Canon James Shoucair,
Rector

5910 Babcock Blvd
(behind Northway Mall)
Pittsburgh, PA 15237

412-364-2442
412-364-6780 (fax)

[email protected]

Who Are These Episcopalians?

We have been described in many ways by a wide range of people.    Taking their cue from Lite Beer commercials, some refer to us as �Catholic Lite,� describing us as having �All the ritual with a third less guilt.� Still others see us as the thinking person�s church, the Republican party at prayer or simply a haven for Anglophiles. One thing we can say for sure: We do have a healthy sense of humor!

Seriously, though, the Episcopal Church is a part of what�s known as the worldwide Anglican Church, now some 70 million strong.  We are bound together by our worship (the Book of Common Prayer), and by virtue of our ties to the Anglican Church in England, and specifically to the See of Canterbury.  The Archbishop of Canterbury is the titular head of the worldwide Anglican community.

As a Church we share many of the traditional church structures common to both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.  We have a threefold order of ministry, that is to say bishops, priests and deacons, who are ordained in apostolic succession and who derive their spiritual authority through the historic Church throughout time. We celebrate Holy Baptism and Eucharist as the two chief Sacraments of the Church. We are a liturgical Church. However, we marry to those traditional Church elements, some of the distinctions of the Protestant Reformation. We proclaim the Gospel both by Word and Sacrament. Preaching is central to our worship. With the Protestant Reformers we affirm that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and that the Old and New Testaments contain all things necessary to salvation.  Our clergy are permitted to marry. We ordain women.

We respect the conscience of each member of the church as they try to come to grips with the great moral questions of the day. While we do provide guidance and teaching�..the Church takes a position on many issues�the ethos of the Church is one of latitude and toleration rather than dogma and inflexibility.

If you really want to know who we are, come worship with us!

Does It Have To Be So Boring?

As with anything else in life, if you don�t understand what you are doing, or if you are not personally invested or excited about something, then it�s hard to find any joy in it. In the past, people came to church because it was expected, or because (a long time ago) it was considered shameful not to attend. Others attended out of a sense of responsibility to their children.  Too often, people just �went through the motions.�

Today, there is no pressure to attend church.  Sleeping in on Sunday mornings is seen as a noble activity, given the hectic pace of our lives the rest of the week   Many churches address this problem by utilizing marketing techniques borrowed from the secular world. They try to be �user friendly� in order to attract those who may be unfamiliar with Church life and to provide them with a church experience that is accessible and non-threatening. This is a laudable goal.

However, we are not here to sell a product.  As Anglicans, we are not ashamed to admit that we do things differently.  We are not interested in tricking you into joining through gimmicks of any kind.  We try to be faithful to the things of God and we invite you to enter into this different world, to learn the language of faith, and to grow in your knowledge and love of God.

Aren�t Church Folk Just a Bunch of Hypocrites?

Yes we are!  We are not proud of it. We certainly don�t like it, but it can�t be avoided. The important thing to realize is that mature Christians are aware of their shortcomings. We know that the standards of life to which we are called by God (and which we acknowledge as desirable), are difficult to meet. We fall short.  Sometimes we fail miserably.  But with God�s help we pick ourselves up and try again.  We are works in process. 

Christians are not the only hypocrites around. We all have ideals (secular or religious) that we profess. All of us fall short of some standard or other that we set for ourselves. One of the distinguishing marks of authentic Christianity is that our failure to live up to our Christian ideals is not an occasion for judgmental finger-pointing on our part but rather for humility and compassion.  That�s because we are all in the same boat. It�s hard to judge another person when you are all too well aware of how much you fall short!  We recognize that weakness is a natural part of the human condition.  We hurt each other. We hurt ourselves. We strive to create a community in which, with God�s help, we afford each other the opportunity to grow and change. 

Church is a place where we live out the reality of God�s new world. We are all about transformation. It�s a place where even hypocrisy can be turned to good!  Interesting isn�t it?

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