r/Episcopalian

We have an endowment that we'll never touch, and we're not poorly off at all. That said, our priest is very aware of what everyone gives, makes comments when he thinks someone should be giving more, and just comes off as "grabby." And then we have a ceremony of collecting pledges and placing them on the altar, and a lot of pressure to be seen doing this, and I find that SO manipulative and tacky. Ick.

I'll pledge but I also want to stop attending until this is all over.

Born and raised southern Baptist, got quite involved with United Methodist ministries in college, non-denom for several years now. My family and I currently go to a non-denom, evangelical church. We like our community there, but I’ve grown progressively more open and liberal leaning over the years and for the past few weeks, felt a strange but strong pull towards the Episcopal church and its doctrines.

To elaborate, I’ve been deconstructing ever since the 2016 election (for maybe obvious reasons) and have been dealing with a lot of questioning and an overall dissonance with evangelicalism.

So my question is this: can I get some insight or personal experiences from anyone who’s had a similar journey and landed on the Episcopal Church? Would love to hear any and all of your thoughts.

I watched the first episode on PBS.org . Many churches in the US are dealing with decline. While they have not focused on an Episcopal church yet, they did include Rev. Dr. Judy Fentress-Williams from the Virginia Theological Seminary.

I'm curious if anyone has watched it and what did they think of it?

https://www.pbs.org/video/reading-the-signs-XuTXtq/

There's a new review up of the BCP-Bible that was just released from Church Publishing. The review goes into the history of Prayer Book design and typography, but here's the TLDR:

>So if I had to sum-up my review, here’s the grades I’d give out:

>Exterior Design: A. A big step up from the last decade.

>Typesetting: C. Breaks basic rules of design—and seems to be unaware that Anglicans once knew how to design things.

>Book Size: B. Many will like the increased font size, but now the book is heavy and not easily portable. If you speed-read your offices in ten minutes, that’s probably not so bad. But if you chant your Mattins for thirty minutes or so, I think you’re going to find it a little wearisome. Goldilocks size, not achieved. Sad face.

>Ribbons: B. I’m sure some people would want me to give a lower grade, but I’m just not going to lose my mind over something that I can fix. The real problem may be that the ribbons they do give you are all different lengths—and not intentionally so, I don’t think.

I am grieving the sudden loss of my little male papillon to lymphoma. We just got the diagnosis this week. I am married and my dogs are our kids. In mad at God right now and even madder at myself for working late hours (though hubby and his little sister were home ) and missing the severity of symptoms and time with him. Even at good times, I struggle with faith but now a little part of me wants to give in to despair and give up on God who lets kids and animals suffer and evil flourish. Please pray for my soul and sanity.

I went back to one of our local Episcopal churches this Sunday for the first time in several months, and just felt like something about it finally clicked for me. I had gone somewhat regularly in the spring but it felt quite strange and I really felt like an outsider trying to figure everything out. After taking a break for a few months, this time felt quite different. It just felt right and like I belonged there. I also felt like I could actually think about God and Christ without all the anxiety/dread I used to associate with church.

Honestly this was a big deal for me. I grew up in a fundamentalist Christian sect/cult (left a few years ago) and was taught that if you ever left, no other church would really feel right adn God would not be there. Other churches might look appealing, but they wouldn't have "the right spirit", and eventually you would realize what you had lost and feel the need to come back. I think a part of me has been worried that was true due to all the conditioning from my upbringing.

Instead, Sunday was really uplifting. The singing/music and sermon were lovely. The Church was actually pretty full which was a bit surprising since our area leans very Evangelical. I brought my kids and they seem to have really liked it. My four year old has been asking when we can go back every day since, lol. My wife even said she's going to come along next week, which is also a big deal as she has been pretty anti-Church since we left the cult.

Anyway, just wanted to say I'm thankful for this Church. I feel like it has been a good place for me in a difficult time of questioning and rebuilding my faith.

There are over 500+ churches each named "Christ Episcopal Church" and "Trinity Episcopal Church", for example.

But at the same time, there seem to be a number of Christian topics that don't have an Episcopal church named after them. There's neither an Emmaus Episcopal Church nor a Holy Myrrhbearers Episcopal Church, for example.

By an overwhelming amount of kind people telling me that where I had landed after deconstruction sounded very…Episcopalian.

I grew up in a very conservative Christian environment, and over the last several years I’ve had to seriously deconstruct a lot of what I was taught. I didn’t want to abandon Christianity entirely, but I also couldn’t return to the rigid, certainty-driven version of faith I grew up with.

Where I’ve landed is a Christianity that is more contemplative, sacramental, open to mystery, and comfortable saying “I don’t know.” I still value Scripture, prayer, tradition, and the person of Jesus, but I’m much less interested in having airtight answers for everything. I’ve also found a lot of value in contemplative practices, silence, meditation, and some aspects of Zen Buddhism.
When I described this elsewhere, a surprising number of people basically said, “You should look into the Episcopal Church.”
So… here I am.

I’m curious what drew you to the Episcopal Church, especially if you came from an evangelical, fundamentalist, or otherwise conservative Christian background. What surprised you when you first started attending? And if I visit an Episcopal church for the first time, what should I know?