I invite you to help me identify the best items in the list of "365 Reasons to Be an Episcopalian/Anglican" below. Please use this format:

Please return your responses to Louie Crew lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu by December 1, 2002. Crew will give a donation of $100 to Episcopal Relief and Development in the name of the author of the item most frequently chosen.

Note: these items appear with authors' names at http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/365plus.html. Please do not look for authors' names until after you have mailed your 10 choices. Thank you for your assistance.

1. I can pass the Creed with a lie detector, but rejoice that the Episcopal Church does not require one!
2. Where God loves you before you decide whether you love Her.
3. Where God uses your face for Her own.
4. Worship God in the beauty of holiness.
5. Desmond Tutu is one of our bishops.
6. Discover why 'Holy! Holy! Holy!' is one of our most popular hymns.
7. Where God continues to become flesh and shows up in those deemed the least!
8. However you like to worship, there are Episcopalians who like doing it that way too.
9. Where Manna is baked fresh daily, never freeze dried!
10. Where you don't have to hang up your brain up at the door.
11. Honor the forgotten first commandment. Love God with your mind.
12. A safe place for sinners, like the rest of us.
13. Where God forgives you as you forgive others.
14. Where the word of God is a person, not a book.
15. Day after day rendering enemies blood kin at the Eucharist.
16. Eat the food of angels!
17. Take time to be whole!
18. Where the bible is taken seriously, not literally.
19. Where that which had grown old is being made new!
20. Where faith is God's gift to us, not our gift to God.
21. In the Episcopal Church doubt is so okay that we name some parishes 'St. Thomas.'
22. Ministering in the lesbigay community for 27 years.
23. Where flesh is not something dirty, but what God became!
24. Peculiar honors to our King!
25. Where the only requirement at Communion is that you be hungry!
26. It's God's table, not our own. If you don't come, we may not be the Church.
27. Resisting fundamentalism since 1785!
28. Things which had been cast down are being raised up!
29. Where the Holy Spirit is alive and well, daring to say something new!
30. We believe that love without justice is cheap sentimentality.
31. Over sixty percent of our members have fled other denominations as adults.
32. From Quasi Unitarians to Quasi Baptists, We All Feast at One Table.
33. Participate fully in an ever-evolving institution.
34. Being an intelligent, strong woman is not a drawback in the Episcopal Church.
35. At my parish, I, a lesbian, am a completely accepted, loved, and voting member.
36. The 'Dark Night of the Soul' is understood and one is respected at such a time.
37. You don't have to be right, just honest.
38. Humor is the best part of the church and of us.
39. Share freely in God's unconditional love for all people.
40. The world is beautiful, so we worship the God who created beauty.
41. We leave neither our minds, nor our hearts, nor our bodies at the church door.
42. You don't have to pass a 'litmus test.'
43. Enjoy classical choral music.
44. Where God is celebrated, not damned.
45. Christ has no hands on earth but ours. We need you to help us bless the world.
46. Whatever you believe, there is at least one Episcopalian that agrees with you.
47. There are only 40 Episcopalians, and I know 28 of them.
48. No grape juice!
49. No minimum age for full benefits.
50. I am an Episcopalian ultimately because I believe that in this Church and Communion the great truth of Christianity is most adequately and fully set forth in balance and proportion and that through its life of worship and witness it makes possible the richest kind of fellowship with God and with fellowmen.
51. We don't have all the answers, and we welcome others who love the questions.
52. Our roots in the past bear fruit in the present.
53. The Anglican communion - circling the globe with thanks and praise.
54. Where Diversity is a blessing and celebrated.
55. Catholic lite. Great rite. Less guilt.
56. Intelligent, loving spirituality.
57. Let God repair your ticklebox.
58. We don't quiz you on your beliefs before worshipping with you.
59. We eat, drink, and are merry, for we live in the Kingdom of our Lord Christ.
60. Because God loves you. ALL of you. Period. Class dismissed.
61. We're forgiven sinners and given Jesus' power to forgive.
62. Where there is freedom to think, to have doubts, and to be a full human being.
63. We worship God with class, art and joy.
64. We're comprehensive enough to have Matthew Fox and Ollie North in the same church.
65. Hate is not a family value here.
66. The food here is really good!
67. We promise to welcome you in Christ's name. We will honor the gifts you bring. We will invite you into our community, or wish you well if you choose another path.
68. We promise not to tell you how to dress, act or feel.
69. 'Episcopal' is an anagram of 'Pepsi Cola.' Both are the real thing.
70. First publishers of the King James Version.
71. Stand, sit, and kneel in awe of God.
72. For anyone who wants to worship by the book.
73. Catholic and Evangelical, Orthodox and Reformed.
74. Celebrating unity with God and others mid inspiring symbolic worship.
75. Anglicans don't burn books. We 'heare them, read, marke, learne and inwardly digeste them.
76. Tired of hell fire and brimstone? Try incense.
77. We celebrate a Christmas Season and not just a Christmas day.
78. We partake of the wine too, not just the host. All one body we.
79. Become one with the One we receive.
80. Where evolution is not only taught, it also happens!
81. The Book of Common Prayer allows a degree of uniformity in prayer while leaving room for the diversity of cultures, languages and liturgical styles.
82. Where God is the only judge.
83. We change and transform lives in Christ without the Turn-or-Burn.
84. Our eighth Sacrament: Fellowship and Good Food.
85. Saved by faith, grace, and good taste!
86. We're here for you. You can be truly you. You have space, and permission, to grow.
87. What you will find inside the church is even better than any web site!
88. This is the only church that's as lovingly loony as your family.
89. [W]hen Anglicanism is at its best, its liturgy, its poetry, its music and its life can create a world of wonder in which it is very easy to fall in love with God.
90. I'm 3rd generation, blessed and proud to be part of a loving, open-minded community.
91. Bell, Book, and Candle.
92. The Episcopal Church is a place where bishops are people too, and some of them know it. Many even have spouses to remind them.
93. Any pulpit thumping is kept to the side; the altar is at the center.
94. Because everyone loves a parade.
95. Where God's unconditional love for all of us is celebrated every day.
96. Where all may, some should, and none must.
97. Where God is with you, not against you.
98. We celebrate God's love at the center of the church and at the heart of our being.
99. Try us. You'll like us and we'll love you.
100. Where faith is caught, not taught.
101. The warmest of God's frozen chosen.
102. Where we're high, low, broad, and sometimes wide.
103. Protestant and Catholic. No waiting.
104. We promise not to throw the book at you.
105. Exploring the wideness of God's mercy.
106. Down-to-earth people will welcome your presence and won't get in your face. They will love you and allow you the space to share your heart with God.
107. My mind is Protestant and my spirit is liturgical. Where other than to the Book of Common Prayer can my worship go and still have both be happy?
108. We don't deliver our theology in sound bites.
109. Hearts and Lives transformed. Brains left intact.
110. We affirm paradoxy.
111. We welcome the faithful, the seeker, and the doubter.
112. It's okay to cross yourself, your fingers, or your knees.
113. Because ambiguity is good for you....sometimes.
114. Prayer that is time-tested.
115. Birkenstocks.
116. No church karaoke.
117. We have the liturgical beauty of the Catholics combined with the local authority of the Southern Baptists.
118. I love Anglicanism for its basic humanity, its sense of decency and order, its freedom of thought, and its insistence on the corpus of faith, 'those things necessary unto salvation.' I love it for its tradition and for the women and men of faith who have been lights of the generations in whose company we worship. I love it for its quirkiness, its untidiness, its comprehension [comprehensiveness??] and for its ability to receive , accept, alter, or jettison new things, while being always merely and astoundingly the Church.
119. I became an Episcopalian because it was a denomination that challenged me to be the best Christian I could be, rather than a saccharine, feel-good place.
120. I became an Episcopalian because it was not club meetings with music, like other main-line denominations.
121. I could be assured that there would be tea as well as coffee after church. Imagine my delight when I discovered that in England one might also have the option of a glass of sherry!!
122. Q: How many taps are there on an Episcopalian bath? A: Three -- hot, cold, and strangely warm.
123. Because it's not Baptist.
124. Because small-minded people can't spell 'Episcopalian'!
125. Whenever four Episcopalians gather, there is always a fifth.
126. I am allowed to have and express doubts.
127. I can bring my experiences of God in my life into discussions within the church.
128. I can express my love of God's many female qualities as well as Her male qualities.
129. It's ok if I don't want to memorize a bunch of Bible verses.
130. I can choose to read or not read whichever translation of the Bible I wish.
131. We don't claim an exclusive franchise on God.
132. Being an Episcopalian gives me the freedom to yell 'Theatre!' in a crowded fire.
133. Because we constantly remind ourselves we are Christians first, Episcopalians second.
134. In a global family, like the Anglican Communion, the voice of prayer is never silent.
135. Whether Queen or Beggar, Bishop or Editor, CEO or unemployed, we share the same meal at the altar where heaven and earth join in Sanctus, and kneel (or stand) side by side whether in Canterbury Cathedral or the hut chapel of St Philip, Khartoum, Sudan, as equal sinners saved by loving grace, with absolutely no distinctions, aided by Mary, Francis, John the Beloved, Mary Magdalen, Nicholas, Lucy, Martin, Sebastian, Stephen, Jonathan Daniels, Janani Luwuum, and those who have spread light for 2000 years that at the unique name of JESUS every knee should bow.
136. The doors are always open.
137. I got tired of Presbyterian Calvinist guilt.
138. I fell in love with the liturgy.
139. I love mysteries.
140. No matter where in the world I attend an Episcopal/Anglican church, I am always home.
141. We may not have all the answers, but we have all the questions.
142. You don't have to harbor and dwell on all your sins. That's why we have an altar in Episcopal churches. Take them there and leave them!
143. We do pomp almost as well as the Orthodox, but we're not so sour about it.
144. Enthusiastic doubt is better than judgemental certainty.
145. We find our unity in shared worship, not in enforced agreement.
146. Our liturgy has 'breathing room,' and we don't have to be in a hurry to get done and get out.
147. Jack Spong, Marcus Borg, Matt Fox.
148. The Church and Science comfortably co-exist.
149. The perfect church for those people who don't attend.
150. The calling of an Anglican is not to fill the church, but to fill heaven.
151. I love Anglicanism because the most stable seat, on rough ground, is a three-legged stool.
152. The only institution that has lower entrance requirements than those for getting on a bus.
153. No matter who we are or what has happened in our lives, we are all His children and can feel welcome here.
154. It's a church where you can come in without leaving your brain at the door and then have the opportunity to love all of those who managed to come in with their 'wrong' ideas.
155. We have full-bodied worship: Bow, kneel, sit, stand, kneel, hug, walk, and sometimes even raise your hands, cry, laugh, sing, shout, whisper, smell, taste, feel, touch, hold, see, and behold..
156. The hymn: 'One was a doctor and one was a queen and one was a shepherdess on the green and one was a soldier and one was a priest and one was slain by a fierce wild beast.'
157. We don't get rid of our enemies; we love them as our friends.
158. The Episcopal Church enables me to worship God with my mind. It doesn't install an idol like the Bible or the Pope as the source of ultimate authority. It has lived in the tension between ancient truth and living history and has evolved into something fragile but beautiful, something that is worthy of being defended as it becomes a sign of the inclusive Kingdom of God.
159. We honor tradition but do not fossilize it.
160. Two millennia of faith; four centuries of liturgy; comrades worldwide traveling in love the journey to God we each tread alone.
161. We are connected to the ages by stepping through the icon of the liturgy.
162. Where God is not a boy's name.
163. Where a woman's place is in the House of Bishops. (No attribution)
164. The signs that say, 'The Episcopal Church Welcomes You' mean it.
165. Jesus said 'Feed my sheep,' but he didn't specify that they be fed a narrow and rigid diet. Our Episcopal/Anglican approach to the sacrament of Penance is a good example: 'All may, some should, none must.'
166. When asked if he was saved, Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple replied, 'I have been saved, I am being saved, I hope to be saved.' That understanding of faith, hope, and humility reinforces me as an Episcopalian/Anglican.
167. Mystery and clarity co-exist here.
168. In the Episcopal Church you will be treated as an adult, and the child in you will be welcomed.
169. We belong before we believe.
170. Celtic, not Roman.
171. Pregnant priests! Celebrating!
172. For over four centuries, we agree...to disagree.
173. Hooker's Eucharistic theology in 30 seconds: It's about us becoming the Body of Christ, the presence of Christ in the assembled community. For real.
174. I remain an Episcopalian because of the acceptance: Episcopalians are not as judgmental as others. God will judge, we need to help others find Jesus.
175. Lay Episcopalians cannot be excommunicated.
176. We've never had enough people to agree about any issue to prepare 'confessional' statements. Here again we are catholic, and not a denomination.
177. God loves you, and there is not a thing you can do to change that.
178. As an Anglican, I can be myself. I can be authentic and feel accepted and respected.
179. In this Communion my spirit soars, while my(alleged) intellect and will are challenged, and my feet are grounded in terra firma.
180. When I close my mind from worries, the liturgy carries me straight to Christ.
181. Where the priesthood of all believers has a good chance of including everyone, including people of all shapes, sizes, ages, colors, and abilities.
182. Where wholeness and holiness are 2 sides of the same coin.
183. Where the road to Easter is never a shortcut, but you always get there.
184. Where I've met the most interesting and courageous people, and they have introduced me to God.
185. The best reason to become an Episcopalian is that taking a date to an inquirer's class is really memorable. I became an Episcopalian one summer when I was baptized, confirmed and married in the span of a couple of months.
186. Calm, orderly, predictable, rational services with intellectually challenging sermons.
187. Beautiful, dignified and sensitive memorial services a la the one at the Washington National Cathedral following 9/11.
188. I've found the Episcopal Church to be more real than any other. It's diverse, just like reality.
189. My parish is the most functional family I have found.
190. Others are often denominations of 'Don't'; the Episcopal Church is a denomination of 'Do.'
191. We do not give simple answers to complex questions. Instead, we offer tools that help people develop a sustaining faith.
192. The democratic polity of ECUSA is extremely important to me. We, prayerfully, elect our bishops, delegates to conventions, rectors, vestry. We the people all have a say.
193. Despite or perhaps even precisely because of our present disagreements in the Episcopal Church, I am reminded that God calls us all together because we aren't whole without each other.
194. The Episcopal Church does not emphasize solely the sermon, as did the church of my childhood. The totality of the liturgy helps us get to communion, in all senses of that word!).
195. Years ago in an Adult Inquirers' Class, the priest asked me if I had decided to be confirmed. I answered, 'I don't know if I agree with everything.' 'Heck,' he said. 'I don't agree with everything and I'm a priest. You will never agree with everything.'
196. Please join us for song, bread, wine and The Good Book.
197. The Anglican Communion has been my life-long home, but the Episcopal Church opened her doors to me as wife, mother and priest.
198. I have attended the Episcopal Church since birth: My four-year-old son sings the Alleluia from the fraction anthem as easily as the theme from 'Blue's Clues.'
199. My agnostic husband likes going to church.
200. Anglicans can imagine the past and remember the future.
201. The Episcopal Church offers a gracious and roomy expression of catholic Christianity which points to an even more gracious God.
202. One of many blessings of being an Episcopalian is joining with a rich and global diversity to celebrate God's blessings in our worship and mission throughout the world.
203. Our theology is an art form, not a law book.
204. The Episcopal Church stretches me delightfully in ways that I never imagined.
205. We are a haven for the spiritually wondering and wounded.
206. We proudly wear ribbons of so many different colors.
207. Our God loves absolutely everyone!
208. I'm an Episcopalian because of the incredibly profound understanding of authority in the Anglican Communion. The three-legged stool - with its stout legs of Scripture, tradition, and reason, supported by (but also firmly joined by) the seat of our experience and prayer - is perhaps Anglicanism's most glorious contribution to theology.
209. What brought me into the Episcopal Church was a mission that ministered to people who fell through the cracks: housed the homeless, fed the hungry, clothed the naked and helped find jobs--all while respecting the dignity of each individual. It's not just going to services on Sunday!
210. The Prayer Book bids us to come to God's table for strength and renewal, not for solace and pardon only.
211. Ours is not just a checkbook ministry. Episcopalians roll up their sleeves and help.
212. At our best, Episcopalians can respectfully disagree about a great many things - and still break bread together.
213. As a young adult in 1967, after years of searching through the haze, I finally found the 'real thing!' I never looked back. The Episcopal Church changed my life forever.
214. Where God lets me be who She created me to be -- not who other people think I should be!
215. Where differences are appreciated more and more. One can be joyful in being unique
216. I spent Good Friday with the folks at St. Paul's Chapel. There I talked with a young firefighter who has been volunteering at Ground Zero for several months. In the midst of his sharing, he said: 'If it weren't for this place, I wouldn't be able to smile.'
217. I love the Episcopal church because it ministers to my deepest needs, and I can always count on it to do the same for others.
218. As the old hymn says: 'All things are ready; come to the feast!
219. Asking questions about our faith is expected. In the Episcopal church, God doesn't get upset if I wonder why some things are as they are. And God doesn't get upset if I suggest that some things should not continue as they are.
220. I minister among immigrant Latinos, as such, I also believe that learning about how our church functions also teaches about how to live as a good citizen of the United States. Teaching immigrant Latinos about General Convention is a lesson in how the American political system works. So that being an active Episcopalian teaches about being an effective American citizen.
221. Anglicans do good deeds to increase understanding of God, not out of fear or to earn admission to heaven.
222. Think, question, think again, question again, These are the use of God's gifts: not sins in the Episcopal Church/Anglican Communion.
223. Our church service is called a 'Celebration,' and most of the time we do.
224. All of the tradition; none of the guilt!
225. Episcopalians see reality as existing in the tensions of paradox, ambiguity, and diversity.
226. Free wine on Sundays.
227. All the pagentry, half the guilt.
228. The seasons are color-coded.
229. Women are born in God's image.
230. We have a faith not afraid to reason and reason not ashamed to adore. (Late Rt. Rev. Daniel Sylvester Tuttle)
231. This is a church which tries to open its arms to all the diversity of God's creation; and although it fails miserably at times, it never stops trying.
232. This church affirms that God loves me and others like me because it allows me, a woman and a lesbian to be ordained; and it even celebrates who I am.
233. I love the Episcopal Church because it is part of a global Christian community which makes me family in Christ with people from every corner of the world.
234. I'm glad to be a member of the Episcopal Church because its evangelical, catholic, pentecostal, and liberal. It is evangelical because it glories in the cross of Jesus Christ as salvation for all people. Its catholic in that it is a church which lives as resurrection people beyond the blight and bondage of death. We're pentecostal because we trust in the supernatural empowerment of the Holy Spirit. And we're liberal because we yearn for the Kingdom of God in the world as it is in heaven and labor in the hope that will make it so.
235. I love the Episcopal Church because it makes me part of a world class 21st Century global Christian Mission.
236. We have an open door, an open font, and open rail. We'll meet you 100% of the way.
237. Christ wasn't picky, and neither are we.
238. We have the best preaching this side of heaven. Guaranteed guilt free.
239. I was divorced, and then it was forgiven, forgotten, forever.
240. God never gives us more than we can handle, including babies, but He needs our help on this one.
241. I became an Episcopalian because of an invitation in a Sunday bulletin: 'All baptized Christians are welcome at the Lord's Table.' The state of my life, my marriage, my lostness didn't matter. I responded to a community's magnanimity of spirit. Through them I learned of God's abiding love affair with us through the Risen Christ in whom we live and move and have our being.
242. From smells and bells to speaking in tongues-we have it all.
243. Episcopalians believe in moderation in all things, including moderation.
244. Episcopalians live and proclaim the gospel in community, through the Eucharist, and seek a servanthood ministry.
245. Episcopalians try to love with the heart of Christ, think with the mind of Christ, and act as if we were the body of Christ.
246. Ours is the perfect church for people who aren't perfect.
247. From Miami to Manchester, from Lima to London, from Brisbane to Birmingham, Singapore to San Francisco, I can go to church and fit right in.
248. The Episcopal Church welcomes YOU just as you are, with all your glorious and less than glorious moments, giving you a place to grow through God's unconditional love into the person God created you to be. There's room at the table for everyone, no matter what.
249. The Episcopal Church taught me that Jesus came to challenge, not just comfort; to overturn, not maintain; to love, not judge; to include, not cast aside.
250. For Episcopalians religion is not a set of rules but a life of love.
251. The Episcopal Church develops healthy eccentrics.
252. Many whom we know well are starved for the spiritual food we receive daily.
253. The Bible says we should make a joyful noise unto the Lord. Laughter is as joyful a noise as you'll ever hear and there's a lot of it in an Episcopal church.
254. You will almost always also find good coffee in the fellowship hall of Episcopal churches. It is consumed reverently before and after services and considered almost a sacrament by many Episcopalians.
255. God created male and female, and it is our practice to ordain both as priests, deacons and bishops.
256. Every baptized Christian is invited to take communion in an Episcopal Church. Jesus was able to dine with publicans and sinners, so we should be able to kneel beside Baptists, Methodists, Roman and Orthodox Catholics, Presbyterians and so forth. If people who shouldn't take communion do, that's between them and God.
257. I plan to remain where I am for the rest of my life, however long that may be. And when I die, I hope an Episcopalian priest with a sense of humor presides at my memorial service.
258. Don Williams, a friend of mine, says that attending an Episcopal Church is a lot like worshipping with the members of the cast from 'Northern Exposure.' Everyone is different and nobody seems to notice.
259. Preaching is a small part of an Episcopal worship service. This alone is a big draw for people from denominations where the sermon is the central event and the preacher tries to make it last as long as possible.
260. Where else but the Episcopal Church will I have the assurance that the significant events of my life will be magnified by such beauty and dignity?
261. The text for my inquirer's class said that in the Episcopal Church it is important *that* we worship, not so much what we *believe* about the one we worship.
262. Because a priest in Vermont invited me back.
263. Because I don't have to say the Prayer of Humble Access or anything else in the 1928 prayer book anymore, but I remember being struck by its poetry as a child.
264. Because I need the structure of a home but don't need everyone to be exactly like me.
265. Episcopalians accept others as they are and do not lecture or preach hell fire and damnation to those who may be, or may not be, errant, as certain other denominations do; and we follow the teachings of Jesus in that we do not judge others lest we be first judged, and thus are more forgiving than certain other denominations.
266. Any church that can contain both Bishop Spong and Bishop Stanton has got to be doing something right.
267. Being connected to a 2000 year tradition of spirituality shaped by everyone from the ancient Celts to contemporary Maoris.
268. Knowing that I can go to any Anglican church in the world and be 'home.'
269. Being part of a church that preserves tradition but does not mummify it.
270. The three-legged stool of faith, tradition, and reason
271. Being part of a community that strives to be open and inclusive
272. Being part of a community that has room for a variety of worship forms such as the rosary, the labyrinth, Taize, and the stations of the cross.
273. There's no such thing as a politically incorrect Episcopalian. There are conservative Episcopalians and liberal Episcopalians. There are straight Episcopalians and LGBT Episcopalians. There are Catholics and Protestants. There are African, English, Asian and Alaskan Episcopalians. And none of the above. The Episcopal Church doesn't offer you set dogma, or pat answers, or a list of do's and don'ts. There's room for all kinds of people and all kinds of theologies. What the Episcopal Church does offer you is a way of prayer, a way of thinking and asking questions, a way of life in this often confusing, conflicting and complicated world, a way that may lead you closer to God.
274. The Episcopal church invites the impatient to learn 'patience and the sticks in the mud to learn 'drainage.'
275. Where mucking about is an art form and where those who wish to clean it up are viewed as indelicate.
276. News Genuinely Good for Absolutely Everybody!
277. An Ancient Faith in Today's Communities
278. An Ancient Faith for Today's Communities
279. Today's Expression of an Ancient Faith
280. Ancient Faith, Today's Expression
281. An Ancient Faith in Today's Terms
282. Ancient Faith Expressed for Today
283. Catholic With Your Mind Turned On.
284. We welcome all who seek God.
285. Where God welcomes you, you, .... and me, and ....
286. An Embracing Church for a Hurting World
287. Join our Missionary Society.
288. We Nourish Spirits
289. Fill your spirit; lift your heart.
290. Come and see.
291. All are welcome here.
292. Open doors, open hearts.
293. Freedom of mind; peace of heart.
294. Expect to see God here: often in the face of a person you'd never choose.
295. The only church besides the MCC that can direct God to the antique store with a sapphire throne!
296. It takes three Episcopalians to screw in a light bulb: one to make the martinis, another to screw in the bulb, and a third to talk about how much prettier the old lightbulb was.
297. We believe that when God made the world and flesh, God said, 'It is good!'
298. There will be no outcasts in this church!
299. Many of our priests give birth. All do re-birth.
300. God made the funny bone. Let God repair yours here.
301. A gorgeous filling station to refuel your ministry in the world.
302. Our bishops are made of flesh and blood, and so are we. So was Jesus!
303. Our major heresy is plastic bread.
304. The name rings a bell
305. We've set a place for you.
306. Jesus welcomes you.
307. Share the mystery.
308. See God's face.
309. Worship God.
310. Let God restore your spirit.
311. Lighten your burden.
312. Holy smoke!
313. I can be different and still be welcomed. People in our Church actually delight in diversity.
314. It is a Church that lets me grow and learn and change.
315. I can go to Church in blue jeans.
316. I don't have to be ordained to give a sermon in Church.
317. Lay people have a voice in the governance of the Church.
318. I have found the peace and presence of God in every Episcopal Church I have entered, from Alaska to Florida.
319. Our doors may be locked, but we try to keep our hearts open.
320. You don't have to swim to get baptized.
321. No dress code.
322. Sermons more about Grace than Guilt.
323. We laugh a lot.
324. Worship in our lovely catacomb!
325. Welcomed, loved, and accepted as you are!
326. Discover the abundant life.
327. I don't expect my clergy to have all the answers. Even the gospel authors did not agree on all the answers. 'We believe....' is a position statement about where the church is today. We do the best we can. I am pleased to be in the company of an educated and gifted clergy who take these questions seriously. I don't expect that they have all the answers. I am proud to be an Episcopalian.
328. I tend to see Jesus as more a compaqero or brother than Lord, though I also respect traditional christologies. I am post-post-Christian, which means I go to church and pray with my prayer book almost every day. I may be an example of thow the the other side of secularization is the return of religion in different forms. Jacques Derrida and Heidegger and Wittgenstein are the context in which I read the Bible. Language doesn't mean what it seems to mean.
329. As I grew up, I discovered the church was already there to greet me.
330. Halfway around the world, away from home, I got devastating news - and the church held my hand and was family for me.
331. Not so much organized religion - more spontaneous joy.
332. An Episcopal youth group - with Jewish kids! (from my son, who is impressed that his Jewish friend is welcome and comfy in his EYC group)
333. The Calendar, filled with heroes of every era, from Saints Peter and Paul to Saint Martin Luther King, Jr.
334. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. (2 Cor. 5:18-19)
335. Where else can I hear stupid jokes from tipsy priests other than a Diocesan convention? Then lead the youth delegation the following morning, breaking into convention singing with 50 other youth, followed by taking the bishop by the arm and dancing with him, leading to the entire confrence getting up and moving. Woohoo, I'll be an Episcopalian, cradle to grave.
336. A place where a Jewish man, his Episcopalian wife (whose great- and great-great-grandfathers were Episcopalian priests), and their two children can be embraced as valued contributors to the works, worship, and leadership of a vibrant liberation community.
337. I like being an Episcopalian because every time I wear my 'Have you hugged an Episcopalian Today ?' T-shirt people always ask about it and I know enough about my religion to answer their questions. St. George's is a COOL church!
338. My father always said that he liked being an Episcopalian because he would have the same funeral as Queen Elizabeth. He said that because of our use of the Book of Common Prayer. Everyone gets the same funeral service. I thought of that as I watched Diana's funeral. Before God everyone is the same. The extra things like Elton John singing are for the audience.
339. The Episcopal Church is a liturgical church in tune with a contemporary world
340. The Episcopal Church is home to those who use their minds as well as their hearts to deepen their understanding of God, themselves, and the best ways to live out Christ's summary of the law. Though the church has (and values) a long and rich liturgical history, it recognizes that there are many paths to spirituality. It asks of its members not that they pass a test of doctrinal purity, but that they bring to life and faith these three things: seriousness of purpose, joyousness in action, love in support of other persons.
341. I am an Anglican because I believe the Anglican way is on the cutting edge of what it means to be Christian and what it means to be human, and I think the Episcopal church of the United States especially shows itself to be on that cutting edge.
342. I do not believe that the Anglican Communion of Churches comprises the one true Church, and I do not believe the Episcopal Church is the one true Church. I do believe that in this part of Christs Church I find an understanding of our relationship with God and understanding of our faith which for me is closer to the mind and heart of Jesus of Nazareth and closer to the message of the Gospel.
343. I believe the Anglican way is unique, not because of what we Anglicans have, but because of the responsibility we have to share with other Christians and with the world what by Gods grace we have been given to give.
344. I am an Anglican, an Episcopalian, because it calls me stand on my own two feet before God, to be courageous about where we can help the Church and our faith and the world.
345. I am an Anglican and an Episcopalian because I love its challenge and its excitement, and because it demands the best of me and all of us.
346. During this time I had an ongoing mild attraction to the Episcopal Church, because while knowing little about it, I regarded it as the place where they have to let you in, and thus where I might end up when the evangelicals finally realized I had moved beyond the narrow pale of their orthodoxy.
347. There were also the obvious aesthetic attractions and the pull it has on any American Anglophile. Indeed, it was my awareness of these latter motives that kept me from investigating the Episcopal Church; one ought not to choose one's church on aesthetic grounds, I thought.
348. I had often noticed its beauty; a fine example of the many charming old stone Episcopal churches nestled in the Hudson Valley. Intrigued by what I had heard in chapel, the following Sunday we went there. Then and ever since that church seemed brightly-alive with God's love, full of human beings made gracious by hearing the good news about God's grace.
349. Here was the kind of intellectual integrity I had despaired of in Christians. I was completely hooked
350. I continue to be surprised at finding myself a more or less functioning Episcopalian, and for resonating so deeply with all its strange gear and lore.
351. My evangelical friends and relatives take it for granted I am an Episcopalian because I love the liturgy, but I say no, that's not the crucial reason: I go to that sort of church because that's where I hear, see and feel God's grace. I go there because there they talk about what God does for us, rather than telling us what they think we ought to do to make ourselves.
352. The sermon lasted only five minutes, and the dean questioned the ongoing Vietnam War. I had never been to an Episcopal Church before, but I was hooked.
353. Historically, the church has always been at its best when it reaches out to people, all sorts of people; when it seeks to embrace rather than cast off; to nurture rather than ignore; to bless rather than curse. In large measure, that is why I am an Episcopalian - because the Episcopal Church is an affirming church rather than a condemning one.
354. 'Well, I thought you must be an Episcopalian, because you swear just like Governor Seward, who is a church warder.'
355. I am giving up sweets for Lent. Lucky me. I am also becoming an Episcopalian. Because it's just like being a Catholic, only without the poor people and the Hail Marys. They make it quite easy to switch your religious affiliation. Although unlike MCI or AT&T they don't really give you cool gifts or airline miles.
356. My wife and I started coming to St. Andrew's in January of 2001. And we will join the Episcopal Church during this year's Easter Vigil. We have not seen God since we started going to this church. We have not heard his voiceor witnessed a miracle. But just from getting to know the people of St. Andrew's better and getting more involved in the church we have become closer to God. And we are constantly reassured of his presence in our lives.
357. “The frustration with modern society and the sense of spiritual decay were also reflected in Willa Cather’s personal life, when she, parallel to entering her new line of writing, in 1922 joined the Episcopal Church.
358. “I joined the Episcopal church because of its open-minded and pragmatic view of birth control.
359. “I admit that I enjoy being an Anglican because of its aesthetic appeal and intellectual nuance. We approach belief with an almost Talmudic playfulness, preferring dialectical ambiguity to dogmatic rigidity.
360. “I am Gay, and the Episcopal church is where I am least likely to be attacked with baseball bats in the name of Jesus.
361. “I like being an Anglican because our Church has a glorious, age-old, authoritative Tradition, free from authoritarianism, clerical despotism or brutish fundamentalisms.
362. “As a lifelong Anglican I have always appreciated that I was free to think on my own. That doesn't mean that you can believe whatever you want, but we respect the gift that God has given us of intelligence.
363. All Saints' Day, incense and Mozarabic preface to eucharistic prayer canon D.
364. The Episcopal liturgy, in the name of Jesus, gently clothes my Baptist suspicions.
365. The Episcopal Church is a place where I continue to learn in scripture and experience in sacrament that God loves me unconditionally; that I will never deserve one drop of His bloody grace, and yet He drowns me entire in His endless red sea.

• Louie Crew's Anglican pages: http://newark.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/rel.html
• Louie Crew's home page: http://newark.rutgers.edu/~lcrew
• Send mail to: lcrew@newark.rutgers.edu

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