The Episcopal Church
“If it’s not about love, it’s not about God.”
– Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop
The Episcopal Church
The mission of the Episcopal Church is to restore all people to unity with God in Christ. In step with that mission, we follow Jesus into loving, liberating, and life-giving relationships with God, with each other, and with the earth.
We are part of The Episcopal Church, a family of churches spanning the United States and beyond. Regionally we are part of the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis and globally we are connected to the Anglican Communion. The Episcopal Church is a Christian denomination rooted in a diversity of beliefs and cultural expressions. Our faith life is forward-thinking and grounded in well-worn traditions of prayer and worship. With attention to beauty, justice, and community engagement, our expression of Christianity is expansive and inclusive.
Core themes in the Episcopal expression of Christianity
Common Prayer
Prayer is at the heart of what we do together as a community. As Episcopalians we follow The Book of Common Prayer, loved for its beautiful use of language and the guide for our communal and individual worship. A distillation of wisdom, it represents people wrestling with faith over the centuries and informs the rhythm of our Sunday worship. We experience God moving among us in rituals and practices that have resonated for centuries.
Hope
Central to our faith as Christians is the Paschal Mystery—the death and resurrection of Jesus. A symbol of profound hope and transformation, the resurrection of Jesus promises that God’s love is the last word, not violence, oppression, hatred, or death. Being baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus means we live in this hope now, in our time.
The Incarnation
As the Incarnation of God, Jesus embodies the clearest way that the divine came to meet us. God is here in our world and in the reality of our lives. We encounter God in our senses and in our tangible connection to others.
Inclusion
God’s expansive love is liberating and life-giving, and God’s desire for us is life-affirming purpose and relationships. Humans have placed false barriers to the fulfillment of God’s expansive love and the Episcopal Church has sought to rectify this separation from God’s desire, especially in the last fifty years. People of all genders and sexual orientations serve as clergy (bishops, priests, and deacons) and as lay leaders in our church. We are more loving, liberating, and life-giving because of it.
Scripture, Tradition, and Reason
For almost 2000 years, Christians have been seeking ways to follow Jesus’ teachings. As we continue this journey in our own time we rely on Scripture, tradition, and reason as important sources of truth to guide us in conversation and action. The Bible (Scripture) contains God’s sacred story, and we interpret it in continuity with those who have gone before us (tradition), in addition to our own grounded approach to life experiences (reason).
The Middle Way
The Episcopal Church has often referred to itself as the Via Media or Middle Way. This originally referred to our similarity with aspects of both the Roman Catholic and Protestant faith. With time the phrase has come to represent a cultural value about being people who believe in “both/and” as compared to “either/or.” We affirm that one tradition does not exclusively represent the divine while we engage deeply with Jesus’ teachings and way of life.
