The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (737 page)

(Gk., ‘invocation, prayer’). A prayer in the Christian
eucharist
which asks the Father to send the
Holy Spirit
upon the bread and wine to make them the body and blood of Christ.

 
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Epikoros
(in Judaism, one with heterodox or heretical views)
:

see
APIKOROS
.

 
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(
c.
315–403).
Church
father
and bishop of Salamis in Cyprus. He was a strong supporter of
Nicaea
, and opponent of
heresy
. His most important writing was the
Refutation of all Heresies
(in Gk. the
Panarion
, ‘medicine chest’), in which he attacked all heresies (or all that he knew) up to his own time.

 
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(Gk.,
epiphaneia
, ‘manifestation’). An appearance of a divine or superhuman being. In Christian use it refers specifically to a feast celebrated on 6 Jan. It originated in the E., where it celebrated the baptism of Jesus and, at least in a secondary way, his birth. Epiphany spread to the W. Church in the 4th cent., but here it became associated with the ‘manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles’ in the person of the
Magi
of Matthew 2. 1–12.

 
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Episcopacy
.

The system of church government by
bishops
(
episcopoi
). Anglican churches are, specifically, known as ‘Episcopal’ or ‘Episcopalian’, as in ECUSA, the Episcopal Church of the United States.

 
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Episcopal Church in the USA
or Protestant Episcopal Church
.

The Anglican Church in the United States. Its organization dates from the consecration of Samuel Seabury as first bishop in 1784.

 
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