The word "Episcopal" comes from the Greek word episkopos which was the word used by the earliest Christian Church to apply to what we now call bishops. In fact, the word bishop is an Anglo-Saxon shortening of the word episkopos through piskop and biskop. To say that a church is "episcopal" simply means that it has bishops in the ancient and traditional sense.
In the original American colonies, we were simply the Church of England. But after the American Revolution, that name was no longer appropriate. The word Episcopal was settled on in order to distinguish us from other churches who had given up the idea of bishops.
The word episcopal is always an adjective modifying a noun. The noun version of the word is Episcopalian. Hence, a member of the Episcopal Church is an Episcopalian.
The Episcopal Church is the American branch of the Anglican Communion, which is that group of all national and regional churches in union with the Church of England. Other churches in the Anglican Communion include the Church of England; the Anglican Church of Canada; the Nippon Seikoai in Japan; the Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui of China; the Lusitanian Church in Portugal; the Episcopal Church in Spain; and Anglican churches in Australia, South & Central America, Africa, India, Ireland, Scotland, the Middle East, the West Indies and in virtually every area of the world. All these churches see themselves as members of one Anglican Communion of churches. There are 80 million Anglicans world-wide.

When Pope Gregory sent St. Augustine to England as a missionary in 597 AD, Augustine was astounded to find a fully-developed Christian Church already there. Called "the Celtic Church", this branch of Christianity had functioned for hundreds of years with no contact with Rome. (St. Patrick was a famous member of this non-Roman church). This means that the Church of England is practically as old as Christianity itself.
In the sixteenth century, the English Church hierarchy supported the king's political declaration that the Pope no longer had jurisdiction in England. The "English Reformation" was at its outset a purely political move. The same clergy and the same churches simply continued as they had before, but without the jurisdiction of the Pope. The theological refinements of Anglicanism were to come in later years.
Today, our Episcopal Church represents the American branch of that ancient Church. Our origins are not found in the sixteenrh century, but rather in the the earliest century of Christianity. Hence, we are a Church that teaches and practices the earliest Christian religion, and we are a Reformed Church in that we reject the rater additions made by Rome, but place a high emphasis on the authority of Holy Scripture.

For the most part, the Episcopal Church includes in her tradition all the practices of the Christian Church, but they are offered, not required.
For us, Holy Communion is the primary service of worship. Holy Scripture is central to us; preaching is of great importance; and there is democratic governance in our church; we believe the Holy Spirit works best when the whole church is represented.

The Episcopal Church is known for the beauty and dignity of its worship, but this does not mean it is stuffy and cold. We do place a great emphasis on Music both ancient and contemporary.
Although the church deeply respects and follows Holy Scripture, it has never required a "wooden literalism". One of the great theologians in the Anglican Tradition held that in addition to Scripture, we are also informed by our 2,000 years of tradition and by God-given human reason. Episcopalians are encouraged to think for themselves. We have a motto: "The trouble with religions that have all the answers is that they usually don't allow any questions." In the Episcopal Church we are on a journey of spiritual exploration, and we are traveling together in communion with our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Among main line American Churches, the Episcopal Church and her leadership have a fine record of involvement in social issues from civil rights to nuclear disarmament. For the past twenty years, the Episcopal Church has been in the forefront of efforts on behalf of the poor, the needy, the handicapped and the oppressed.

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