Apropos the discussion on denominational demographics, I was thinking about another feature of the Episcopal Church… Of the people I know and hang out with–particularly online–I can think of very few cradle Episcopalians. Let’s think…
* I was Lutheran
* M was Presbyterian, then Methodist
* Anastasia was Conservative Evangelical
* The Twins were Methodist (then headed off to Rome after their Anglican stint)
* *Christopher was Pentecost than Catholic
* Gaunilo was Fundamentalist
* Texanglican was–something else (Baptist?)
* I don’t know what bls was raised–not Episcopal I think
Only a few remain as potential cradle Episcopalians (Caelius, Annie, etal.)

I wonder what this means or could mean for us as a church. On one hand, it means that we lack a certain institutional history. We are in danger of not knowing the whole story and of missing important parts of the heritage and tradition. Like…it’s easy for us to think Anglican=sacramental. But…how often did average non-Anglo-Catholic Episcopal churches celebrate Mass on Sundays; wasn’t Morning Prayer the normal Sunday service until this prayer book?

On the other hand we’re more likely to have convert-zeal. This is, of course, most common in Orthodox and Catholic converts, especally since zeal has some un-Episcopalian connotations. It might make you sweat on your seer-sucker suit, for instance–and we can’t have that…

I don’t know. I don’t have anything profound to say about it–I’m just wondering. How is this both a challenge and an opportunity? And if it is an opportunity, what do we do with it?