Apostolic Episcopal Church

Last updated
Apostolic Episcopal Church
Apostolic Episcopal Church seal.png
Classification Western Christianity
Orientation Anglicanism and Old Catholicism
Polity Episcopal
PrimateJohn Kersey
Associations
Founder Arthur Wolfort Brooks
Origin1925
Separated from Episcopal Church (United States) and Chaldean Catholic Church
Official website https://apostolicepiscopalchurch.org

The Apostolic Episcopal Church (AEC), officially the Holy Eastern Catholic and Apostolic Orthodox Church, is an Anglican and Independent Old Catholic Christian denomination founded by Arthur Wolfort Brooks. [1]

Contents

History

The Apostolic Episcopal Church was founded by former Episcopalian priest, Arthur Wolfort Brooks, in 1925. [1] He was consecrated as bishop in May 1925. [2] : 60–61  Previously, in 1924, he established the Anglican Universal Church with George Winslow Plummer of the First Rosicrucian Church in America and Societas Rosicruciana in America. [3] By 1927, Brooks and Plummer parted ways; and by 1932, the AEC was officially organized. [4] In 1935, it claimed 7,892 members, 23 clergy, and 19 churches. [1]

In 1941, Brooks welcomed then-priest Hugh George de Willmott Newman into the AEC. He would then create the Old Catholic Orthodox Church through Newman for England. [2] : 60 

In 1943, the Apostolic Episcopal Church's bishops met with the prelates from the Ancient British Church, the British Orthodox Catholic Church, the Old Catholic Orthodox Church, the Order of Holy Wisdom, and the Order of Antioch. [5] : 239–241  These churches established the Council of London which repudiated the 1938 decree of Ignatius Aphrem I of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch which rejected any relationship with churches descending from Jules Ferrette or Joseph Rene Vilatte's claims to apostolic succession. [5] : 239–243  They would become the Catholicate of the West.

In 1946, the AEC merged with the Ancient Christian Fellowship, and Brooks was succeed in leadership by Wallace David de Ortega Maxey in 1948. [6] [2] : 60  According to The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science , by 1948, the church's membership was 6,389. [7] A year later, Maxey resigned from the AEC and the Catholicate of the West. He would be succeeded by Matthew Nicholas Nelson and Lowell Paul Wadle. [2] : 305 

In 1969, Perry Nikolaus Cedarholm succeeded as archbishop and primate of the AEC. [2] : 77–78  Cedarholm would be succeeded in 1977 by Nils Bertil Alexander Persson. [2] : 316  According to a claimed successor to the Catholicate of the West and the Order of Corporate Reunion, Persson was succeeded by Francis Spataro, and then by John Kersey in 2015. [8]

Statistics

In 1935, the Apostolic Episcopal Church claimed 7,892 members, 23 clergy, and 19 churches; from 2002 to 2004, the AEC had grown to 18,000 members, 320 clergy, and 250 churches; and by 2006, its membership declined to 12,000 members, grew to 255 clergy, yet declined with 250 churches. [1] As of 2025, according to the claimant successor of the Catholicate of the West and Order of Corporate Reunion; the AEC has at least 12 clergy, and a presence throughout the United Kingdom, the Americas, Scandinavia, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. [9] [10]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Apostolic Episcopal Church (1925-Present)". The Association of Religion Data Archives (the ARDA). Retrieved 2025-08-09.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Persson, Bertil (1990). Independent Bishops: An International Directory. Apogee Books. ISBN   9781558883079.
  3. ↑ Psarev, Deacon Andrei (2011-12-07). "Archbishop James (Toombs, d. November 1970) of Manhattan, Head of the American Orthodox Mission, Vicar of the Diocese of Eastern America and Jersey City - ROCOR Studies" . Retrieved 2025-08-09.
  4. ↑ Armentrout, Don S. (1986). "Episcopal Splinter Groups: Schisms in the Episcopal Church, 1963-1985". Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church. 55 (4): 295–320. ISSN   0018-2486.
  5. 1 2 Anson, Peter F. (2006) [1964]. "Churches Claiming the Ferrette Succession". Bishops at Large. Independent Catholic Heritage. Apocryphile press. ISBN  [[Special:BookSources/0-9771461-8-9|<bdi>0-9771461-8-9</bdi>]] {{isbn}}: Check isbn value: invalid character (help).
  6. ↑ Strub, Whitney (2016). "The Homophile Is a Sexual Being: Wallace de Ortega Maxey's Pulp Theology and Gay Activism". Journal of the History of Sexuality. 25 (2): 323–353. ISSN   1043-4070.
  7. ↑ "Census of Religious Bodies in United States". The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 256: 165–168. 1948. ISSN   0002-7162.
  8. ↑ "History of the Apostolic Episcopal Church". The Abbey-Principality of San Luigi. 2021-03-23. Retrieved 2025-08-09.
  9. ↑ "Clergy". The Abbey-Principality of San Luigi. 2021-03-23. Retrieved 2025-08-09.
  10. ↑ "Missions". The Abbey-Principality of San Luigi. 2021-03-23. Retrieved 2025-08-09.
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