Our Story

Three Streams, One Mission

The Evangelical Episcopal Communion was born within a wider movement of the Holy Spirit calling Christians to recover the fullness of the Church’s life: the gospel faithfully preached, the Scriptures reverently received, the sacraments joyfully celebrated, the gifts of the Spirit welcomed, and the mission of Christ carried to the nations.

From humble beginnings in 1995 to a global communion engaged in ministry, education, and mission across many nations, the EEC has sought to live as a communion where Word, Sacrament, and Spirit are not competing emphases, but one integrated witness to Jesus Christ.

We are Evangelical in conviction, Charismatic in vitality, Sacramental in worship, Episcopal in oversight, and Missional in purpose.

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The Church’s Three Streams

Throughout Christian history, the life of the Church has often been expressed through three great streams.

The Evangelical stream bears witness to the authority of Holy Scripture, the preaching of the gospel, personal conversion, discipleship, evangelism, missions, and the call to holy obedience under the lordship of Jesus Christ.

The Charismatic stream bears witness to the active presence of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of grace given for the building up of the Body, healing, renewal, vibrant praise, prayer, and empowered mission.

The Sacramental and Liturgical stream bears witness to the continuity of the ancient faith, episcopal oversight, historic worship, reverence before the holy mysteries, Baptism, Eucharist, and the visible ordering of the Church in apostolic faith and practice.

When separated from one another, these streams can become partial. When held together in Christ, they help the Church live more fully into the faith once delivered to the saints: biblical, Spirit-filled, sacramental, ordered, and sent.

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The Rise of the Convergence Movement

In the twentieth century, the Charismatic Renewal brought Christians from many traditions into a shared encounter with the Holy Spirit. Evangelicals, Pentecostals, Charismatics, Catholics, Anglicans, mainline Protestants, and independent churches found themselves praying together, worshiping together, and recognizing in one another signs of the same Lord at work.

At the same time, many Christians were rediscovering the worship, theology, and practices of the early Church. The hunger for ancient roots and living renewal began to meet in a fresh way. Leaders and congregations began to speak of the convergence of the streams: Evangelical, Charismatic, and Sacramental expressions of Christian faith coming together as one river of worship, discipleship, and mission.

The Convergence Movement was never merely about borrowing liturgy or adding spiritual gifts to an existing church model. At its best, it was a recovery of fullness: Scripture and Sacrament, preaching and Eucharist, ancient order and present renewal, visible unity and missional urgency.

The Evangelical Episcopal Communion arose within this larger movement.

 

The Birth of the Evangelical Episcopal Communion

The immediate origins of the EEC trace to convergence discussions in 1994–1995. Rev. Russell McClanahan, then leading New Testament Ministries, a network of churches and ministries, entered into conversation with Robert Davis, President of the Board of Directors of the Evangelical Episcopal Church International (EECI) who was seeking to establish a network of Convergent churches. These discussions led to a formal joining of vision and mission.

On October 3, 1995, the founding convention was held in Fredericksburg, Virginia. At that gathering, priests and deacons were ordained, bishops were consecrated in historic apostolic succession, and the Evangelical Episcopal Church International began to take formal shape as a convergent ecclesial body.

Archbishop Russell McClanahan’s role in this story is deeply personal as well as institutional. From his early ministry, he carried a passion for Scripture, preaching, and outreach. His life was also marked by distinct encounters with the Charismatic and Sacramental streams of the Church: the active presence of the Holy Spirit, and the grace of Christ encountered in confession, absolution, and the Eucharist.

Those experiences shaped a lifelong calling: to bring Christians from the Evangelical, Charismatic, and Sacramental traditions together in ordered harmony for the mission of Christ.

The founding of the EEC was not the creation of a new gospel. It was the ordering of a communion seeking to live the ancient Christian faith in a way that was biblical, Spirit-filled, sacramental, episcopal, and missionary.

 

Formed for Word, Sacrament, and Spirit

From the beginning, the EEC has sought to hold together what is often divided.

The Communion is Evangelical because the gospel of Jesus Christ stands at the center: Christ crucified and risen, salvation by grace, the authority of Scripture, the call to conversion, discipleship, evangelism, and the making of mature followers of Jesus among all peoples.

The Communion is charismatic because the Holy Spirit is not treated as a memory of the apostolic age, but as the living Lord and giver of life, present to renew, empower, heal, gift, and send the Church in witness.

The Communion is Sacramental and episcopal because the Church is not an informal association of isolated ministries. It is a visible communion, nourished by Baptism and Eucharist, shaped by historic worship, and ordered under bishops for accountability, continuity, and mission.

This convergence shapes more than worship style. It shapes the EEC’s understanding of leadership, formation, ordination, church planting, global partnership, and mission among the nations.

 

From Founding Vision to Global Communion

The years following the founding included growth, restructuring, and relationship within the broader evangelical episcopal convergence family, including the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches. These chapters should be remembered with care, gratitude, and historical honesty.

Through seasons of development and realignment, the central vision endured: a communion rooted in the gospel, open to the renewing work of the Holy Spirit, nourished by Word and Sacrament, and ordered through episcopal oversight for mission.

In time, Archbishop McClanahan and clergy continued under the Evangelical Episcopal Communion name, carrying forward the founding convergence vision in a renewed way.

From small beginnings, the Communion’s life expanded beyond a single region or nation. The EEC grew to include clergy, churches, ministries, and jurisdictions in the United States, India, Africa, Australia, South America, and other parts of Asia. Its story became increasingly global, reflecting the conviction that convergence must be both apostolic and missionary, able to take root among diverse peoples and cultures without surrendering the historic Christian faith.

 

The 30th Anniversary Synod and a New Global Chapter

In October 2025, the Evangelical Episcopal Communion gathered in New Orleans, Louisiana, for its 30th Anniversary Synod. The gathering marked three decades since the Communion’s founding and became a defining milestone in its global life.

Archbishops and bishops gathered from the United States, India, South Africa, and other regions. The Synod included worship, plenary sessions, workshops, ordinations, episcopal consecration, and focused engagement with preaching, financial stewardship, nonprofit ministry, apostolic succession, and global mission.

A central moment of the Synod was the formal establishment of the Province of India within the Communion, representing over 9 million members. The Synod also received a new African jurisdiction representing more than 3 million members. With these developments, the EEC now embraces a global fellowship of approximately 15 million believers engaged in ministry, education, and mission across numerous nations.

The 30th Anniversary Synod did not merely commemorate the past. It opened a new chapter: a communion no longer defined only by its founding story, but by its global calling.

 

The Mission Before Us

The future of the Evangelical Episcopal Communion is not simply institutional expansion. It is Faithfulness.

The EEC exists to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, form disciples, plant and strengthen churches, ordain and oversee leaders, celebrate the sacraments, welcome the renewing work of the Holy Spirit, and serve the mission of God among the nations.

In a fragmented world and a divided Church, the EEC bears witness to a fuller way of Christian life: Ancient and Alive, Ordered and Spirit-filled, Evangelical and Sacramental, Local in ministry and Global in communion.

 

Three streams. One mission.

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To know Christ, and being united in Him, to make Him known among the nations.