A church in the heart of the city, with a heart for the city

For America 250, Episcopal leaders reject nostalgia, lift up church’s prophets

July 01, 2026

[Episcopal News Service] If you ask New York Bishop Matthew Heyd for his two cents on how The Episcopal Church should mark the United States’ 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, you might well get 25 cents’ worth — as in one of the Pauli Murray commemorative quarters he keeps in a bag near his desk. “Pauli Murray is this extraordinary expression of all the things we’re talking about in terms of moving toward her ideals, both as a church and as a country,” Heyd explained. “Her life embodied this dialogue that we’re having [now] between our faith and our civic ideals.” This year, as the nation celebrates America 250, Heyd and other Episcopal leaders say the anniversary is a time to examine the nation’s and the church’s origin stories; a time for truth-telling and accountability, and for the church and the nation to live into their founding principles of liberty, justice, equality and respect for the dignity of every human being. “There’s no time better than this time for the church to claim who it is as church and to be that voice that holds the nation accountable to its lofty vision of appreciating the equality and dignity of every human being,” the Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas, Washington National Cathedral’s canon theologian, said. The 2024 commemorative quarter, issued as part of the American Women Quarters program, depicts the Rev. Pauli Murray, civil rights activist, co-founder of the National Organization for Women and the first Black woman ordained an Episcopal priest, on the reverse side. The obverse side depicts George Washington, the first president of the United States of America, who was also an Episcopalian. The quarter is a potent pocket-sized symbol that not only references the nation’s and church’s shared histories but also hints at what the church is being called to do moving forward – and who will do it – at this particular moment in time. Like Heyd, Brown Douglas and Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe mentioned Murray and her legacy, as well as those who engaged in similar work, when asked which part of the church’s past gives them hope for the future. The front side of the coin: Change was made First, though, what exactly is that past? Here’s a brief primer on the early years of The Episcopal Church in the context of America’s beginnings, drawn from both “A History of the Episcopal Church,” by Robert W. Prichard and the online Archives of The Episcopal Church. On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, officially severing ties with Great Britain. Thirty-four of the 56 signers were members of the Church of England, from which The Episcopal Church would split after the American Revolution. Among the points of contention: Clergy were required to swear loyalty to the king in their ordinations, and the Book of Common Prayer in use at the time included prayers for the British monarch. These expressions of support, and the deep divisions they caused, made it clear that the church, like the country, needed to make a formal break. In 1782, William White, rector of St. Peter’s and Christ Church in Philadelphia, who had been serving as chaplain to the Continental Congress since 1777, published “The Case of The Episcopal Church in the United States Considered.” It laid out a plan for the new Episcopal Church, which would be composed of both ordained and lay leadership: the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies. On Sept. 3, 1783, Great Britain formally recognized the U.S. as a sovereign nation by signing the Treaty of Paris. A group of 10 clergy in Connecticut elected the Rev. Samuel Seabury their bishop, but Church of England bishops refused to ordain him because English law would require him to take an oath of allegiance to the crown. Seabury was consecrated the first bishop of The Episcopal Church in Aberdeen, Scotland, by three nonjuring Scottish bishops on Nov. 14, 1784, establishing the American episcopate. The first General Convention of The Episcopal Church took place in Philadelphia from Sept. 27 to Oct. 7, 1785. Among the agenda items: officially adopting the name “The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America,” authorizing the preparation of an American Book of Common Prayer and drafting a General Ecclesiastical Constitution. In June 1786, British Parliament passed legislation that provided for the consecration of three bishops for the American church. The following February, William White and Samuel Provoost were consecrated bishops in Lambeth Palace Chapel by the archbishop of Canterbury. At its third General Convention, July 28 to Aug. 8, 1789, The Episcopal Church approved its Constitution, setting in place the organizational framework that still exists today and marking its formal split with the Church of England. For much of the next two centuries, the church and the U.S. government – forged in the same crucible of liberty – grew in parallel, facing the challenges of the day, including slavery, equal rights for women and LGBTQ+ rights. And, as exercises in representational government often do, The Episcopal Church made its share of missteps, including, but far from limited to, failing to take a stand against slavery in the run-up to the Civil War and refusing to ordain women priests until the Philadelphia Eleven forced the issue in 1974. A formal apology for slavery would not be issued until the 2006 General Convention. “Yes, we were at the table,” Rowe said, regarding the intertwined origin stories. “We have 11 presidents, 34 of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. George Washington was an Episcopalian. That ultimately became an important force in our development. At one point, it was our goal and part of our mission strategy to be the national church.” That, Rowe explained, was how Washington National Cathedral, chartered in 1893, came to exist. “‘Our idea was that we would sort of represent the Christian ideals of the […]