Welcome to the Episcopal Church at Yale!
An extravagant welcome to The Episcopal Church at Yale! Celebrating our 150th year at Yale, ECY is both rich in tradition, and highly responsive to the radical ways in which church is changing in American life, especially among young adults. No longer a community that simply offers Episcopal worship to a small group of Yale undergraduates, we have transformed this historic ministry to respond to the needs of the twenty – first century, in which young adults are the present of the church, not its future:
- Transforming undergraduate, graduate and professional students into disciples and leaders with an adult faith;
- Training the ordained clergy of the future to minister with and to the full range of young adults from 17 – 39;
- Supporting young adult Episcopalians over 21 in the local area to re-discover and co-create a vibrant church.
In all these activities our historic focus remains unchanged, “Knowing, Loving and Serving God.”
ECY is run by and for college students and young adults, and our goal is to offer you a community in which you can grow to know, love, and serve God in whatever ways give you meaning and strength for your journey. Wherever you are on your journey, whoever you are, and whomever you love, you are welcome. For ECY, radical inclusion is God’s idea behind creating the wildly diverse human race, so we welcome all of God’s children “from every tribe, language, people and nation,” as well as from every gender expression, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, immigration status, and economic background. We seek to support all young people – undergraduates, graduate students, and young adults – as leaders of the Episcopal Church, both lay and ordained.
We do this through inspiring worship, in transforming community, and with a passion for service and justice.
Our Beliefs
We Episcopalians believe in a loving, liberating, and life-giving God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As constituent members of the Anglican Communion in the United States, we are descendants of and partners with the Church of England and the Scottish Episcopal Church, and are part of the third largest group of Christians in the world.
We believe in following the teachings of Jesus Christ, whose life, death, and resurrection saved the world.
We have a legacy of inclusion, aspiring to tell and exemplify God’s love for every human being; people of all genders serve as bishops, priests, and deacons in our church. Laypeople and clergy cooperate as leaders at all levels of our church. Leadership is a gift from God, and can be expressed by all people in our church, regardless of sexual orientation or gender.
We believe that God loves you – no exceptions.
The Episcopal Church (TEC) is a member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion based in the United States with dioceses in the Caribbean, Central and South America, Europe, Jerusalem, and Taiwan. It is a mainline Christian denomination divided into nine provinces. The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church is Michael Bruce Curry, the first African-American bishop to serve in that position.
The church, which today includes approximately 3 million members, was organized after the American Revolution, when it became separate from the Church of England. The Episcopal Church describes itself as both Protestant and Catholic, merging practices and theologies of both and developing its own unique character. The Book of Common Prayer, a collection of traditional rites, blessings, liturgies, and prayers used throughout the Anglican Communion, is central our Episcopal worship.
The Episcopal Church is part of the world-wide Anglican Communion. The Anglican Communion is one of the world’s largest Christian communities. It has tens of millions of members in more than 165 countries around the globe. Anglicanism is one of the major traditions or expressions of Christian faith. The Communion is organized into a series of provinces and extra- provincial areas. The provinces are subdivided into dioceses, and the dioceses into parishes. There are 40 provinces and, from March 2019, five extra-provincial areas. See here for a full list. Some provinces are national, others are regional. All are in communion – or a reciprocal relationship – with the See of Canterbury and recognize the Archbishop of Canterbury as the Communion’s spiritual head. But there is no central authority in the Anglican Communion. All of the provinces are autonomous and free to make their own decisions in their own ways – guided by recommendations from the four Instruments: the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference, the Primates’ Meeting and the Anglican Consultative Council.
For more information see: https://www.anglicancommunion.org/
Statement of the Episcopal Church at Yale
On the Full Inclusion of LGBTQ Persons
March 1, 2019
The Episcopal Church at Yale (ECY) is a community of extravagant welcome and full inclusion of all of God’s children, including individuals who identify as LGBTQ (lesbian, gay bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning). We are aware of the trauma which LGBTQ persons have experienced and continue to experience at the hands of various religious denominations and organizations, and seek to be agents of healing, justice and reconciliation. We are part of The Episcopal Church (TEC) which consists of 100 dioceses in the United States proper, 11 dioceses in other countries or outlying U.S. territories, and the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe. Following are some historical highlights of Episcopal Church action:
1976: The Episcopal Church declares that “homosexual persons are children of God who have a full and equal claim with all other persons upon the love, acceptance, and pastoral concern and care of the Church.”
1977: Ellen Barrett is ordained as the first openly lesbian priest. Since then, numerous openly gay and lesbian clergy have been ordained or come out of the closet.
1997: The Episcopal Church “…apologizes to its members who are gay or lesbian and to lesbians and gay men outside the Church for years of rejection and maltreatment by the Church; . . . That this Church repents of its sins committed against lesbian and gay people—physical, psychological and spiritual—through covert and overt action and inaction. We seek amendment of our life together and we ask for God’s help in sharing the Good News with all people.”
2003: Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the first openly gay bishop, is consecrated.
2012: A provisional rite of blessing for same-gender relationships is authorized, and discrimination against transgender persons in the ordination process is prohibited.
2015: The canons of the church are changed to make the rite of marriage available to all people, regardless of gender.
2018: The Episcopal Church’ approves expanding marriage rites for same-sex couples to all dioceses, including those which had continued to oppose it.
Canon law includes “gender identity or expression” in its list of persons who are assured full access to the ministry of the church. The law further specifies that administrative forms must include options for both preferred and legal names, and for gender identity and pronoun preference.
Integrity USA is a national organization working for the full inclusion of GLBTQ Episcopalians and their allies, and ECY recently partnered with several other local Episcopal churches to revive a New Haven chapter.
To our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning brothers, sisters and siblings, we say: “The Episcopal Church welcomes you!”