Welcome to the website of the Ecclesia Apostolica Divinorum Mysteriorum (The Apostolic Church of the Divine Mysteries, commonly called the Church of the Divine Mysteries or E.A.D.M. for short.) This website provides information on the history, origins and work of our church, which is a body within the esoteric Catholic tradition based in Great Britain and the Americas, and as such may act as a useful introduction for the seeker. It also serves as the online home for the Apostolic Episcopal Church and Order of Corporate Reunion in Great Britain, and offers an insight into the work of these historic communions, which are both headquartered in New York, USA.
E.A.D.M. came into being as a complete revision of the Liberal Catholic movement with a renewed emphasis on the perspectives of Traditionalist Catholicism and Western Rite Orthodoxy. We are among the most traditional of Catholics, because in addition to a witness to the eternal Catholic truths and teachings our approach is not merely antecedent to both Vatican Councils but draws particularly on the essence and inspiration of the undivided pre-Nicene Church. We are Orthodox because we profess the Christian faith according to the Canon of St Vincent of Lérins: quod ubique, quod semper, quod ad omnibus, a position referred to by some as Paleo-Orthodoxy. We are a community united by the Sacraments and offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in conformity with the Tridentine Rite, either in Latin or in the vernacular, with the Rite of the Liberal Catholic Church being our normative liturgy.
As an inner, esoteric body, our services are generally private and open to initiates only, although some of our clergy also undertake an external ministry and some special services are open to the public. We are therefore not an “independent church” as such; merely an autocephalous extension of a tradition within the Catholic Church that has hitherto been permitted only limited and largely hidden expression. As a result, the primary identity of our members is that of faithful Catholics, though neither ultramontane nor conciliarist.
While accepting post-Nicene teachings as contributions to the development of the Church and the understanding of the faith, we do not believe that the summation of the faith is expressed in dogmatic authoritarianism, but instead in spiritual and intellectual freedom, and in a full rather than a reductive assessment of the teachings of Jesus Christ. In our theology, God is adored as a loving Father, not a fierce tyrant. Our services seek to inspire joyous devotion, not guilt or oppression. We recognise that our true self is spiritual, but that self is often confused by the garments of a physical being (Romans 7:8-12). Our path, even though it often seems difficult or even hopeless, has a single ending that never fails: the conquest by the spiritual of the material. Those who are more evolved are giants of the intellect, saints of compassion, and powerful agents for good.
The Most Revd. John Kersey, OCR
Presiding Bishop, Ecclesia Apostolica Divinorum Mysteriorum; Archbishop of Great Britain, The Apostolic Episcopal Church; Bishop and Rector Pro-Provincial of Canterbury, The Order of Corporate Reunion
The inner church
“There are streams which suddenly dive into chasms and are lost – to emerge into daylight at long distance, having pierced their own way through subterranean channels” – Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch
There are two aspects to the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. The external church can be described as that which follows the tradition of St Peter. It presents a form of the Christian faith that is designed to be understood by all in predominantly literal and dogmatic terms, so as to ensure that those who seek guidance are left in no doubt as to what they must believe in order to be saved.
Alongside the external church, there is an inner and mystic tradition; that of St John. The Johannine tradition has existed as an underground stream within the church since its inception. It speaks of a directly experiential path of spiritual initiation reserved for those adepts who are called to its specific demands, and of the esoteric truths that are to be found at the heart of the Christian faith.
The mission of E.A.D.M. is defined in accordance with this inner tradition, so that E.A.D.M. has a particular commitment to the ongoing tradition of the disciplina arcani of the early Church. In the first centuries, we find those perspectives active in the writings of such as Origen and Clement of Alexandria, as well as in many of the documents that form the Nag Hammadi Library; in later eras, they emerge in aspects of esoteric Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, Martinism and Theosophy, and ecclesially in the developments of Liberal Catholicism and its allied movements.
The outer and the inner church are not separate in any true sense, nor are their beliefs in conflict. We believe that their synthesis is ultimately necessary in order to restore the authentic message of Christianity; the true Orthodoxy, which is freedom within the direct experiential knowledge of the Divine. The inner and outer church are thus aspects of a single entity sharing in a common destiny: this is reflected in the name E.A.D.M., which is a homophone for the Latin eadem, meaning “by the same means”. By designating our jurisdiction as an ecclesia, we use the term used by the first Christians for their assemblies; a term that deliberately has both local and universal meaning, and that thus establishes us as a part of a wider structure and context.
Inasmuch as mankind is ready to receive the inner teachings, E.A.D.M. is ready to play its part in their fulfilment.
>>Statement of Principles of E.A.D.M.
>>Teachings of E.A.D.M.
>>Esotericism and Catholicism
>>On the Relationship of E.A.D.M. with the Outer Manifestations of the Catholic Church
>>Diagram showing the lineage of E.A.D.M. from the Roman Catholic Church
