which the Episcopal Church derives, dates to at least the

2nd century, when merchants and other travelers first

brought Christianity to England. It is customary to regard

St. Augustine of Canterbury's mission to England in 597 as

marking the formal beginning of the church under papal

authority, as it was to be throughout the Middle Ages.

In its modern form, the church dates from the English

Reformation of the 16th century, when royal supremacy was

established and the authority of the papacy was repudiated.

With the advent of British colonization, the Church of

England was established on every continent. In time, these

churches gained their independence, but retained

connections with the mother church in the Anglican

Communion.

Church of England followed explorers, traders, colonists,

and missionaries into the far reaches of the known world.

The colonial churches generally exercised administrative

autonomy within the historical and creedal context of the

mother church.

As the successor of the Anglo-Saxon and medieval English

Church, it has valued and preserved much of the traditional

framework of medieval Catholicism in church government,

liturgy, and customs, while it also has usually held the

fundamentals of Reformation faith.

Saxons, who began invading Britain after Rome stopped

governing the country in the 5th century, was undertaken by

St. Augustine, a monk in Rome chosen by Pope Gregory I to

lead a mission to the Anglo-Saxons. He arrived in 597, and

within 90 years, all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England

had gradually accepted Christianity.

In the 11th century, the Norman conquest of England (1066)

united England more closely with the culture of Latin

Europe. The English Church was reformed according to Roman

ideas: local synods were revived, celibacy of the clergy

was required, and the canon law of Western Europe was

introduced into England.

The English Church shared in the religious unrest

characteristic of the latter Middle Ages. John Wycliffe,

the 14th century reformer and theologian, became a

revolutionary critic of the papacy and is considered a

major influence on the 16th century Protestant Reformation.

The break with the Roman papacy and the establishment of an

independent Church of England came during the reign of

Henry VIII of England (1509-47). When Pope Clement VIII

refused to approve the annulment of Henry's marriage to

Catherine of Aragon, the English Parliament, at Henry's

insistence, passed a series of acts that separated the

English Church from the Roman hierarchy, and, in 1534, made

the English monarch the head of the English Church. The

monasteries were suppressed, but few other changes were

immediately made, since Henry intended that the English

Church would remain Catholic, though separated from Rome.

After Henry's death, Protestant reforms of the Church were

introduced during the six-year reign of Edward VI. In 1553,

however, when Edward's half-sister, Mary, a Roman Catholic,

succeeded to the throne, her repression and persecution of

Protestants caused sympathy for their cause.

When Elizabeth I, Henry's daughter, became queen in 1558,

an independent Church of England was reestablished. The

Book of Common Prayer (1549, final revision 1662) and the

Thirty-Nine Articles (1571) became the standard for liturgy

and doctrine.

the 18th century tended to emphasize the Protestant

heritage of the Church, while the Oxford Movement in the

19th century emphasized the Catholic heritage. These two

attitudes have persisted in the Church, and are sometimes

characterized as "Low Church" and "High Church." Since the

19th century, the Church has been active in the Ecumenical

Movement.

maintained the episcopal form of government. It is divided

into two provinces, Canterbury and York, each headed by an

Archbishop, with Canterbury taking precedence over York.

Provinces are divided into dioceses, each headed by a

Bishop and made up of several parishes.

The Church of England is identified by adherence to the

threefold ministry of bishops, priests, and deacons, and by

a common form of worship found in the Book of Common

Prayer. The Church also is characterized by a common

loyalty to Christian tradition, while seeking to

accommodate a wide range of people and views. It holds in

tension the authorities of tradition, reason, and the

Bible, but asserts the primacy of the Bible. It thus seeks

to combine Catholic, humanist, and reformed elements,

historically represented by Anglo-Catholics (high church),

Liberals (broad church), and Evangelicals (low church).

first meeting of the Lambeth Conference in 1867 that there

emerged among the various churches and councils a mutual

consciousness of Anglicanism. Although its decisions do not

bind the autonomous churches of the Anglican Communion, the

Lambeth Conference has constituted the principal cohesive

factor in Anglicanism. While population differences and

other factors account for some variation in the basic

structure among the churches, several elements do

predominate. The diocese, under the leadership of a bishop,

is the basic administrative unit throughout the communion.

The diocese is a group of church communities (parishes)

under the care of a pastor. In many of the national

churches, several dioceses will be grouped together into

provinces. In some, parishes may be grouped within a

diocese into deaneries (rural) and archdeaneries (urban).

American Church History

American continent began to spread steadily following the

first recorded celebration of Holy Communion in New World

in 1607 in Jamestown, Virginia. This conformed to the

typical colonial expansion pattern of the English Church in

other parts of the world at the time.

During the American Revolution, northern clergy tried to

maintain ties with the English Society for the Propagation

of the Gospel (SPG) and to support England, while those in

the South tended to be more sympathetic to the Revolution.

The "American Revolution left the Anglican parishes

shattered, stripped of most of their financial support,

weakened by the flight of many clergy and thousands of

members, with a number of buildings destroyed and property

lost," wrote Powell Mills Dawley in "Our Christian

Heritage."

After the war, SPG support was cut off, and public support

of churches was withdrawn because of newly-accepted

principle of separation of church and state.

need to (1) draft a binding constitution for the whole

church; (2) revise the English Book of Common Prayer (BCP)

to make it appropriate for use in the American church; and

(3) obtain consecration of bishops in Apostolic Succession

to give the American Church proper episcopal oversight and

ministry.

However, church leaders were split on the position that

organization of the American Church could proceed without

bishops in Apostolic Succession.

Charles Inglis of New York left for England to seek

ordination and later returned as the first Bishop of Nova

Scotia. Many New England Episcopalians agreed with Inglis'

approach to the argument, but southerners balked.

On March 25, 1783, ten Connecticut clergy elected Samuel

Seabury as their bishop. Seabury traveled to England, but

English canon law prevented the consecration of any

clergyman who would not take the Oath of Allegiance to the

English Crown. Seabury then sought consecration in the

Scottish Episcopal Church, where he was ordained on Nov.

14, 1784 in Aberdeen. Thus, Seabury became the first bishop

of the American Episcopal Church.

By 1786, English churchmen had helped change the law so the

Church of England could offer episcopal consecration to

those churches outside England.

On Feb. 4, 1787, the Archbishop of Canterbury and three

other English bishops consecrated William White as Bishop

of Pennsylvania and Samuel Provoost as Bishop of New York.

Soon after, James Madison was consecrated in England as the

Bishop of Virginia and President of The College of William

and Mary in Williamsburg.

When Seabury, White, Provoost and Madison joined to

consecrate Thomas Claggett in Trinity Church in New York in

1790, the episcopate in the American Church could declare

its independence from Great Britain.

An assembly of the American Church met in Philadelphia in

1789 to unify all Episcopalians in the United States into a

single national church. A constitution was adopted along

with a set of canon laws. The English Book of Common Prayer

(BCP) was revised (principally in removing the prayer for

the English monarch). This first American BCP was based

mostly on the English BCP of 1662. Its consecration prayer

was based on the Scottish BCP of 1764.

The new constitution provided for annual diocesan

conventions with the bishop of the diocese as presiding

officer. A national General Convention was established,

composed of two legislative houses, modeled after the

United States Congress. A system of checks and balances

similar to that of the new federal system was incorporated

into the Church's constitution.

As the United States began its westward expansion, the

church followed. Missionary bishops went into the new

territories to minister to the far-flung and sparsely

populated western parishes and congregations.

Union in 1860, she was followed by ten more southern

states. In 1861, the Protestant Episcopal Church in the

Confederate States of America was established, in every way

the same as before except for its name change and its

loyalty to the Confederacy. But the northern church

declined to recognize any separation. Throughout the war,

churchmen on both sides maintained their old friendships

and bonds of Christian union with each other, according to

Dawley.

Seven months after the fall of Richmond in 1865, the

Confederate group quietly disbanded following the national

convention which had been held a scant month before.

added to, but not substantially changed a basic polity in

which a democratic, lay-dominated parish structure exists

in tension with an episcopally-dominated central governance

structure. Each self-supporting congregation (parish)

elects its lay governing board (vestry) for temporal

affairs and its rector as spiritual leader. Congregations

that are not self-supporting (missions) are directed by the

bishop of the area. In a given area, the parishes and

missions make up a diocese, headed by a bishop. All clergy

and lay representation from all congregations meet annually

in convention to conduct the business of the diocese. The

convention elects the bishop to serve until death or

retirement.

in the United States meet triennially in General

Convention. All bishops are members of the House of

Bishops, and the House of Deputies is made up of equal

numbers of clergy and laity. The Executive Council, the

administrative agency of the General Convention, is headed

by the Presiding Bishop (PB) (elected by the House of

Bishops and confirmed by the House of Deputies). The PB

also presides over the House of Bishops. Decisions at

General Convention are made by joint-concurrence of the

House of Deputies and the House of Bishops.

organized into nine provinces, each governed by a synod

consisting of a House of Bishops and a House of Deputies.

The Episcopal Church is a part of the Anglican Communion.

ignore increasing pressure from women to demand ordination

as Deacons and Priests in the Church. The General

Convention of 1970 allowed women ordination to the

diaconate.

In 1974, eleven women presented themselves for ordination

to the Priesthood in Philadelphia. The House of Bishops

declared the ordinations invalid, saying that the 11 women

remained Deacons.

After 1976, the eleven ordinations were regularized when

the General Convention allowed women to be eligible for

ordination to both the priesthood and the episcopate.

Barbara Harris, the first woman bishop in the Anglican

Communion, was elected as Bishop Suffragan of Massachusetts

on Feb. 11, 1989.

A completely revised Book of Common Prayer was adopted in

1979, and an updated Hymnal was adopted in 1982.

© 1999 Diocese of Oregon. All rights reserved.

Timeline

1517: Martin Luther publishes 95 Theses, sparking the

Protestant Reformation.

1521: Pope designates Henry VIII "Defender of the Faith."

English monarchs to this day retain the title.

1529-36: Henry VIII and Parliament take over the

administration of the Church in England. Destruction of

monasteries.

1547: Henry dies. Succeeded by Edward VI, with Edward's

uncle as Lord Protector.

1549: First Book of Common Prayer. Thomas Cranmer is

principal author.

1552: Second Book of Common Prayer.

1553: Edward VI dies, age 16. Mary becomes Queen, restores

Roman Catholicism, burns Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley at the

stake. Marries Philip II, Roman Catholic monarch of Spain.

1558: Elizabeth I becomes Queen upon Mary's death. Reestablishes

the Church of England, with the English monarch

as its highest earthly authority.

1559: Third Book of Common Prayer. Puritans protest.

1563: Thirty-nine Articles prepared; approved by

Parliament in 1571.

1579: First English-language Communion service held in

Western Hemisphere (California) by Sir Francis Drake's

chaplain.

1603: Elizabeth I dies, age 70; James I of Scotland

becomes king. Authorizes a new translation of the Bible.

1607: First permanent English-speaking settlement in the

New World at Jamestown, Virginia. Church of England

established in Virginia, then in some other mid-Atlantic

and southern colonies.

1611: King James Version of the Bible.

1620: Pilgrims—Puritan religious refugees—land at Plymouth

Rock.

1636: Harvard College founded to train Congregational

(Puritan) clergy.

1645: Prayer Book outlawed by Puritan-controlled

Parliament.

1649: King Charles I executed in revolution led by Puritan

leader Oliver Cromwell, who became Lord Protector in 1653.

1658: Oliver Cromwell dies; succeeded by son Richard.

1660: Richard Cromwell overthrown; Charles II becomes

king.

1662: Fourth Book of Common Prayer, still in use by the

Church of England.

1693: College of William & Mary (Williamsburg, Virginia)

started by Church of England.

1699: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK)

founded.

1701: Yale College founded to educate Congregational

clergy.

1701: Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign

Parts (SPG) founded.

1607-1785: Church of England in New World overseen by

Bishop of London. Vestry system develops. Clergy paid from

taxes. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson serve on

vestries.

1776: Declaration of Independence. Most Anglican clergy,

who have sworn loyalty to the King in their ordinations,

stay loyal.

1783: Treaty of Versailles ends Revolutionary War.

1784: Samuel Seabury of Connecticut consecrated first

overseas Anglican Bishop by Scottish non-juring bishops,

after being elected in Connecticut and rejected by Church

of England bishops who legally could not ordain him.

Seabury promised to use the Scottish 1764 Communion

service, based on the Eastern Orthodox service.

1785: First General Convention of Episcopal Church, with

clergy and lay representatives from Delaware, New York, New

Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Virginia.

Authorizes preparation of an American Prayer Book and names

itself the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States

of America (PECUSA).

1786: Proposed American Book of Common Prayer approved for

use on a state-by-state basis.

1789: Samuel Provoost of New York and William White of

Philadelphia consecrated bishops by Church of England.

Seabury's Scottish consecration helped motivate Parliament

and Church of England to do this. Both continue to be

rectors. Second General Convention adopts basically the

present Episcopal Church structure. Revised BCP prepared by

White adopted, based on 1662 Book except 1764 Scottish

Communion Service.

1804: Absalom Jones ordained first black priest in the

Episcopal Church.

Early 1800s: Bishop Provoost of NY secures for NY a fair

share of inheritance left by Queen Anne (d. 1714).

Methodism gains strength in England and US.

1817: General Convention authorizes founding of General

Theological Seminary in New York City.

1823: Diocese of Virginia establishes second Episcopal

seminary, Virginia Theological Seminary, in Alexandria.

1839: Diocese of VA establishes first high school in

Virginia, Episcopal High School (adjacent to VTS).

1833: Oxford Movement (Anglo-Catholic) begins in England.

In the following decades, many new Religious Orders (i.e.

monastic communities) were formed.

1861-65: American Civil War. Southern Episcopal dioceses

join Protestant Episcopal Church of the Confederate States

of America, but are welcomed back after war ends. Other

denominations experience long term (100+ years) splits.

1873: Evangelical, “low church”-oriented Reformed Episcopal

Church founded.

1885: House of Bishops adopts Chicago Quadrilateral.

General Convention approves Quadrilateral in 1886.

1888: Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops adopts

Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral.

1892: Minor revisions to BCP.

1919: National Council (now Executive Council) established

by General Convention. Office of the Presiding Bishop

established to oversee national church programs.

1928: Revised Book of Common Prayer includes language

updates and new translation of Psalms. "Love, honor, and

obey" dropped from the bride's vows in the service of Holy

Matrimony.

1940: New Hymnal.

1944: Henry St. George Tucker becomes church’s first fulltime

Presiding Bishop.

1961: John Hines of Texas elected Presiding Bishop. Strong

social justice commitments elicit negative reaction from

conservatives.

1970: First authorized women members of House of Deputies.

1973: John Allin of Mississippi elected Presiding Bishop

for 12 year term.

1974: First eleven women ordained to priesthood in

'irregular" service in Philadelphia.

1976: General Convention approves ordination of women,

"regularizes" 1974-75 ordinations. First reading on new

Prayer Book.

1979: Second reading approves new (present) Prayer Book.

1982: New Hymnal.

1985: Edmond Browning of Hawaii elected Presiding Bishop

for12 year term.

1989: Barbara Harris consecrated first woman bishop in

Anglican Communion.

1995: $2.2-million embezzlement by church’s treasurer,

Ellen Cooke, uncovered. She is subsequently imprisoned.

1997: Frank Griswold of Chicago elected Presiding Bishop

for 9-year term.

2000: General Convention approves "20/20," a vision of an

re-invigorated, mission-oriented Episcopal Church doubling

average Sunday attendance by the year 2020. Convention also

approves "Called to Common Mission," revised version of

Lutheran Concordat, establishing full communion between

ELCA and ECUSA effective January 1, 2001.

2003: General Convention approves the Diocese of New

Hampshire's election of the Rev. Canon Gene Robinson, an

openly-gay priest in a long-term committed relationship, as

Bishop Coadjutor.