Opinion of the Episcopal Church

[TDAS04]

Very favorable.  The Episcopal Church tends to be quite progressive and High Church.

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

Heretics. And even not that cool ones.

[they don't love you like i love you]

Liberal Protestant = favorable

[DC Al Fine]

I like Anglicanism as a whole, but the Episcopal Church just gives me too many reasons to dislike her.

[Mr. Smith]

Like Catholics rather than Calvinists, so FC

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Pretty strong FC overall, in spite of a few minor flaws.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Diet Catholic.

[TJ in Oregon]

Seems to range from basically Catholic except separated because of some disagreement 450 years ago that has no real relevance to the people alive today, to Shelby Spong, and anywhere in between.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

There's a shocking frivolity to a lot of its 'theology' and messaging, which is part of why I no longer really identify myself with it despite still technically being a member (along with the fact that it's not as good a cultural fit as I thought it was), but it's the repository in America of a distinguished and beautiful Christian tradition (there's always ACNA, but ACNA is just not for everyone, being demographically exclusionary in ways that go beyond just the obvious), and you can find a lot of great Episcopal parishes out there if you look.

[Simfan34]

Wishy-washy.

[they don't love you like i love you]

(along with the fact that it's not as good a cultural fit as I thought it was)

I'm not sure what you mean by this.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

(along with the fact that it's not as good a cultural fit as I thought it was)

I'm not sure what you mean by this.

I'm not really as WASPy as I acted during undergrad.

[they don't love you like i love you]

(along with the fact that it's not as good a cultural fit as I thought it was)

I'm not sure what you mean by this.

I'm not really as WASPy as I acted during undergrad.

That's still a thing today?

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

(along with the fact that it's not as good a cultural fit as I thought it was)

I'm not sure what you mean by this.

I'm not really as WASPy as I acted during undergrad.

That's still a thing today?

The Episcopal Church being WASPy? Yes, it is.

[Zioneer]

They don't seem to want to yell at Mormons just for being Mormons, and they seem pretty culturally progressive as far as I know, so FC.

[they don't love you like i love you]

(along with the fact that it's not as good a cultural fit as I thought it was)

I'm not sure what you mean by this.

I'm not really as WASPy as I acted during undergrad.

That's still a thing today?

The Episcopal Church being WASPy? Yes, it is.

I'm referring more to being "WASPy" even being a thing that matters. That seems like a 50s thing of no real relevance today where class is based on completely different things.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

(along with the fact that it's not as good a cultural fit as I thought it was)

I'm not sure what you mean by this.

I'm not really as WASPy as I acted during undergrad.

That's still a thing today?

The Episcopal Church being WASPy? Yes, it is.

I'm referring more to being "WASPy" even being a thing that matters. That seems like a 50s thing of no real relevance today where class is based on completely different things.

It's still of at least marginal relevance in New England, and I was sort of using 'WASPy' as shorthand for 'upper-crust in a really whitebread and preppy way' anyway.

[Mr. Smith]

Like Catholics rather than Calvinists, so FC HP

FTFY

...keep telling yourself that.

[DC Al Fine]

To elaborate, here are the reasons why I dislike the Episcopal Church:

1) Tolerance for blatant heretics and apostates. People like Bishop Spong should have been defrocked and excommunicated decades ago. I can deal with disagreements on more minor issues, but this sort of thing is non-negotiable.

2) Lawsuits against congregations attempting to leave the church.

3) They seem to be intent on abandoning the old BCP for weirder, newer stuff. I like the beauty of the old liturgy much better.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

To elaborate, here are the reasons why I dislike the Episcopal Church:

1) Tolerance for blatant heretics and apostates. People like Bishop Spong should have been defrocked and excommunicated decades ago. I can deal with disagreements on more minor issues, but this sort of thing is non-negotiable.

2) Lawsuits against congregations attempting to leave the church.

3) They seem to be intent on abandoning the old BCP for weirder, newer stuff. I like the beauty of the old liturgy much better.

I dislike all of these things as well. The third is probably the biggest issue for me in that it was the proximate precipitating factor for why I stopped considering myself Episcopalian--the church I'd been going to for most of the past year at that point up and stopped using the Nicene Creed in its liturgy one day, and adopted a Eucharistic Prayer that was not in the BCP and was not printed in the order of service leaflet.

[afleitch]

To elaborate, here are the reasons why I dislike the Episcopal Church:

1) Tolerance for blatant heretics and apostates. People like Bishop Spong should have been defrocked and excommunicated decades ago. I can deal with disagreements on more minor issues, but this sort of thing is non-negotiable.

2) Lawsuits against congregations attempting to leave the church.

3) They seem to be intent on abandoning the old BCP for weirder, newer stuff. I like the beauty of the old liturgy much better.

I dislike all of these things as well. The third is probably the biggest issue for me in that it was the proximate precipitating factor for why I stopped considering myself Episcopalian--the church I'd been going to for most of the past year at that point up and stopped using the Nicene Creed in its liturgy one day, and adopted a Eucharistic Prayer that was not in the BCP and was not printed in the order of service leaflet.

The horror!

In all seriousness, a congregation is traditionally entitled to determine it's own form of service is it not?  It wasn't the case that there was 'no Eucharistic prayer', there was just a different one. Nothing was ritually affected by that. Yet that was the catalyst for you throwing the Episcopalian Church under a bus...

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

To elaborate, here are the reasons why I dislike the Episcopal Church:

1) Tolerance for blatant heretics and apostates. People like Bishop Spong should have been defrocked and excommunicated decades ago. I can deal with disagreements on more minor issues, but this sort of thing is non-negotiable.

2) Lawsuits against congregations attempting to leave the church.

3) They seem to be intent on abandoning the old BCP for weirder, newer stuff. I like the beauty of the old liturgy much better.

I dislike all of these things as well. The third is probably the biggest issue for me in that it was the proximate precipitating factor for why I stopped considering myself Episcopalian--the church I'd been going to for most of the past year at that point up and stopped using the Nicene Creed in its liturgy one day, and adopted a Eucharistic Prayer that was not in the BCP and was not printed in the order of service leaflet.

The horror!

The problem was that it was impossible to follow along with. (Admittedly this is a problem with Catholic churches I've been to as well, along with many, many other honestly extremely disappointing mechanical and aesthetic problems.)

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The point of having the BCP is that all Episcopal parishes are ostensibly operating with the same corpus of material, even if it's employed in different precise combinations.

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Emphasis on 'catalyst', in that it was the last straw after years of increasing frustration and disaffectedness. 'Throwing it under the bus' is also something of an overstatement; I still go to Episcopal churches (ones other than the one I'm discussing) most of the time, if only for lack of anything obviously better.

In any case the omission of the Creed was a much more serious problem.

[afleitch]

I've always found the Creed as helpful as knowing that cows go moo. As a statement of faith for the faithful it's self evident. It doesn't really need repeating at a communal level.

[they don't love you like i love you]

I've always found the Creed as helpful as knowing that cows go moo. As a statement of faith for the faithful it's self evident. It doesn't really need repeating at a communal level.

Wow I agree such afleitch on something related to Christianity.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

It'd be kind of nice if that was the case. It'd really be kind of nice.

The point of saying the Creed communally, of saying or doing anything communally or collectively or en masse or by rote, is reaffirmation. Reminding oneself what one believes is useful both psychologically and symbolically, and doing this in concert with other people reinforces the sociocultural aspect of religion (which is half the point of being religious).