Episcopal Church (United States)

The Episcopal Church
The arms of the Episcopal Church includes both a St George's Cross and a St. Andrew's cross composed of nine cross crosslets
Founded	1789
Primate	Michael Curry
Polity	Episcopal
Headquarters	815 Second Avenue New York, New York United States
Territory	The United States and dioceses in Taiwan, Micronesia, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Europe
Members	3 million total adherents (2015 estimate), 1,504,273 communicant members and 1,956,042 baptized members (2014)
Website	www.episcopalchurch.org

The Episcopal Church (TEC) is the United States-based member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. It is a Christian church divided into nine provinces and has dioceses in the United States, Taiwan, Micronesia, the Caribbean, Central and South America, as well as the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe and the Navajoland Area Mission. The current presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church is Michael Bruce Curry, the first African American bishop to serve in that position.

In 2014, the Episcopal Church had 1,956,042 baptized members. In 2011, it was the nation's 14th largest denomination. In 2015, Pew Research estimated that 1.2 percent of the adult population in the United States, or 3 million people, self-identify as mainline Episcopalians/Anglicans. Along with Presbyterians, Episcopalians tend to be considerably wealthier and more educated (having more graduate and postgraduate degrees per capita) than most other religious groups in the United States, and are more disproportionately represented in the upper reaches of American business,law, and politics.

The church was organized after the American Revolution, when it became separate from the Church of England, whose clergy are required to swear allegiance to the British monarch as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. The Episcopal Church describes itself as "Protestant, yet Catholic". The Episcopal Church is an apostolic church, tracing its bishops back to the apostles via holy orders. The Book of Common Prayer (BCP), a collection of traditional rites, blessings, liturgies, and prayers used throughout the Anglican Communion, is central to Episcopal worship.