Sacraments - Life Events
In the Episcopal Church we acknowledge that God is present in every occasion of our lives. Some of these we mark together with special celebrations of worship to highlight the ways in which God is always at work throughout the events of our lives. As Episcopalians, we believe that these observations reveal God's grace to us in new ways.
Baptism

Baptism is the sacrament through which, by water and the Holy Spirit, we are initiated into, and become part of, the Body of Christ, the Church. We are adopted as God's children and "marked as Christ's own forever" as we affirm what is already true: all people are God's beloved children. At our baptism we promise to continue in the Christian life, to proclaim the Good News of Ch…
Read More »Confirmation

Confirmation is described by the Book of Common Prayer as a rite of the Church "in which we express a mature commitment to Christ, and receive strength from the Holy Spirit through prayer and the laying on of hands by a bishop." It is a public, adult affirmation of the covenant with God to follow in the ways of Jesus that was made for us at our baptism by our parents and godparen…
Read More »Weddings

Marriage, or the sacrament of Holy Matrimony, is a solemn and public covenant between two people in the presence of God in which they enter into a lifelong, loving union, and receive the grace and blessing of God to help them fulfill their vows.
The Episcopal Church requires that at least one of the parties must be a baptized Christian and that the marriage conform to the laws of…
Read More »Funerals

Funerals are a celebration of life and a recognition that, in our physical death, life is changed but not ended. Our physical death is not the end of our story. In the Episcopal Church, the funeral liturgy finds its meaning in the celebration of Easter, and witnesses to the assurance that, because Jesus has been raised from the dead, we, too, shall be raised. This does not, howev…
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