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The Episcopal Church in the United States

The Episcopal Church, is part of the world-wide Anglican Communion and is a part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church that is in fellowship with the See of Canterbury. The Episcopal Church was brought to this country by the early settlers and missionaries from England and was known as the Church of England at that time. After the Revolutionary War, the ties to England were severed and the Episcopal Church became an independent member of the Anglican Communion.
The Episcopal Church is governed by a General Convention that consists of two houses, a House of Bishops and a House of Deputies and organized into regional area called Dioceses that are presided over by Bishops. Each Diocese consists of a number of individual parishes that are governed by a Rector and Vestry. The General Convention meets every three years to plan and enact legislation setting the policy of the church. The House of Bishops is comprised of all the Bishops of the Episcopal Church and also meets on a regular basis between conventions. The House of Deputies consists of Lay and Clerical delegates that are elected from each Diocese at the Annual Convention of the Diocese.
The Book of Common Prayer provides a consistent form of worship used throughout the church and, although the way in which the worship is conducted may differ slightly between individual parishes, the form remains uniform throughout the various Dioceses of the church.

The Diocese of New Jersey

The Diocese of New Jersey is the local representation of the Episcopal Church in this area and Trinity is a part of that Diocese. With the See in Trenton, Trinity Cathedral, at 801 West State Street is home to the Bishop of the Diocese, The Right Reverend George E. Councell and the Diocesan Offices are located across the street at 808 West State Street. The area of the Diocese of New Jersey consists of 14 counties in the southern part of New Jersey stretching from just south of the city of Summit to Cape May in the South. Approximately 165 parishes and missions are home to nearly 60,000 members in the Diocese of New Jersey.
The Diocese meets in Convention each Spring to elect a variety of officers for positions within the Diocese and to select those who are to represent the Diocese as Deputies in the General Convention.

The "Compass Rose" figure above is the symbol for the world-wide Anglican Communion. The first missionaries are thought to have come to the British Isles before the 4th century. The Church of England therefore traces its existence back to those early days and continued in a tradition of relative independence even prior to the split with Rome in the 16th Century.
Through great missionary efforts, the Church of England reached out to lands across the world during the heyday of the British Empire. Those churches that were established during that great missionary effort remain as a part of the Anglican Communion.
While the Episcopal Church records some 2.5 million members, the Anglican Communion counts nearly 50 million members. As much as it was once said that "the sun never sets on the British Empire" during the days of Queen Victoria, it can be said that the sun never sets on the Anglican Communion’s churches which stretch from England to Africa to far away New Zealand.