Who We Are
St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral is a welcoming, worshiping community committed to living Christ’s unconditional love through fellowship, service, and kindness.
We are a compassionate, affirming, and loving community.
St. Paul’s is compassionate: We believe that God cares deeply for all human beings, and that all have sacred dignity. We do acts of social justice, not because they are trendy, but because they are how we live out God’s call on our lives in the world.
St. Paul’s is affirming: If you’re wondering if there is anything that can exclude you from God’s love or being accepted as you are in this community, the answer is no. We all have things that make us unique: race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc. We value your uniqueness and want to celebrate that with you.
St. Paul’s is a loving community: We don’t always get it right. We sometimes disagree. But even in those moments, we choose to love each other. Jesus told us to love the Lord our God with all our hearts and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We strive to live out this commandment.
What is a Cathedral?
The word Cathedral literally comes from the word Cathedra, the bishop’s chair. We are the worshiping home of the bishop and the central worship location of the Diocese of Iowa (the group of congregations the bishop looks over, in our case the Episcopal churches in Iowa). The bishop is not at St. Paul’s every Sunday, as the bishop travels to other congregations in the Diocese, but often “comes home” to St. Paul’s for holy days.
There is also a historic cathedral, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Davenport, which was the bishop’s worshiping home until 1995, when the decision was made to centralize the cathedral at St. Paul’s.
What is The Episcopal Church?
The Episcopal Church is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which is a group of churches across the globe with historic roots in The Church of England. The word Episcopal simply means “bishop”, affirming that we have bishops as spiritual leaders. We are neither Catholic nor Protestant, but incorporate elements of both. One of the distinct elements of Anglican Churches is The Book of Common Prayer, which shapes the way we pray and worship together in our communities.
What are the sacraments?
A sacrament is an outward and visible sign of God’s grace. We do these things to recognize God’s grace and to invite God to strengthen our minds, hearts and wills.
We have seven sacraments in The Episcopal Church: Baptism, Eucharist (Communion), confirmation, ordination, matrimony (marriage), reconciliation of a penitent (commonly called confession), and unction (anointing the sick).
Visiting, and want to know where to go?
In 2018, we shared stories of our lives, our faith, and what brought us to St. Paul’s.
