The Episcopal Church
Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America (PECUSA) is one of the official names of the Episcopal Church, along with the Domestic and Foreign Missionary society of the PECUSA. The Episcopal Church is a province of the Anglican communion, and traces its historical roots to the settleme3nt of the Church of England in Virginia in 1907.
While Virginia remained the center of its strength in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Anglicanism spread throughout all thirteen colonies prior to the American Revolution. After war severed ties with England, clergy and lay people were forced to reorganize the institutional life of their church. Samuel Seabury was consecrated as the first American bishop in 1784, and thanks to the leadership of William White, a new denomination was officially established in 1789. It was called the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America – “Protestant” signifying its Reformation heritage, “Episcopal” indicating its retention of the historic episcopate, and “the United States of America” designating its national status.
The Episcopal Church now contains over a hundred dioceses in Europe, Central America, and South America as well as in the United States, and it is governed by a bicameral General Convention that meets every three years. In 1967 the General Convention approved a preamble to the church’s constitution, recognizing “The Episcopal Church” as the customary form of the denomination’s name.
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The word “episcopal” pertains to a bishop. The term derives from the Greek word episcupos, meaning “overseer.” Thus, the Episcopal Church recognizes the authority of bishops. The first bishops were Christ’s disciples who were the “overseers” of the church in Rome, Corinth, and elsewhere.
(John N. Wall, 2000, A Dictionary for Episcopalians)
