E.A.D.M.’s primary contextual origins lie within a small group of Catholics in London who had separated from the Anglican and Old Catholic Churches in order to seek a more profound spiritual experience than was possible within the mainstream. In time, this group became the former English Liberal Free Church (later known as The Liberal Rite). It developed a Catholic ecclesial character that combined a traditionalist liturgy with an inclusive witness, rather as the movement Affirming Catholicism had done within the Anglican Communion. However, this was combined with an increasing openness to mysticism and esoteric theology, and the conviction that such aspects of the church were not merely vital and integral to its spiritual life, but were fully compatible with the historic practice of the Catholic faith.
Having received Holy Orders in the Apostolic Succession from a former bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church of Ontario, Canada, in 2006, the incorporation of the +Harold Nicholson heritage in 2008 resulted in the creation of the new Liberal Catholic Apostolic Church, and expansion both within Britain and internationally, with new communities developing in the United States and Canada and the formation of relationships of co-operation with other clergy and churches in the Liberal Catholic tradition. Furthermore, the Metropolitan of the new church received additional commissioning later in that year by means of representative episcopal appointments in the Apostolic Episcopal Church and the Order of Corporate Reunion, both of which are based in the United States of America, and as part of this was confirmed in his canonical role within the L.C.A.C. The Apostolic Episcopal Church, which derives its mission from the Exarch for Western Europe and American Special Commissary of the Chaldean Catholic Church (an Eastern Catholic church in unity with the Holy See), is a specifically ecumenical communion established in 1925 and incorporated in 1932 that is likewise dedicated to the expression of a deep inner spirituality and to the contemplative tradition.
In 2010, the A.E.C. in Great Britain was responsible for the foundation of E.A.D.M., which has served to provide a much-needed refocussing and reform of the original Liberal Catholic mission in the light of its present geographically widespread status and relationship to the inner and outer church traditions. E.A.D.M. is today under the leadership of the erstwhile Metropolitan of the L.C.A.C., together with clergy who have served the mission over the years since its inception.
