WE ARE THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH

​We Episcopalians believe in a loving, liberating, and life-giving God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As constituent members of the Anglican Communion in the United States, we are descendants of and partners with the Church of England and the Scottish Episcopal Church, and are part of the third largest group of Christians in the world. We believe in following the teachings of Jesus Christ, whose life, death, and resurrection saved the world. We have a legacy of inclusion, aspiring to tell and exemplify God’s love for every human being; women and men serve as bishops, priests, and deacons in our church. Laypeople and clergy cooperate as leaders at all levels of our church. Leadership is a gift from God, and can be expressed by all people in our church, regardless of sexual identity or orientation. We believe that God loves you – no exceptions.

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Our Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Sean Rowe

​The word “Episcopal” refers to government by bishops (from the Greek “episcopoi” meaning “bishops”). ​Pictured above is the Most Rev. Sean Rowe who is the 28th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. He is chief pastor to the Episcopal Church's 2.4 million members in 16 countries and 112 dioceses, ecumenical officer, and primate, joining leaders of the other 38 Anglican Provinces in consultation for global good and reconciliation. Bishop Rowe was elected at the 81st  General Convention in 2024.

Online Book of Common Prayer

The Book of Common Prayer
​As Episcopalians we turn to the Book of Common Prayer to shape our liturgies and engage in worship.  The Book of Common Prayer is a treasure chest full of devotional and teaching resources for individuals and congregations, but it is also the primary symbol of our unity, as Armentrout and Slocum note in their An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church, that “Anglican liturgical piety has been rooted in the Prayer Book tradition since the publication of the first English Prayer Book in 1549.”   We, who are many and diverse, come together in Christ through our worship, our common prayer.  The prayer book, most recently revised in 1979, contains our liturgies, our prayers, our theological documents, and much, much more.

The Episcopal Church Website

The Diocese of Hawai'i Website

The Episcopal Shield
The founding fathers of the Episcopal Church were also the founding fathers of our country, and the shield's red, white, and blue colors are similar to that of the American flag.  Red represents the blood Christ shed for us; white symbolizes purity, and blue is the traditional color of the Virgin Mary.  The large red cross that divides the shield is a cross of St. George, the cross of the Church of England, that represent our ties to the mother church.  The nine small crosses in the upper left quadrant represent the nine dioceses that founded the Episcopal Church in 1789, and are arranged in a St. Andrew's cross, the cross of the Church of Scotland.  When no Anglican bishop would ordain a bishop for the new church in America, bishops of the Church of Scotland agreed to lay hands on Samuel Seabury, ordaining him the first bishop of the Episcopal Church.  This cross honors the role that the Church of Scotland played in the birth of our church.

The Episcopal Church, which was formed after the American Revolution, traditionally has been a place where many points of view and many questions are welcome as part of the life of faith.    Our theology and faith is based on our “three legged stool" - Tradition, Scripture,  and Reason.  As Episcopalians, we believe:

• ​The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the revealed Word of God “containing all things necessary to salvation,” and as being the rule and ultimate standard of faith.
• The Apostles’ Creed is the Baptismal Symbol; and the Nicene Creed, is the sufficient statement of the Christian faith. These Creeds were adopted by the Church in the fourth century. The Apostles’ being said at Baptisms and at Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer. The Nicene Creed is said every Sunday at celebrations of the Holy Eucharist in Episcopal and Anglican churches around the United States and world. (More info can be found here).
• There are two Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself—Baptism and the Supper of the Lord ministered with unfailing use of Christ’s words of Institution, and of the elements ordained by Him. In Baptism (with water in the name of the Holy Trinity), we renounce Satan, repent of our sins, and adopt Jesus as our Lord and Savior. In the Holy Eucharist (with Bread and Wine), the center of our worship life, we remember and participate in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ until his coming again.
• The basis of ordained ministry is the Historic Episcopate (with bishops, priests and deacons), locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the Unity of God's Church.