Ninjapalians around one table

Updated with Version 2.0. Some folks in the Episcopal Church took a couple of years to quantify and describe what many everyday Episcopalians already knew: that much more unites us than divides us.

Episcope described the findings:

• “Episcopalians passionately want their church to hold Christ as central and believe their church attempts to do so.
• “Episcopalians see the Church both actually and ideally as a people of the book whose faith is united by and expressed in their Book of Common Prayer.
• “Episcopalians view their Church as both aspiring to hold and successfully expressing a sacramental understanding of the Christian life and relationship with God.
• “Episcopalians view the church as committed to sacramental and incarnational understanding.
• “The Episcopal Church gathers around the Book of Common Prayer as one of its core unifying features and most profound expressions of faith.
• “Episcopalians see their Church as holding multiple theological perspectives, both locally and broadly, and have a deep appreciation for this aspect of Episcopal life.
• “Episcopalians would very much like to de-emphasis any notion of their church as elite.”

“Even among those who most strongly disagree with one another, there is some deeply held common agreement about core themes that are most central to Episcopal identity – holding Christ as central, ordering around the Book of Common Prayer and a sacramental life of faith, emphasizing scripture, holding incarnational theology as important, and being pastoral in response to life’s challenges,” observed Gortner. “The findings also provide some exciting opportunities for deeper discussion about how Episcopalians choose to live and express what is most central, enduring, and distinctive about their shared Christian life and faith.”

A video was created to tell us the results of the study and to remind us what we all share. It is very slick and well-produced. I don't know how long it took them to make. Here it is.



Over the period of a week or so, some folks at King of Peace Episcopal Church, Kingsland, Georgia put this video together. Starting this morning, when it appeared on YouTube and then Facebook, it has now appeared on many blogs and web-sites. Here it is:



So, which one better describes the findings of the study? I vote for the Ninjas.