page_title: United Episcopal Church of North America
section_title: Ordination and lay leadership
hierarchical_section_title: United Episcopal Church of North America / Ordination and lay leadership
caption_attribution_description: The altar in a Church of England church (St. Mary Redcliffe church, Bristol, England). Taken by Adrian Pingstone in April 2005 and released to the public domain.
context_page_description: The United Episcopal Church of North America is an Anglican church that is part of the Continuing Anglican movement. It is not part of the Anglican Communion.
  The UECNA describes itself as "embracing the broad base of ceremonial practice inherent in the Historic Anglican Communion" although historically the UECNA has tended to be low or broad church in its ceremonial practice. The UECNA uses the 1928 Book of Common Prayer in the US and, in Canada, the 1962 edition of the Canadian Prayer Book. Use of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer is also permitted.
  The changes in The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada that the UECNA and other continuing churches objected to include the theology of the newer versions of the Book of Common Prayer such as The Episcopal Church's 1979 edition, the ordination of women, attitudes toward divorce and abortion, and differing interpretations of how the authority of scripture is perceived. They also object to more recent innovations such as the ordination of openly homosexual clergy, but these were not at issue when they broke with the Episcopal Church.
context_section_description: The UECNA's leadership is divided among lay leaders and ordained ministers as follows:
caption: An Anglican altar
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Make": "OLYMPUS CORPORATION", "Image Model": "C750UZ", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "v753u2-86", "Image DateTime": "2005:04:02 13:42:47", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "550", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 20, 0, 1, 0, 20, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "4084", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6726", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/13", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2005:04:02 13:42:47", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2005:04:02 13:42:47", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "63/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2288", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1712", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1268", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}