Why I Became Episcopalian

After spending the first twenty years of my life as a Southern Baptist, and the next seven years of my life questioning and exploring my faith, I finally made the decision to become Episcopalian. I will, however, always have so much gratitude and love for the Baptists that raised me and for the Disciples of Christ who first called me to minister to their youth. These traditions will always be a part of me.

Just a few days ago, I went with my new church, stood before the bishop, and listened to him pray for me before the congregation, with my husband watching and my new friends' hands upon my shoulders in prayer.

"Defend, O Lord, your servant Hillary, with your heavenly grace, that she may continue yours for ever, and daily increase in your Holy Spirit more and more, until she comes to your everlasting kingdom. Amen."

photo credit: Tom Kimsey

Rachel Held Evans, in recent blog posts and her latest book Searching for Sunday, has written much more eloquently than I plan to about the draw of liturgical worship for millennials, particularly former fundamentalists like myself. So, less eloquently and more for my friends and family, I'll offer my own reasons for making the change.

1. Right Place, Right Time, Right People

First and foremost, I became Episcopal because I fell in love with a specific Episcopal community. When Tom and I moved to Bremerton, we were searching for a progressive church. Too often, people only associate Christianity with Republicanism, with homophobia, anti-intellectualism, patriarchy, and literal interpretations of holy texts. During my seven years of searching, I learned that not every church espouses these things. I read Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, Phyllis Tickle and other Emergent voices. I discovered progressive Christianity existed. And when my husband and I ended up in Washington, and I googled progressive churches near our zipcode, St. Paul's Episcopal came up. I emailed the priest (a woman!), and eventually, I visited. I fell in love. People welcomed me, remembered my name, asked me to sit with them. The people of my parish drew me just as much as anything else.

2. Beautiful Liturgy/Biblical Focus

There is such beauty and rich symbolism in liturgical worship. Everything done in worship is done for a reason. The Gospel is brought from the altar and read among the people to symbolize the Incarnation, the coming of Jesus on Earth, for example. On Maundy Thursday, the altar is stripped and we wash each other's feet. The elements for communion are brought forward by the people. Every action is deeply symbolic. Music is beautiful, but the musicians are not the star. Th altar is at the center of the sanctuary. The pulpit is off to the side, the choir off to the side or behind. Performing for the congregation is not the focus for worship leaders. 

In most Episcopal churches, there will be three scripture readings. In our church, we usually have four! One from the Old Testament, one from the epistles, one from the Gospels, and then we sing a refrain as a Psalm is read. Episcopals may not read the Bible literally or memorize as many verses as I did as a Baptist, but that does not mean there is not great respect and focus given to the scriptures. Thanks to the lectionary, over a period of 3 years, nearly every passage in the Bible is read aloud in church, and in my particular church, each passage is introduced with context. 

Prayers are often said together, following the book of common prayer. I love this because I have been to many evangelical churches where praying before the church was a chance to show off one's piety. When I prayed at my old church, I felt pressure to pray  eloquently but not to write it down, because that was too practiced. By praying in unison, there is the element of unity, the rich history and commonality of the words, and also, many less appearances of the word "just." ;-) 

In liturgical traditions, God is the audience, not the congregation. We gather to experience God's grace and thank God for good gifts and good people. The sermon is not the pivotal moment, though it often wonderfully rendered--communion is the climactic point. People do not gather to be entertained; they gather to love each other and to love God.

3. Worship Engages the Senses and the Body

There is such an attention to beauty, to aesthetics, to the senses. In one service, every sense could be engaged! Incense, bells, beautiful worship space, wine and bread. Even the body has a role-- kneeling, embracing each other during the peace, making the sign of the cross, bowing at times... the body is not ignored, and neither is the mind.

So many of my friends and family might be surprised to see me make the sign of the cross after so many years as a Baptist! But while my upbringing taught me many wonderful practices, prayer practices that involved the body in something other than stillness were hard to come by. I love to pray with my prayer beads, to feel them and internalize the words. People make the sign of the cross on their foreheads, lips, and chest as the Gospel is read, in hopes that the words will live in their minds, on their lips, in their hearts. People cross themselves to bodily remind themselves of the cross, to remind themselves of the Trinity, to ask for God's presence in their heads, hearts, and bodies...one small gesture has such a rich meaning and history behind it. 

4. Mystery is Celebrated

My church is full of ritual and pageantry, but there is not a pretentiousness to them. The Episcopal church harkens back to Celtic Christian traditions, where doubt and mystery are not things to be avoided, but things to honor. In my upbringing as a Baptist, I associated doubt and questions with weak faith. These were problems to be solved, and quick, before anyone saw! I felt such pressure to always seem confident, to always have an answer. 

Mystery in the Scriptures is also a reality. There is more openness in approaching the Bible here than I experienced as an evangelical, when I was taught that the Bible was literally true, that it could serve as a history and science textbook. My church does not read the Bible literally, but we do read it often, with curiosity, and with respect. I have written blogs and essays in the past about how my tendency to question got me in trouble as a child in Sunday school; questions are urged in my new church.I truly feel like I am a part of the priesthood of believers, that my interpretations are valued as much as anyone else's. 

5. Open and Affirming

My church is open and affirming. People of alternate gender identities and sexualities are not only welcomed, they are prominent in leadership! Same sex couples can be married, and LGBTQ people are loved and respected not in spite of who they are, but because of who they are. There is no "hate the sin, love the sinner" mentality here because generally, there is such humility. People don't deign to label each other's actions or identities as sinful because there is such respect for individual experience. And it does not hurt that most people here do not believe that homosexual or alternate gender identities are sinful. God created us in God's image, and God declared us good, and with God's help, good we remain.

6. Less Patriarchy!

So, as a seminary student discerning her own calling, this was huge! My priest is a woman, a strong, kind, brave woman. The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church is a woman! Women serve as deacons, as Eucharistic ministers, in leadership on the Vestry-- we are not asked to stick to working with kids or listening to men! If I discern a calling as a priest or deacon, my new denomination is decades ahead of my old one in respecting women in ministry.

Not only this, but God is viewed in a much more gender-neutral way. Certainly there is still male-language for God, especially in some of the oldest practices, like reciting the Nicene creed. But in sermons and even day to day conversation, God is not spoken of as male, with male pronouns. If male pronouns are used, don't be surprised to hear female ones also! 

7. More Trinity!

Episcopalian worship is much more Trinitarian than what I have been used to. Hymns, prayers, practices... so much what we do and say and sing in worship represents, invokes, or teaches us about the Trinity. This is so important to me because I believe in a relational God, in a Trinitarian God focused on relationship and community and balance. 

8. Less Show, More Meaning

After my teenage years, I became uncomfortable with worship services that felt like concerts or one-man shows. Certainly there is beauty in these services, but they just weren't quite right for me. I did not come to church for entertainment, but for worship and community. I did not need a smoke machine or a preacher in jeans to get this-- I needed scripture, communion, loving community, honesty, prayer practices. 

9. Historical Connections

The Episcopal church's history, like the Baptist church's, is deeply rooted in the American Revolution. Episcopalianism is the American strain of Anglicanism, developed when Americans breaking away from England wanted to continue to worship in the tradition of the Church of England. I enjoy the historical aspects.

I also enjoy the connection to Celtic spirituality as well. The first Episcopals had to look to Scotland for their first bishops because we weren't getting along with England, and Scotland was more than happy to stick it to the English and help the Americans out. As such, we tend to be more Celtic than British in our practices and beliefs. Because of my Irish heritage and my own Celtic style of spirituality, I love this as well.

10. Don't Forget Robin Williams!

I could go on and on, and perhaps I will add to this list as I go, but I'll leave you all with Robin William's list. Williams was a favorite actor and person of mine, and I am still saddened by his death. But Robin Williams was an Episcopalian, and he wrote some funny (and of course, true) reasons why one might want to become Episcopal. ;-)

10. No snake handling.
9. You can believe in dinosaurs.
8. Male and female God created them; male and female we ordain them.
7. You don't have to check your brains at the door.
6. Pew aerobics.
5. Church year is color-coded.
4. Free wine on Sunday.
3. All of the pageantry - none of the guilt.
2. You don't have to know how to swim to get baptized.

And the Number One reason to be an Episcopalian:1. No matter what you believe, there's bound to be at least one other Episcopalian who agrees with you.