St. Peter's Episcopal Church (Oxford, Mississippi) St. Peter's Episcopal Church (Oxford, Mississippi) St. Peter's Episcopal Church is a parish of the Episcopal Church in Oxford, Mississippi. It is noted for its historic Gothic Revival church building at 113 S. 9th Street, which once served as the pro-cathedral for what is now the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi. The Episcopal history of the area predates the incorporation of Oxford, with services held periodically throughout the 1840s. In 1848 James Hervey Otey, then provisional Bishop of Mississippi, encouraged the establishment of an Episcopal congregation there, anticipating opportunities from the recent opening of the University of Mississippi. The church was
Episcopal Church (United States) members or theologians hold evangelical positions, affirming the authority of scripture over all. The Episcopal Church website glossary defines the sources of authority as a balance between scripture, tradition, and reason. These three are characterized as a "three-legged stool" which will topple if any one overbalances the other. It also notes This balance of scripture, tradition and reason is traced to the work of Richard Hooker, a 16th-century apologist. In Hooker's model, scripture is the primary means of arriving at doctrine and things stated plainly in scripture are accepted as true. Issues that are ambiguous are determined by tradition, which