Orthodox Catholic Church

Orthodox Catholic Church is a title used by many different groups that are affiliated neither with the worldwide Orthodox communion, nor with the Roman Catholic Church, nor with the Anglican Communion.

The various groups that call themselves "Orthodox Catholic Churches" are all relatively small. Their beliefs cover a wide spectrum, from ultra-conservative to very liberal.

The name "Orthodox Catholic"

"Orthodox", means literally "true faith", while the word "Catholic" means literally "universal". Both words derive from the Greek language. Eastern and Western Churches claim entitlement to both descriptions, for historical as well as theological reasons. In practice, however, the still persisting East-West Schism means that the Eastern Churches ae usually called Orthodox and the Western Churches Catholic.

Classification of Orthodox Catholic Churches

Most organizations which call themselves Orthodox Catholic Churches have obtained what they consider to be valid orders from one or more groups in each of the Eastern and Western Churches, but retain few if any formal links with those original sources. In fact those original sources have usually severed such links as soon as they have found themselves unable to control their ecclesiastical offspring. It is these "orphaned children" that will be discussed in this article. Most of them derive from the work of certain key bishops, who all seem to have suffered significant persecution mainly by the Roman or Anglican church hierarchies in the early twentieth century. At least two, Villate & Ward, are regarded as saints by their followers.

The French American priest, Joseph Rene Vilatte (1854–1929), is perhaps the best known of these. He received episcopal consecration through a bishop of the Syrian Orthodox Church in Ceylon on May 29,1892 and thereafter ministered to Roman Catholics who had refused to accept the Papal claims of Infallibility made at the Vatican Council of 1870–1871. Through him, the Apostolic Succession of the Syrian Orthodox Church first reached the West, and Villate's ecclesiastical descendants are to be found in several countries. However, Villate himself after many years service, eventually returned to the Roman Catholic Church and was placed in a monastery in France, dying in 1929.

A number of modern groups trace their origins to his original activity, notably his American Catholic Church, from which several modern groups have developed. Of these, the Orthodox-Catholic Church of America [http://www.orthodoxcatholicchurch.org] is probably the largest and best-known.

Another key player in Orthodox Catholic history was the Swiss Old Catholic Bishop Eduard Herzog,whose succession comes from the Dutch Old Catholic Church line, and who also played a part in the history of Vilatte, ordaining him a priest. The Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands, which broke with the Roman Catholic Church in the Jansenist dispute at the beginning of the eighteenth century, has maintained its own lines of succession since that time. Herzog in fact took the Church to Switzerland, largely as a result of the same dispute over Infallibility (see Old Catholic Church). In addition to the various Old Catholic groups, a number of other small Churches owe much to this man, including the Philippines Independent Church [http://kkk.wave.net.ph/history]

Other key figures include Arnold Harris Mathew (1852–1919) who was consecrated in 1908 through the Old Catholic line and became the first bishop of the Old Catholic Church in Britain. He returned to the Roman Catholic Church in 1915, but not before consecrating as his successor a certain Willoughby who, together with Charles Webster Leadbeater transformed the group into what is now known as the Liberal Catholic Church.

Last of these key bishops, in point of time, is John Sebastian Marlowe Ward, (1885–1949) who in 1935 was consecrated to be his assistant by John Churchill Sibley, the Archbishop-Metropolitan of the Orthodox Catholic Church in the British Empire. Sibley himself had been consecrated in America by F.E.J.Lloyd, the successor of Vilatte and when he died three years later, Ward succeeded Sibley as archbishop. Ward had previously been well-known in secular society as a writer, scholar and contributor to the Encyclopaedia Britannica and later became known as both a psychic and mystic. A brief Life of Ward can be found at [http://orthodoxcatholicnew.tripod.com/id7.html]

Ward sought to re-combine separate Orthodox and Catholic Lines of succession within his Church, and obtained additional lines of succession from the ecclesiastical descendants of Herzog and others. He also sought to return to the original teachings of Christ and his Apostles, devoting his considerable scholarship to that end. He formed a community known as the Confraternity of the Kingdom of Christ, devoted to preparing the world for the Return of Christ and the New Age that would follow. This community emigrated to Australia after his death and a number of independent sub-groups have developed from it. These include the Orthodox Catholic Church of the New Age, which claims to have preserved all his original teachings, [http://orthodoxcatholicnew.tripod.com/] the Orthodox Church of Christ the King, which maintains his considerable antique collection, [http://www.abbeymuseum.asn.au/] and the Orthodox Catholic Church of Australia, which is still (2006) headed by one of the priests ordained by Ward himself, Peter Gilbert Strong (1920–). There are also a number of splinter groups that likewise derive their orders at least partly from Ward.

Unlike the Liberal Catholics, the Churches descended from Ward do not utilise non-Christian writings, though they accept that fragments of the Truth are to be found in all religions. Their teachings contain elements similar to those of the Liberal Catholics, notably a belief in Reincarnation, but are based upon interpretations of the "normal" Christian Bible. On historical and biblical grounds, they maintain, with Ward, that their beliefs are those of Christ and the original Twelve Apostles, which over the centuries were lost, hidden or changed by the Church Fathers, notably St. Augustine of Hippo, whose writings often reflect his former beliefs as a Manichaean.

ee also

* Orthodox-Catholic Church of America (OCCA)