I believe in the Holy Catholic Church
(The Apostles' Creed)
No man can have God for his father who has not the Church for his mother.
(St. Cyprian)
Our Incarnate God Jesus Christ divinely instituted THE CHURCH in His sacrificial death and resurrection from the dead. In this supreme act of vicarious atonement, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. The Reconciliation of the world unto Himself through His Christ is the very basis of The Church, for without this Reconciliation there could be no Church at all. This is why it can be called "my Church" by Christ, for it is indeed His Church through His Reconciling Death and Resurrection. I will build my Church, He says, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. He can also say much the same thing when He asserts that He is the "Cornerstone," when clearly alluding to The Church, as having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.
If it is Christ's Reconciliation of Man to God that is, at root, the basis of The Church, then one can quickly discern the need for the proclamation of this Divine Word. At the time of His Ascension our Lord committed this very same word of reconciliation to His called servants, the Apostles. The Apostles and their Successors (that is, The Holy Ministry) is called in The Scriptures Christ's gift to His Church. It is their most marvelous mandate, after first being given to The Church as a gift, to begin the proclamation to God's people of the gift of reconciliation between man and God. Now then, the Apostle Paul writes, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. It is only through this beseeching or calling -- evidenced both in The Grace of the Word and The Grace of the Sacraments -- that the Reconciliation can actually take root in the hearts of the listeners.
The Church, then, becomes the place where the Reconciliation of Christ is -- the place where the Reconciliation is proclaimed, and the place where there is a response to this reconciling proclamation on the part of people. The response comes, however, only through the power of The Holy Spirit, for it is the Spirit that quickeneth. Indeed, the Spirit does not come apart from the word of reconciliation, but is bestowed with that very same word of reconciliation and at the same time gives it His power. Saint Paul reminds the Thessalonians that, Our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. In all of these most remarkable Words of Scripture, we note how (1) Christ's Church (all of those called to Reconciliation), (2) Christ's Gospel (the Word of Reconciliation), and (3) Christ's Ambassadors (those who proclaim the Reconciliation) are all suffused with the Holy Spirit, forming a unifying complementarity and reciprocal relationship.
In Christ's Reconciliation, The Church as the Place of the Reconciliation, is at one and the same time both old and new. She is old because, in a certain real sense, The Church began already with the first Gospel promise of our God given to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. She is new because it is only with the coming of Christ and His Reconciliation that the community of the reconciled has been transformed, being taken from the Old Testament to the New. In the Reconciliation of Christ, The Church has been perfected through the realization of all the Divine Promises made in Him. In so doing, the New Israel (the Church) superseded the Israel found within the Old.
It is axiomatic that our Incarnate God instituted a Church that is truly incarnate in this world -- as incarnate as the Old Testament Church was, and the Apostles and the visible means of grace of the sacraments are. The incarnational aspect of The Church is evident in the multitudinous references of the Apostles to the geographically-constituted Churches that had developed around the Mediterranean Sea. Thus, St. Paul can refer to the Church at Corinth or to the Church at Jerusalem. In each individual case, The Church was the place where the word of reconciliation had been proclaimed and where the called had responded through the power of the Holy Spirit. Martin Luther describes this empirical, historical Church as the number or multitude of the baptized and believing who belong to a priest or bishop, whether in a city, or in a whole land, or in the whole world. There is no other Church than the historical, actual, concrete Orthodox Catholic Church which stems from Christ and His Apostles, and which is founded on the Word of God and the Sacraments in whose service the ministry of the Church is engaged. Membership in this Church is necessary to salvation, as Luther again says, for outside of the Christian Church is no truth, no Christ, no salvation.
It is in this sense that the Lutheran Reformers described the Marks of the Church (notae ecclesiae), meaning the place where one could point to The Church's existence in the world, as being the place where the Gospel is taught purely and the sacraments are administered rightly.
Though one can point to The One Church of The New Testament as truly incarnational -- as existing where the Gospel is taught purely and the sacraments administered rightly -- it is also true to say that Her incarnational existence is not necessarily coëxtensive with any ordered structure. Which is to say, every single individual gathered around those same Gospel and sacraments is not necessarily a true member of The Church, even as every Israelite in The Church living under the Old Testament was not a part of the true Israel. According to Saint Paul, only those who were chosen obtained the relationship with God that they were seeking. In the same way, Saint Matthew maintains the distinction in The Church between those called and those chosen with the words many are called, but few are chosen. Only those who are united with Christ through being chosen by the Holy Spirit, through the ministrations of the Church, are in actuality within the Church. Saint John maintains this same distinction when he says: They went out from us, but they were not of us. There had been some that had been with us, but they were not of us. Within the Church, then, there are both true believers and hypocrites, commingled together; the Church is to allow both to grow together until the harvest, when they shall finally be separated.
The One Church, therefore, can be said to have two aspects: (1) an outer aspect, which is made up of priests, bishops,. sermons, and the like and (2) an inner aspect, which is spiritual and invisible, located in the heart. While The Church, with respect to its outer aspect, is all those who belong to a priest or Bishop, as Dr. Luther asserts, with respect to its inner aspect She is an assembly of all the believers who truly trust in Christ for the forgiveness of sins and salvation, the elect. Because of its consummate importance, this aspect of The Church is often given precedence by calling it the real or true Church, or the Church properly understood, as our Confessions state while continuing to confess both aspects of The One Church.
For this reason we have added the Eighth Article, lest anyone might think that we separate the wicked and hypocrites from the outward fellowship of the Church. . . . For we grant that in this life hypocrites and wicked men have been mingled with the Church, and that they are members of the Church according to the outward fellowship of the signs of the Church. . . . But the Church is not only the fellowship of outward objects and rites, as other governments; put it is originally a fellowship of faith and of the Holy Ghost in hearts.
The relation between the two aspects of The Church should not cause one to minimize or despise either aspect, and specifically the outer aspect, even as we do not despise the human nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. These two aspects of The One Church are to be carefully distinguished, but not separated. Clearly, one can discern the extreme effort that is taken in our Confessions to carefully distinguish between the outer and the inner aspects -- giving each its specific due -- but without separating the two aspects. As Dr. Martin Luther says, they are related to one another as body and soul are related in man. For it is the Word and Sacraments, as externally and sensibly set forth, that call into existence the inner spiritual Church. Therefore, it is of prime importance that everyone be in the inner spiritual Church, but one always enters into Her through the Word and Sacraments disseminated in the outer.
At His Ascension to be our Intercessor and Advocate, our Lord commanded His Apostles to be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Thus began the divine mission of The Church, which continues to this very day -- a mission to the whole world, to bring all mankind into an eternal relationship with their God. This was a salvific mission -- not a social mission.
But His Ascension does not mean that He has abandoned His Church. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. This was the promise of the Holy Spirit, Who constitutes The Church ever anew by bringing the reconciliation of man to God achieved by Christ to fruition through the Means of Grace. The Spirit continues the ministry of Christ within the Church so that the Church becomes the continuing Incarnation of Christ, for He shall testify of Me and He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. The Holy Spirit is active in every aspect of the life of The Church, for The Church is constituted by The Spirit working through the Means of Grace and She is sanctified through The Word (the pure teaching) and Sacraments.
The Church has been given the authority to properly undertake Her task. The Church was not to formulate new teaching. No, She is simply to pass on the apostolic deposit, the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. But at the same time, She was not to be at the mercy of heretical thought or immoral behaviour. Already during the period of oral tradition in the first generations of The Church, before the Bible was written and its canon recognized, the Apostles and the first Presbyter-Bishops had brought external order under the Spirit's authority and guidance. The result was an emerging liturgical worship on an established day, credal forms, an incipient canon of acknowledged writings, an organized ministry with ordination and succession from the apostles through the Presbyter-Bishops, apostolic injunctions regarding deaconess lists, communion wear for women and excommunication for manifest sinners.
It is as true as can be that the true church cannot be separated from the true doctrine of faith. For that is the true church which embraces and confesses the true and sound doctrine of the word of God. But when that body of men which has the title of the church departs from the true doctrine of the Word of God, it does not follow on that account, either that the sound doctrine is false, or that the errors, which that body of men holds, are the truth; but this follows, that that body of men, when it no longer has the true doctrine, is not the true church. Therefore the truth of the Word of God does not depend on the church. . . . but on the contrary, the truth of the church depends on and is judged by the truth of the Word of God, which it holds and confesses. . . . This, too, must be considered, that also in the true church hay, wood, stubble are often built on the foundation, according to 1 Cor. 3: 12.Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent, Vol. 1, 163.
It is not true that The Church has ultimate responsibility over the Scriptures, neither is it true that the Scriptures is to have its authority apart from the Church, but the Scriptures are within the Church, as a baby within the cradle, and The Church continually hears and acknowledges both the number of those Scriptures and their divine content.
An agreement with the Apostolic Teaching was the sine qua non of fellowship in The Church of the Apostles. Both St. Paul and St. John talk of a separation with those that deviated from apostolic ethical injunctions (1 Cor. 5: 1-13; 2 Thess. 3: 6) and apostolic teaching on various topics (Rom. 16: 17; Gal. 1: 9; 2 Tim. 2: 14-19; 2 John 10. 11). This fellowship was visually expressed in a common partaking of the Holy Sacrament. This denial of sacramental fellowship to those who deviated from the Orthodox Catholic Faith was accepted by all parties in the Early Church. Thus there was no sacramental fellowship between the various "confessions" of the Marcionites, Montanists, Novatianists, Donatists, and the Orthodox Catholics, all of which existed at the same time and often in the same city. For the true unity of this one holy church it is enough to agree concerning the teaching of the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments, is the way that the Lutherans of the sixteenth century expressed the same sentiment.
From the second century on, The Church was known as THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. She was not a new Church, but She took this name to distinguish Herself from schismatic and heretical groups that grew up at this time. She retained the name "Catholic" because of Her world-wide extension and Her orthodoxy. Having grown from Her first days in Jerusalem, depicted in the Acts of the Apostles, Shet spread around the entire world. Christ is still present; the Holy Spirit still is operative; the Church continues Her ministrations. All of this takes place within a coöperative unity, as Saint Augustine of Hippo stated in his time and place:
The Church is spread throughout the whole world: all nations have the Church. Let no one deceive you; it is the true, it is the Catholic Church. Christ we have not seen, but we have her; let us believe as regards Him. The Apostles on the contrary saw Him, they believed as regards her. . . . They saw Christ, they believed in the Church which they did not see; and we who see the Church, let us believe in Christ, whom we do not yet see.
The two-fold aspect of The Church continued in the thinking of the faithful Church Fathers. Saint Augustine of Hippo, for instance, maintained that. . . even he who in carnal obduracy is mingled with the congregation of the saints is always separated from the unity of that church which is without spot or wrinkle. The two-fold conception of The Church as having both an outer and an inner aspect was to suffer an eclipse after Saint Augustine, but was to be reässerted at the time of the Lutheran Reformation.
It is manifestly evident that the early Church Fathers viewed The Church not as a system which dropped finished, perfect, and complete from Heaven to earth, but as a divinely created and nurtured living organism which had to pass through a gradual process of growth, subject to every possible form of hindrance, repression, suppression, crises, and reäction. Growth, or development, then is to be seen as the inevitable consequence of the incarnation of the Church. To consider the embryonic stage of the organism as the unchangeable, immutable standard, is a sign of abstract and mechanical doctrinarianism.
Development, however, in the organism of the Church, must be appropriate to its proper sphere of operation, whether it be doctrinal or ecclesiastical. Doctrinal development (and its necessary corollary, doctrinal practice) must always evidence a true working-out of the Apostolic Deposit within a particular historical period. Accepting as a foundation those clear and plain statements of Holy Scripture, development is appropriate as it proceeds in undeniable deductive steps according to the anologia fidei. In the history of The Church, proper deductive steps according to the anologia fidei, have been undertaken with regard to the doctrine of the Trinity, in Christology, the doctrine of Grace, the Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion, and the Communion of Saints, among others. We see here a Divinely-willed, Divinely-governed development, the character of which is really and truly öcumenical because it took place uniformly both in the East and in the West. Proceeding from a different foundation, such as the pious thoughts of The Church or through an arrogation of the authority of The Church, has been undertaken with disastrous results.
It is also true that there is a process of ecclesiastical development. The authority and freedom to undertake this growth is derived from the Freedom and Authority bestowed upon The Church by Christ. Building on the authoritative foundation that had already been laid in the Apostlic Age, the Orthodox Catholic Church in all freedom proclaimed Creeds, Confessions, Councils, Canons and Liturgy in an attempt to order Herself, catechize the Faithful, and protect Herself from false teaching and schism.
It is clear that, just as today, there is a certain measure of differences in the ancient undivided Church. This is to be expected in such a large geographical area lasting over seven centuries. Nevertheless, to one who discerns, there exists a profound agreement one can see in their public testimonies of creeds, councils and liturgies. The evidence of this unity can even be seen in the acceptance of the Seven Öcumenical Councils.
The sixteenth century Reformers of The Lutheran Confessional Movement believed wholeheartedly that they were still within and connected with The Orthodox Catholic Church that reached back through the Fathers to Christ. They did not intend, nor did they in fact, begin a new church. They boldly confessed that they in reality continued the true Western Catholic Church: We do not concede to them (the Papists) that they are the Church. . . .
The Lutheran Fathers of the sixteenth century saw themselves, then, as a Confessing Movement within The One Holy Catholic Church, and attempted to restore Orthodoxy to the Western Church utilizing a most conservative principle. They would reject only those features which seemed to them to be expressly forbidden by Holy Scripture while retaining those features which were, on the one hand, expressly witnessed to by Holy Scripture or, on the other hand, matters of adiaphora. Thus, while continuing to confess the three Öcumenical Creeds of the ancient Church, they added other Confessions which they promulgated for öcumenical acceptance, only where they were forced to do so by manifest error. The important question of schism, which had last been a major issue officially in 1054 A.D., was not to be laid at their feet. They asserted that since our opponents would not tolerate the truth, and dared to promote manifest errors by force, it is easy to judge who is guil ty of schism.
Our Lutheran Confessions affirmed the two-fold aspect of The Church, as we have related. While distinguishing the two aspects, they deliberately do not separate the two aspects, but maintain the unity of The One Church. They even go so far as to assert that hypocrites are members of this true Church. but only according to outward rites.
Although, therefore, hypocrites and wicked men are members of this true Church according to outward rites, yet when the Church is defined, it is necessary to define that which is the living body of Christ, and which is in name and in fact the Church.
Neither did they see themselves as confessing a new doctrine. They confessed repeatedly that in Her doctrine there is nothing that varies from the Scriptures or from The Catholic Church, and that they take most diligent care that no new doctrine should creep into our churches, for a new doctrine would be neither Scriptural nor an Orthodox Catholic doctrine. Their desire was to remove the Roman accretions and abberations from the true Orthodox Catholic doctrine of The Western Church.
Furthermore, they stood directly in the Orthodox Catholic mainstream of the liturgical and canonical tradition of the Church.
But we cheerfully maintain the old traditions made in the Church for the sake of usefulness and tranquillity; and we interpret them in a more moderate way, to the exclusion of the opinion which holds that they justify. And our enemies falsely accuse us of abolishing good ordinances and church-discipline. For we can truly declare that the public form of the churches is more becoming with us than with the adversaries. And if anyone will consider it aright, we conform to the canons more truly than do the adversaries.
The Evangelical Catholic Church confesses that She is a part of The Lutheran Confessional Movement within The One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. Our Synods have consistently affirmed their acceptance of the Confessio Augustana of 1530. The Evangelical Catholic Church is, therefore, not a new interpretation of Christianity, not a new party or a denomination which came into existence thirty years ago, or almost one and a half centuries ago in reäction to Vatican I, or even some 480 years ago during The Lutheran Reformation. She is an integral part of that Body which Our Lord addressed when He said: I am the vine, ye are the branches; and Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the ages.
The Evangelical Catholic Church believes that The Church, which cannot err, is taught and illuminated by The Holy Spirit working through the holy Fathers and Doctors of the Orthodox Catholic Church. The Church is the pillar and bulwark of the truth, writes Dr. Martin Luther, built on the rock, and called holy and irreproachable (Eph. 2: 21). Thus one rightly and truly says, The Church cannot err, for God's word, which She teaches, cannot err. But whatever else is taught or whatever is not with certainty God's word, cannot be the doctrine of The Church, but must be the doctrine, falsehood, and idolatry of the devil. The Spirit is not found apart from The Church, for He is found only wherever The Word is preached in Its truth and purity and The Holy Mysteries are rightly observed.
The Evangelical Catholic Church confesses that by her incorporation into The Church she has retained the Prophetic, Priestly, and Kingly Offices of The Church. The Prophetic Office is to bear witness to the Truth that has been disseminated by her Divine Head, to authenticate the true interpretation of the Holy Scriptures which is passed down in the Church, and to condemn all erroneous teachings. Through Her Priestly Office The Evangelical Catholic Church dispenses the life-giving Gospel and Sacraments, being efficacious through the Sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ and brought to us through the Holy Spirit. Through Her Kingly Office The Evangelical Catholic Church carries out the divine command of binding and loosening sins, instituting spiritual discipline, and ecclesiastical precepts. While The Evangelical Catholic Church has absolutely no authority to institute new doctrines, she does have authority to judge concerning whether or not such doctrines are being properly taught within the public ministry. In addition, She retains authority in the area that is commonly called adiaphora, that is, matters neither commanded nor denied by the Holy Scriptures. Such areas of adiaphora are the liturgy, canons, etc.
In carrying out her prophetic office, The Evangelical Catholic Church believes and teaches The Faith of the ancient undivided Church, as witnessed in The Three Öcumenical Creeds (Apostles', Nicene, Athanasian) and The Seven Öcumenical Councils. We confess the ancient Church Fathers as our Fathers. As a testimony of Her preserving the wholeness of the full and true Faith of Jesus our God, The Evangelical Catholic Church espouses The Rule of Saint Vincent of Lerins (A.D. 434):
Id teneamus, quod ubique, quod semper, quod ob omnibus est; hoc est etenim vere propieque catholicum.
We maintain what everywhere and always by everyone has been believed, this being truly and actually Catholic.
In addition, The Evangelical Catholic Church believes and teaches The Faith of The Lutheran Confessional Movement of the sixteenth century, insofar as the Reformers confessed again the ancient Scriptural and Orthodox Catholic Faith, or reconfessed a Truth which had been lost or subverted by Rome over the centuries. Thus, She preserves the fullness of the Catholic Faith, and takes the name The Evangelical Catholic Church as evidence of this understanding. As a testimony of Her doctrinal orthodoxy, She submits this entire document (and its supporting documents), including the following brief summary of beliefs:
The Holy Trinity. The Evangelical Catholic Church firmly believes and confesses the mystery of The All-Holy Trinity, by all creation to be ever blessed, glorified and adored.
Creation. The Evangelical Catholic Church confesses that God is the Maker of Heaven and earth, and that He has accomplished His creation in six days. God continues to uphold His creation so that nothing takes place apart from His active or concessive Will.
Jesus Christ. Concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, The Evangelical Catholic Church confesses the Catholic Faith as expressed in both Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition. Jesus Christ is True God and True Man in one undivided and unmixed Personal Union. He is true God, man's Only Savior,
Begotten, not made, one in being with the Father. Through Him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation He came down from heaven; by the power of The Holy Spirit He was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered, died, and was buried. He arose on the third day in fulfillment of The Scriptures. He entered into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of The Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end.
Election. The Evangelical Catholic Church confesses and believes that all those who have been called and persevered in the true faith, have been elected unto salvation in eternity, not because of any merit in them, but solely out of the gracious love of God. Therefore all believers should have an assurance of their salvation and should continue to live their lives in faith, trusting only in the mercy of God.
The Means of Grace. The Evangelical Catholic Church believes that God's grace is objectively distributed to man through channels or means: the Word of the Gospel and the Holy Mysteries (what are commonly called Sacraments).
THE HOLY GOSPEL is the Divine offer of forgiveness and reconciliation to all who come into contact with it. It is not a tentative or probationary offer, but is an objective, real, and complete offer, which is accepted only through faith grasping the promise of God.
THE SACRAMENT OF ILLUMINATION incorporates the individual fully into The Body of Christ and bestows the gift of the Holy Spirit. It regenerates the candidate through the forgiveness of sin; to be baptized and chrismated is to become a full member of The Church, to put on Jesus and become a living part of Him.
THE SACRAMENT OF THE HOLY EUCHARIST is the offer and reception of the true Body and Blood of Our Lord and Savior for the forgiveness of all sin, a public confession of our faith in Christ Jesus as the One True God, and a celebration of our unity with angels and archangels and all the hosts of Heaven.
Justification. The Evangelical Catholic Church teaches that salvation is not something which man can or must earn through works, for salvation is a gift freely given to us by our loving God because of Jesus. It is received or appropriated solely by faith, according to the words of the Apostle, For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. Whatever merit is required for salvation was earned by Christ Jesus and imputed to us.
Sanctification. Our response to this free gift of salvation must be a vibrant faith manifested by the way we live our lives (i.e., good works). Just as soon as The Holy Spirit has incorporated us into The Body of Christ (The Church), He requires us, with the power and gifts He supplies, to fully participate (with all our intelligence, skills and being) in and at every stage of the process by which we are transformed by Him from sinners into holy people (Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration II, 65; XI, 21).
Christian Freedom We believe that the Christian is truly spiritually free -- free from the demands of the condemning Law. In addition, he is ceremonially free to utilize whatever confessions, liturgies, monastic life, devotional practices, temporary vows, etc., that may be properly utilized to assist him in furthering his Christian life and witness. A Christian is not free to act lovelessly to his neighbor or to the other saints within The Church.
Holy Ministry. The Evangelical Catholic Church confesses the Divine institution of the Holy Ministry, its Divine authority, and its Divine responsibility to rule in The Church. Acknowledging that The Holy Ministry does not derive its right and authority as being transferred from the local congregation of believers, but proceeds from the general call of the Apostles, She has adopted that ecclesiastical polity which The Book of Concord espouses and prefers, the emergency long ago having ended. The Sacred Ministry (Deacon, Priest, Bishop) is a Divine institution based upon a Divine commission and is one of the constitutive marks (nota ecclesiae) of The Church, having received its beginning and its mission directly from our Lord Himself and from The Holy Apostles (vide: Titus 1:5)..
Priesthood of All Believers. The Evangelical Catholic Church believes in the priesthood of all believers and in the proper role of the laity. The priesthood of all believers is, first of all, an image of The Church, and then by implication pictures the mutual ministry of love that is to be undertaken first of all toward other believers and then to the entire world. Such a priestly ministry produces a sweet savour of Christ which ascends to the High Priest in Heaven. She believes that the primary role of the laity is a ministry to the world, and only in a limited sense is their ministry to be directed to the external matters of The Church. She believes that a proper distinction between those called into public ministry and those called as priests in a "private" ministry is witnessed by the Holy Scriptures and the entire Church up until the most recent days. The Evangelical Catholic Church, together with the whole Orthodox Catholic Church, affirms that the laity does not have the authority to rule in The Church, and therefore She does not believe or teach congregationalism (the belief that the final authority in ecclesiastical matters is to be found in the priesthood of all believers assembled in a congregational setting). Such a view in no way denies the possibility of determining the preferences of the laity on an ecclesiastical matter.
Holy Scriptures The Evangelical Catholic Church accepts the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures of The Old and The New Testaments as the only judge, rule, and standard, according to which, as the only test-stone, all dogmas shall and must be discerned and judged. We believe that The Holy Bible is the verbally inspired, inerrant, Spirit-breathed Word of God and that Holy Scripture contains all things necessary to salvation. We believe that it is most appropriate, as the ancient Fathers did, that the Holy Scriptures are considered to be a part -- the supreme part -- of the Holy Tradition of the Church. It is only with the consensus of the Holy Tradition of The Church, guided by The Holy Spirit, that a proper interpretation of Holy Scripture is possible.
Holy Tradition. Such Holy Tradition The Evangelical Catholic Church believes to be The Three Öcumenical Creeds, orthodox Scriptural interpretation, and the Divine Liturgy of the worshipers of God. We believe that other elements of Holy Tradition, while remaining subservient and derivative to the Truth and Authority of the Holy Scriptures, remain in full agreement with Its contents. It is the role of the Faithful to witness to this full agreement by their reception of The Holy Tradition. Any element of Tradition which deviates from this full agreement, or is coerced out of a desire for worldly power or some other impure motive, indicates eo ipso, that it is not Holy Tradition. It is on the latter point that The Evangelical Catholic Church ignores the filioque clause politically and unilaterally added to the Nicene Creed by The Church of Rome.
Church Fellowship. The Evangelical Catholic Church believes, with the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Fathers, that the Holy Eucharist is the locus for a demonstration of a God-pleasing fellowship in The Faith. The Sacrament, in its demonstration of unity, is for those baptized believers who maintain one Lord, one faith, one baptism and who are diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The Evangelical Catholic Church confesses that the Church is One and views the Confessio Augustana as a truly irenic and öcumenical document, and says with it that we . . . are prepared to confer amicably concerning all possible ways and means, in order that we may come together, as far as this may be honorably done. .. and we here in no wise are holding back anything that could bring about Christian concord. ... This true ecumenical drive continues even today so that a most important effort of the Church is the attempt to manifest in a visible manner the oneness of the Church, either through a visible union or at least inter-communion. Therefore She is grateful for the efforts made by The Öcumenical Movement of the 21st century insofar as it brings members to a greater appreciation of the doctrinal truths of the Orthodox Catholic Faith. She eschews all efforts to bring together Churches without true agreement in The Faith. We confess the unity that is to be found in a mutual sharing of The Eucharist, but assert that sharing the Eucharist is the goal of Church unity and not the means whereby it can be achieved.
Communion of Saints. The Evangelical Catholic Church believes that The Church is comprised of both The Church Militant on earth and The Church Triumphant in Heaven and that there is a degree of mutual interaction between the two. Believing thus in the communion of saints, She gives God-pleasing honor to all the saints, mindful of the injunction to remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the ends of their conversation.
The Last Things. The Evangelical Catholic Church confesses that we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
Thus The Evangelical Catholic Church emphasizes Her Evangelical and Catholic spirit. Both aspects are necessary to explain her position.
The Evangelical Catholic Church considers Herself to be truly Evangelical. This is necessary, so that The Church understands Her true position of being created by the Lord for the purpose of disseminating the Evangel through Word and Sacrament. To consider Herself in any other light is to turn insular and legalistic. She considers Herself to be Protestant according to the original meaning of the term given at the Diet of Speyer in A.D. 1529; She does not consider Herself to be Protestant in the modem sense of the term. Protestantizing notions such as the jettisoning of the historic liturgy, the denial of baptismal regeneration, the denial of the Real Presence in the Sacrament of Holy Communion, the closed-minded and bigoted reäction to many devotional and sacramental practices of long-standing in The Church, the reduction of the Holy Church to a mere "clubbish" and individualistic mentality replete with psycho-social societies all centered on the cult of pastoral personality, and the denigration of the Means of Grace inherent in the espousal of so-called Church Growth Methods, are all anathema to Her, and sound the death-knell to a true evangelical catholicity.
The Evangelical Catholic Church considers Herself to be truly Catholic. This, also, is important. Without such an emphasis our vision of The Church is narrowed to one particular denomination, to one very limited period of time, to one locality, to one national or ethnic group, and, in the process, becomes insular and idiosyncratic in doctrine, practice and ethos. The Evangelical Catholic Church considers Herself to be Catholic according to the understanding of the Confessio Augustana; She does not consider Herself to be Catholic according to the manner in which many people of the modem period use the term, i.e., meaning Roman Catholic. Romanizing notions such as the extreme claims of the Bishop of Rome, the dogmatic claims about the Assumption of Mary, legalism in doctrine and practice, the transsubstantiation and Sacrifice of the Mass, and a close-minded and bigoted reäction to the fruit of the Lutheran Reformation and a yearning for anything pre-Reformation, despite its being non-Catholic, are all anathema to Her and also sound the death-knell to a true evangelical catholicity.
The Evangelical Catholic Church is a contemporary manifestation of The Church of all times, of all people, of all places. She claims as Her own the magnificent heritage and the world-wide scope that Christ has bestowed upon His Holy Bride.
Commissionings & Ordinations
