The Episcopal Church is the American branch of the Anglican Communion. The Anglican Communion is an inheritor of 2000 years of catholic and apostolic tradition dating from Christ himself, rooted in the Church of England. When the Church of England spread throughout the British Empire, sister churches sprang up. These churches, while autonomous in their governance, are bound together by tradition, Scripture, and the inheritance they have received from the Church of England. They together make up the Anglican Communion, a body headed spiritually by the Archbishop of Canterbury and having some 70 million members, making it the second largest Christian body in the world.
The Episcopal Church came into existence as an independent denomination after the American Revolution. Today it has between two and three million members in the United States, Mexico, and Central America, all of which are under jurisdiction of the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Frank Tracy Griswold.
The Compass Rose Anglican Emblem
The emblem of this Anglican family of churches is the Compass Rose.
The compass rose in its original form is well-known to many as it has appeared on charts and maps since the 1300’s. It is the familiar north, south, east, west cross-symbol used to show direction. Its many compass points indicate the many directions of the winds.
In its Anglican form, the red cross of St. George sits on a silver shield at the center, a reminder of the origins of the Anglican Communion and a unifying link of the past within the communion today. Encircling the cross is a band bearing the inscription “The Truth shall make you free” in the original New Testament Greek. From the band radiate the points of the compass. The compass symbolizes the worldwide spread of the Anglican faith. Atop the shield is a mitre, the symbol of the Apostolic Order (the role of the Episcopate) which is essential to all the churches which constitute the Anglican Communion.
The Episcopal Shield
Several crosses appear on the shield. The large, red cross that divides the shield is a cross of St. George, the cross of the Church of England, and it represents our ties with our mother church.
There are nine small crosses in the upper left quadrant arranged in a St. Andrew's cross, the cross of the Church of Scotland. When no Anglican bishop would ordain a bishop for the fledgling Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA, bishops of the Church of Scotland agreed to lay hands on Samuel Seabury, ordaining him the first bishop of the ECUSA. This cross honors the part the Church of Scotland played in the birth of our church.
Each of the nine small crosses that comprises the St. Andrew's cross represents one of the nine dioceses that in 1789 founded the ECUSA.
The shield's layout, which is reminiscent of the American flag (the founding fathers of the ECUSA were also the founding fathers of our country), and its red, white, and blue motif signify that the ECUSA is the American representative to the Anglican Communion. The colors each have a symbolic meaning: Red is for the blood Christ shed for us and for the lives of the martyrs of our faith; White is the color of purity; Blue is the traditional color of the Virgin Mary, the mother of the Son of Man.
In the Anglican Communion:
A global community of 70 million Anglicans
in 28 member provinces
Archbishop of Canterbury:
The Most Rev. and Rt. Hon. Dr Rowan Williams
Anglican Consultative Council
Partnership House
157 Waterloo Road
London England
