Faith Fact- How The Episcopal Church Became "Episcopal"



Many of the churches in the Anglican Communion, churches with historical ties to the Church of England, have the word "Anglican" in their name. That is not the case for The Episcopal Church.

After the American Revolution, all things connected with Britain were understandably frowned on. If our Church was to survive in America, we couldn't be the "Anglican Church of the United States of America". We had to be called something else.

Since we had bishops in our Church, we could use the term "Episcopal", derived from the Greek word for bishop. In this way, we became The Episcopal Church, a name that stated a truth about our Church and which gave some distance from England.


Tune in next time to learn more how The Episcopal Church came to have bishops.