And otherwise what would it take for there to be a denomination named Church of America. Yes, I know that flies in the face of the First Amendment, but just being named that doesn't mean the government actually recognizes it in any way, also see how there's a Bank of America that has nothing to do with the central bank concept that Andrew Jackson and generations of early U.S. politicians fought against.
Why isn't the Episcopal Church called the Church of America?
- Thread starter Strategos' Risk
- Start date
Probably because the Pilgrim Fathers went off into the wilderness to get away from the Church of England to start with.
Yeah, but the Episcopalians were not Pilgrims; why should they care what a particular sect of Puritans (whom they strongly opposed anyway) thought? OTOH they were probably worried about the howls of outrage from all the other Protestant churches if they tried to appropriate that name.
Wiki tells me that the Anglican Church of Canada as officially known as "the Church of England in Canada" until 1955.
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Besides the politics of calling themselves the "Church of America" or "Church of the United States" when they didn't actually command the allegiance of most of the population and weren't established in most states, there was the additional factor that there was a ready at hand example of a branch of the Anglican Communion (not that it was called that yet) that wasn't established and had to operate in a somewhat hostile environment: the Scottish Episcopal Church. Especially significantly, the Scots also consecrated the first Episcopal bishop (as the Church of England initially refused due to the Oath of Supremacy), so there was a substantial nexus between them and the Scots.
Practically speaking, also, one of the distinguishing characteristics of the Episcopal Church early in the history of Christianity in the United States was its episcopal governance, i.e. its use of bishops leading provinces with parishes tended by priests rather than the more laity-led organizations of particularly the Puritan-related groups (at least on paper, in practice every church in the United States ended up being highly lay-influenced for both practical and cultural reasons). Calling themselves the Episcopal Church meant that you knew what you were getting into.
Practically speaking, also, one of the distinguishing characteristics of the Episcopal Church early in the history of Christianity in the United States was its episcopal governance, i.e. its use of bishops leading provinces with parishes tended by priests rather than the more laity-led organizations of particularly the Puritan-related groups (at least on paper, in practice every church in the United States ended up being highly lay-influenced for both practical and cultural reasons). Calling themselves the Episcopal Church meant that you knew what you were getting into.
What @Workable Goblin said.
Also, Church of X at that point meant the Established Church of that country.
Note that the Church of Scotland was Presbyterian, NOT Anglican, for instance.
Also, Church of X at that point meant the Established Church of that country.
Note that the Church of Scotland was Presbyterian, NOT Anglican, for instance.
Yes, that's probably the closest answer. The full name is "The Episcopal Church In the United States". Note the use of "in" rather than "of". "Of" denotes association with the state, "in" simply means they're located there. To us in the 21st century, that distinction might seem trivial but it was of immense importance to make that distinction back then, especially when the Episcopal Church had to work very hard to avoid being associated with the English monarchy after the War of Independence.
A similar example would be how Louis Philippe I took a big step in renaming his title from "King of France" to "King of the French". The slight change in wording represented a massive difference in how the monarch derived his legitimacy - the first from divine right and personal ownership of the country, and the second from the will of the people.
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Not only that, but at the same time the Anglican Church in the US was losing ground to the Methodist Episcopal Church (the original Methodist denomination in the US, the originator of the "Episcopal Church" phrase in this country, and the de facto national church during this period as a result of the Evangelical revivals from people like Charles Whitfield and John Wesley), while in Boston the Unitarian reforms tearing apart the Congregational church even affected King's Chapel (after a good portion of its original congregation left), to the point where it modified the Book of Common Prayer to accommodate Unitarian theology. So the Episcopal Church (later incorporated officially as the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America) was already in an inferior position to begin with, as the Methodists almost supplanted it - so the Scottish connection (which was trying to heal around this time from a big-time schism) was a major lifeline.
I suppose an actual Church of America would be some sort of LDS/Seventh Day Adventist/Christian Science/Jehovah's Witnesses native U.S. inspired sect.
Just why didn't the British ever establish a Church of American prior to the Revolution?
Just why didn't the British ever establish a Church of American prior to the Revolution?
What if the Methodists just claimed the mantle of Church of U.S.
What would be the point of calling it that? It would have no affiliation with the Federal Government, or any claim to being a dominant denomination. From it's beginning the United States was religiously diverse, and the Revolution put an end to the idea of an official national church. Calling themselves that would only be divisive, and provoke more hostility toward them. They'd be trying to tie their denomination to American Nationalism, and there were just too many Free Thinkers who would resent that. They might call themselves the Episcopal Church of America, to emphasize their break with England. That would be more acceptable to the average person.
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For the dual reasons that the Anglican Church in the colonies was wholly subject to the Church of England (there were not even bishops in the colonies, they were all in England) and that a large proportion of the population, especially in New England, was composed of anti-Anglican Protestants and would have been (and was!) outraged by the idea that Parliament would establish the Anglican Church in the colonies. Rumors about the Church of England sending over a bishop or establishing itself actually played a (small) role leading up the Revolution. Basically it would have enflamed the colonies and quite possibly started a war for little gain.
Makes sense, although these days, as far as the LDS bit goes, it would probably these days resemble the RLDS/Community of Christ, making it a bog-standard mainline Protestant church with a colorful past.
Officially, the Bishop of London was responsible for the C of E in all of the North American colonies, so no "Church of America" was needed. It only really started to change, in that case, with the formation of the Diocese of Nova Scotia, which was the first time a diocese had been set up outside of the Bishop of London's jurisdiction. (The Diocese of Nova Scotia, it should be pointed out, would eventually become part of the Anglican Church of Canada, which until recently has its official French translation literally mean "the Episcopal Church (of Canada)" (= l'Église episcopale), for what it's worth.) Once the precedent was set, it could be possible to create more diocese/provinces that were not dependent on the Bishop of London, though it had to take the Revolution to force it - so in the meantime, you had prayers and exhortations for the Americans to eventually see reason and get back to their senses, growing ever more despairing as it went on.
At the time, as part of the general evangelical revival and all that, there was no need to be that explicit in their territorial jurisdiction (since until the Revolution, Methodists were still officially considered part of the C of E - Wesley and Whitfield themselves were still ordained Anglican ministers throughout Methodism's early beginnings). They would have found a bit too pretentious to go that far, even though that's what it basically would be de facto.
The Anglican Church was established in the southern colonies, IIRC.
The British had a number of different colonies in the Americas and not all necessarily supposed Anglicanism.
I feel like the American characteristic of the First Amendment making anyone leery of declaring anything that even sounds like an established church (despite American religiosity being relatively higher than most other western nations) aside, perhaps a Church of America / Church of United States could have been created similarly. By multiple lesser denominations merging together and rebranding as such. Maybe in one of those fits of revival, like during a Great Awakening.
Looking at the composition of the UCC, those all sound like mainline WASP denominations, the type that are quickly dwindling and declining today, too liberal and soft-hearted to attract more fervent believers. Maybe mainline churches could seek a merger to boost each other's numbers, especially as theological differences also fall away.
United Church of States.
After several changes over the years, the Episcopal Church is now officially named the "Episcopal Church in the United States of America" (ECUSA). Prior to the Revolution the Church was simply the Church of England (CoE), with its official head the reigning British Monarch. This simply wouldn't do for a church in a newly independent republic with a strong distaste for monarchy and a Constitution that forbade both titles of nobility and an established church. If it weren't for the fact that a large number of the Founding Fathers, including three of the first four elected presidents, as well as other influential and wealthy cultural, intellectual, and economic leaders in the new nation shared a strong adherence to the forms of CoE worship and hierarchical "episcopal" structure as well as to Anglican intellectual traditions, its probable that the remnants of the CoE in the US would have been eventually subsumed into Methodism, Presbyterianism, or other relatively moderate Protestant sects sharing an origin in the British Isles. Frankly, its hard to imagine the former CoE surviving in the US without having "episcopal" as important part of its name. More than anything else, it was adherence to the belief that the Church of England (and its American offshoot) had an unbroken pattern of apostolic succession of ordained Bishops gong back to the early Church in Rome that defined it. Perhaps "American Episcopal Church" or "Episcopal Protestant Church of America" may have worked.
Today, a name such as "Anglican Church in the United States" might nicely sum up what the Episcopal church could alternatively be known as today, since that is essentially what it is: the sole branch of the Anglican Communion in the United States formally recognized by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Today, a name such as "Anglican Church in the United States" might nicely sum up what the Episcopal church could alternatively be known as today, since that is essentially what it is: the sole branch of the Anglican Communion in the United States formally recognized by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
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Even before the first amendment the colonies were not universally Anglican There was no established church overall so it could not be called by thje term used for established churches.
The Church of Ireland was officially established, which is why it's called that. A church in America could never be officially established so it wasn't called the Church of America or any variation therein
The United Church of Canada isn’t established but perhaps they just called it as a modern affectation.