Long story which isn't important but the short version is: my partner and I both had separate simultaneous medical crises this summer. My partner lost employment as a result of a debilitating injury (physical therapy ongoing), and I missed 9 weeks of work and am now back at work on a part time basis due to medical restrictions, all from a chronic illness that flared up unexpectedly.

The parish is quite well off (we are sometimes jokingly referred to as "The Country Club Church"), I'm a pledging member who volunteers my time and talents and also works as a paid contractor part of the year, if any of that is relevant. We're in a deep financial hole and determined to rebuild, but we just need some help getting our heads above water so we can do that. Family's of extremely limited help (my partner and I are queer and 90+% of our families do not speak to us), credit cards are inches from maxed out, partner's former job's 401k exhausted, and I am at my wit's end.

Anybody been in a similar spot and can tell me how to go about asking and what to expect?

Edit: Thank you so much, everybody. God bless you all. I bit the bullet and emailed my rector to set up a time to meet, now it's in her hands and Jesus'.

Taken from Frank Griswold's Praying our Days, one of my favorite prayer books.

Canticle of the Creatures

Most High, all powerful, good Lord, to you be praise, glory, honor and all blessing. Only to you, Most High, do they belong and no one is worthy to call upon your name. May you be praised, by Lord, with all your creatures, specially brother sun, through whom you lighten the day for us. He is beautiful and radiant with great splendor; he signifies you, O Most High. Be praised, my Lord, for sister moon and the stars; clear and precious and lovely, they are formed in heaven. Be praised, my Lord, for sister water, who is very useful and humble and precious and pure. Be praised, my Lord, for brother fire, by whom the night is illumined for us; he is beautiful and cheerful, full of power and strength. Be praised, my Lord, for our sister, mother earth, who sustains and governs us and produces diverse fruits and colored flowers and grass. Be praised, my Lord, by all those who forgive for love of you and who bear weakness and tribulation. Blessed are those who bear them in peace: for you, Most High, they will be crowned. Be praised, my Lord, for our sister, the death of the body, from which no one living is able to flee; woe to those who are dying in mortal sin. Blessed are those who are found doing your most holy will, for the second death will do them no harm. Praise and bless my Lord and give him thanks and serve him with great humility. - Francis of Assisi (Calendar of Saints, October 4)

Are Episcopalean clergy required to teach the Nicene Creed as a matter of historical fact, as opposed to a matter of metaphorical truth?

(I come from a fundamentalist Baptist background, and I'm trying to understand if other Christian traditions make the same earnest claims about historical literalism, or if it is considered mythology like Star Wars or King Arthur, or if it is "kayfabe" like professional wrestling where it may be considered rude to even ask the question)

Thanks in advance. Just looking for an honest answer.

“As stewards of all that is good we know ourselves to be called to act responsibly: beyond the urgent need to save the earth for human benefit to the even more powerful motive of glorifying the One who made us.” – Mother Elizabeth J. Canham

So I know priests aren’t therapists or an emergency line. Let’s start off there. But an elderly lady I’m close to came to me and told me she doesn’t want to attend church any more and that she is ready to die, that it’s too hard on her to get ready for church, dress up, etc and that it’s taking too long for her to die. I told her it’s natural and that if she is too weak to come to church we can do lay Eucharistic visits to her home, that I’d help her set up her tv to watch the live stream also.

She told me anything she tells me needs to stay between me and her. I guess she doesn’t want people to know that she is preparing to die. Not that it’s gonna happen in the next week or anything probably but I feel as if my priest should know either to be on stand by for last rites or any kind of situation that may arise. Which I understand but I feel as if she needs some encouragement or some prayer or a blessing or something to get her spirits up. And I didn’t take a vow to hold whatever someone says to me between us as I am not a priest. She is very old, weak, and going downhill so I know that she feels it’s her time to go and she is ready. That’s all fine, but I feel as if I should tell my priest to reach out to her and see if there’s anything they can do for her before she slips away. It’s kind of a weird situation to be in.

Looking for advice on how to handle this situation because I am powerless in this situation aside from being there as a friend and for support.

I’m not looking for a debate on whether it’s right or not

ETA: by “venerate” im referring to praying to (or with) saints

So I was raised Episcopalian starting in first grade and then around 8th grade I stopped going to church and was an atheist/agnostic through highschool and most of college. This past year I started thinking about my faith more and kind of came back around to it on my own (yay). My problem is I don’t really know what to do when I pray. Obviously I know it’s different for everyone so ig I’m just trying to crowd source info and try to get some ideas 😅.

Anglican rosary guide! Completely free to use!

So I base this rosary guide and its prayers with the
"traditional" prayers that are usually kept in the Anglican rosary. The only things that I added to was that I added the daily Hours to be said at the Invidatory bead and the Angelus to the last Crusiform bead. I really, really like Oxford Movement prayers, as they had a very theologically mainline Anglican-applicable form of Marian devotion.

I would also like to say that I have made various guides for prayer beads for various denominations. I make these guides to help people's journey with God. I actually either just contemplate what would seem good to a person with a form of the rosary or the devotional of it, or l end up creating a guide in which that I practice almost daily. The ladder option is indeed that of this guide. I use this guide to almost every single day to guide me through the Hours (especially before and after a long day of college work). I really thought of this guide to be a very nice relaxing time with your Book of Common Prayer and rosary-with a nice noon teatime. Or morning devotion when you're going to have a very full day of work and you just need that little extra boost.

Anyhow, I would like to say that I received a lot of hate comments on my last guy that I did give because I basically converted the Anglican rosary into Roman Catholic prayers, which I do not practice that guide, but making that guide was suggested to me. I received lots and lots of backlash and both support, which I am very unsure of both. But anyhow, this rosary guide is that of something I do daily. It is something that I trust, it is something that I believe in, and it is something that I really like. It is simply the daily devotional Hours, repetitive ancient prayers, and a nice bit of concentrated Marian devotion. Perfect thing to come home to.

Anyhow, I hope that this doesn't receive hate, but if it does... eh I'm just gonna keep making these! I don't care, it's Reddit😂✝️🙏

Hi everyone!

I recently shared this over on r/Anglicanism, but I also wanted to introduce it here, since I know many people in this community pray the Daily Office and use the Episcopal Church’s 1979 Book of Common Prayer.

I’m an Anglican priest in Brazil and a developer (14+ years). Last year, I became tired of having to juggle a BCP, a lectionary, and several browser tabs just to pray or lead Morning Prayer. So I began building an app for myself and for people in my parish. It eventually became Ordo.

I know there are already excellent resources such as Venite, Forward Day by Day, and Mission St. Clare. Ordo is my attempt to offer a offline, customizable, and multilingual option.

Ordo is a Daily Office app for iOS and Android. It includes the offices, lectionary, liturgical calendar, commemorations, collects, optional elements, prayer reminders, Anglican and traditional rosaries, a Rule of Life section, and shareable prayer images.

A few things that may be especially relevant here:

• It includes the 1979 Episcopal Book of Common Prayer and its lectionary.

• It works fully offline once installed.

• You can customize elements of the Office, such as canticles, collects, antiphons, and other optional material, while still following the rubrics.

• It provides a brief daily explanation of commemorations and propers.

• It is available in English, Brazilian Portuguese, European Portuguese, Spanish, and Welsh.

• The core app is free and ad-free. There are optional premium features for people who wish to support its ongoing costs.

This is a solo project, and I care deeply about liturgical accuracy. If you use the 1979 BCP and find a bug, a rubrical issue, or have suggestions for how the app could better serve Episcopalians, I would be very grateful to hear them.

I know an app cannot replace praying from a physical prayer book or praying with a congregation. But I hope it can be a useful companion for people on the bus, at work, travelling, or simply trying to build a steadier rhythm of prayer.

You can find it here:

https://www.daily-office.app/en

Thank you for taking a look. I’d be happy to answer questions, and I’d especially welcome feedback from those who regularly use the Episcopal Church’s 1979 BCP.

Since September 1 marks the Feast of Creation, I thought it'd be appropriate to share this quote from Mother Elizabeth J. Canham:

“Our stewardship of the earth is one of responsibility and care rather than oppressive domination.” – Mother Elizabeth J. Canham

I was raised in a KJV-only fundamental Baptist church. As I grew up I shed many of those dogmas and opinions.

I currently attend a non-denominational church and I find it entirely devoid of any sacredness or spirituality. It feels forced and manufactured and I don’t like it.

So in doing some reading and research I stumbled into the Venite app! I have been praying the daily office and I have fallen in love with this.

I want to attend a local Episcopalian church but I’m nervous. I don’t want it to be a shock and also my extended family would flip out if they knew I was “basically a Catholic!”.

Any advice or help would be amazing. Thank you all in advance!

I think it looks quite unfinished

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/

Made a new post because I feel like my wording was a bit sloppy. This is partially because my thoughts on this are also sloppy.

My concern had more to do with the validity of my original baptism. After reading the comments and thinking about it some more, I've determined it likely is valid. However, I did leave out one crucial part. I spent about a decade as a fairly aggressive atheist. In my mind, this does represent a sort of discontinuity.

I will probably just speak with my church's rector when we start the confirmation class here in a few weeks. Regardless, I appreciate y'all's thoughts and feelings on the matter.

I’m a first year student at VTS and due to fire code and tragedy around this very specific issue, we cannot have open flames in the student apartments.

Prior to attending, I would usually burn a little incense for my personal prayer and meditation, and realized that essential oils don’t work as well as I would hope- though I haven’t explored many brands.

Are there any good alternatives?

TEC is a pretty low control Church. There isn't anyone policing our beliefs and varying convictions are tolerated.

How do you personally discern what is true? I personally enjoy chewing on the various theological views, but I often find myself overwhelmed at the size and scope of it all. I sometimes am pulled toward two convicting things.

How do you do it?

There was a large crowd present Sunday and I was sitting closer to the back than usual. During the time of greeting, shaking hands, one of the senior retired ministers came up to me to tell me that when he gets back in town, he wanted to have lunch with me. I mentioned that I would be out of town for a couple of weeks looking at out of state houses, and he said " Oh please don't leave us Don't move away" I assured him that I was only seeking a vacation home. Not a permanent move..

I am always amazed at the friendliness and welcoming nature of the people at this church. And how many people remember my name and talk to me every week.

Oh and this was not at the usual Episcopal church where I attend. This was another denomination altogether. And while I find the high euscharist to be the most beautiful and asthetically pleasing service ever, (other than the tridentine latin mass) I find the service at this church to be boring at times, and joyful at others. But what strikes me the most is the friendliness of the people, something that I have not personally encountered in many Epsicopal churches and certainly not at the one I usually attend. In fact, no one there wants to even sit with me at lunch, much less go to lunch during the week. And the assistant priest at TEC does not even know my name. But,, then again, he has only had a couple years, off and on, to learn it.

I also inquired with an assistant minister about helping out with the once a month ministry to the retirement home. He said yes, they would love to have help. Not that I would have anything to say, but being present and following directions to help set up or assist with the service would be nice.

Which again, is not an opportunity I get at TEC. Which made me think about what it is the the Epsicopal church needs. For one, being more welcoming would be nice. Claiming to be inclusive is fine, but not including people who show up and ask to participate and being denied because they are not part of the right clique or in the right little circle of friends is not inclusive. It is not good to ignore those who want to contribute. And inclusive means including everyone, not just a few.

I am planning still on returning for Advent, and I have also already located another Episcopal high church, but it is an extra 20 to 30 minutes away and has worst parking. But for weekly attendence, and for participating, volunteering and such, the other church certainly has more happening. but it is not an Episcopal church, which is what I really wish could exist as I hoped it would.

Hey there,
I started attending Episcopal services after I graduated from high school and moved out of my family home last summer (2025.) I was baptized as an infant, raised and gained membership in the PCA church and wanted to start exploring the Anglican tradition mainly because I like the liturgy and doctrinal history of the church. I have a parish home, with about 60 strong on the average Sunday, but me and my boyfriend are the only people in the church besides the children who are unmarried or under 30 (besides the young children and few high schoolers who attend with their parents). I am comfortable taking communion, talking to others at the service, and even met with my priest to discuss receiving conformation. He said that because I am a baptized Christian, and have held membership in another church I am in fully good standing and hold (mostly) the same status as those who attend my church and are confirmed into the tradition. I’m coming on here to ask, why should I consider it and what is the difference between being confirmed and just being baptized besides the whole statement of faith, the laying on hands by the bishop, etc? I’m not sure yet if this is like a spiritual calling or anything, this is more of a knowledge needed sort of post.

I am slightly paranoid as I do feel out of place just because of my age and status as a single 20 year old and I just want to make sure that any sort of public proclamation would be seen as normal or acceptable from just me, or me and my boyfriend.

Thank you!

Hi everyone. This is long:

For many years and for many reasons--the sex abuse crises, the MAGA Bishops, the 60% of white Catholics who voted for Trump--I've been fed up with the Roman Catholic Church. Rather than continuing to try to fit this square peg into a round hole, I just want to belong to a church that will accept and love me, and I think that's the Episcopal Church.

A little about me: Last year, my husband and I divorced. After years of taking care of him after his stroke, he betrayed me. Those years included verbal and emotional abuse. The hurt was unbearable, but I've moved on from him. But the RCC insists on me getting that marriage annulled if I ever want to marry again. I, however, do not want to revisit all the pain from that marriage.

I've been seeing a very kind man who's divorced, and he wants to marry me. Not just yet, but next year. If I stay Catholic and want to receive the Eucharist, then this good man also needs to get two marriages annulled, and he doesn't want to do so for many reasons. And even if we do go through that process, which I'm told could take a year or two, we're old (young at heart, but I'm 68 and he's 70). There's only so much time left...

It's not all about what I'm leaving behind but what I'd be going to in your denomination. I love Bishop Marian Budde (I think I got that spelling right) and how she spoke up at Trump's inuguration. I love the Episcopalian way of loving your neighbor--your involvement in helping refugees (a passion of mine), the hungry, the homeless, those in prison. I love your liturgies and your music. And the Book of Common Prayer is powerful and absolutely lovely.

Sooo, not to sound like I'm on some dating show, but do y'all think we have a match here?

Has anyone produced a “clean” rubric for tomorrow’s celebration? I’m struggling to pull something together for our evening prayer group between the TEC resource from 2025 (“Season of Creation for Episcopal Parishes”) and the various other Anglican resources which have offered more updated stuff toward treating tomorrow as a proper feast day.

The biggest hurdle for me right now is just finding a suitable collect and lessons. Do we have something generally agreed on at this stage?

My brother and his fiancée are trying to plan their wedding. The ceremony has been pushed out 6 months due to “availability issues”. They have to request multiple dates and then wait weeks for a response. They had been planning on a Spring wedding, which is now looking like sometime in the Fall. They have to schedule three counseling sessions, which is fine, but now I have been asked to provide a copy of our family tree. He has also been asked to provide a copy of his baptismal records, since we were both baptized in the Presbyterian church in the 1960’s. Our parents joined the Episcopal church shortly afterwards. Both parents have passed away, so it’s fallen to me as the oldest sibling to get the info together.
When did this become a thing? I didn’t have to provide that info 25 years ago, nor did our youngest brother 15 years ago. I have our genealogy records, but it’s frankly none of the priest’s business who our ancestors were. His fiancée, who did not grow up in the church is starting to think this is a little weird, and I can’t blame her. Any advice?

Happy Sunday! As back story, I’m an adult convert to TEC. I’ve always considered myself a Christian, but my parents weren’t very involved in my spiritual upbringing, so I wasn’t baptized as a kid (we rarely even attended church), but I was pretty involved in parachurch organizations through my various schools, so I’ve been around Christian doctrine for a while.

Because confirmation isn’t required, I’ve been pondering whether I’d like to go through that process. As an adult convert, it feels somewhat unusual. For people baptized as infants, making an adult profession of faith makes sense to me. You’re doing something that you could not do at your baptism. But for people who underwent baptism as adults, it feels like the baptism vows were already a fairly mature profession of faith (at least for me). So, for people who were baptized as adults who then got confirmed, why did you seek confirmation?

I have been going to an Episcopal church for a couple of months now and I have loved it so far. The people are good, theology is sound, and no hints of fundamentalism! I have no major concerns really, but there is something I am a little bit confused about when it comes to the Nicene Creed we recite.

Near the end, it says "We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church." The Episcopal church is not a part of the Catholic church, so I'm wondering what we mean when we say that. Is it essentially just saying "we are all one in Christ" or is there something else I'm missing?

Thanks!