Friday, February 18, 2011

Why Episcopalian?

I came to the Episcopal church in a somewhat roundabout fashion. I was raised Presbyterian and took a detour through Roman Catholicism before landing in the ECUSA. The reason the Episcopal church seems to be right for me is the combination of liturgy, social liberalism, and community and global outreach.

The liturgy is really the thing that took me on my foray into Roman Catholicism and the thing that seemed to be missing in the Presbyterian church. I attended a Roman Catholic church in Cleveland's Little Italy with a friend my senior year off college. It was beautiful – incense, choral psalms, and weekly Eucharist. It was also a church that “looked like a church” - stained-glass windows, beautiful altar and vestments. That's something it had in common with the Presbyterian church I grew up in and the Episcopal church I attend now. I like worshiping in a space that's beautiful and evocative and has the sense of being set apart for worship. I do understand some of the reasoning behind plainer churches – avoiding the risk of idolatry, recognizing the fact that our worship isn't confined to this one special place, etc. But for me the emotional aspect of a beautiful church that feels like a sacred space is more important.

But the beauty isn't just in the stained-glass windows and classic architecture; it's also in the service itself. The music, of course – and for me, that partly means a pipe organ. Probably because of the churches I grew up in, that's one of the other things that makes it feel like a church. But also the pattern of worship, week in and week out – “Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And blessed be God's kingdom, now and forever.” The collect for purity, the lectionary, the familiar prayers around the Eucharist, and yes, the knowledge that I'll get at least four hymns, plus the psalm, and the Gloria, and the Sanctus, and the Doxology, and whatever the choir does for an anthem. (It's a bit different at the 9:00 service, but we still get a hymn, a Taize-style chant during Communion, the Sanctus, and music for the Our Father.) It's a beautiful liturgy, it binds the community together, and it feels like home.

The binding the community together is particularly important in the Episcopal church because we describe ourselves as untied through orthopraxy rather than orthodoxy. What this means is that we accept that people have different beliefs and different understanding of those beliefs, but we're united by our worship together and by sharing the Eucharist. We say the Nicene Creed each week, but we don't ask each other to put a check mark by each statement or agree on one particular formulation of our faith. Which, now that I think of it, is very Episcopalian – it reminds me of a quote from a sermon: “There are seven sacraments: baptism and the Eucharist.” In a similar vein, we're Catholic, just not Roman Catholic; we're a product of the Reformation, but we're not Protestant. We hold to the Nicene and Apostles' Creeds, whatever they mean to you. Which is why when two or three Episcopalians are gathered, there are four or five opinions.   

2 comments:

  1. I like the orthodoxy versus orthopraxy distinction. I miss the more formal aspects of Catholicism and Episcopalianism as well, but when I had to omit more of the Creed than I said, I thought it was time to go. Now, though, the reasons I giggle at this post are the same reasons I love my church. Where two or three Unitarian Universalists are gathered, there are six or seven opinions. ;-) As ever, I love reading about your journey.

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  2. The parts of the Creed I believe or am unsure about vary, but that's accepted in my church. One of the clergy before my time made it easier for a friend's husband to stay in the church by explaining that the Nicene Creed was written to hold the church together at time when it was in a lot of danger of falling apart, and that we say it as much to affirm our togetherness as anything else. (At least that's the way I understood it thirdhand).

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