How did the Episcopal Church get started?
There have been Anglicans in what was to become the United States since the establishment of the first English colony at Jamestown. Following the American Revolution, some reorganization was necessary for those Anglicans who chose to remain in the new country, as the Church of England is a state church which recognizes the monarch as her secular head (obviously, not a popular idea in post-Revolutionary America!). Thus the “Protestant” Episcopal Church of the U.S.A. was born (the word “Protestant,” used to distinguish the Episcopal Church from the Roman Catholic Church, which is also “episcopal” in its organization, has since been dropped from the official title). There were some rocky periods, especially in the early days of the church, when bishops of the established Church of England were reluctant to consecrate new bishops who would not recognize the reigning monarch as the head of the church. That’s all water under the bridge, however, and the Episcopal Church is now fully “in comm
