It is essentially Catholic w/o the Pope and Mary worship
What? No Hail Marys? What if I like my relationship with Mary? Would I have to give that up? I don't know if I could do that.
Robyn
Are There Any Episcopalians Out There?
by Robdar 26 Replies latest jw friends
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Robdar
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PurpleV
Would I have to give that up?
You don't have to give ANYTHING up. Remember the "1/3 your own conscience and beliefs" part. Episcopalians make NO effort to control you, what you believe, what you do, your behavior, nothing. You can join even if you don't agree with all the church's doctrines. You can attend all you want without joining. There are no spies: "OMG we saw her doing Mary stuff! Tell the Vicar!!" Of course, you'll get some glares if you fart loudly or your cell phone goes off during the sermon, but that's about it. {big grin... my icons don't work}
Oh and yes, it's open communion. It's printed in my program "all baptized Christians are welcome to partake..." but nobody's gonna body block you at the altar rail and demand to know if you're baptized or not.
Oh, and beware the coffee at the coffee hour. You're safer with the punch. {hee hee}. The homemade cookies are great however, and bring your wallet for the Great Sunday School Bake Sale. You'll not get better at any bakery.
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Francois
I dated a woman once who was an Episcopalian. I went with her to services quite a bit. In general I liked it very much. I viewed it as a social exercise. As for its worship content, I don't think all that formuliac "now stand, now kneel, now the priest says something, now the congregation responds, now stand, now throw a pack of M&M's toward the sanctuary, now fart three times toward Mecca, now we'll sing song number 423. You'll find your books on the backs of your seats," MEANS anything. It's a SOCIALIZATION of religion. A bunch of people who have similiar beliefs get together and say "Yeah, we believe similiar things. We got no truck with the Pope, nor Mary, nor these other things. But we like this other stuff. So let's get together and make a club, erm, church." And they do.
I like the social outreach stuff. And I really, Really, REALLY like that communion wine they use. I don't know what it is, but I can tell you right NOW, it's THE GOOD STUFF. And it's the good stuff every sunday, too. One good slurp of that stuff and you need help finding your seat, I'll tell you that. NO not THAT seat, the wooden one where you'd been parking your ass.
If you get a particularly liberal church it's usually lots of fun. I like those small parish churches built out of 300 year old bricks with ivy all over the place and the songs are sung accompanied by a long hair playing the tune on a 12-string acoustic. I don't like the concrete, steel, and glass edifice with the 3,000 pipe pipe organ. Too pretentious. This religion was started by a simple carpenter, remember? I like to keep it simple. Just gimmee a big slurp of that communion wine and all is right with the world.
I think you ought to drop your JW inspired lack of trust and go a time or two. Then tell us all about it.
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Robdar
You don't have to give ANYTHING up. Remember the "1/3 your own conscience and beliefs" part. Episcopalians make NO effort to control you, what you believe, what you do, your behavior, nothing. You can join even if you don't agree with all the church's doctrines
Purple,
That concept blows my mind. Sunday should be interesting.
Robyn
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Robdar
I think you ought to drop your JW inspired lack of trust and go a time or two. Then tell us all about it.
Francois,
I think I will do just that. Thank you for the good advice and the humorous post.
Robyn
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Undecided
I had a friend who went to that church and he gave them his old computer. I had to install a new hard drive and operating system and set it up for their needs. The preacher was a down to earth guy. I was trying to remember something and couldn't, and he said you got CRS too? (Can't Remember Shit) I laughed with him. My friend died and I went to the funeral, there was a lot of ritual, like the CC. Not for me, but you might like it. I don't think I will ever be a part of a religious group again.
Ken P.
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Athanasius
Hi Robdar,
I am an Episcopalian and it is good to see that you are going to give the Episcopal Church a try. However, there can be significant differences between each parish. Some are Anglo-Catholic, where the Mass is sung and incense is used. If your friend is taking you to an Anglo-Catholic service you will find it very similar to the Roman Catholic Mass. If you attend a Charismatic church, they will follow the service as outlined in the Book Of Common Prayer, but some of the parishoners may act like Pentecostals. There are also traditional parishes that use the old 1928 Prayer Book. The beauty of our church is the variety.
The parish that I attend uses the New Zealand Prayer Book in the service. It is slightly different than the American version of the Book of Common Prayer. Though I am Anglo-Catholic, I do enjoy the folk Mass that we have on ocasion. It may be somewhat Charismatic, but its nice to experience change now and then.
Enjoy the experience, Robdar.
Sincerely,
Athanasius
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barry
I think Aussiepost is an episcopalian and I havent seen him commenting here he might soon. When I was a school student a long time ago I used to go to Anglican scripture they allways started with the Apostals creed sthe eastern churches dont have the Apostals creed just the nicean creed and the creed of Athanasius. Over here we call them Anglicans or the church of england.Barry
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Robdar
Athan,
Charismatic Episcopalians? Wow, that sounds like a party. Thanks for you comments.
Barry,
I found the Apostle's Creed to be interesting. It is listed on the site that JGnat provided. Thanks for your response. I may look you up on chat tomorrow night to discuss it further.
Robyn
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ozziepost
OK, Ozzie's here!
Yes, Ozzie and Mrs Ozzie attend the local equivalent of Episcopalian churches here in Oz. So do some other former exDubs. You'd have known that if you'd seen the "Silent Witnesses" program!!
I must hasten to add that we are primarily Christian in belief and choose to attend an Episcopalian church. Further we should emphasise that in the worldwide Anglican Communion, as it's termed, there's a wide variety of opinions and belief, whilst holding to some fixed theological beliefs. So the churches in New South Wales are renowned for their Bible orthodoxy, i.e. evangelical in nature. This sits very well with those of us who attend there who were once Dubs. Frankly, it's what we prefer....actually, we love it! Bible based teaching and a congregation of humble, faithful folk. What else do we need?
There are also some churches in the Anglican Communion which are Anglo-Catholic, which are more of the Catholic form of ritual. Then there are the Liberals, who are, well, liberal! Western Australia has many liberals, and the current Australian Primate is a liberal. I hasten to add that the Archbishop of Sydney, a renowned Bible scholar, is an evangelical.
I agree also with Mum's comment: " Most Episcopalians are well-educated, open-minded and have no axes to grind or any need to feel that they are the "true" church -- most refreshing."
Also jgnat offered a good recommendation: "One of the big differences between Christendom's Churches and the FDS, is that you do not have to sign your life away to these people. Pick and choose. Come and go. Revel in your freedom. You will be accepted either way."
So, Robdar, my advice is "Taste and see!" and enjoy.
Cheers, Ozzie