Religion and beliefs have been fundamental to human society, it allows people to connect spiritually with the divine and to purify the souls. In the history of humans and religion, political and theological conflicts are often evident.
There is one authority in all religions who preaches the values of divinity, these people consider themselves as messengers of God. Conversion from one religion into another is basic human practice which has been performed from years ago, it is completely optional and depends on the person who wants to get converted to another religion.
Conversion of religion is done mainly due to influence of other religion’s practices, or sometimes due to political reasons. Christianity is the most practiced religion in the world and thus very influential.
Christianity has different values than that of other religions. It has been used politically as well during the times when colonisation was in trend.
Key Takeaways
- The Episcopalian Church, also known as the Episcopal Church, is part of the Anglican Communion and shares some similarities with the Catholic Church.
- Episcopalians and Catholics adhere to apostolic succession, the sacraments, and the Nicene Creed but differ in governance, liturgical practices, and certain theological beliefs.
- The Episcopalian Church allows for more flexibility regarding women’s ordination, married clergy, and LGBTQ+ inclusion, whereas the Catholic Church maintains more conservative stances.
Episcopalian vs Catholic
The difference between episcopalian and catholic is the difference of their practices and beliefs. Both are major part of Christianity but yet have differences of practice, belief and ideas.
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Comparison Table
| Parameters of Comparison | Epsicopalian | Catholic |
|---|---|---|
| Authority | No popes, only bishops and priests. | Have centralized authority of the pope. |
| Women | Allows women to be priests. | Does not allow women to be priests. |
| Confessions | Not necessary | mandatory |
| Birth control | allows | Does not allow |
| Marriage of priest | allows | Does not allow |
What is Episcopalian?
Episcopalian is the anglian communion who consider themselves as both catholic and protestant. They consider themselves as catholic because they believe in understanding the old churches, and call themselves protestant as they are open to reformation or renewal.
Episcopalian beliefs in baptism with water in the name of father and of the son and the holy spirit makes one member of the one holy catholic apostolic church. The history of episcopalian churches can be traced back to the 16th century where the Church of England broke away from roman catholic church due to political and theological issues.
Episcopalians have different practices and beliefs than that of catholics. They do not believe in one authority of the pope.
Thus there is no pope in episcopalian churches. Episcopalians let priests and bishops to marry whenever they want and to whomever they want to marry.
There is no practice of celibacy seen in episcopalians. One of the important and distinctive features of episcopalian churches is that they let people play a major and important role in decision making.
Making confessions has always been important ritual of christanity and so is in episcopalian churches but there is no mandatory rule in episcopalians, it is totally optional to make confessions. Episcopalian believe that Jesus Christ is a messiah who came as a sacrifice for sins of human beings to put them right with god.
Founder of episcopalians is Jesus Christ st.Augustine (1st archbishop of canterbury) converted the english people in the fourth century. According to episcopalians priests are mere illustrations of what God wants them to be.they even question the authority of pope in Christianity.
What is Catholic?
Catholic is a Christian belief. Catholicism is a branch of Christianity. The catholic church is one of the largest and important of all churches.
Their major believe in one god, he is almighty, maker of earth and heaven, creator of all living and nonliving things, and creator of all visible and invisible things. Catholics consider themselves as the main and original ascender or follower of Jesus Christ and it is believed that it was catholic who preserved bible and other religious writings for centuries through monasteries and libraries.
Sacrament confessions have been an important practice of Catholics, they believe that it is practice introduced by Jesus himself and importance of confessions is also mentioned in the bible. Catholic unlike episcopalians, have the authority of the pope over universal church.
They believe in the idea of the bishop of rome. And have centralized authority.
Catholic life has an important place for praying to saints and asking them for their guidance and protection.
They believe that saints are patrons of their routine activities. Catholic churches give communion to only those who are part of the church.
This also implies that the person has to be catholic if they want to be part of church. Catholics do not allow the practice of birth control, marriage of priests or popes (practice of celibacy prevails), nor they allow women to be pope or priests.
Main Differences Between Episcopalian and Catholic
- Episcopalian let women be priests or bishops (sometimes) but catholic do not allow women to be pope or priests.
- Episcopalians do not believe in the authority of the pope and thus they have bishops, whereas catholics have centralisation and thus have pope.
- Episcopalians believe in the marriage of priests or bishops but Catholics do not let popes aor priests marry.
- Episcopalians allow methods of birth control but catholics do not appreciate this practice.
- In episcopalians practice of sacramental confessions is not necessary but in catholics it is mandatory.
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Chara Yadav holds MBA in Finance. Her goal is to simplify finance-related topics. She has worked in finance for about 25 years. She has held multiple finance and banking classes for business schools and communities. Read more at her bio page.
