The Episcopal Church welcomes you.
This welcome extends across 109 Dioceses and 3 regional areas in 16 nations.
The Episcopal Church is a mainline Anglican Christian church found in the United States, Puerto Rico, Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe. There are 109 Dioceses in 16 nations. The Episcopal Church came into existence as an independent denomination after the American Revolution and is the only official church body of Anglican Christians in the United States, and recognized as such by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Anglican Communion.
The Episcopal Church...
...is one of 38 provinces (member churches) which make up the worldwide Anglican Communion. The Anglican Communion itself is an inheritor of 2000 years of catholic and apostolic tradition dating from Christ himself, rooted in the Church of England.
...is a community of Christians bound together by: our belief that Holy Scripture contains the very core of all Christian faith and thought, the many ancient and modern stories that connect us to Jesus and his teachings, discovering daily God’s hope and call to us through our life together.
...is a big, colorful, vibrant church. In our Church you may touch ancient traditions and experience intelligent inquiry. It is an expansive Church and loving Church.
The Episcopal Diocese of West Tennessee
Encompassing 21 counties from the Tennessee River on the east (which includes a small portion of Hardin County across the river) to the Arkansas/Missouri border on the west, the Episcopal Diocese of West Tennessee was incorporated in union with The General Convention of The Episcopal Church on December 31, 1982.
Though not the mother church of the diocese, Saint Luke's was the first congregation in West Tennessee, founded July 23, 1832.
There are currently more than 8,000 total baptized members worshipping in 31 congregations (including Saint Luke's) in the Episcopal Diocese of West Tennessee. Composed of both rural and urban parishes and missions, the Diocesean ministries also include Emmanuel Episcopal Center and St. Columba Conference Center. The seat of the Diocese is St. Mary's Cathedral which was consecrated in 1858 and served as a refuge during the Yellow Fever epidemics. It also played an integral part of the civil rights movement in the city in the 1960s.
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The Episcopal Church in West Tennessee invites all people, as God’s beloved, into communities of Christian Faith, Love and Service. We are a welcoming community of believers with many voices, yet one faith in Jesus Christ, united in the Book of Common Prayer, nurtured by the sacraments and empowered by the Word of God for our ministry in the world.