About the Bible
Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In the name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those canonical Books of the Old and New Testament, of whose authority was never any doubt in the Church. - The Articles of Religion, 1979 Book of Common Prayer
"Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them" (Book of Common Prayer, p. 236).
It is our foundation, understood through tradition and reason, containing all things necessary for salvation. Our worship is filled with Scripture from beginning to end.
The Episcopal Church takes reading the Bible very seriously. Approximately 70% of the Book of Common Prayer comes directly from the Bible, and Episcopalians read more Holy Scripture in Sunday worship than almost any other denomination in Christianity. - From the Episcopal Church website
The idea that the Scriptures are the revealed Word of God does not imply that everything in the Bible is scientifically or even historically true (in a modern sense). Most Episcopalians would say that the Word of God is "inspired" rather than "dictated." This means that the authors of the books of the Bible left the imprint of their worldview and value systems upon the writings. While the scriptures DO contain truth, it is not of the scientific or modern historical kind, of which the methods simply did not exist at the time the books were written. The version the American Episcopal church passed of the first part of the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral is this: "The Holy Scriptures, as containing all things necessary to salvation." In other words, all things that are needed to be reconciled to God are to be found within the Bible. Not all things, not even all knowledge about God, but those necessary to salvation. To try to subject the scriptures to the criteria of scientific rationalism or modern historical method would be kind of like taking a poem about a tree and criticizing it for not using modern botanical taxonomy. - The Bible and Chronological Accuracy on AskThePriest.org
