Liberal Catholic Church
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The Liberal Catholic Church is a form of Christianity open to theosophical ideas.
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Church background
The founding bishop of The Liberal Catholic Church was James I. Wedgwood of the Wedgwood China family, former priest in The Anglican Church, who became a theosophist and was ordained as a priest in the Old Catholic Church on July 22, 1913 by Arnold Harris Mathew, a resigned Roman Catholic priest who had been consecrated by Archbishop Gerardus Gul of Utrecht on April 28, 1908, and appointed as the first Old Catholic Bishop in England. Thus the Liberal Catholic Church can trace its apostolic succession going back to Rome. In the end Mathew came to cease all ties with the Utrecht Union of Churches, to vow allegiance once more to the Roman Catholic Church and to advise those of his flock who were theosophists to resign membership of the Theosophical Society Adyar. This advice was not taken seriously by many of the church's members. Wedgwood was consecrated to the episcopate on February 13, 1916 by Bishop Frederick Samuel Willoughby (who had been consecrated by Bishop Matthew), and started the organisation that would later become the Liberal Catholic Church, of which Wedgwood became the first Presiding Bishop. Bishop Wedgwood published articles within the Theosophical Society on ceremonial work. These interested Charles Webster Leadbeater, an alleged clairvoyant and Anglican priest who was consecrated as a Liberal Catholic bishop in 1916. C. W. Leadbeater became the 2nd Presiding Bishop.
First Schism
In 1941, there was a schism in the Liberal Catholic Church in the United States, surrounding a controversy involving Bishop Charles Hampton, who, while he was himself a theosophist, wished to keep adherence to theosophical tenets optional for the clergy. This was in keeping with what was taken to be the original intent of the church's founders, who, although they were theosophists, wanted the church to remain primarily Catholic and to be open to everyone. While some branches of the church place more esoteric, lifestyle and dietary restrictions on the clergy, the church as a whole did not, and still does not, require membership in the Theosophical Society.
Legal battle
The controversy surrounding Bishop Hampton led to a legal battle in the United States which eventually split into two different divsions, both of which claimed to be the Liberal Catholic Church. Frank W. Pigott, the church's 3rd Presiding Bishop in England, who held to a more theosophical ideal for the church, removed Hampton and then ordered the confiscation of certain church property at the Regionary headquarters in California and forced the resignation of those clergy under Hampton who refused to support his new episcopal replacement. At the time, the majority of Liberal Catholics in the United States supported Hampton and saw his removal from the office of Regionary and the other subsequent precedings as a breach of canon law and a violation of some of the laws of California under which the church had been incorporated in America. These clergy continued on their own and won the right to be called the Liberal Catholic Church in the U.S. (while being called the Liberal Catholic Church International in the rest of the world). Those who followed Bishop Pigott in England became known in America as The Liberal Catholic Church, Province of the United States of America.
After Frank W. Pigott retired as the Presiding Bishop, and after attempts at a reconcilation, some of the clergy in the LCCI returned to The Liberal Catholic Church, Province of the United States of America. Bishop Hampton died before the litigation was settled. While some clergy wish for more cooperation between the two Divisions, they still exist independently.
Second Schism
In 2003 there was another schism in the Liberal Catholic Church worldwide. The main issues in this split was the ordination of women to the Holy Orders. Again, as in the case of the first schism, it is difficult to say who continues the tradition and who is the schismatic. What is certain is that some parishes in the Dutch, Belgium and Canada provinces who represented the "liberal" wing of the Liberal Catholic Church worldwide broke away from the "mother church" still using the name The Liberal Catholic Church even though they left the church. The "mother church" opened "The Order of Our Lady" for women seeking ordinations in 2000. Since both groups call themselves The Liberal Catholic Church, distinguishing between the two can be confusing. Significantly, in 2004 Regionary Bishop for Sweden, Sten-Bertil Jakobson declared for the right of women to be ordained, and he joined the newly formed break away church in Netherlands .
At their General Episcopal Synod in 2004, the Liberal Catholic Church International also began the ordination of women up to and including the Order of Bishop.
In 1982 Ernest W. Jackson had resigned from Province of Canada and started a group called The Liberal Catholic Church - Theosophia Synod. The group was always very small, but in 2005, under the leadership of John Schwarz III, they joined with the progressive Dutch, Belgium and Canada branch of the LCC.
Differences of the Divisions
The Liberal Catholic Church, Province of the United States of America (and "worldwide"), requires its clergy to believe in such theosophical tenets as reincarnation and the ascended masters. It encourages its priests and its bishops to have a vegetarian diet and to refrain from using tobacco as well as alcohol. Significantly it also continues to require deacons, priests and bishops to be male. The Liberal Catholic Church International does not as a group require any belief in theosophical tenets, while it continues to accept them if they are the personal choice of the individual. Since 2004, the Liberal Catholic Church International opens the ordination of women to all Holy Orders up to and including bishop. The Liberal Catholic Church (Dutch, Belgium, Britain and Canada), retains the emphasis on the theosophical tenets, but practices ordination of women to Holy Orders. (http://TheLiberalCatholicChurch.org)
See also
- Warren Prall Watters
- Free Church of Antioch
- Ancient Catholic Church
- Old Catholic
- Liberal Catholic Church International
- The Liberal Catholic Church, Province of the United States of America
External links
- Liberal Catholic Church worldwide (The more traditional church which emphasizes theosophial tenets)
- The Liberal Catholic Church, Province of the USA (The American branch of the more traditional church which emphasizes theosophical tenets)
- Liberal Catholic Church International (the church in which theosophical tenets are allowed but not emphasized)
- The Order of St.Thomas, Religious order of the LCCI
- The Liberal Catholic Church (The more "liberal" of the two churches which emphasize theosophical tenets, consisting of the original Dutch, Belgium and Canadian provinces)fr:Église catholique libérale