The Episcopal Shield
The red cross on a white field is the St. George Cross, an indicator of our link to the Church of England, the mother church of the Anglican Communion. The miniature crosses in the blue quadrant symbolize the nine original American dioceses that met in Philadelphia in 1789 to adopt the constitution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America.
The outline of the miniature crosses is in the form of St. Andrew's Cross in tribute to the Scottish church's role in ordaining the first American bishop, Samuel Seabury, in 1784. The colors red, white and blue symbolize, respectfully, the sacrifice of Christ and Christian martyrs, the purity of the Christian faith, and the humanity of Christ received from the Virgin Mary. In duplicating the colors of the American flag, they also represent the Episcopal Church's standing as the U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion.
Our Cathedral Shield
The shield combines the Diocesan arms with the sword of St Paul, symbolic of his martyrdom in Rome. The red graded cross is flanked by the Alpha and Omega and stands on a field which four rivers flow from a spring, hence, Springfield. This is symbolic of the four rivers of Eden. But on the literal level they form the boundaries of the Diocese; the Illinois, the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the Wabash.
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Seal of the Springfield Diocese |
Seal of the Jerusalem Diocese |
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Seal of the Alaskan Diocese |
Seal of the Hawaiian Diocese |
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Honduras Diocese |
Diocese of Egypt and North Africa |
The official Seal of the Diocese of Springfield represents in the center, the river which parted into four heads and encompassed Eden. The description of this in Genesis 2:10 has always been held to be typical of Christ, the Water of Life, and the four Evangelists who bear Him in their Gospels to the four quarters of the globe, showing that He is for all men. Nearby stands the Tree of Life, which is the Cross, whose fruit is the Bread which came down from Heaven. The Alpha and Omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, tell us that Christ is our beginning and end----our "all in all.
The Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem extends over five countries, including Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Israel, within the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East. There are thirty-one parishes that minister to the needs of their communities, centered on the Cathedral Church of St. George the Martyr in Jerusalem. The church supports thirty-five institutions, which include hospitals, clinics, kindergartens and schools, vocational training programs, as well as institutions for the deaf, the disabled and the elderly.
Members of Alaska's 48 Episcopal congregations share the Gospel of Our Lord from tiny subsistence villages to major metropolitan centers. The Diocese of Alaska covers the entire state of Alaska. We have a land mass of 586,412 square miles with 47,300 miles of coastline, 3 million lakes and more than 3,000 rivers. Civilization has only encroached on about 160,000 acres of Alaska's 365 million acres. This is less than 1/20th of one percent of the State; the rest is still untouched wilderness, a frontier filled with awesome beauty and inexpressible faith.
The Episcopal Church in Hawai'i began in 1862 when King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma - a life-long Anglican - invited the Church of England to Hawaii. The King and Queen supported the Church's establishment throughout the islands with gifts of land, and by founding St. Andrew's Cathedral in Honolulu. Queen Emma also founded Queen's Hospital (now Medical Center) and St. Andrew's Priory School for Girls in Honolulu.
The Episcopal Diocese of Honduras is the fastest, most dynamically growing diocese of the Episcopal Church. As ever, our hope is in the Lord and his people. In Honduras, the Episcopal Church is supported by more than 50 thousand faithful attending 127 churches,
Our congregation of tens of thousands of Christians comes from dozens of backgrounds and cultures. We worship in many languages, often together. And as we share the Gospel message we come to understand that we are all children of the Living God. What a joy it is to share our lives together, whatever our backgrounds. Our sadness is to see so many homeless and people with very little means to support themselves. This is our opportunity to witness God's love for all people. There are large numbers of refugees from Sudan living in countries such as Egypt and Ethiopia. We embrace them as fellow members of the body of Christ and we do all that we can to improve their lives.