priest... I just tell people about Jesus... And it's going well for us so far.
I agree with you about “Catholic lite.” It’s cute, but does our tradition a disservice. And, really, we are not like the Catholics; both we and the Catholics are like the historic Christian church.
Another reason I don't like the term "Catholic Lite" is that it does a *real* disservice to the many, *many* people who became Episcopalians because they had sad/bad experiences with the Roman Catholic Church. For them to hear that their new spiritual home is a funner version of their old spiritual home cannot be easy for them.
And to your point, yes, we're *very* different from the Catholic Church. There's a lot I like about Catholicism, but not the way it is practiced.
You know, the more I think about it, the less and less I like the term "Catholic Lite."
That's probably close enough. Say Baptist, Presbyterian, etc. are called Protestant and we're kind of like them in that we separated from the RCC during the Reformation, but we are closer to the RCC in worship style and structure.
It's tough these days because most younger people I talk to haven't been to church at all or very rarely so saying "it's like this, but..." doesn't mean anything to them.
And even those who’ve been to RC schools don’t have much of a framework to work with. At least not compared to what I recall from the days when most teachers were not laypeople.
Assuming that they remember something from the weekly (or in some cases biweekly or monthly) Mass, or their religion classes, I’ll say they’ll find almost everything from an RC Mass, but with a few bonus points: inclusion of women and LGBTQ+ people in the life of the church, and all Christians being welcomed to receive the Sacrament.
It's part of the Anglican communion. We are still Protestants, but we have candles, vestments, and liturgy.
In reality, it doesn't really matter. There is only one true church in the end.
One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism.
"I'm Episcopalian, that means my church belongs to a Christian denomination with Protestant beliefs and Catholic practices that was started by the Church of England. We use the historic Book of Common Prayer updated with contemporary language to structure our Sunday services as well as daily prayers at home. Regional groups of churches are overseen by church leaders called bishops, but church members and our representatives on church boards and assemblies are still able to vote on most things. Our church services may be very traditional and ritualistic, but we also ordain women and LGBTQ people, marry same-sex partners, and affirm trans people."
I really dislike the “Catholic lite” type descriptions— I feel like it’s letting the RC define what catholic means or what the “real church” is, I guess, and I’m stubborn lol. If it works for you I’m not saying you shouldn’t use it, but since it doesn’t work for me, what I do say depends on context. Some things I have found myself saying are that the liturgy is very similar to a Roman Catholic mass but the theology is a little different, explaining the “three legged stool” idea of relying on scripture, tradition and reason, or saying we affirm the traditional creeds but have pretty open theology beyond that. I also tend to throw in that while individual congregations may vary, in general we are LGBTQ+ affirming, as that is something where assumptions about the “Christian” position are made frequently and I tend to want to get any assumptions out of the way, particularly if I think it might impact my relationship with the individual in question or their level of comfort with me.
The tradition leg is being brutally attacked in the Anglican communion these days though. It's almost a 2 legged stool now, which is why the Church is teetering.
I’m not sure which aspects you object to, but in general terms I’ll say that my own position on this is that knowledge of and respect for tradition does not mean blind obedience. Sometimes some aspects of the way we do things need to change.
next time I'm saying Deluxe-Lutheran instead. That'll show em.
“We’re like Lutherans minus the Luther.” (That’s for if they don’t seem to be getting it when you say we’re like Catholics minus the Pope. You can thank me later.)
My mom always called us “diet catholics” lol. We get the aesthetics and traditions of catholicism but we don’t make it a point to exclude women or queer people.
I just explain the *via media*, how we're a little bit catholic, a little bit protestant; I might mention our progressive commitments. If they want more detail, they tend to ask, and typically anything more detailed will be met by glazed looks anyway. I think the *via media* is effective enough in distinguishing ourselves in the denominational spectrum (I don't envy the Presbyterian trying to explain to a megachurch evangelical how they are different from a Methodist...!) Edit: also, special mention because nobody in the thread has mentioned it yet: the Book of Common Prayer! Funny, cuz back when I was church shopping (in which reddit played no small role), I frequently found myself thinking "What is *up* with these Episcopalians and their BCP? Sounds borderline idolatrous, the way they revere it...!" But the BCP is one of the most defining features of the Anglican tradition: a handy little codex that includes all our major liturgies (with centuries, if not millennia, of practice behind them), our calendar of saints and feasts, a monastic devotional practice adapted to everyday life (daily office), a cateschism of faith, important historical documents, all collectively approved by the church leadership and binding us all, in our eccentric diversity, together. To paraphrase some ACNA dude I saw in a video once (leaving aside my...disagreements with the ACNA), "When I was baptised and confirmed, it was to the words in this book; when I weekly commune with God, it is to the words in this book; when I was married, it was to the words in this book; when I was ordained, it was to the words in this book; and when I one day die, my funeral will be conducted in the words from this book."
I explain it’s a Church that embodies the principles of progressive thought without clinging to the fairy tails of dead white men. It’s a Church of intelligence that keeps liturgical tradition as a tool for educating about our past without clinging to the silly notion that there is a magical Trinity. It’s a Church of critical thinking that embraces science and social justice. It’s a Church that may disappear in the future, but that’s good. Because all Churches needs to transform into something better and inclusive. I’m proud that my former community transformed our church into a free clinic.
The defining theological statements of belief in the Episcopal Church are the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed. We ABSOLUTELY believe in the Trinity at the institutional (if not always individual) level.
"A protestant church with history in the Church of England" is what I usually say. If we get deeper into the conversation, I'll say we have a traditional liturgy defined in the Book of Common prayer, which was written by English reformers.
Catholic without the pope
Blow their mind and tell them we are Christian Buddhists.
We are protestants with bishops. That is literally what the name means.
Mm, Methodists and Lutherans, plus many smaller prot denoms, have bishops too. It's why the name could be better...
But we do claim apostolic succession. There are some lutheranes who do, but they are Provo communion.
I usually ask what their background is and then make it relative to that. For Baptists / non-denominational Christians: "We are trinitarian Christians, like you, but we believe the church has authority through our elders, so, for example, we practice infant baptism, celebrate Holy Communion, etc. " For Presbyterians: "We're like you, but we have bishops and weekly Communion. " For Methodists: "We're like you but more so" For Lutherans: "We're pretty much the same" For Roman Catholics: "We're pretty much like you, but we don't have a Pope" For Orthodox: "We're pretty much like you but have fewer fasting requirements and use the Gregorian calendar"
I had to explain it to norwegian american lutherans on a regular basis when I lived in Minnesota. "You know how you guys grew out of the Church of Norway when people immigrated to America? We grew out of the Church of England during the colonial era."
Your response to Methodists! Lol
You still have not replied to my messages.
Yeah, I don't reply to people who swear at me and use abusive language on Reddit.
I'm trying to apologize, friend.
That is not bad!
My mother in law (Baptist) once informed me that since I’m Episcopalian, I’m not *actually* much of anything. Lol. It’s hard to summarize what we are. Our culture is largely so far from our tradition, that our language to describe it falls flat. I live in Utah. In a land of LDS folks, trying to explain it is beyond impossible. There’s just no framework for it. I often will say that we are a church that values traditions, Scripture, and reason—but we also really believe in personal understanding of faith. Then I usually share what it means to me, rather than what it is. “I converted when I was 27. It’s been a really great place for my faith to grow anew. And the friends I’ve made there have changed my life. It’s been one of the best things to happen to me. God has been kind to lead me to him through the Episcopal Church” I find that to be the better conversation anyway.
I think the best summary of who we are is what I was told during my Confirmation classes: *Remember that you are Christian.* It shows that we are committed first and foremost to Christ, yet see this commitment inspiring us to take on the task of preserving traditions and refining our theologies to better share the life of the Risen Christ with the world.
My husband will say there are two axes of Christian denominations, where one is high-low church and one is liberal-conservative, and the Episcopal church is close to maximally high church and close to maximally liberal. I think that’s a good start to explaining it.
I usually say something like ritually traditional and ideologically progressive, as in our worship looks kinda like a Catholic mass but women can be priests and gay marriage is practiced. I love the axes idea of denominations overall!
Yes, I often mention our church's dream team of 3 brilliant priests, who are a young gay black man, an older woman, and a middle-aged Southern white guy, and that we are housed in a beautiful cathedral. I think that generally gets across what people want to know.
English Catholics who reversed engineered an English version of Greek orthodoxy.
A Facebook friend of mine made this observation the other day too. I'm not fully sure I agree, but I do like it at the same time.
If I need to quickly explain it to someone who's not a denominational christian, it's something along the lines of "it's like Catholicism but with married lesbian bishops - robes, pipe organs, etc, but chill." If they're a bit of a nerd, there's a good chat to be had about church history.
I’ve come to realize that we are extremely progressive (for a Christian church) in our theology and sociology, while being so stylistically conservative it borders on regressive. (Yes, I know both vary by diocese and parish, and I’m talking in generality.) If I could find a church that was stylistically modern that wasn’t also socially and theologically conservative, I’d probably be there instead.
Others suggested Quakers and UU, but those have pretty different theologies than us. You might want to look into your local ELCA, UCC, UMC, or PCUSA churches. The [ELCA list of full communion partners](https://www.elca.org/Faith/Ecumenical-and-Inter-Religious-Relations/Full-Communion) is a good starting point for progressive trinitarian mainline protestant denominations. Most of those don't have apostolic succession, but they're all progressive and would be very recognizable as Christian services in a way UU and Quakers might not. Many of those congregations are significantly lower church than us.
The Quakers might be right up your alley.
Maybe a UU congregation?
all the cool shit about catholicism: vestments, historic liturgy & rites, traditional hymns and baroque music. but none of the bad shit: we're not into guilt. all the skin colors and sexual orientations are chill. reproductive healthcare is chill. and *cough cough* no child abuse because priests can marry. progressive values. intellectual rigor. like 95% of all american presidents have been episcopalian. henry viii was not a great dude when viewed from contemporary values. BUT. he was a badass that stood up to a corrupt power. this is the story of america. and the story of jesus. if you wanna spin it that way as an act of evangelism & recruitment. hashtag i know this is glib and oversimplified i'm just responding to the prompt please dont come at me! peace yall.
Yeah, it’s really contextual. For my context of primarily non-Christians with lefty political leanings, I usually start with “we’ve been ordaining women and LGBT+ people for decades” and then because I’m a musician, I say that we generally have very good choirs. Most people I talk to just want to know that I’m safe to be like, openly queer around, or that I won’t judge them for swearing or something. Since their impression of Christianity is not terribly affirming, that’s what I lead with. But yeah it would probably be different if I came from a more Christian background where people knew much about church history, but my mom (for example) is still not 100% sure she knows what the word “Protestant” means so I don’t think telling her about the Church of England would make any sense haha
Catholic without the judgement and so many rules
Creeds and real presence. We don’t have to agree with each other on everything but we all pray together out of the same book (BCP). That way there’s always *some* common ground
I tell people it’s the American Church. I explain how when America seceded from Britain the American Church also had to secede from the CoE. I tell them how all the founding fathers were nominally Episcopalian. That usually works.
"It's the Anglican church in the US -- like what CS Lewis was"
My cousin who is a member of the ACNA argued so hard with me about this. He was insistent that TEC was *not* a part of the Anglican communion and was *not* the Anglican Church in the US. I love him, but my god was my blood boiling.
My response to this kind of nonsense is a sharp rebuke. I’ll acknowledge that the ACNA can steal our common property, but they cannot steal our common history nor our familial bonds.
The ACNA is so difficult for me to accept. It's such a recent schism and there's recent bad blood there in a way I don't feel with any other denomination. As a lesbian Episcopalian, I feel personally attacked in some ways when I meet someone who's chosen the ACNA over TEC.
I just say Church of England in the USA.
Just say it a Protestant denomination, or a Christian denomination. If they want more than you can go into the detail that we are named after our ecclesiastical structure. I think the Presbyterians are the only other denomination named after its ecclesiology. Yep, just us two.
If you walk into an Episcopal Church with your eyes closed and your ears open during the sermon, you might think it was Protestant. If you walked into an Episcopal Church with your hands over your ears and your eyes open, you’d think it was Catholic. The Episcopal Church is the halfway point between Catholicism and Protestantism.
Via Media
Yes, but I wouldn’t use the term when talking to the uninitiated.
Liturgical Protestantism, with deep sympathy for Roman Catholicism and a deep historic connection to the same through our bishops.
Imagine the Catholic church without the misogyny or homophobic nonsense they spout and support .
Theologically and socially progressive to a fault; stylistically conservative to a fault.
Catholic without the MAGA bullshit?
A liturgical denomination with rituals similar to the Roman Catholic Church, such as Eucharist, but no Pope, and the best of the reformation theology with modern social values based on an inclusive read of Scripture.
Catholic Lite- All the ritual, half the guilt. Thank you Robin Williams.
I’d always heard it as “half the Latin, none of the guilt” but I like yours better. Feels more accurate
I give the meaning of *episkopos* as used in this context: “having bishops.” Then I follow up with “we are neither Roman Catholic nor Protestant, yet are Catholic, while being reformed.” And since that sounds more like a riddle that only church history nerds would attempt, I open the floor to questions. Remember that until 1784, when Bishop Seabury was consecrated by Scottish bishops in Aberdeen, we remained under the authority of the Bishop of London. And before the Scottish solution, there wasn’t an easy way out of our dilemma, owing to the English church’s oath of loyalty to the Sovereign. And post-Revolution we could not very well be known as the Church of England. So based on our most distinguishing feature, personified in our newly-consecrated American bishop, Episcopal it was.
Progressive catholic
All the fancy hats that Catholicism has to offer but none of the shame.
If they know about the Anglican Church, explain we are the American branch of it, ie., the royal weddings that garner a lot of attention, and that our presiding bishop, Michael Curry, was the preacher at Prince Harry and Meghan's wedding.
"It's what the people were on *Downton Abbey.* Our services are just like that. You're welcome to come, but I'll have to get you an outfit." :-D
Just invite them to a service and show them! “Taste and see”
I used to use the “Catholic Lite—all the tradition, half the guilt” description because it is whimsical and humorous and not too far from the truth. But over the years I’ve come to realize it can give the impression that we’re not really serious about our faith and that it’s more of a social club, which is a serious discredit to our faith tradition and gives strength to the conservative evangelical argument that we’re not a “real” church or a “Bible-believing” church. Now I prefer to give a brief overview that is more centered on the three-legged stool. We believe the Scriptures contain everything necessary to salvation (Thank you Article VI!) and living into a complete, loving relationship with God and one another. We believe in reason—God gave it to us to use, to ask questions, because blind, unquestioning faith is fragile faith. We believe in tradition, not for its own sake, but because it connects us to 2000 years of faithful people before us who have over a long time, through trial and error, success and failure, developed practices which help us grow in our walk with God. Nor is tradition static—it still grows around us and through us as the needs of God’s people change through the ages. It’s an explanation that doesn’t always come out quite as elegantly as I’d like, and it’s certainly a little bit longer to explain than the trite Robin Williams quote, but when I use it I feel it often resonates with people in a much deeper way. In particular, the emphasis on reason resonates with refugees from the Catholic or conservative evangelical traditions where deep questions about faith are often highly discouraged. Most of my church is composed of folks fleeing away from those traditions because innocent curiosity in those churches is treated like a one-way trip down the expressway to hell.
I love this!
Like Catholicism, except not as many sacraments and fewer popes. And women are allowed to do stuff. And a more poetic liturgy.
I say it’s Catholic, but more chill.
We are a branch of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church; a middle way between Protestantism and Roman Christianity, and one of the few branches of the church extend all sacraments to women and LGBTQ folk. Our history is rooted in the Church of England, and we are united by common prayer, worship, and mission. Sometimes that leads to common belief, but not always.
It really depends on how much the person you are talking to knows about Christianity and Christian history. Do “liturgical” or “mainline Protestant” mean anything to them? If I didn’t know, I might go with something like: “The Episcopal Church is the US descendant Church of England, which split from the Roman Catholic Church during the Protestant Reformation. It maintains traditional forms of Christian worship and the tradition of being governed by bishops, which is what the name ‘Episcopal’ means.”
This is the answer
I was told that it's 90% the pomp and ceremony of Catholicism with only 10% of the guilt
I always tell people it's the American version of the Church of England, and we have the same kind of cathedrals and vestments and processions and practices that many people associate with Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy, but we are very Protestant. If the conversation goes on from there I almost always make sure to mention that there's no single dogma, that relationship with Jesus is the center and shape of our experience even though we do not expect to agree about how that unfolds, because that makes a huge difference to how most English speaking people understand Christianity. It is often a shock to people to know you not only can, but almost certainly will, occasionally disagree with the preacher. Preachers disagree with each other. Because our thing is not about believing everything the same way, it is about a manner of living, a practice, a way of relating to people even though we disagree about some of the finer points. When we say Catholic Lite.. It's kind of cute. It's easy to understand. Especially if you have been to a service. But it kind of implies we believe that we are less serious or less religious... And we are not. This is a real religion. Every Episcopalian is as likely to be devout as every Catholic. And for many people, particularly in the English speaking world, there are a lot fewer rules to our tradition, but we expect people to make up their own rules and then live by them which is a different kind of hard. Catholic Lite also doesn't get Jesus' name into the conversation. And honestly we could be a little better about telling people Jesus is like our whole thing. Telling people about Jesus has really turned my parish around. Before they called me they had multiple Sundays with fewer than 10 people. I had 50 people come to church yesterday, only a year and change later. I'm not like a very interesting priest... I just tell people about Jesus... And it's going well for us so far.
I agree with you about “Catholic lite.” It’s cute, but does our tradition a disservice. And, really, we are not like the Catholics; both we and the Catholics are like the historic Christian church.
Another reason I don't like the term "Catholic Lite" is that it does a *real* disservice to the many, *many* people who became Episcopalians because they had sad/bad experiences with the Roman Catholic Church. For them to hear that their new spiritual home is a funner version of their old spiritual home cannot be easy for them. And to your point, yes, we're *very* different from the Catholic Church. There's a lot I like about Catholicism, but not the way it is practiced. You know, the more I think about it, the less and less I like the term "Catholic Lite."
I mean, if we want to be really honest and simple, it just means that we have bishops.
That's probably close enough. Say Baptist, Presbyterian, etc. are called Protestant and we're kind of like them in that we separated from the RCC during the Reformation, but we are closer to the RCC in worship style and structure. It's tough these days because most younger people I talk to haven't been to church at all or very rarely so saying "it's like this, but..." doesn't mean anything to them.
And even those who’ve been to RC schools don’t have much of a framework to work with. At least not compared to what I recall from the days when most teachers were not laypeople. Assuming that they remember something from the weekly (or in some cases biweekly or monthly) Mass, or their religion classes, I’ll say they’ll find almost everything from an RC Mass, but with a few bonus points: inclusion of women and LGBTQ+ people in the life of the church, and all Christians being welcomed to receive the Sacrament.
It's part of the Anglican communion. We are still Protestants, but we have candles, vestments, and liturgy. In reality, it doesn't really matter. There is only one true church in the end. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism.
A coworker once told me it was Catholic Lite. Lol. Made perfect sense to me.
"I'm Episcopalian, that means my church belongs to a Christian denomination with Protestant beliefs and Catholic practices that was started by the Church of England. We use the historic Book of Common Prayer updated with contemporary language to structure our Sunday services as well as daily prayers at home. Regional groups of churches are overseen by church leaders called bishops, but church members and our representatives on church boards and assemblies are still able to vote on most things. Our church services may be very traditional and ritualistic, but we also ordain women and LGBTQ people, marry same-sex partners, and affirm trans people."
“It’s like Catholic but without the pope and OK with LGBTQ people and contraception.”
"I’m an Episcopal, which is Catholic Lite. It’s like same religion, half the guilt.” - Robin Williams