User:Old catholic missionary church

The ‘Old Catholic Missionary Church’ derived from one of the oldest extant religious institutions in the world. It evolved to expand the services of the great Old Catholicism and to preserve the values of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission to the apostles. It practices what it understands to be the original Christian faith and maintains the sacred tradition passed down from the apostles. The Old Catholic Missionary Church accepts only the first seven Ecumenical Councils which were held between A.D 325 to A.D 787. It teaches that all bishops are equal by virtue of their ordination, and has no central governing structure similar to the Papacy in the Roman Catholic Church. It traces the legitimacy of their clergy by apostolic succession back to this period and beyond, to the earlier period referred to as Early Christianity. Although the great church called ‘Old Catholic’ has existed since AD. 695 many people are not aware of its services. As the Old Catholics who were inspired by the norms and values of the Old Catholicism and felt the need to expand its services to new areas and to help more people to experience the love of God in the light of Old Catholic doctrines, the ‘Old Catholic Missionary Church’ was founded as a pioneer church. The majority of Old Catholic Christians live in European countries. There are also many in other parts of the world, formed through immigration, conversion and missionary activity. What has become known, over the centuries, as ‘Old Catholic’ is part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. It is 100% Catholic but not Roman; it is 100% Orthodox, but not Eastern. The Old Catholic Church is not: a breakaway Church or a product of the Reformation; nor is it a ‘reactionary’ Church which broke away from Rome because of a Council that it could not agree with. The Old Catholic Church is a fully Catholic Church which has been around since the year 695, when St. Willibrord founded the Church in the Frisian part of Europe (now the Netherlands); and for almost 1000 years, that Church enjoyed a state of independence from Rome, an independence granted by the Pope himself in 1145, and ratified by the Lateran Council IV in 1215. This independence was probably granted due to its isolated geographical location, which made it practically impossible, at that time, to travel to and from that flat, boggy, part of Europe. The Old Catholic Church was not set up after Vatican I, as some people erroneously think (though what is true, is that many Bishops who could not in conscience accept the Dogmas of Vatican I, did ask to become part of the Old Catholic Church). The Old Catholic Church is only referred to as ‘Old’, simply because it has been around for so long. In 1870 Pope Pius IX held a Vatican Council where he declared himself to be infallible. Until that time, the belief of the Church was that infallibility rested only with a General Ecumenical Council and not with a single Bishop. Before, and during, the Council many Bishops advised against this dogma being proclaimed (including John Henry Newman), however, Italian Bishops far outnumbered other bishops present, and the definition of Papal Infallibility was promulgated as a Dogma (not merely a doctrine). Many bishops, unable to accept this Dogma since it was clearly against what the Universal Church had always believed, walked out of the Council. Some of these Bishops, having nowhere to go, and having had their diocese withdrawn from them by Papal order, approached the Old Catholic Church in Utrecht (the Episcopal See of the Netherlands) and found a home there. Suddenly, the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands had new members, new Bishops, from various parts of the world, and so went about setting up Old Catholic Churches wherever these bishops were from. So the Old Catholic Church spread across Europe and, eventually, across the world.

Some similarities and differences between Old Catholic Church, RC and Orthodox Churches are: The Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament: the same for all three Churches The Sacred Ministries of Bishop, Priest, and Deacon: all three have the same Priestly celibacy: most of our Old Catholic and Orthodox priests marry; RC priests may not. Mary (devotion to, Immaculate Conception and Assumption): Held as Doctrine and believed by all Old Catholic Church and Orthodox; Obligatory Dogma for all RC’s. Confession/Absolution: the same for all three Churches Divorce/Re-marriage: our Old Catholic Church and Orthodox Churches allow re-marriage. RC Church does not. Work: in the manner of the Apostles, Old Catholic Church and Orthodox clergy work for their living Female priests: none of the three Churches have women priests.

The "Old Catholic Missionary Church" continues to call itself "Catholic", for reasons of universality. The first known use of the phrase "the Catholic church" (he katholike ekklesia) occurred in a letter written about 110 AD from one Greek church to another (Saint Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans). Quote of St Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans (circa 110 AD): "Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be, even as where Jesus may be, there is the universal [katholike] Church". Thus, almost from the very beginning, Christians referred to the Church as the "One, Holy, Catholic (from the Greek καθολική, or "according to the whole, universal") and Apostolic Church". Moreover the "Old Catholic Missionary Church" is today the continuation and preservation of that same Church.

A number of other Christian churches also make a similar claim: the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Assyrian Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, etc. To all these churches, the claim to catholicity (universality, oneness with the ancient church) is important for multiple doctrinal reasons that have more bearing internally in each church than in their relation to the others, now separated in certain theological views or issues.

What unites Old Catholic Christians is the Catholic faith, whose vessel is Holy Tradition, inspired by the operation of the Holy Spirit. That faith is expressed most fundamentally in Scripture and in worship, and the latter most essentially through the mystery of Baptism and in the Divine Liturgy. The faith lives and breathes by God's energies in communion with the Churches. The sharing of beliefs is highly important, because we ought to remember the prayer of Jesus in John 17: 20 -22 “I am not asking on behalf of them alone, but also on behalf of those who will believe in Me through their message, that all of them may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You. May they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. I have given them the glory You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are one”.

Old Catholics believe in unity in diversity and often quote the Church Father Vincent of Lérins's Commonitory: "in the Catholic Church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all.”

Doctrine cannot be understood unless it is prayed. To be a theologian, one must know how to pray, and one who prays in spirit and in truth becomes a theologian by doing so. Doctrine must also be lived in order to be prayed, for without action, the prayer is idle and empty, a mere vanity, and therefore the theology of demons.

Old Catholic Missionary Church considers itself to be both orthodox and Catholic. The doctrine of Catholicity of the Church, as derived from the Nicene Creed, is essential to its Ecclesiology. The term Catholicity of the Church (Greek Καθολικότης τῆς Ἐκκλησίας) is used in its original sense, as a designation for the Universality of the Church, centred around Christ. Therefore, our notion of Catholicity is not centred around any singular see, unlike Roman Catholicism, that has one earthly centre.

Old Catholic Missionary Church values apostolic succession by which they mean both the uninterrupted laying on of hands by bishops through time and the continuation of the whole life of the church community by word and sacrament over the years and ages. Old Catholic Missionary Church considers apostolic succession to be the handing on of belief in which the whole Church is involved. In this process the ministry has a special responsibility and task, caring for the continuation in time of the mission of Jesus Christ and his Apostles.

The Old Catholic Missionary Church shares some of the liturgy with the Roman Catholic Church and other Christian denominational churches to build the kingdom of God in this world to experience God’s Love, Peace, Unity and Healing.