I am just wondering if anyone can tell me what the Episcopal church believes? What is its doctrine? I am just wondering because my brother-in-law is a member of this religion and so is his daughter. Is there any other religion that they are comparable to? I have heard some say they have similar views as Catholics. Is this true? :confused

This is from wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episcopal_Church_(United_States):

The center of Episcopal teaching is the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ.[94] The basic teachings of the church, or catechism, include:
Jesus Christ is fully human and fully God. He died and was resurrected from the dead.
Jesus provides the way of eternal life for those who believe.
God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit, are one God, and are called the Holy Trinity, "Three and yet one"
The Old and New Testaments of the Bible were written by people "under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit." The Apocrypha are additional books that are used in Christian worship, but not for the formation of doctrine.
The two great and necessary sacraments are Holy Baptism and Holy Eucharist.
Other sacramental rites are confirmation, ordination, marriage, reconciliation of a penitent, and unction.
Belief in heaven, hell, and Jesus' return in glory.
Emphasis on living out the Greatest Commandment to love God and neighbor fully, as found in the Gospel of Matthew 22:36-40[95]
The full catechism is included in the Book of Common Prayer and posted on Episcopal website here.[96] The threefold sources of authority in Anglicanism are scripture, tradition, and reason. These three sources uphold and critique each other in a dynamic way.
The Episcopal Church follows the via media or "middle way" between Protestant and Roman Catholic doctrine and practices: that is both Catholic and Reformed. Not all Episcopalians self-identify with this image, especially those whose convictions lean toward either evangelicalism or Anglo-Catholicism. There are many different theologies represented within the Episcopal Church. Some Episcopal theologians hold evangelical positions, affirming the authority of scripture over all. The Episcopal Church website glossary defines the sources of authority as a balance between scripture, tradition, and reason. These three are characterized as a "three-legged stool" which will topple if any one overbalances the other. It also notes
The Anglican balancing of the sources of authority has been criticized as clumsy or "muddy." It has been associated with the Anglican affinity for seeking the mean between extremes and living the via media. It has also been associated with the Anglican willingness to tolerate and comprehend opposing viewpoints instead of imposing tests of orthodoxy or resorting to heresy trials.[97]

I think it's somewhere between Roman Catholic and Protestant. MOre or less.

Originally Anglicans subscribed to the 39 Articles of Faith. Unfortunately it may be a little more difficult to ascertain what your brother-in-law's congregation believes as many Episcopal bodies are very liberal and veer away from the 39 Articles to one degree or another.

Original 39 Articles (http://mb-soft.com/believe/txc/thirtyni.htm)

1801 Revision (http://anglicansonline.org/basics/thirty-nine_articles.html)

I am just wondering if anyone can tell me what the Episcopal church believes? What is its doctrine? I am just wondering because my brother-in-law is a member of this religion and so is his daughter. Is there any other religion that they are comparable to? I have heard some say they have similar views as Catholics. Is this true? :confused

Well the Episcopal church is a Christian church and Protestant, that being said the mainline Episcopal church is going liberal big time (ECUSA). There are good Orthodox Episcopal branches like the Reformed Episcopal Church and the newest one that broke away from the ECUSA.

Well as an Anglican I think I might be able to help. The Episcopal church is the American branch of the Anglican Church. However, there is a lot going on within the Anglican Communion at the time. The Episcopal church is seen as apostate by many in the Communion because of some of their practices. However, many of the people actually in the ECUSA (Episcopal Church USA also can be abbreviated as TEC = The Episcopal Church) do not agree or are as liberal as the leadership has taken the church.

It is important to know if your family member is in the TEC or the Anglican Church. I will explain below.

The Anglican Church believes confesses the Nicene and Apostles Creed. They also hold to the 39 Articles of Religion which was mentioned above. Depending on the actual church that one attends the beliefs can be very evangelical to very Anglo-Catholic. The Anglican church reformed a little differently from all the other reforming churches in the 1500s. The Anglican church purposefully took a middle way between the Protestant Reformers and the Roman Catholics. They kept the same structure and reformed the church in the ways that they felt the Romans had made abuses.

Now the ECUSA has had some liberal abuses, such as ordaining openly homosexuals to priest and bishops. They have also had some bishops with strange theological beliefs such as John Shelby Spong. However, these two things should not reflect the whole Anglican Communion as the other churches in the communion are against this. Some of the churches in the communion have gone so far as to declare that the ECUSA is no longer a viable church and the African churches have started up missionary churches in America. These churches do not believe in women's ordination, homosexual ordination, and are theologically conservative.

The Anglican church is a liturgical church as in it has a set of prayers and structure in the service. Most of them also believe in the real physical presence of Jesus in the bread and wine at the Lord's Supper. The church unlike the Romans do not believe in the Roman version of purgatory. They do not have a Pope or anything like it. The ideas about the Virgin Mary are not taken as far as the Romans do. They also believe in justification by faith alone, but works are important for sanctification. What is somewhat different from other Protestant churches is the idea of authority, Anglicans have a three or four points from which authority are drawn from these are Scripture, Tradition, Reason, and sometimes experience. This means that Anglicans not only look at Scripture for theological ideas but also look to Tradition (that is the history of the church and church fathers), and Reason. Doctrines are only derived from Scripture, but Scripture in many ways is also filtered through Tradition and Reason because we believe that the Holy Spirit is and has been present in these processes.

I hope this helps. If they are in the ECUSA they should come out of there and go into the Anglican church, unless they are in a good church, there are still a lot of good ones out there but the leadership is falling apart.

From what I understand, there is something called the Anglican Communion, and the Episcopal Church is part of it.

From what I've read, the original church in the Anglican Communion is the Church Of England and all the others derived from it.

As for what Anglican theology teaches, I'm just now starting to study that.

Now the ECUSA has had some liberal abuses, such as ordaining openly homosexuals to priest and bishops.

I do know that his church allows homosexuals to be in leadership positions. And they had a special dinner at his church the other day because the church's Bishop was coming to town to visit?? Does this mean that his church is the ECUSA? His own wife won't go to church with him because she has different beliefs.

I do know that his church allows homosexuals to be in leadership positions. And they had a special dinner at his church the other day because the church's Bishop was coming to town to visit?? Does this mean that his church is the ECUSA? His own wife won't go to church with him because she has different beliefs.

Well it depends if the homosexuals are practicing or not and what leadership positions they are in, but I would guess that yes it is the ECUSA.

Usually when a Bishop comes to town it is a big deal unless their town has a bishop in it. Usually the Bishops make rounds because in the Anglican chruch only bishops can confirm people into the church, ordain deacons, ordain priest, and a group of bishops can ordain other bishops. The Bishops hold a special place in the church because of their position in the line of apostles. The Anglican church confesses apostolic succession, which means we believe that our bishops can trace an unbroken line back an Apostle of the early church.

Now his church might be one of the good ones that is staying true to actual Christian beliefs and just don't want to give up their name or property. That is what some ECUSA churches are doing. They hold to actual Christian beliefs and practices and try to weather the storm and see what is going to happen. It is because if the church leaves the ECUSA then they lose their building, all the people on staff might lose their jobs, and there is no garuntee that the priest or chruch might be received into one of the missional Anglican churches, such as the AMiA (Anglican Mission in the Americas from Rwanda) or ACNA (Anglican Chruch of North America).

I would not call the people in the ECUSA non-christian I just think the leadership is going crazy and trying to test how far they can take things before someone takes action. The Chruch of England and the African churches have tried to take action but the ECUSA leadership ignores them. Really the problem is that the Anglican Communion does not have a central leader, some might think it is the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, but he is just a figure head, kinda like the Queen of England is a figure head, except he does actually have a leardship role in his own country. But he does not have a leardship role in America, other European countries, South America, Africa, etc. Most countries have their own Archbishop, this is not the case with the ECUSA they have a presiding bishop that is picked along with 8 other bishops to preside over some of the churches in the Anglican Communion. The ABC (Archbishop of Canterbury) is not like the Pope he does not have the power to excommunicate entire churches in the Anglican Communion he is only over his churches in Canterbury and some of England. For example my archbishop is in Rwanda and he holds sway over only the churches in Rwanda and those in the AMiA because they are in his jurisdiction, but he can't go to Kenya and say do things this way.

There is a lot of stuff going on in the Anglican church right now and I am afraid to say I don't know a whole lot about it, even though it might sound like I do. You really just picked a bad time to ask this type of question, because of everything going on but it has been happening for a few years now too. God willing it will end soon or someone with the authority to tell the ECUSA what to do will stand up and do it.

Thanks everyone for clarifying some of this for me. I really worry about my brother-in-law. He has switched beliefs so many times. I feel like he doesn't really know what to believe. I pray that God guides his heart in the right direction. The churches he has been involved in include: Freewill Baptist, United Baptist, Old Regular Baptist, Independent Baptist, Southern Baptist, Methodist, and now Episcopal. I think that my wife (my sister) feels very alone at times. She feels like he is kind of "wondering" from church to church and doesn't know what he truly believes. My sister won't go to church with him. She goes to church with my parents instead. Pray for him and for her.

What church do your parents attend? Did your brother-in-law used to attend there as well?

What church do your parents attend? Did your brother-in-law used to attend there as well?

My parents attend a Freewill Baptist church. No, it is not the same one that my brother-in-law used to attend.