Christian, Ecumenical, and Fraternal Order of Corporate Reunion | |
Abbreviation |
|
---|---|
Established | 1877 |
Founder | Frederick George Lee |
Type | Ecumenical association |
Headquarters | Disputed |
Primate | Disputed |
Key people |
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The Order of Corporate Reunion (OCR), officially the Christian, Ecumenical, and Fraternal Order of Corporate Reunion, is an ecumenical association of clergy and laity of Anglican origin. The OCR was founded by Frederick George Lee, Thomas Wimberley Mossman, and John Thomas Seccombe between 1874-1877 in London. [1] : 23 Established as an Anglo-Papalist society to continue the work of the Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom, [2] its founders sought to restore an apostolic succession recognized by the Catholic Church through reordinations as a means for reunion. [3]
The founders of the Order of Corporate Reunion claimed to have been consecrated as bishops by Roman Catholic bishops. However, they did not state in public the names of their consecrators; over a century after their deaths it was revealed that cardinals Luigi Nazari di Calabiana, Domenico Agostini, and Vincenzo Moretti allegedly consecrated Lee and Mossman. [1] : 22
Following the deaths of its founders, the order fell dormant with its apostolic succession maintained, and initially revived in 1912. [1] : 24–26 Prominent members and leaders of the revived order were believed to have included Arnold Harris Mathew, Hugh George de Willmott Newman, and Peter Paul Brennan. [4] This revived Order of Corporate Reunion, upon the death of Brennan, schismed into at least three separate bodies, though the organization incorporated by Brennan and others included Michael Kline as the disputed successive primate. [5]
Following the dissolution of the Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom, the OCR was established in response to Apostolicae curae , which declared all Anglican ordinations "absolutely null and utterly void". [6] During the latter 19th and early 20th centuries, numerous Anglican clergy obtained conditional ordination (reordination) by bishops in the order, with the aim of receiving holy orders recognized as valid by the Roman Catholics. Most of these OCR ordinations occurred in secret, though information about some became public; Richard Williams Morgan and Charles Isaac Stevens were both consecrated within the Order of Corporate Reunion on 6 March 1879. [1] : 24 Morgan had been previously consecrated by Jules Ferrette of the Ancient British Church.
In 1912, the order was revived and allegedly involved the membership of Arnold Harris Mathew of the Old Roman Catholic Church in Great Britain and Hugh George de Willmott Newman of the Catholicate of the West. [1] : 24–26 After their consecration within the Old Catholic Churches of Utrecht, its claimed that Mathew was conditionally consecrated by Frederick Cornwallis Conybeare in 1909. Conybeare was consecrated in 1894 by Lee, Mossman, and Seccombe. [7] From this revival, it became dormant again with the death of Mathew until its growth in the United States. In 1998, a new branch of the order was established by Diederik Quatannens; his leadership was succeeded by Bertil Persson. [8] After Persson's retirement, the order was then led by Archbishop Peter Paul Brennan of the Old Catholic Confederation, who died in 2016. [9]
After Brennan's death, Michael Kline of the Exorcist Order of Saint Michael in Missouri claimed to have been entrusted to be Brennan's successor as leader of the OCR, [10] who alongside Persson and Brennan incorporated the OCR within the United States. During his tenure, the Order of Corporate Reunion schismed into at least three separate groups.
One notable OCR group has been based in the United Kingdom and led by John Kersey, a claimant successor to the defunct Catholicate of the West and dispenser of the Vilatte orders. [11]
Upon the resignation of Kline as Primate of the OCR, Richard Cumming was appointed the Prime Bishop or Universal Primate of the OCR group incorporated by Brennan, Kline and Persson, in 2022. [8]
In 2023, the OCR group led by Richard Cumming reorganized itself as its predecessor—the Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom. [12]
In Christianity, an episcopus vagans is a person consecrated, in a "clandestine or irregular way", as a bishop outside the structures and canon law of the established churches; a person regularly consecrated but later excommunicated, and not in communion with any generally recognized diocese; or a person who has in communion with them small groups that appear to exist solely for the bishop's sake.
Independent Catholicism is an independent sacramental movement of clergy and laity who self-identify as Catholic and form "micro-churches claiming apostolic succession and valid sacraments", in spite of not being affiliated to the historic Catholic church, the Roman Catholic church. The term "Independent Catholic" derives from the fact that "these denominations affirm both their belonging to the Catholic tradition as well as their independence from Rome".
The Anglican Catholic Church (ACC), also known as the Anglican Catholic Church (Original Province), is a body of Christians in the continuing Anglican movement, which is separate from the Anglican Communion. This denomination is separate from the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia and the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada.
Jules Ferrette, also spelled Julius Ferrette, was allegedly bishop of Iona; he is allegedly the founder of the Ancient British Church.
Joseph René Vilatte, also known as Mar Timotheus I, was a French–American Catholic active in France and the United States. He was associated with several Christian denominations before his ordination as a Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland (CKS) bishop for service in an Episcopal diocese. Eventually, he was reconciled with the Catholic Church and voluntarily entered a solemn vow of abjuration.
William Henry Hugo Newman-Norton is a British independent Oriental Orthodox bishop. He is the Patriarch of Glastonbury and head of the British Orthodox Church (BOC) with the title of British Patriarch and is known as Abba Seraphim.
The Augustana Catholic Church (ACC), formerly the Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church (ALCC), Augustana Evangelical Catholic Church (AECC), and Evangelical Community Church-Lutheran (ECCL), is a High Church Lutheran or Evangelical Catholic denomination. Founded in 1997 by Metropolitan Archbishop Irl Allen Gladfelter, a former United States Army lieutenant colonel, the church claimed 19 congregations, 6 schools, 22 clergy, and 11,100 members altogether in 2010. Although it no longer has a presence in the United States as of 2013, the Augustana Catholic Church is active in Haiti and Ecuador, as well as in certain African countries.
Hugh George de Willmott Newman was an Independent Catholic or independent Old Catholic bishop. He was known religiously as Mar Georgius I and bore the titles, among others, of Patriarch of Glastonbury, Catholicos of the West, and sixth British Patriarch. He was the head of the Catholicate of the West from when he became a bishop, in 1944, until his death in 1979.
Baselios Marthoma Mathews I was the primate of Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, also known as Indian Orthodox Church. He was the 5th catholicos of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and 18th Malankara Metropolitan.
The leader of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church uses the title Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan. The incumbent 'Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan' is Baselios Marthoma Mathews III.
Arnold Harris Mathew, self-styled de jure 4th Earl Landaff of Thomastown, was the founder and first bishop of the Old Roman Catholic Church in the United Kingdom and a noted author on ecclesiastical subjects.
Frederick George Lee was a priest of the Church of England and a religious author. He co-founded the Order of Corporate Reunion.
Peter Paul Brennan was an American bishop. He was archbishop of the Old Catholic Confederation and primate of the Ecumenical Catholic Diocese of the Americas—presently named the Good Shepherd Companions. He was also a bishop of the African Orthodox Church, primate of the Order of Corporate Reunion, and president of Married Priests Now!—founded by excommunicated Roman Catholic archbishop Emmanuel Milingo.
Luigi Giuseppe Nazari di Calabiana was an Italian churchman and politician: a senator of the Kingdom of Sardinia and Archbishop of Milan.
The American Catholic Church (ACC) was an Old Catholic denomination founded in 1915. Though no longer in existence, many groups have made claims to its lineage through the consecrations of Paolo Miraglia-Gulotti and Frederick Ebenezer Lloyd. The State of Illinois Charter for the ACC obtained by Archbishop Vilatte, dated 13 July 1915, is now registered to Archbishop Robert Clement, and his ACC ministry is continuing in California.
Leon Chechemian (1848–1920) was an Armenian Christian cleric. In 1897, he was a founder of the Free Protestant Episcopal Church, and that church's first primus. He is also considered an episcopus vagans.
The Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom (APUC) was originally established by Ambrose Lisle March Phillipps De Lisle in 1857 within England to promote unity among Anglicans, Roman Catholics, and Orthodox Christians. Condemned by Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman and defunct by the early twentieth century, two successor organisations descended from it: the Catholic League and the Order of Corporate Reunion—two Anglo-Papalist societies. Since 2023, a branch of the Order of Corporate Reunion incorporated within the United States by Peter Paul Brennan and others reorganized themselves as APUC. The newly established incarnation of APUC seeks reformation or restoration within Anglicanism, Catholicism, and Eastern Orthodoxy.
The Catholicate of the West was a Christian denomination established in 1944 and which ceased to exist in 1994 to become the British Orthodox Church.
Thomas Wimberley Mossman was a Church of England priest, novelist, translator, episcopus vagans and Ritualist leader associated with the Order of Corporate Reunion (OCR). He was born in Skipton, North Yorkshire. Ordained priest on May 26, 1850, following studies at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, he became curate of Donington on Bain as deacon in 1849. He was curate of Panton, Lincolnshire in 1852, vicar of Ranby, Lincolnshire in 1854, and rector of the united benefices of East Torrington and West Torrington in Lincolnshire in 1859. Mossman was the primary English translator of the extensive biblical commentaries of the Flemish Roman Catholic exegete and priest, Cornelius a Lapide (1567-1637).
John Thomas Seccombe was an English medical doctor, translator, and episcopus vagans associated with Frederick George Lee and Thomas Wimberley Mossman in the Order of Corporate Reunion.
The following points are a matter of record: (1) all claimants recognize that Peter Paul Brennan was the Prime Bishop or Universal Primate; (2) the corporation formed by Peter Paul Brennan, Bertil Persson, Francis Spataro, and Michael Kline in 2010 has clearly defined protocols for succession outlined in Article VIII of the Articles of Agreement filed with the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri; (3) in accordance with the protocols set forth in Article VIII of the Articles of Agreement filed with the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri, upon the death of Peter Paul Brennan, Michael Kline was appointed Prime Bishop of the Order of Corporate Reunion by the administrators and executors of the corporation identified by name in Article VIII.
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: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)For almost one hundred and fifty years, we undertook our public work in the name of the Order of Corporate Reunion. In 2023, however, we made the decision to reprise the public name of our predecessor organization, The Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom. This decision was intended as an act of "Kingdom-thinking." On account of the liberalizing trajectory pursued by certain elements, the name of the Order of Corporate Reunion acquired a negative association in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In addition, due to a variety of personality conflicts which have given rise to acts of separation, there are now four organizations claiming to be the Order of Corporate Reunion which are engaged in various disputes with each other. For these reasons, as an organization, we decided that the best course of action was to withdraw from all of these disputes and make a break with the past so that we could distance ourselves from the schisms and scandals of the past and serve as a more effective witness to Christian truth.