Resources
Helping our members grow closer to God and grow deeper in faith is essential to us at Grace Church. Below are digital resources for prayer and creating spiritual disciplines for yourself or your family. Since so many of our members are new to The Episcopal Church, we hope the F.A.Q. answers many of your questions. Our clergy are always eager to help you learn more. You can also click on AskCATHY, our virtual guide to The Episcopal Church, who can answer many of your questions – from liturgy, to church history, to theology, and more. CATHY stands for “Church Answers That Help You.”
Information about renting space at Grace Church and some of our outside groups - like Cub Scouts and AA are below.
Episcopal FAQ
The Episcopal Church (TEC) is the United States-based member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. TEC describes itself as "Protestant, yet Catholic". It is an apostolic church, tracing its bishops back to the apostles via holy orders. The Book of Common Prayer (BCP), a collection of traditional rites, blessings, liturgies, and prayers used throughout the Anglican Communion, is central to Episcopal worship. Grace Church is part of the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma, which includes all Episcopal congregations in the state of Oklahoma. Our diocese includes approximately 25,000 Episcopalians; 70 congregations; and 150 resident clergy.
In short, nothing. The Episcopal Church is the Anglican Church in America. When the Church of England spread throughout the British Empire (through the 18-20th centuries), sister churches sprang up in various countries. These churches, while today autonomous in their governance, are bound together by tradition, Scripture, and the spiritual inheritance they have received from the Church of England. They together make up the Anglican Communion, a Christian body headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and having some 80 million members, making it the second largest Christian body in the Western world.
The liturgy is the order of service that we follow when we worship. The term "liturgy" literally means "the work of the people." In liturgy, everyone participates and contributes to the worship together. Liturgical churches (Episcopalians, Lutherans, Roman Catholics, Orthodox) use prayers and an order of the service very similar to that of the early church. All liturgical churches will have similar parts: opening prayers (called collects), scripture reading, sermon, prayers of the people, confession and communion. Together these prayers and scripture readings are referred to as the liturgy.
Liturgy is the flow and rhythm of prayer that characterizes our worship. The larger flow and rhythm that goes on throughout the year is known as the Liturgical Calendar. The Liturgical Calendar centers on two main events: Christmas and Easter (celebrating Christ's birth and resurrection). Following the Liturgical year is part of the tradition of the church – it roots us with generations of Christians who have gone before us. The liturgical year also makes sure we hit the most important points of Jesus' life every year and gives us a structure that encourages us to pray and center ourselves on Christ.
At various times in the liturgy you will see members of the congregation cross themselves and do things with their hands. Gestures and bows are ways of embodying prayer. Prayer is about more than words on our lips or in our hearts, but about our posture toward God. All gestures are meant to enhance your prayer life and your engagement with the liturgy. They shouldn't be seen as rules or getting it wrong if you fail to do it. That's far too much pressure. Rather they are practices. You might try one out and see if it is meaningful to you.
The short answer is that Episcopalians take the Bible very seriously – which is not the same thing as taking it literally. We take seriously both the text of what we read and the context in which those words were written and subsequently received. It is not enough to read a verse of Scripture on its own, divorced from its setting in the larger passage. This approach has been used too much to defend deplorable acts – like slavery, racism, even the crusades. We need to be careful not to pluck out a passage to support our own bias or to react against such an approach and dismiss all of Scripture as irrelevant. We balance Scripture with Tradition and Reason, to see what others have said on a verse in the past, and what God is seeking to express to us today.
The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) is a collection of traditional rites, blessings, liturgies, and prayers. About 70% of the BCP is taken directly from Scripture including the Psalms and passages found in the prayers and quotations. It contains orders for services such as Morning Prayer, Holy Communion, Baptism, Confirmation, Marriage, and more. A typical Sunday services is filled with readings from the Old and New Testaments, the Psalms, and Gospels. Additionally, in other services and devotions from the BCP you will find a similar percentage of the Bible laced into the liturgy. The Bible is and always will be the center of the faith – through it God continues to reveal his Holy Word. The Book of Common Prayer centers our prayer life in Scripture found in the Bible. It is a powerful spiritual resource and tool.
The Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) is a three-year cycle of weekly lections (readings) used by the vast majority of mainline Protestant churches in Canada and the United States. The RCL is built around the seasons of the Church Year, and includes four lections for each Sunday, as well as additional readings for major feast days. During most of the year, the lections are: a reading from the Hebrew Bible, a Psalm, a reading from the Epistles, and a Gospel reading.
In the creed each week we pray for the "holy catholic Church." There is often confusion on this because people wonder what "catholic" means here. Catholic, in the Greek, simply means universal or "according to the whole." So when we pray for the "catholic Church" we mean the whole Body of Christ throughout the world – or all Christians everywhere. People sometimes get confused that we are praying for the Roman Catholic Church, and since we are praying for the whole universal church, we are, but we are also praying for all Protestants and Orthodox and everything in between. Church with a big "C" means the whole church. Catholic with a little "c" means the universal church. And Catholic with a big "C" usually means the Roman Catholic Church.
The term "Eucharist" comes from the Greek word eucharisteo, meaning, "I rejoice" or "I give thanks." This term is used universally within the Christian Church, though many protestant traditions prefer to use the term Holy Communion. The two are used interchangeably at Grace Church. The Holy Eucharist is also sometimes called "The Great Thanksgiving" because of the Greek root word. The Eucharist is central in Sunday worship. People can differ in belief, but are united in practice. We share in the Eucharist together, we give thanks to God together for his blessings, and we receive his grace together in the sacrament.
Baptism is the first step into the life of Christ – at baptism one confesses Christ as Lord and makes promises about the kind of life they intend to live as a disciple of Jesus. Holy Communion presumes a commitment to Christ and the life of faith, because it is spiritual food for the Body of Christ. We celebrate Communion every week so that we receive the presence of Christ in the bread and the wine regularly. This allows the grace of God to work in us, transforming us and shaping us as disciples. If you are not baptized you are invited to come forward at the time of Communion and cross your arms over your chest; this signals the priest to offer you a blessing instead of the bread and wine (if you received once or twice before you knew about this order that is okay).
The Episcopal Church baptizes people of all ages. The book of Acts (16:15, 33) reports baptisms of entire households of people at one time. The earliest explicit reports of infant baptism occur in the 2nd Century (with adult sponsors, like our parents and Godparents today). St. Augustine was an early defender of infant baptism and it soon became a common practice in the Episcopal Church. Part of the significance is that a young Christian is brought up as a full "member" of the Church from the very beginning. Parents and Godparents make promises on the infant's behalf and pledge to raise them in the faith and to know Christ. Sometimes Episcopalians wait to baptize their children when they are older, which is the parent's prerogative. Youth and adults, who were not baptized as infants, may choose to be baptized to signify their intent to live a life of faith.
The Sacrament of Confirmation is an adult affirmation of faith. It affirms the faith one is baptized into as a child. Typically confirmation occurs anywhere from teenage years through adulthood. Adults may also be confirmed if they wish to make another affirmation of faith (we do not re-baptized in the Episcopal Church). Confirmation occurs in the Sunday liturgy when the Bishop is present. Similar to a baptism, the confirmands say the Baptismal Covenant (BCP pg. 304). The bishop then lays hands on the head of the individual and confirms them as a member of the Body of Christ and asks the Holy Spirit to empower and sustain them.
In the Episcopal Church, confirmation is a sacrament in which one expresses a mature commitment to Christ. Through the Rite, the confirmed is re-dedicating him or herself to their baptism (which may have been at infancy, childhood, or adulthood). Confirmation is preceded by some instruction in the faith and Anglican tradition. You know you are ready for confirmation if you feel the Holy Spirit at work in your life in a special way, bearing fruits of a mature and dedicated faith. The Sacrament is an opportunity to publicly affirm that work of the Spirit in you through the laying on of hands by the Bishop.
Since the early church there have been three orders of ministers – Bishops, Priests/Presbyters, and Deacons. Bishops serve as a pastoral authority over a region (a diocese, or a synod in other traditions) and represent the larger church. In the Episcopal Church, our bishops are elected and serve in an administrative role over the diocese and have pastoral oversight and support of the clergy of the diocese. An Episcopal bishop sets the vision for ministry in the diocese and helps support the congregations on the local level.
A Vicar is a title, like Sr. Pastor, for a priest who is serving at a mission congregation in the Episcopal Church. Mission congregations are smaller churches or new churches that are being developed (like Grace). The Vicar is placed by the Bishop to lead, pastor, and serve the congregation. Fr. Tim's official title is "Vicar" of Grace Church. As Grace continues to grow, we are close to becoming a full Parish congregation. At that point a priest is called by the congregation (rather than appointed by the bishop) to serve as the Rector of the church. Sometimes a Vicar is called to be the first rector. Rector and Vicar are both terms that come out of the Church of England and are used pretty exclusively by Episcopal Churches, as opposed to Sr. Pastor, like other protestant churches.
A black shirt and clerical collar are the uniform for clergy. Primarily you will see Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopal, and sometimes Methodist or Presbyterian clergy wearing them. The collars vary in style—some being a small tab and others a full white collar that goes all the way around. In the Episcopal Church deacons, priests, and bishops all typically wear them. It became the norm for clergy to wear collars and black shirts by the 1840's in England. Today they are simply a symbol of ministry in the church and a public sign of ordained ministry. They make priests easy to spot at the hospital, in times of crisis, or if you simply need someone safe to talk to. When worn in public, some people see them as a reminder of the sacred even in secular spaces.
