Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!

The Episcopal Church at Princeton University strives to announce and celebrate the good news of the Risen Christ to the Princeton University community through word and sacrament, service, education, pastoral care, and fellowship and to raise up lay and ordained leaders for the church in a changing world.

The Episcopal Church at Princeton University welcomes you to visit us and join with us in worship and fellowship. We are a welcoming, inclusive, and open Christian community of students, faculty, and staff from Princeton University, The Institute for Advanced Studies, Westminster Choir College, and Princeton Theological Seminary who gather to worship, to discuss current issues from a Christian perspective, to serve the community through outreach, and to talk about the broader Christian Church and how we help shape it. We wrestle with the call of the Gospel and what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ in a secular world. No matter who you are or where you are on your spiritual journey, there’s a place for you in the Episcopal Church.

Some of us grew up in the Episcopal Church; others never went to an Episcopal church - or any church - before coming to Princeton. And some of us are recovering from the ways in which we have been hurt by previous experiences with religion. We accept and welcome people from all places on their spiritual journeys. Coming from such different backgrounds, we have many perspectives on liturgy, Biblical interpretation, and current issues in the church, at our institutions, and in the world. As a community, we work hard to ensure that these differences become a strength. We prefer to emphasize what we have in common rather than those areas where we differ, so we don't like labels like "conservative" or "liberal." But we all have this in common: we love to come together to "worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, (Psalm 29:2 Book of Common Prayer)." We aspire to be the whole church of God, not just a part of it.

While we believe that God loves us just as we are, we also believe that God wishes for us to be more than we are and to strive to become more like God. This is the great paradox and challenge of Christianity. It is a challenge that demands a great deal of us, but that also leads to abundant life.

We come together for Sunday Eucharist at 9:00 PM in the beautiful gothic revival Princeton University Chapel, where we celebrate the liturgy from the Book of Common Prayer. We also gather at 5:30 PM on Wednesday evenings at Procter House at 53 University Place for informal worship, buffet dinner, and conversation and again in the Chapel on Tuesdays at 5:15 PM for Eucharist. Everyone is welcome! Click here to see ECP in action.

We take the Bible very seriously; it is the foundation of our common life. But we worship God, not the Bible. We also take the traditions of the church and our God-given ability to reason seriously as we discern God's will for us. We like to say that absolute faith is not a requirement in our church; an open heart and mind are. With us you belong before you believe and you will always be made to feel welcome and part of the group, no matter who you are or what you are. Please come pray with us!

Frustrated and skeptical about Christianity? You’re not alone. A recent survey of non-Christian Americans 16-29 years of age found that they view present-day Christianity as judgmental (87 percent), hypocritical (85 percent), old-fashioned (78 percent), and too involved in politics (75 percent). Well, what about us?

  • Judgmental? Definitely not!
  • Hypocritical? If we seem to be it is only because we are frail human beings whose ideals are beyond what we can always achieve. We think having ideals like that is a good thing, don’t you?
  • Too old-fashioned? We hold on to what is good and beautiful about the past while trying to be in touch with the modern world. It’s not easy to get it just right, but we try.
  • Too involved in politics? We rarely take political stands on specific issues, and never on candidates, because we think the gospel of Jesus Christ speaks for itself and you’re smart enough to connect the dots yourself.

For more about our vision and about who we are and what we do, click here. To watch a brief video that introduces ECP, click here.

GET INVOLVED

The Episcopal Church at Princeton University
Procter House
53 University Place
Princeton, NJ 08540
609-252-9469
FACEBOOK

“I pray that none will be offended if I seek to make the Christian religion an inn where all are welcomed joyously, rather than a cottage where some few friends of the family are to be received.” ~ Richard Hooker (1554 -1600)