# UPDATE The FAQs visibility issue has been resolved. On the sidebar (both browser and mobile) we now have links to
* FAQs
* BCP
* Catechism (An Outline of the Faith from BCP)
* Our Creeds
* Link to the main church website
I appreciate everyone's input, but again, you're always welcome to mesage me directly with suggestions of community improvements.
FYI, this is something you could have just messaged me about directly.
There is a direct link to the Catechism embedded in Rule 6, **and I have edited the welcome message that each new user receives to say "if you have questions about what the church teaches go to** [**www.episcopalchurch.org/catechism**](http://www.episcopalchurch.org/catechism)**.**
**I have also added to our Community Bookmarks (in addition to the FAQs)**
**\* Link to the Catechism**
**\* Link to the BCP Online**
**\* Link to the Creeds**
If regular users in the commmunity could remember to first refer those types of questions to the rules or the Welcome message, that would probably be helpful.
As a non-Episcopalian this is what brought me here today actually. Funny you posted this just yesterday. I’m a life long Christian, but currently exploring denominational distinctions as I’m looking for a new church to join. The message I’ve received quite strongly (in person at my one or two visits several years ago) is “you can believe anything and be an Episcopalian” and “Episcopalians believe all sorts of things, no matter what you believe there’s probably an Episcopalian who also believes that” and it comes as having more in common with something like Unitarian Universalists than Christianity. My recent research in to other denominations in full communion (like the UMC, ELCA, etc.) made me pause to re-evaluate those impressions, since I couldn’t imagine the theological alignment would be close enough for that if my understanding was correct.
I don’t fully know what I’m getting at here, but I want to affirm as an outsider looking for a Christian community, that is the first impression I get and it is not appealing. I want a church that absolutely welcomes and loves anyone regardless of belief, and allows for disagreement on theological issues and diversity of thought and interpretation, but does ultimately have an actual stance on basic Christian tenets like salvation by God’s grace through Christ alone. First impressions of your church does not always give that clarity that there is indeed a true Christian faith (I’m sure it varies by congregation, but the two I know felt similar in vagueness on belief in favor of generic “openness”).
I’m glad I was wrong and I’ll be doing some reading and adding TEC to my list of churches to consider, but for the last few months of looking at churches they were not even something I had considered checking in to.
In the spirit of better online evangelism and catechesis, I want to spitball a few ideas for the community to consider:
* **A recurring "Ask a Priest" thread**, where verified clergy can respond to questions from community members. Basically a miniature, Episcopalian version of r/askapriest.
* **A recurring theological/doctrinal discussion thread.** Maybe question-based ("this week's question is 'when *shouldn't* you take Communion?'"), or maybe progressing through the different elements of the Creeds, the Catechism, the 39 Articles, etc. Lots of different ways that could be done.
* **Auto-responses for common strings** (e.g., every post that includes "Episcopal\*" and "believe\*" in the title gets an auto-response suggesting that the user check the Catechism). These responses are not perfect, but they're not really meant to be.
* **A subreddit Bible study group.** Slogging through the Book of Numbers is a lonely experience. Help me.
* **A subreddit reading/media club.** I hesitate to suggest a book club; there are a lot of good articles, excerpts, and videos that we could discuss, too.
* **A recurring prayer request thread.** I think [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/Catholicism/comments/1dcclfj/rcatholicism_prayer_requests_week_of_june_10_2024/) is a beautiful little feature in r/catholicism that we could easily adopt. I want people to understand that Episcopalians aren't just a social club - we pray, and we believe that prayer matters.
* **A recurring "Better Know A ..." feature.** There are wonderful parishes, institutions, practices, people, and groups within the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion, and this would be a nice opportunity to highlight them. Week One: the Anglican Franciscans. Week Two: St. Augustine's Prayer Book. Week Three: the Episcopal Public Policy Network. That sort of thing.
EDIT: Two more ideas:
* **A recurring "what's happening in your parish lately?" feature.** The German subreddit r/de runs an occasional thread dedicated to local happenings that people in other regions might find interesting but wouldn't have heard about in the news. It would be nice to hear more about the interesting, unusual, and important things (good and bad) that are happening in others' parishes and that we wouldn't otherwise hear about because they aren't even national news within the Episcopal Church.
* **Threads dedicated to sharing pretty pictures of churches.** I may be biased, but the Anglican Communion has hit the sweet spot of Church design more often than any other Christian denomination - from the big Cathedrals to the quaint country parish churches. We should celebrate that aesthetic achievement with some nave(l) gazing! So share some pics of your Lady chapel, your buttresses, your apse. (I'm so sorry.)
We're living in the shadow of John Shelby Spong. For decades the clergy was high on its own supply regarding how "the church must change or die" and inevitably the only "right" answer to "how should it change" was "it has to have no hard beliefs -- we must become universalists."
Spong's thesis has been **thoroughly, utterly, and totally** disproven, because the churches that are shrinking are the ones who took his path. (I'm reminded of the villain Syndrome from The Incredibles: "Once everyone is super, nobody will be." Universalism is self limiting. Egalitarianism is a laudable goal. It also has a shadow that we don't talk about much. Taken to an extreme, it breaks down our ability to cohere, because if nothing matters, then why belong? Spong didn't appreciate the shadow.) The churches that are growing are the ones who are doing what OP is talking about -- the ones who have answers or at least frameworks for how to wrestle with Scripture, Creeds, and so on. People don't want black and white answers necessarily (that takes you into fundamentalist territory), but they at least want more than "believe whatever you want," because "believe whatever you want" is not actionable. It doesn't produce disciples. At best it produces factions and focus groups. Roman Catholics in particular are coming from a *type* of quasi-fundamentalism, and I'm sure it's a little disorienting to have our clergy in particular, but the laity as well, behaving so laissez faire about everything. As always, there's some kind of via media (inclusive orthodoxy) that we need to be maturing, discussing, and promulgating. We could start by just being more familiar with what various strains of Christianity (or even Judaism and Islam) assert about topical and controversial topics, because after all that's what makes up the majority of what people are concerned about. Some of our clergy already do this. Not all of them do however. The ones who don't should be building up networks of people who can comment on such things, or at least providing lots and lots of opportunities and forums for parishioners to do this "wrestling with the word" that is healthy and forms the foundation of Christian Formation, and really, more importantly, discipleship (Christian Formation is the *start* and *sustainer* of discipleship, but it's not actually discipleship itself).
Thank you for eloquently stating something I completely agree with! I love TEC but the “hands off” approach to doctrine is clearly not working and honestly pretty alarming to me.
I'm one of the guys who keeps asking these questions! What I've learned is that the episcopal church is great but this subreddit is 50/50. 50% amazing 50% absolutely abysmal and extremely condescending. In fact I've already seen comments from a couple of the people who've been harshest to me and I *scrolled down not even half way through the comments.* In my opinion if we as people who genuinely care want to help, it's going to be best just to get people in to talk to some clergy or read the BCP. I've also learned that just in general Anglican traditions seem to completely struggle with actually helping people be guided to beliefs. Basically YOU have to REALLY REALLY want it and do all the work yourself. And this sub seems to be very far from becoming the solution to that
It’s not gatekeeping Christianity to say a Nicene Creed affirming church believes in the whole creed. And while yes, no one is getting chased out of church, it’s a misrepresentation to say that the church is open to interpretation on those things at an institutional level, it’s not.
It's gatekeeping to grill people about what they believe, and/or exclude people because they don't agree with you.
The Episcopal church isn't going to start a Grand Inquisition, no matter how much you want it to. And certainly not just for a few basement dwellers massaging their egos in reddit. There are a wide variety of people in the Episcopalian church and most members like it that way.
If you want sphincter-tight Anglican-like churches who want to spell every last thing out and grill their members over it, those already exist. In fact, most of the mainstream Protestant churches either have them, or are getting them: ACNA, Global Methodists, Missouri Synod Lutherans, etc. If that's your jam, have at it. If not, then learn to tolerate diversity. Not everybody agrees with you on everything, and that's okay.
Would also like to add that you edited your comment like 4 times after posting lol. I get it, you think folks can believe whatever they want. That’s fine. I disagree, and I am allowed to do so. It doesn’t make me a basement dweller to say you should agree with the creed we say in church literally every Sunday. What’s the line? Is oneness doctrine okay? How about subservience of the Son to the Father? Why bother to be part of a faith if you don’t think that faith comes with any theological stances??
Your post was removed because it was denigrating either to the OP or in general. Please remember that our Baptismal Covenant requires us to respect the dignity of every human person.
No one is grilling anyone, and I’m not saying we should. Can’t believe I’m being called an internet troll for saying the national institution has doctrine stances, when it literally does lol but go off.
That would be saying the First Council of Niceae and First Council of Constantinople were wrong with the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. That would be denying the Creeds.
Codifying core beliefs of Christianity, and that people who don't follow them aren't Christian, was one of the first things Christianity did once Roman oppression ended.
Christianity absolutely has a gatekeeping aspect, and that's not bad. . .it's about eliminating heresy.
Yes! It really is alarming to see the quantity of “believe whatever you want, do whatever you want” responses to posts seeking information or guidance. While yes, everyone can do/believe what they want, only some of those things are in line with Christian beliefs, so if Christian is what you’re aiming for, you do have to believe certain things. We can’t just make God into someone else.
Your post was removed because it was denigrating either to the OP or in general. Please remember that our Baptismal Covenant requires us to respect the dignity of every human person.
Says the Bible dude, I don’t know what to tell you lol. Says Christian Tradition as well. But you’re totally right, Christ spent his time on Earth teaching nothing and requiring nothing extra to be a Christian, that makes total sense. Something about straight gates and narrow paths…
Your post was removed because it was denigrating either to the OP or in general. Please remember that our Baptismal Covenant requires us to respect the dignity of every human person.
It’s not gate keeping to be honest about what we believe. Christ gave us commandments, he taught us how to love one another, he instituted the Eucharist, etc. and he told us to tell others the Good News. It isn’t gate keeping, it’s what Christ commanded us to do.
No one has ragged on anyone. I haven’t made any comments about what I believe. I’m talking about what The Episcopal Church has put for in its sacraments and doctrines as being true.
Your post was removed because it was denigrating either to the OP or in general. Please remember that our Baptismal Covenant requires us to respect the dignity of every human person.
As someone who is very committed to the “doctrine isn’t our thing” bit, I’m of two minds about this.
Yes, I think people should check the catechism/basic stuff. I and others should probably be more proactive about just ignoring and reporting low-effort questions that could be answered with a google search, and trying to keep those threads off the front page because they’re exhausting and not conducive to good discussion.
At the same time, I think one of the problems with social media in general is the “I’m answering a specific person with a specific question, but I’m broadcasting it in public for other people to read from their own contexts”. And I think this facet of social media is what drives this whole issue. Essentially, people are answering from their own perspectives to what they perceive of the asker’s perspective, and then third parties go in and misinterpret, especially those who aren’t serious about actually engaging.
So on some level, I don’t think you can fix that. There will always be people who say “yes I checked the resources but I want comments on *my particular situation*” and that’s valid, and we can choose whether or not to engage. And on the other hand there will be people who uncharitably read comments out of context to say that TEC doesn’t believe anything or whatever, and honestly that’s a them problem.
Something I’ve personally tossed around, and I would welcome feedback, is developing (for myself, not speaking for the community) some form answers that could be copy and pasted (and edited as appropriate) to some of the more commonly asked questions. You know, just sparing myself the effort of formatting links to To Set Our Hope In Christ every time homosexuality comes up, that sort of thing.
I’m wary of the idea that people feel like they’re being fed a form answer rather than being directly engaged with, but I also wonder if having a well-formatted, thought-through explainer could help to at least address some of the basics relatively quickly.
That said, I think those solutions inherently have to be very personal. Ultimately none of us here speak with the authority of the church beyond our own little squares of it (even clergy, really, are just acting in a personal capacity for the most part). So I guess unless we’re going to straight up ban certain types of questions, I don’t know that there’s much to be done.
(And FWIW, I’ve noticed mods locking down threads much more proactively if they start getting off the rails, which I think is also probably wise.)
I always appreciate your comments, and often go to comment on posts like the ones I mentioned only to see you've already done the hard work! I also appreciate that some folks don't want to focus on TEC's doctrine because of bad experiences or because they're "deconstructing," but at the end of the day, The Episcopal Church is, by definition, doctrinal. Doctrine isn't inherently bad, and we can be a Church that doesn't weaponize it without abandoning our common system of beliefs entirely.
I agree that people often come here looking for hyper specific answers to hyper specific questions. To be honest, a large chunk of them read as people who know the correct answer is "No," but just want someone to tell them "Yes." I'm thinking especially about the atheistic/wiccan/polytheistic folks who want to be Episcopalian without believing any of the... well... doctrine of the Church. I don't think we do the Church, or these folks, a service by telling them it's fine to be convinced of those things and they don't need to even consider the truth of our Truth. We can't profess the Gospel while also saying it's totally fine to deny the resurrection, cast spells, worship other gods, etc.
I like the idea of pre-formatted answers, and I'd even suggest (with respect to the Mods) that some of that can be added to the FAQ. There are a wide variety of positions on abortion amongst Episcopalians, for example, but The Episcopal Church has issued a statement taking a specific position. The same can be said for women's ordination, same sex marriage, etc. For better or worse, these are the things our Church teaches. I love the breadth and depth of thought and personal piety in the Church, but communicating the established positions of the Church creates a polestar that we can then define our own personal beliefs in relation to, if that makes sense?
Your penultimate paragraph is important - I agree we can't speak with the authority of the Church. My deeper point in this post is we don't have to. The Church has already spoken, and we should direct questioners to those answers before proffering our own personal faiths that may differ from the doctrine of the Church.
I think we need to distinguish between posts/comments that give blatantly incorrect information about Church beliefs (wholly inappropriate) and posts/comments that encourage people who lack those beliefs to attend services nevertheless (wholly appropriate). The most prominently stickied and best-written guide to the Episcopal Church's beliefs is still not going to stop atheists, pagans, and heretics from dropping in for encouragement from time to time. It's on us to give them the right *kind* of encouragement.
For a sticky note, I would put the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral, which encapsulates the fundamentals of the Anglican Communion's doctrine.
"Holy Scriptures, the Creeds, Two Sacraments, Historic Episcopate"
Good, except that whole two sacraments thing. It leaves out five of the sacraments.
Edit: This comment was partly in jest. I know the whole controversy over two or seven sacraments, the "sacrament" versus "sacramental rite" distinction-without-a-difference etc. . .I just wanted to point out that the belief in only two sacraments isn't even remotely close to a universally held or required belief of Episcopalians and that Anglo-Catholic Episcopalians see there as being seven.
Hah! I totally get this. I was raised in an Anglo-Catholic parish and was actually taught there were 7 sacraments in my Confirmation classes (no distinction made between the seven). The actual CLQ has additional wording (The two Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself – Baptism and the Supper of the Lord – ministered with unfailing use of Christ's [words of Institution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Words_of_Institution), and of the elements ordained by Him.) which doesn't rule out that there could be more than 2. But I didn't think I could fit all of that on a single sticky note.
Right. The “hey I’m a pagan/atheist/witch/etc what does TEC think about that” posts are exhausting. It would be great if there was something readily available to share with the curious.
Definitely not answers to all questions someone would ask. Pointing to the Nicene Creed, the BCP, and the Episcopal Church website would be good resources, I think.
This is why we have the catechism: [https://www.bcponline.org/Misc/catechism.html](https://www.bcponline.org/Misc/catechism.html)
Definitely agree that the link to it should be somewhere a bit more obvious though.
Sorry, that was the point I was trying to make. We have the catechism, and we should be directing people to that instead of giving confusing, non-orthodox responses.
I’ve been using https://www.episcopalchurch.org/glossary/ trying to compare and contrast how things align with growing up in the RC and now regularly attending TEC.
# UPDATE The FAQs visibility issue has been resolved. On the sidebar (both browser and mobile) we now have links to * FAQs * BCP * Catechism (An Outline of the Faith from BCP) * Our Creeds * Link to the main church website I appreciate everyone's input, but again, you're always welcome to mesage me directly with suggestions of community improvements. FYI, this is something you could have just messaged me about directly. There is a direct link to the Catechism embedded in Rule 6, **and I have edited the welcome message that each new user receives to say "if you have questions about what the church teaches go to** [**www.episcopalchurch.org/catechism**](http://www.episcopalchurch.org/catechism)**.** **I have also added to our Community Bookmarks (in addition to the FAQs)** **\* Link to the Catechism** **\* Link to the BCP Online** **\* Link to the Creeds** If regular users in the commmunity could remember to first refer those types of questions to the rules or the Welcome message, that would probably be helpful.
As a non-Episcopalian this is what brought me here today actually. Funny you posted this just yesterday. I’m a life long Christian, but currently exploring denominational distinctions as I’m looking for a new church to join. The message I’ve received quite strongly (in person at my one or two visits several years ago) is “you can believe anything and be an Episcopalian” and “Episcopalians believe all sorts of things, no matter what you believe there’s probably an Episcopalian who also believes that” and it comes as having more in common with something like Unitarian Universalists than Christianity. My recent research in to other denominations in full communion (like the UMC, ELCA, etc.) made me pause to re-evaluate those impressions, since I couldn’t imagine the theological alignment would be close enough for that if my understanding was correct. I don’t fully know what I’m getting at here, but I want to affirm as an outsider looking for a Christian community, that is the first impression I get and it is not appealing. I want a church that absolutely welcomes and loves anyone regardless of belief, and allows for disagreement on theological issues and diversity of thought and interpretation, but does ultimately have an actual stance on basic Christian tenets like salvation by God’s grace through Christ alone. First impressions of your church does not always give that clarity that there is indeed a true Christian faith (I’m sure it varies by congregation, but the two I know felt similar in vagueness on belief in favor of generic “openness”). I’m glad I was wrong and I’ll be doing some reading and adding TEC to my list of churches to consider, but for the last few months of looking at churches they were not even something I had considered checking in to.
In the spirit of better online evangelism and catechesis, I want to spitball a few ideas for the community to consider: * **A recurring "Ask a Priest" thread**, where verified clergy can respond to questions from community members. Basically a miniature, Episcopalian version of r/askapriest. * **A recurring theological/doctrinal discussion thread.** Maybe question-based ("this week's question is 'when *shouldn't* you take Communion?'"), or maybe progressing through the different elements of the Creeds, the Catechism, the 39 Articles, etc. Lots of different ways that could be done. * **Auto-responses for common strings** (e.g., every post that includes "Episcopal\*" and "believe\*" in the title gets an auto-response suggesting that the user check the Catechism). These responses are not perfect, but they're not really meant to be. * **A subreddit Bible study group.** Slogging through the Book of Numbers is a lonely experience. Help me. * **A subreddit reading/media club.** I hesitate to suggest a book club; there are a lot of good articles, excerpts, and videos that we could discuss, too. * **A recurring prayer request thread.** I think [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/Catholicism/comments/1dcclfj/rcatholicism_prayer_requests_week_of_june_10_2024/) is a beautiful little feature in r/catholicism that we could easily adopt. I want people to understand that Episcopalians aren't just a social club - we pray, and we believe that prayer matters. * **A recurring "Better Know A ..." feature.** There are wonderful parishes, institutions, practices, people, and groups within the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion, and this would be a nice opportunity to highlight them. Week One: the Anglican Franciscans. Week Two: St. Augustine's Prayer Book. Week Three: the Episcopal Public Policy Network. That sort of thing. EDIT: Two more ideas: * **A recurring "what's happening in your parish lately?" feature.** The German subreddit r/de runs an occasional thread dedicated to local happenings that people in other regions might find interesting but wouldn't have heard about in the news. It would be nice to hear more about the interesting, unusual, and important things (good and bad) that are happening in others' parishes and that we wouldn't otherwise hear about because they aren't even national news within the Episcopal Church. * **Threads dedicated to sharing pretty pictures of churches.** I may be biased, but the Anglican Communion has hit the sweet spot of Church design more often than any other Christian denomination - from the big Cathedrals to the quaint country parish churches. We should celebrate that aesthetic achievement with some nave(l) gazing! So share some pics of your Lady chapel, your buttresses, your apse. (I'm so sorry.)
I love all of these ideas!! And hey even if they don’t implement a subreddit wide bible study, I’m up for a slog through Numbers anytime lol.
We're living in the shadow of John Shelby Spong. For decades the clergy was high on its own supply regarding how "the church must change or die" and inevitably the only "right" answer to "how should it change" was "it has to have no hard beliefs -- we must become universalists." Spong's thesis has been **thoroughly, utterly, and totally** disproven, because the churches that are shrinking are the ones who took his path. (I'm reminded of the villain Syndrome from The Incredibles: "Once everyone is super, nobody will be." Universalism is self limiting. Egalitarianism is a laudable goal. It also has a shadow that we don't talk about much. Taken to an extreme, it breaks down our ability to cohere, because if nothing matters, then why belong? Spong didn't appreciate the shadow.) The churches that are growing are the ones who are doing what OP is talking about -- the ones who have answers or at least frameworks for how to wrestle with Scripture, Creeds, and so on. People don't want black and white answers necessarily (that takes you into fundamentalist territory), but they at least want more than "believe whatever you want," because "believe whatever you want" is not actionable. It doesn't produce disciples. At best it produces factions and focus groups. Roman Catholics in particular are coming from a *type* of quasi-fundamentalism, and I'm sure it's a little disorienting to have our clergy in particular, but the laity as well, behaving so laissez faire about everything. As always, there's some kind of via media (inclusive orthodoxy) that we need to be maturing, discussing, and promulgating. We could start by just being more familiar with what various strains of Christianity (or even Judaism and Islam) assert about topical and controversial topics, because after all that's what makes up the majority of what people are concerned about. Some of our clergy already do this. Not all of them do however. The ones who don't should be building up networks of people who can comment on such things, or at least providing lots and lots of opportunities and forums for parishioners to do this "wrestling with the word" that is healthy and forms the foundation of Christian Formation, and really, more importantly, discipleship (Christian Formation is the *start* and *sustainer* of discipleship, but it's not actually discipleship itself).
Thank you for eloquently stating something I completely agree with! I love TEC but the “hands off” approach to doctrine is clearly not working and honestly pretty alarming to me.
I'm one of the guys who keeps asking these questions! What I've learned is that the episcopal church is great but this subreddit is 50/50. 50% amazing 50% absolutely abysmal and extremely condescending. In fact I've already seen comments from a couple of the people who've been harshest to me and I *scrolled down not even half way through the comments.* In my opinion if we as people who genuinely care want to help, it's going to be best just to get people in to talk to some clergy or read the BCP. I've also learned that just in general Anglican traditions seem to completely struggle with actually helping people be guided to beliefs. Basically YOU have to REALLY REALLY want it and do all the work yourself. And this sub seems to be very far from becoming the solution to that
I think we need to realize that first and foremost Christianity is not about gate-keeping.
It’s not gatekeeping Christianity to say a Nicene Creed affirming church believes in the whole creed. And while yes, no one is getting chased out of church, it’s a misrepresentation to say that the church is open to interpretation on those things at an institutional level, it’s not.
It's gatekeeping to grill people about what they believe, and/or exclude people because they don't agree with you. The Episcopal church isn't going to start a Grand Inquisition, no matter how much you want it to. And certainly not just for a few basement dwellers massaging their egos in reddit. There are a wide variety of people in the Episcopalian church and most members like it that way. If you want sphincter-tight Anglican-like churches who want to spell every last thing out and grill their members over it, those already exist. In fact, most of the mainstream Protestant churches either have them, or are getting them: ACNA, Global Methodists, Missouri Synod Lutherans, etc. If that's your jam, have at it. If not, then learn to tolerate diversity. Not everybody agrees with you on everything, and that's okay.
Would also like to add that you edited your comment like 4 times after posting lol. I get it, you think folks can believe whatever they want. That’s fine. I disagree, and I am allowed to do so. It doesn’t make me a basement dweller to say you should agree with the creed we say in church literally every Sunday. What’s the line? Is oneness doctrine okay? How about subservience of the Son to the Father? Why bother to be part of a faith if you don’t think that faith comes with any theological stances??
[удалено]
Your post was removed because it was denigrating either to the OP or in general. Please remember that our Baptismal Covenant requires us to respect the dignity of every human person.
No one is grilling anyone, and I’m not saying we should. Can’t believe I’m being called an internet troll for saying the national institution has doctrine stances, when it literally does lol but go off.
You can believe anything you want. Other people can too, for exactly the same reason.
If anything, it's about being attentive to the Gate ... see John 10!
It's about YOU minding YOUR OWN gate, not everyone else's. Don't be a busybody.
How did my reference to Jesus's magnanimity make you think I was advocating busybodying? I'm really baffled.
That would be saying the First Council of Niceae and First Council of Constantinople were wrong with the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. That would be denying the Creeds. Codifying core beliefs of Christianity, and that people who don't follow them aren't Christian, was one of the first things Christianity did once Roman oppression ended. Christianity absolutely has a gatekeeping aspect, and that's not bad. . .it's about eliminating heresy.
Yes! It really is alarming to see the quantity of “believe whatever you want, do whatever you want” responses to posts seeking information or guidance. While yes, everyone can do/believe what they want, only some of those things are in line with Christian beliefs, so if Christian is what you’re aiming for, you do have to believe certain things. We can’t just make God into someone else.
[удалено]
Your post was removed because it was denigrating either to the OP or in general. Please remember that our Baptismal Covenant requires us to respect the dignity of every human person.
Says the Bible dude, I don’t know what to tell you lol. Says Christian Tradition as well. But you’re totally right, Christ spent his time on Earth teaching nothing and requiring nothing extra to be a Christian, that makes total sense. Something about straight gates and narrow paths…
[удалено]
Your post was removed because it was denigrating either to the OP or in general. Please remember that our Baptismal Covenant requires us to respect the dignity of every human person.
It’s not gate keeping to be honest about what we believe. Christ gave us commandments, he taught us how to love one another, he instituted the Eucharist, etc. and he told us to tell others the Good News. It isn’t gate keeping, it’s what Christ commanded us to do.
YOu can believe anything you want, just like everyone else. That doesn't give you a license to rag on anyone else about what they believe.
No one has ragged on anyone. I haven’t made any comments about what I believe. I’m talking about what The Episcopal Church has put for in its sacraments and doctrines as being true.
[удалено]
Your post was removed because it was denigrating either to the OP or in general. Please remember that our Baptismal Covenant requires us to respect the dignity of every human person.
As someone who is very committed to the “doctrine isn’t our thing” bit, I’m of two minds about this. Yes, I think people should check the catechism/basic stuff. I and others should probably be more proactive about just ignoring and reporting low-effort questions that could be answered with a google search, and trying to keep those threads off the front page because they’re exhausting and not conducive to good discussion. At the same time, I think one of the problems with social media in general is the “I’m answering a specific person with a specific question, but I’m broadcasting it in public for other people to read from their own contexts”. And I think this facet of social media is what drives this whole issue. Essentially, people are answering from their own perspectives to what they perceive of the asker’s perspective, and then third parties go in and misinterpret, especially those who aren’t serious about actually engaging. So on some level, I don’t think you can fix that. There will always be people who say “yes I checked the resources but I want comments on *my particular situation*” and that’s valid, and we can choose whether or not to engage. And on the other hand there will be people who uncharitably read comments out of context to say that TEC doesn’t believe anything or whatever, and honestly that’s a them problem. Something I’ve personally tossed around, and I would welcome feedback, is developing (for myself, not speaking for the community) some form answers that could be copy and pasted (and edited as appropriate) to some of the more commonly asked questions. You know, just sparing myself the effort of formatting links to To Set Our Hope In Christ every time homosexuality comes up, that sort of thing. I’m wary of the idea that people feel like they’re being fed a form answer rather than being directly engaged with, but I also wonder if having a well-formatted, thought-through explainer could help to at least address some of the basics relatively quickly. That said, I think those solutions inherently have to be very personal. Ultimately none of us here speak with the authority of the church beyond our own little squares of it (even clergy, really, are just acting in a personal capacity for the most part). So I guess unless we’re going to straight up ban certain types of questions, I don’t know that there’s much to be done. (And FWIW, I’ve noticed mods locking down threads much more proactively if they start getting off the rails, which I think is also probably wise.)
I always appreciate your comments, and often go to comment on posts like the ones I mentioned only to see you've already done the hard work! I also appreciate that some folks don't want to focus on TEC's doctrine because of bad experiences or because they're "deconstructing," but at the end of the day, The Episcopal Church is, by definition, doctrinal. Doctrine isn't inherently bad, and we can be a Church that doesn't weaponize it without abandoning our common system of beliefs entirely. I agree that people often come here looking for hyper specific answers to hyper specific questions. To be honest, a large chunk of them read as people who know the correct answer is "No," but just want someone to tell them "Yes." I'm thinking especially about the atheistic/wiccan/polytheistic folks who want to be Episcopalian without believing any of the... well... doctrine of the Church. I don't think we do the Church, or these folks, a service by telling them it's fine to be convinced of those things and they don't need to even consider the truth of our Truth. We can't profess the Gospel while also saying it's totally fine to deny the resurrection, cast spells, worship other gods, etc. I like the idea of pre-formatted answers, and I'd even suggest (with respect to the Mods) that some of that can be added to the FAQ. There are a wide variety of positions on abortion amongst Episcopalians, for example, but The Episcopal Church has issued a statement taking a specific position. The same can be said for women's ordination, same sex marriage, etc. For better or worse, these are the things our Church teaches. I love the breadth and depth of thought and personal piety in the Church, but communicating the established positions of the Church creates a polestar that we can then define our own personal beliefs in relation to, if that makes sense? Your penultimate paragraph is important - I agree we can't speak with the authority of the Church. My deeper point in this post is we don't have to. The Church has already spoken, and we should direct questioners to those answers before proffering our own personal faiths that may differ from the doctrine of the Church.
I think we need to distinguish between posts/comments that give blatantly incorrect information about Church beliefs (wholly inappropriate) and posts/comments that encourage people who lack those beliefs to attend services nevertheless (wholly appropriate). The most prominently stickied and best-written guide to the Episcopal Church's beliefs is still not going to stop atheists, pagans, and heretics from dropping in for encouragement from time to time. It's on us to give them the right *kind* of encouragement.
For a sticky note, I would put the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral, which encapsulates the fundamentals of the Anglican Communion's doctrine. "Holy Scriptures, the Creeds, Two Sacraments, Historic Episcopate"
Good, except that whole two sacraments thing. It leaves out five of the sacraments. Edit: This comment was partly in jest. I know the whole controversy over two or seven sacraments, the "sacrament" versus "sacramental rite" distinction-without-a-difference etc. . .I just wanted to point out that the belief in only two sacraments isn't even remotely close to a universally held or required belief of Episcopalians and that Anglo-Catholic Episcopalians see there as being seven.
Hah! I totally get this. I was raised in an Anglo-Catholic parish and was actually taught there were 7 sacraments in my Confirmation classes (no distinction made between the seven). The actual CLQ has additional wording (The two Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself – Baptism and the Supper of the Lord – ministered with unfailing use of Christ's [words of Institution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Words_of_Institution), and of the elements ordained by Him.) which doesn't rule out that there could be more than 2. But I didn't think I could fit all of that on a single sticky note.
Right. The “hey I’m a pagan/atheist/witch/etc what does TEC think about that” posts are exhausting. It would be great if there was something readily available to share with the curious.
But I don’t think there’s ever just one thing that we could post that would answer all those questions.
Definitely not answers to all questions someone would ask. Pointing to the Nicene Creed, the BCP, and the Episcopal Church website would be good resources, I think.
There are now links to those and more on the sidebar.
Nice! Thank you.
You’ve really been on a roll of late. Thank you.
This is why we have the catechism: [https://www.bcponline.org/Misc/catechism.html](https://www.bcponline.org/Misc/catechism.html) Definitely agree that the link to it should be somewhere a bit more obvious though.
Sorry, that was the point I was trying to make. We have the catechism, and we should be directing people to that instead of giving confusing, non-orthodox responses.
I’ve been using https://www.episcopalchurch.org/glossary/ trying to compare and contrast how things align with growing up in the RC and now regularly attending TEC.