Welcome

Welcome to the website of the Apostolic Episcopal Church and the Order of Corporate Reunion in Great Britain. The AEC and OCR are two historic ecumenical Christian communions that are today both headquartered in the State of New York, USA, and co-operate closely in their missions.

Those resident in Britain who wish to become more involved in the work of the AEC and the OCR are welcome to join the Friends of the AEC/OCR in Great Britain, an informal fellowship that supports the work of the AEC/OCR and the cause of ecumenism through prayer.

Please use the links above to explore the website. Thank you for your visit and may God bless you as you continue your journey in faith.

The Most Revd. Prof. John Kersey, OCR, DD
Archbishop of Great Britain of the Apostolic Episcopal Church
Rector Pro-Provincial of Canterbury of the Order of Corporate Reunion

The Apostolic Episcopal Church

The Apostolic Episcopal Church (The Holy Eastern Catholic and Apostolic Orthodox Church), is an autogenic, episcopally governed denomination within the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church open to all who seek to better understand and experience the mystery of Christ within. A pivotal tenet of the AEC is the spirit of ecumenical cooperation reflected in Christ’s prayer that the Church strive to attain oneness and love for one another, even in the face of doctrinal differences.

Our ministry reflects a novel understanding of the ancient apostolic tradition wherein we are of the conviction that the concept of apostolic succession is clearly reflected in both the spirit of the original twelve Apostles, who initiated physical, or outer lines of succession, and that of the Apostle Paul, whose ministry reflected the validity of an inner succession. In this manner, we hold that the full ministry of apostolic succession includes not only the offices of Bishop, Presbyter, and Deacon (to which men only are admitted), but that of Pastor, Evangelist, Reader, Minister of Music, and the priesthood of the laity as well.

Canonically organized in the state of New York in 1925, the AEC has been committed from its inception to ministry from the perspective of a deep, inner spirituality. This contemplative approach to ministry pays homage to the early teachings of Christ, the inner experiences of the Apostle Paul, and the voluminous writings of the great spiritual doctors of the Church – both Eastern and Western, ancient and contemporary.

The Apostolic Episcopal Church is a western-rite extension of The Chaldean Catholic Church, which is an Orthodox church in full communion (Uniate) with the Roman Catholic Church. It is an evangelical-ecumenical-ecclesiastical movement, oriented to New Thought and New Age according to the original understanding of these concepts, and works in the spirit of the declaration of the Assembly of The World Council of Churches in New Delhi 1961.

Our founder, Mar John Emmanuel (Brooks) (1889-1948), expressed the identity of the Church as follows, “We profess to be a Branch of the Eastern Church and, therefore, a valid branch of the Universal Church, whose Symbol of Faith is the apostolic, eastern confession, and whose Orders through Episcopal Succession are derived from the ancient Eastern Episcopate which is traced back to the primitive Church of the East and to the Apostles and Our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The AEC is in communion with a number of churches in the Orthodox, Anglican and Catholic traditions. On 24 May 1947, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Francis Fisher (later Baron Fisher of Lambeth) signed a private instrument of Intercommunion with Mar John Emmanuel, Primate of the AEC, as a result of their joint endeavour as senior Freemasons. The AEC is also in communion with the Philippine Independent Church (IFI), which is part of the Anglican Communion and is itself in communion with the Union of Utrecht of the Old Catholic Churches. The AEC Emeritus Primate, Archbishop Bertil Persson, served as IFI Archbishop of Europe between 1988 and 1992.

The present Primate of the AEC is the Most Revd. Francis C. Spataro, OCR, DD, who is based in Queens, New York, USA.

Key listings

The AEC is listed in the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, published annually by the National Council of Churches USA.

According to data reported in 2005 (the latest year available) by the Association of Religion Data Archives at Pennsylvania State University, the AEC counted 255 affiliated clergy, 200 churches and 12,000 members.

The Order of Corporate Reunion

The Order of Corporate Reunion (OCR) promotes Christian Unity through prayer and action. The Order is an association of clergy and laity dedicated to the idea that the Patriarch of the West is the Centre of Christian Unity. Members see a model of Christianity in Jesus’ prayer: That they all may be one. His words motivate us to bring his prayer into a lived reality. The Order was founded by the Reverends Frederick George Lee, Thomas Mossman and Joseph Seccombe in 1874 in London and it was officially promulgated in 1877. Lee was the Anglican pastor of All Saints Church in Lambeth.

Lee, Mossman and Seccombe were consecrated bishops in 1877 and were instrumental in providing valid orders to clergy of the Anglican church at a time when their orders seemed to be under question. The line of succession of the Order of Corporate Reunion is still extant today and is treasured and protected by our clergy members.

The Universal Primate of the OCR is the Most Revd. Peter Paul Brennan, OCR, DD, who is based in Cathedral Gardens, New York, USA.

Archbishop Brennan with the Archbishop of Canterbury at Crestwood

Archbishop Brennan sends us a note about his recent visit.

“Just had a great day.  I went up to St. Vladimir’s Seminary in Crestwood to hear the Archbishop of Canterbury speak about “The Image of Humanity in the Philokalia.”

Now usually I am bright-eared and bushy-tailed and get the gist of the presentation.  But today I was a goner.  Haven’t been well read on the Philokalia and it was his doctoral dissertation eons ago.  I will have to get the print copy and trudge through it again.  I am sure it has something to say but it did not say it to me today. I guess I need some pictures or maybe a Powerpoint presentation. It was the annual Fr. Schmemann lecture and Canterbury was awarded a DD hon. for the occasion.

I picked up Archbishop Francis Spataro on the way up to Crestwood.  He is always good company and I learn something new from him every day. We arrived on time for the beginning of the 9am Divine Liturgy celebrated by Metropolitan Jonah in the Three Hierarchs Chapel.  Today was their feast day.  The Liturgy was beautiful – very well done.  Great choir.  Great atmosphere… and I got a seat, so I did get to sit every now and then. The Archbishop of Canterbury and his deputy were front and center about five feet away from Archbishop Spataro and me. It is actually a small and cozy chapel – standing room only.

The best part of the liturgy at St. Vladimir’s is that the seminarians are accompanied by their wives and children.  Kids are laying on the floor with coloring books and toys.  It is just a wonderful site. Married seminarians studying for the priesthood with families in tow.  Can it get any better than that.  I love it. It is just wonderful to see every time I go there.  I can’t get enough of that.  I send them donations just because they have married seminarians.  How natural and wonderful. I hope they have great sex.  They must since there are lots of kids around. It can be done.  There is a married priesthood in the USA.  Now the RC just has to wake up.

After liturgy there was a brunch.  Then, the doctoral presentation and lecture. Metropolitan Jonah made a response which was a complete pitch for Anglican-Orthodox Unity.  Very powerful, serious and aggressive.

But no clue was given as to how to resolve the Lady Bishop issue with the Anglicans. Maybe there are ways to overlook that issue.

Refreshments followed the lecture.

Good day of socialization had by all.   Got some good pics too. [These will follow in due course - but there are also some at http://www.svots.edu/]

Blessings,  +Peter Paul”

Organisational affiliations

The AEC has recently withdrawn from membership of the Independent Catholic Churches Council.

I have also resigned from membership of the Independent Liberal Catholic Fellowship and the Sophia Circle.

These actions have been taken for various organisational reasons discussed privately with those bodies. They do not affect the continued relationship of close co-operation between the clergy of the AEC and the clergy of those bodies, nor do they reflect any lack of sympathy with their aims. The AEC expresses its continued willingness to offer practical support to those involved if and when such is required.

We continue to pray for these organisations and all engaged in their work, and look forward to their continued flowering in the Spirit during the months and years to come.

+John

Archbishop Spataro on the disaster in Haiti

Dear Friends and Brethren,

Recently I was greatly distressed to read in a local newspaper that the renowned Evangelist, Rev. Robinson, attributed the natural disaster in Haiti to the work of the Devil. Specifically he attributed the Earthquakes which rocked the island nation to a pact Haitian patriots had made with Satan when they forged the independence of this slave state in the late 18th-/early 19th- Century.

I find this both religiously and theologically downright insulting! Natural disasters are the work of Mother Nature, not some fantasy creation of people who hate both Black People and the Catholic Church. According to the Bible, which fundamentalist Christians accept as the literal Word of God, the Creator created our Universe and left it to its Laws. That’s why the Founding Fathers, who were both Deists and Freemasons, referred to the Creator as The Divine Architect. Once created, the structure had to follow the laws of the Universe. The Ancient World, perhaps, understood this better than the Judaeo-Christian Community. Natural Forces were deified and transformed into powerful Gods and Goddesses. An earthquake is an act of Nature, neither in itself good nor bad, but depending on the results. In Haiti we see that because of faulty construction, the magnitude of the quake, and the lack of governmental response and preparedness, this great tragedy unfolded as an immense human disaster. However, the UN and the US and other advanced industrial nations have responded in the Christian and Biblical manner that Rev. Robinson did not. Instead of calling upon his followers to mount a giant relief effort with the funds at their disposal, he blames the Devil! What utter nonsense and crass indifference to human suffering. God acts through Man. St. Augustine said that you show your love for God by loving mankind. St. John wrote that if you say that you love God and then hate your brothers and sisters, you are a LIAR !

Natural disasters will come and have always attacked civilizations from the Biblical Flood to today’s Tsunamis and Earthquakes. They are not punishment from God. They are Nature’s laws and forces in operation for millennia. In the 1950s there was a very popular scientific book, Worlds In Collision. It dealt with the natural disasters which formed the planet Earth. This was part of the Divine Plan. If men had been more concerned with their fellow man in Haiti before the quake, the results might not have been so tragic. Haiti was already reeling from poverty and illness and lack of infrastructure long before this immense earthquake. If any one is to blame, it’s not the Devil but selfish, corrupt plutocrats who for decades have frustrated the will of the people to make as much wealth as possible.

All decent and religious caring persons should be revolted by Rev. Robinson’s attributing this Tragedy to the Devil.

+Francis C. Spataro

The AEC and 2009

2009 has been a very interesting year for the worldwide AEC. Thanks to the work of Archbishop John Kersey, the AEC has taken on a more ecumenical and Liberal Catholic visage. This would, indeed, be in sync with the ideals of all our past Primates, from Brooks to Maxey to Abbinga to Persson. The AEC from its very beginnings presented a Universalist and Internationalist visage to the World. It was multi-ethnic, multi-racial and multi-denominational. Its great appeal has always been across denominational borders. That’s why I became involved with the AEC from my position in the American World Patriarchates which was in communion with the AEC and St. Ephrem’s in Sweden and the Ecumenical Episcopal Church in Norway. Dr. Persson, our Primate Emeritus, like the late Dr. Maxey, became involved with many Universalist Organizations. His work for and with the Universal Peace Federation (ECOSOC) and the Educators for World Peace (UNESCO) is endemic to what the AEC stands  for. When I was invited to sign the new Charter for Human Rights at the UN in September of 2008 at the Summit for Human Rights, this culminated 83 years that the AEC was in the forefront of the struggle for Human Rights and Freedoms. Our association with Human Rights Group,Inc. and our work in both Kosovo and Brazil for Religious Freedom as well as in Belarus and Ecuador underscores our decades of commitment to the advancement of Human Dignity and Religious Pluralism in the USA and Worldwide. This ideology is clearly put forth in Dr. Persson’s new book: The Fight Against Sects (Stockholm, 2008). To all our members and friends we wish a very Happy and Blessed New Year 2010 !

+Francis C. Spataro

Christmas Morning 2009

To All Our Friends and Brethren:

The ancient tradition of the Three Christmas Masses has been somewhat modified since Vatican II. And last night’s attack on the Pope at St. Peter’s also illustrates the loss of reverence for what is Holy during this Winter Holiday Season. The rush on stores and riots over sneaker sales graphically portray the depths of disrespect for our most holy and ancient beliefs: this is supposed to be the Feast of the Birth of “the Angel of Great Counsel,” the birth in the flesh of His only-begotten Son. The Gradual of the Third Mass during Christmas Day proclaimed: “All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Sing joyfully to God, all the earth. The Lord hath made known His salvation. He hath revealed His justice in the sight of all nations.”

And then the Gospel for this Mass was the beginning of the Gospel of St John and our adoption as sons and daughters in Christ: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God….

How fitting is this ending for the Third Mass after the Gospel about the shepherds in the Dawn Mass and Nativity Gospel of Midnight: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.

We wish you all a very Blessed and Merry Christmas. May the Light of the Star of Bethlehem shine upon you all this day, the Light of the Prince of Peace.

+Francis C. Spataro

An Advent Reminiscence

As we now are between the First Sunday of Advent and the Second Sunday of Advent, December 6, which is also St. Nicholas’ Day, I am reminiscing about Advent of 1956 when I made my first convert to the Church. She was a Scottish nurse, Ms Farquier, and that Summer of ‘56 had worked as the Summer Camp Nurse in the infirmary of Camp St. Benedict in Newton, New Jersey. I was a seminarian and the counselor in charge of Arts and Crafts. The Arts and Craft shop and classroom was opposite the camp infirmary in a converted barn.

Camp St. Benedict was run by the Benedictine Fathers of St. Paul’s Abbey, Benedictine Missionaries to Africa of the St Odile Congregation of OSB. At that time the Abbot was the late Dom Charles Carlson. Today the Monastery is no longer with the OSB but is a Korean Trappist Monastery. Since the infirmary was just across from the Arts and Crafts Shop, Ms Farquier would come across to chat and work on a ceramic she was making for a friend. She was a Labor Party member and a Socialist. During our conversation about religion and politics, the nurse was amazed at my enlightened attitude toward many subjects. She was so taken by my political philosophy that she said how she was drawn to the Church but stopped at joining because of its campaign against Labor. I told her about Pope Leo’s Rerum Novarum and that the Church did not condemn unions and Labor but upheld the dignity of the working classes. Its opposition to Atheistic Communism/Marxism was due to its war on religion. Then and there she decided to join the Church. So on Christmas Eve, 1956, Abbot Charles baptized and confirmed her in the rustic Chapel of St. Paul’s Abbey. I was her Godparent.

Now in Advent of 2009 as I mourn the loss of my son, Peter, I am drawn to this reminiscence of the first convert and spiritual child that I had as a 20 year old seminarian and rejoice that at the age of 73 the good Lord had seen fit to spare me another Advent. I love this season and the Psalm 25 which begins it:

Psalm 25
4-5
Show me your ways,O Lord,
Teach me your paths;
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
For you are God my Savior,
And my hope is in you all day long.”
(New International Version,1984)

Happy Holidays to all !
+Francis C. Spataro

Intercommunion with the Eparquia Bizantina “São Marcos”

Archbishop Spataro has announced that the Belarus Autocephalous Orthodox National Church under Patriarch Yuri I, a denomination in full communion with the AEC, has entered intercommunion with the Eparquia Bizantina “São Marcos” in Brazil.

The Eparchy is led by Presiding Bishop Rogerio Sidaoui, who is also bishop of Brazil in the Igreja Cathólica Orthodoxa Bielorrussa Nacional-WAP-World American Patriarchates Ecumenical.

Details of clergy and times of the Liturgy can be found on the Eparchy’s website above.

 

Sobornost

Thoughts About Unity

By  Archbishop Francis C. Spataro

The recent announcements about Ordinariates in the Roman Catholic Church to accommodate Anglican converts have resurrected the entire question of Unity in the Christian Church. Back in the late 15th-Century the Council of Constance had attempted to solve this issue with the ending of the so-called Babylonian Captivity of the Papacy. In order to resolve the Papal Schism of three Popes(Rome, Avignon, Pisa), the Council declared that an Ecumenical Council of the whole Catholic Church was the ultimate authority in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The Council deposed all three reigning Popes and elected Martin V who was to be the only Pope of Rome in Rome. He accepted and pledged his support of the work of the Council. He was consecrated by the then John XXIII, the Pope at Rome, but as soon as he was out of the Council’s grasp, he repudiated his pledge. Today the Roman Catholic Church regards the Avignon Line as the valid one and rejects Constance, having transformed it into the Council of Florence and its rapprochement with the Greek Orthodox Church which shortly after in 1453 was overwhelmed by the Ottomans.

This idea of Conciliarism or in Russian, Sobornost, did not die out. It was kept alive in the West by Gallicanism and later Old Catholicism and in the East by the Slavophile Movement in the Russian Church. I recommend “On Spiritual Unity: A Slavophile Reader – Aleksei Khomiakov, Ivan Kreevsky,” translated and edited by Boris Jakim and Robert Bird (Lindisfrane Books,1998). In my mind the establishment of these Anglican Ordinariates brings up this burning issue of Sobornost/Conciliarism vs the Papacy. How does the Papacy present a more Christian solution to the question of disunity than that of the superiority of an Ecumenical Council? The Papacy cannot on its own solve some very burning and current issues in the Church: the marriage of priests and the ordination of women. How then can it present itself to the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion as the solution to its current problems? Since the 19th-Century and the Tractarian Movement, Anglo-Catholics have looked to Rome for the answer to all their problems. There were those in the 19th-Century like Overbeck who saw the answer in the East. To put one’s spiritual fate in the hands of one man is irrational. Popes differ from one another as day and night. Pius IX is followed by a more understanding Leo XIII. Yet he is followed by an anti-Modernist Pius X, who is followed by Benedict XV and Pius XI who are followed by Pius XII, and the jury is still out on him.

Then comes John XXIII (again) and Paul VI who are followed by John Paul I and John Paul II. And John Paul II tries to bring back the reign of Pius XII! Now we have Benedict XVI who is in favor of restoring the ancient Liturgy and continuing with the Novus Ordo and setting up Anglican Ordinariates for the Anglican Rite. The whim of one man leads to chaos. What we need is an Ecumenical Council of the entire Church, Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant to re-establish the Conciliarist system and work from there. I congratulate those Anglicans in the Forward In Faith Movement who seek to be part of a united Christian Church as in the first one thousand years of Church History. But the Papacy is not the answer in this the 21st-Century. One Man Rule has shown itself unable to deal with the many problems of modern life be it the environment, peace, genocide, famine, pandemics, etc. Sobornost is the only answer and in the Church that is the supreme authority of an Ecumenical Council. No one man is infallible, only the Holy Spirit acting through the joint agreement of the whole Church. Where one or two are together in His Name, He is there also!

Reflection by Archbishop Spataro

Today is the anniversary of the consecration of the first Bishop in North America,the Rt. Rev. Samuel Seabury. After the Revolution the Anglican Church in the USA became the Protestant Episcopal Church of the USA. But it had no Bishop. All Anglicans here were under the Bishop of London. Dr. Seabury went to Scotland and was consecrated by Bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church, which was what was left of the Catholic Church there. Canterbury did not accept him and a schism broke out which was not healed until the 1820s. The two churches were out of communion for about 40 years. Eventually the break was healed and other Bishops were consecrated with the approval of Canterbury.

Another rift would occur with the establishment of the Reformed Episcopal Church over the issue of slavery. The PEC condoned slavery in the South. Forward looking clergy and people influenced by the New England Transcendentalists such as Emerson and Thoreau felt the need for a new Church more attuned to the times and the Movement for Freedom.

Today the Episcopal Church in the USA is embroiled in an even greater controversy. One faction looks to the Rights Movements dominant in the USA since the 1960s but another faction looks to Rome. This new split may, indeed, spell the end of ECUSA as we know it and the establishment of a more congregational structure to deal with the many nuances of belief and practice in this wounded church. We pray God will guide its leaders in the way they should go and do.

Remembrance Sunday

Today we remember the sacrifice of the men and women who gave their lives in the service of their country.

We should also reflect on the recent report by Ekklesia, “Reimagining Remembrance” which raises a number of pertinent questions about the nature of our commemoration of the sacrifices of war. Similar points were also made in a television documentary by Ian Hislop this time last year, which looked at the nature of conscientious objection in the two world wars. The societal pressure to fight was overwhelming, and Hislop tells us “The ones who held out despite the intimidation were incredibly brave in their way. Their single-mindedness was extraordinary.”

That pressure was not merely secular, but was at the heart of the Church at that time. Those who know their history of our movement will remember Arthur Winnington-Ingram, Bishop of London in the Church of England and a constant persecutor of those representing Old Catholic and Orthodox missions in the United Kingdom. Hislop recalls that “The C of E wasn’t the limp and liberal institution it is today,” he says. “It was much more muscular. Some of the sermons by the likes of Bishop Winnington-Ingram were blood-curdling.” Perhaps Hislop has in mind Winnington-Ingram’s sermon delivered after the death of Edith Cavell on 8 December 1915, in which he exhorted, “To save the freedom of the world, to save liberty, to save the honour of women and the innocence of children, every one…is banded in a great crusade – we cannot deny it – to kill Germans, to kill them not for the sake of killing, but to save the world, to kill the good as well as the bad, to kill the young men as well as the old, to kill those who have shown kindness to our wounded as well as those fiends who crucified the Canadian sergeant.” To gain some idea of the chilling impact of his words, perhaps we might imagine them being spoken in the wake of the 9/11 or 7/7 attacks and the word “Muslim” substituted for “German”. Nor was this form of rhetoric the outcome of the heat of the moment; Winnington-Ingram continued in similar vein throughout the war, and indeed was decorated for his pains. Dean Inge referred to him in his diary by saying, “The mental processes of the Bishop are, for a man in his position, of almost childish simplicity.” Inge also described a day of intercession and thanksgiving for the war held in 1918: “The Bishop of London preached a most un-Christian sermon, which with a few words changed might have been preached by a court chaplain in Berlin.”

Watching the Cenotaph service this morning I was profoundly moved, as I am every year, by the example of heroism, honour, duty, self-sacrifice and courage set by our Armed Forces. They are values which today’s society seems to hold cheap, and so to see them so visibly on display is both a poignant reminder of what has been lost and a call to their present and future defence. Concepts of duty, of honour, of standing for something beyond your own personal interests, of altruism towards our fellow human beings whatever their colour or creed, are all integral to the outlook of a life lived in the light of faith. I would certainly hope that today’s Christians would endorse such a view. What is greatly to be regretted is that the last twelve years in particular have seen a deliberate diminution of those values within our culture at large, with secularism having little to offer in their place except shallow materialism, the cult of celebrity and the decline in personal responsibility. Those for whom this is their debased cultural heritage show themselves all too ready to fight, but unfortunately not in defence of anything that is of real significance beyond their own narrow self-interest and gratifications.

Here in England there cannot be many families, and I include my own, who have not some direct connexion with the armed struggle within the past few generations, and for many that connexion is all too present in the here and now, as parents, children and siblings face harsh conditions far from home, and in some cases, count the ultimate cost of war. For me, I would feel happier in asking for those sacrifices to be made if I were firstly convinced that the cause was wholly justified, secondly that our troops were properly equipped for the task, and thirdly that those who are wounded or disabled in the course of action were properly and fully supported once they returned home. I am sad to say that I am confident on none of these points, and that I believe those making the decisions concerned have more affinity with the second group of values I described in my account above than with the first. Yet this should not lead us into confusion. To commemorate the sacrifice of the fallen is not to glorify war, nor to endorse past or present conflicts. It is far deeper than that. It is to recognise that the giving of human life in the service of a greater good is a noble thing, regardless of whether we ourselves agree with the merits of the cause. As with the martyrs, we can justly say “they died for their beliefs”, with those beliefs centring around a vision of a free, fair and humane society, and the wish both that this be protected where it exists and that others might experience it where it does not.

Another notable aspect of the Cenotaph service was that although various religious leaders were present, our movement has no-one to record or represent the sacrifices of its members. The men and women of the independent sacramental or Free Catholic movements include among their number those who fought and died for their country. They also include those who were interned for their political beliefs, several who died in the Nazi concentration camps and, perhaps most visibly, those who contributed to the pacifist cause as conscientious objectors. Throughout both wars, Independent Catholic churches such as the King’s Weigh House in London’s Mayfair and the Cathedral Church of the Good Shepherd in Chelsea were centres for the pacifist movement. Elsewhere, leaders of our church such as Mar Georgius, Catholicos of the West, often spoke out against the futility of wars of aggression. Even then, our movement was still in the front line; we might call to mind the wife of Bishop William E.J. Jeffery, who was killed when a German bomb hit a church in 1940, and the other civilian casualties both of the direct effects of war and of its incidental privations, particularly in respect of the aged poor.  Who speaks for these people? They need a voice, and a voice that says that not all who perceive a very real duty towards humanity agree that its fulfilment is to be found in taking up arms. Today, let us resolve – we will remember them.