Are Anglicans & Episcopalians the Same? Understanding Their Similarities & Differences

“Anglican? Is that like Episcopalian? What’s the distinction?”

I get questions like these rather a lot and sometimes for purpose. On one degree, there’s a basic confusion as to what these phrases imply of their historic and grammatical sense. On one other degree, there may be confusion surrounding how the meanings of those phrases have modified and brought on new semantic hues over time, particularly for the reason that starting of the millennium.

Historic meanings of Episcopal and Anglican

Episcopal

It might be best to start with the origins of the phrase “episcopal”—a phrase which can already be acquainted to those that have engaged with the New Testomony in its authentic language. It’s an adjective which comes from the Greek phrase ἐπίσκοπος (episkopos). This phrase seems most regularly in our English translations as “overseer” (e.g., Acts 20:28; Phil 1:1; 1 Tim 3:2). It’s right here that Christian traditions which have bishops (viz. Catholics, Orthodox, and Anglicans) discover the biblical foundation for the workplace of “bishop” as as one thing distinct from the workplace of “elder” (πρεσβύτερος; e.g., Acts 11:30, 14:23, 15:2; 1 Tim 5:17; Titus 1:5, Jas 5:14), and “deacon” (e.g., Phil 1:1; 1 Tim 3:8, 4:6; see additionally presumably Acts 6:1–6).

Episcopal, within the technical sense, names a mode of ecclesial polity, of church construction and governance. So we might discuss this or that denomination having an “episcopal mannequin” of polity versus a congregationalist or presbyterian one. Put merely, it signifies that the denomination has bishops.

Anglican

“Anglican” in its origin additionally means one thing fairly easy: It means “coming from Anglia [England].” Christianity got here to the British Isles through the first few centuries after Christ’s Ascension. Simply as we would hint the developments of Slavic Christianity or Iberian Christianity with the entire distinctive developments that got here to fruition after the arrival of the gospel in these lands, so additionally for a very long time to talk of the Ecclesia Anglicana was to talk of what was taking place in Christianity within the British Isles.

Over time, nonetheless, the distinct form that Christian perception and follow took on within the British Isles introduced it more and more into battle with the rising efforts to create and consolidate a common patriarchate (i.e., a papacy) in Rome. These tensions got here to a head through the theological reforms which swept throughout Europe within the sixteenth century.

At the moment, for a number of complicated reasons (and no, not all of them needed to do with Henry VIII’s marriages, although these have been contributing and complicating elements, to make certain), the church in England separated from the papacy in Rome—not a lot to begin a brand new church (even Henry VIII in his craziest moments would reject the concept he “based” the Church of England within the correct sense) as to proceed the expansion of the church in England with out the curtailments and jurisdiction of Rome.

The which means of “Anglican,” due to this fact, modified considerably throughout this time from “the church (beneath Rome) in England” to “the church of England” regardless of Rome.

Importantly, the Anglican framers (those that led the institution of the Church of England throughout this era) saved the episcopal mannequin of church authorities, in contrast to most of the continental Reformers. The Church of England has bishops. Anglicans, on this sense, are episcopal, within the sense that bovines are mammals.

The meanings of Anglican and Episcopal following the American Revolutionary Warfare

The issue of American independence

An necessary shift within the phrases “Anglican” and “Episcopal” happens after the Revolutionary Warfare.

You’ll be able to simply think about how being a member of the Church of England is perhaps awkward and problematic for, say, a Bostonian within the years following 1776. This isn’t a hypothetical scenario. There have been quite a lot of Anglicans within the newly unbiased colonies—there are even Anglican signatures on the Declaration of Independence.

The Anglican Church within the fledgling United States wanted its personal bishops. However there was an issue: English bishops wanted to acknowledge the authority of the King of England, one thing residents of the USA couldn’t do.

The Scottish Episcopal Church, nonetheless, provided an answer. Although Scotland was united with England (therefore, “the UK”), their bishops didn’t have to take the oaths of fealty required of English bishops. So Anglican bishops from Scotland consecrated Samuel Seabury, an American, as an Anglican bishop in 1784. The primary Anglican ordinations in the USA came about by the laying on of his palms the next yr.

From Anglican to Episcopalian

An issue nonetheless remained, nonetheless. What would this new department of the more and more world communion of Anglicans be known as? “Anglican” carried an excessive amount of unhelpful baggage after the Revolution (and would proceed to take action particularly after the Warfare of 1812). “Catholic” had come to imply strictly “Roman Catholic,” and “Reformed” additionally had issues. To treatment the scenario, it was determined to lean into the Anglican distinctive, amongst Protestants, of getting bishops—of our being “episcopal.”

Thus for a lot of, a few years, Anglicanism in America would fly beneath the banner of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA of America (hereafter, the Episcopal Church). A-plus for artistic solvency, C-minus for brevity. To be Anglican in the USA now meant being known as “Episcopalian.”

Anglican growth

For the subsequent a number of many years, Anglicanism flourished throughout the globe. Self-governing branches of this custom have been planted in Africa, Asia, South America, and even to Hawaii, the place a younger monarch named Kamehameha IV translated the 1662 E book of Widespread Prayer into the language of his individuals.

Anglican ceased to imply solely the Church of England and got here to refer a communion which spanned the globe. Thus, simply as one could be Roman Catholic and stay within the Bahamas, or Greek Orthodox and stay in Oklahoma, or Southern Baptist and reside in northern Canada, so additionally Anglican now names not a geographical area of Christian growth however a specific custom inside the world physique of Jesus Christ.

The meanings of Anglican and Episcopalian right this moment

The rise of liberalism

In the midst of the previous century, one other change started to take form within the Anglican Communion, which has as soon as once more modified the meanings surrounding “Anglican” and “Episcopal.” Together with different mainline denominations, the Episcopal Church got here more and more beneath the affect of liberal Protestant theology, influenced by rising theologians working downstream of thinkers like Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834). This resulted in progressive rejection of conventional biblical teachings on issues of scriptural authority, human sexuality, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Starting in 1974 with occasions surrounding the ordination of ladies to the priesthood, some clergy and laity, even whole congregations, started leaving the Episcopal Church with a view to pursue methods of being Anglican with out being Episcopalian. It’s throughout this time that we see the emergence of teams of people that say, “I’m Anglican however not Episcopalian”—by which they imply: “I’m not beneath the jurisdiction of the Episcopal Church,” regardless that they’re nonetheless overseen by bishops.

Messy, proper?

June 2003 was a watershed second for the Anglican Communion. The Episcopal Church consecrated to the episcopacy Gene Robinson, an brazenly homosexual clergyman who had divorced his spouse and was residing in a dedicated same-sex relationship. To be “Episcopalian” from then on meant to be part of a province the place at the very least one of many episcopoi denied Christianity’s historic educating on marriage and sexuality. To be clear, Robinson’s sexuality was not the first concern; it was, slightly, understood as a symptom of a way more regarding institutional departure from this historic Christian place.

The Anglican Realignment

This started an enormous world transition recognized right this moment because the Anglican Realignment. The previous twenty-plus years have witnessed the rising divide between two sorts of Anglican for which the straightforward (although unhelpful and politically-loaded) phrases of “liberal” and “conservative” fall wanting ample description.

For the needs of this text, I can solely describe issues typically. I can not give an account for each exception to the overall realignment rules beneath. One can, as an example, discover extremely conventional parishes which have remained within the Episcopal Church. They’re, nonetheless, the exception.

First, there are these Anglicans who’ve discovered a renewed unity in our communion across the imaginative and prescient solid within the Jerusalem Declaration of 2008. The fourteen factors of this doc make clear objects which have been on the coronary heart of the rising divide inside the communion. For instance, the second level declares boldly:

We consider the Holy Scriptures of the Outdated and New Testaments to be the Phrase of God written and to include all issues obligatory for salvation. The Bible is to be translated, learn, preached, taught and obeyed in its plain and canonical sense, respectful of the church’s historic and consensual studying.

In North America, it’s this group which is able to most certainly name themselves “Anglican” as a substitute of “Episcopalian” with a view to underscore their separation from the Episcopal Church and their participation within the world realignment.

Second, there are these Anglicans who’ve remained inside the constructions of the Episcopal Church. A few of these could also be theologically orthodox. Others, maybe the vast majority of the Episcopal Church, symbolize an Anglicanism which doesn’t see the Scripture as authoritative, nor do they see the historic creeds and Anglican formularies as theologically binding for Anglicans right this moment. Some, such because the late Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong (1931–2021), might even go as far as to disclaim the resurrection and divinity of Jesus Christ and the historic reliability of the canon.

In North America, this group could be those who most certainly determine as Episcopalian, although in addition they rely themselves among the many world fellowship Anglicans, as properly.

A ultimate contributing complexity has been the painful authorized battles which regularly attended the separation of the primary group (who for essentially the most half are all part of the Anglican Church in North America) from the second. Disputes over issues such because the possession of ecclesial properties, the rights to explicit church names, logos, and parish financial institution accounts, to call a number of examples, has added to the modern division between what it means to be Anglican versus Episcopalian in North America.

The good historic lesson I traced above loses a few of its usefulness when the Supreme Courtroom of the State of South Carolina arbitrates a lawsuit between the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina and the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina. “Anglican” and “Episcopal” now carry not solely theological significance however litigious significance, as properly.

A brutal unity

Throw into this complicated admixture of “Anglicanisms” the handful of what are known as “persevering with our bodies” which determine as Anglican however don’t have any formal relationship with or recognition within the world Anglican Communion, and the waters develop into much more muddied. When Anglican theologian Ephraim Radner speaks of a “brutal unity,” he isn’t being hyperbolic. If something, he’s deploying the entire literary subtlety of understatement.

This lengthy rehearsal can simply develop into discouraging if we’re not cautious. God isn’t discouraged, neither is he thrown for a loop over doctrinal error or communal divisions. Once I encounter individuals for whom the present state of Anglicanism is a supply of despair, I remind them of two issues: the goodness of God and church historical past.

The historical past of Christ’s church isn’t one among unsoiled excellence, neither is it one lengthy opera of wonderful institutional probity. It’s, as a substitute, an excellent story of God’s continuous and stunning redemption, main his church from glory to glory, typically despite itself.

I’m an Anglican!

I’m Anglican, I inform individuals, unafraid of both how a lot I’d want to elucidate or how fraught our dialog will develop into. The mess of my communion affords me an opportunity to present individuals a hope past the harmful and defective seek for an ideal church on the cabinets of shopper Christianity. It affords me the prospect to inform them about God’s goodness, concerning the thrilling missional issues which are happening within the Anglican world for the dominion of Jesus, and about my hope for the long run—that the cross of Jesus could be magnified in my custom.