Lebell

Ah hem.

Ok.

I'm not feeling particularly masochistic tonight, so I'll stick to what you've tossed at me, giving you my limited knowledge.

First a few notes to clear up on that list.

Episcopalians are part of the world wide Anglican communion. While each nation has it's "own" Anglican church, they share commonality in being related through the original Anglican church of England and nominally recognize the Bishop of Canterbury as the head of the Union, although he does NOT hold the same authority as say the Pope does.

I don't know which "United" you refer to (perhaps the United Church of Christ?) and the Salvation Army, while faith based, is not a denomination per se.

Nor can I give you a direct history of each of those (as I said, I am not an authority by any means), but here is a brief synopsis of how things got to where they are today.

Starting with the original church after Jesus (built mostly by Saul/Paul of Tarsis and Peter (on this Rock I will build my Church)), the three oldest denominations in Christendom are: The Egyptian Coptic, The Easter Orthodox, and the Roman Catholic branches, all of which still exist today. In the west, the Roman Catholic Church was official church of the Roman Empire after it was made so by Constantine the Great (and this is how the Western church became known as the Roman Catholic church(Catholic meaning Universal)).

Things remained this way until the 16th Century when an upstart priest named Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg in protest of the scandal and corruption that had engulfed the Western church. This started the Protestant reformation which swept through most of central Europe and instigated a particularly bloody period in Church history of battles between Catholics and the "Protestants". In rough terms, Germany, Belgium and other surrounding countries became mostly Protestant (Lutheran) while France, Spain, England and Italy were firmly Catholic. (Don't yell at me if I left someone out). Scottish Presbyterianism was also started at this time by John Knox at St. Andrew's Castle. (The ex and I had an antique lithograph of this, if you can believe it.) If memory serves, this is also the roots of the Mesonic movement.

In the special case of England, Henry V remained a solid supporter of the Pope until he refused to give Henry a divorce from Catherine of Aragon (daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain). Henry wanted a divorce because Catherine had been unable to produce a male heir, seen to be critical to the stability of the Tudor throne. The short story is that Henry decided to break with Rome and create his own national church, which survives in slightly altered form today as the Anglican Church of England. (many bloody stories of the early Anglican church have been omitted here.)

This splintering continued as new groups decided they had a better handle on things to do with the Almighty. The 17th century saw the Puritan movements in England and their subsequent leaving for America to avoid religious persecution (a trend which they immediately adopted in their new home), while the 18th Century saw John Wesley form the Methodist Church, again in response to corruption. In America the Anabaptist movement in the 19th century split into several different sects of Baptists, with probably the most well known split being between the Southern Baptists and the American Baptists happening at the time the American Civil War (~1861-65). The other major religious movements of the century which bear mention are the revelation of the Angel Moroni to Joseph Smith in Ohio, and his subsequent preaching and murder, which lead to the great Mormon exodus to the Great Salt Lake valley and the eventual formation of the state of Utah as well as the preachings of Charles Russell, which lead to the formation of the Jehovah's Witnesses.


Theologically, those considered to be a the "main-line" Christain churches differ in several ways. Biblically, they use similar translations, more so today in the past. (There are some books, the apocryphal books that are included in the Catholic Bible, but not the Jewish Torah or the Protestant Bible.) Still some groupings can be made.

Today, there are many simularities between the Roman Catholic Church, The ELCA Lutheran Church and The Episcopal Church SA. Service wise they are very similar, usually including 3 Bible readings and the Lord's Supper as part of the service. Differences include the way church heirarchical authority is structured, as well as theological differences such as the availability of the sacrement to persons not of that particular church, married priesthood, woman priesthood, transubstantiation of the sacrament, etc. (I know I've left some groups out of this.) It is interesting to note that Rome grudging admits that Episcopal Bishops are indeed part of the Apostolic Succession.

The other loose grouping can roughly made with the Evangelicals and Pentacostals. Services tend to be centered solely around Bible readings and song with some denominations placing more or less importance on the Lord's Supper, it's meaning and it's frequency. Theological differences can include specific interpretations of the Bible (literalists), to restrictions on personal activities such as use of modern conveniences (Mennonites) and even dancing (Southern Baptists) and interaction between sects (Missouri Synod Lutherans) as well as more exotic activities such as speaking in tongues to snake handling.

So in closing, I hope you will forgive any gaps here as I was going mostly from memory. Obviously a complete treatise on the history of Christianity would make a small library, but I hope this gave you some starting point.

__________________
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." – C. S. Lewis

The ONLY sponsors we have are YOU!

Please Donate!