The mission of E.A.D.M. is the outcome of a number of years of work aimed at reforming and revising the Liberal Catholic movement and to establishing a strong basis for its continuation and growth.
Many who are unfamiliar with the roots of the Liberal Catholic Church incorrectly assume that the “Liberal” in its name refers to a stance of political or social liberalism. In fact, it refers specifically to the relative freedom of interpretation permitted to its members in contrast to the dogmatic position of the Roman Catholic Church post-Vatican I. We discuss this matter in more detail below.
The Liberal Catholic movement
The Liberal Catholic Church came into being as a reorganisation of the Old Catholic Church of Great Britain during 1915-16. Its founders, +James Ingall Wedgwood (1883-1951) and +Charles Webster Leadbeater (1854-1934) were both members of the Theosophical Society, and they conceived of a church where a traditionalist Catholic liturgical and sacramental understanding would be combined with freedom of thought and conscience and an openness to esoteric ideas – principally those of the East, in keeping with the work of the Theosophical Society, but also through esoteric Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism.
The aspiration that the L.C.C. would become a universal church on the lines of the mainstream denominations at one point seemed not unrealistic, with membership during the 1920s reaching an estimated 45,000 adherents. However, many of these members fell away after Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986), who had been identified by +Leadbeater as the coming World Teacher, disassociated himself from +Leadbeater and the Theosophical Society in 1929. It should also be mentioned that links between the L.C.C. and the Theosophical Society were often strained and there was no officially-sanctioned relationship between the two organisations, despite their extensive overlap in membership.
The response to this decline was, in the main, towards a greater degree of insularity in the L.C.C., whereby +Leadbeater’s teachings and clairvoyant insights were regarded in a more dogmatic way, and the church as a whole developed towards a greater authoritarianism in its structures, for example in attitudes towards vegetarianism, the use of alcohol and whether Theosophy and reincarnation should be prescribed beliefs for the clergy. A major split occurred in the 1940s concerning these issues, and further splits ensued in the 1990s and in 2003, this last concerning the ordination of women. One of the resulting denominations, the Liberal Catholic Church of Ontario, provided the original source of the Holy Orders of E.A.D.M. in 2006. By then, membership had declined still further and some of the remaining churches saw greater numbers of clergy than laity on a Sunday morning.
A revision of the Liberal Catholic traditions
In these circumstances, it became apparent that a complete revision of the Liberal Catholic heritage was necessary in order to provide a witness that was both cogent and productive. The chief elements of that revision were a concentration on the original vision of a church that was fully and traditionally Catholic with an openness to the esoteric traditions, particularly in terms of those indigenous to the West. In this process, the teachings of +Leadbeater were less strongly emphasised than those of +Wedgwood and former L.C.C. Presiding Bishop +Edward Murray Matthews (1898-1985).
Further, a broader view of Western esotericism was taken, bearing in mind the development of traditions within such organisations as the Eglise Gnostique in France that had worked in parallel, but separately, from the L.C.C., and the work of such significant esoteric teachers as +Richard, Duc de Palatine, within the Pre-Nicene Catholic Church, and +Herman Adrian Spruit, within the Catholic Apostolic Church of Antioch, as well as the example of +Harold Percival Nicholson of the Ancient Catholic Church, whose heritage was specifically conveyed to the new Ecclesia Apostolica Divinorum Mysteriorum. Where the L.C.C. had largely isolated itself from these developments, the time had now come to synthesize them within an organisation that could – because it was not specifically tied to Theosophical belief – respond more fully and more dynamically to their spiritual importance. Interchange and in some cases intercommunion with other Catholic and Orthodox bodies – an aspect that the L.C.C. had strongly resisted in its isolationism – brought about closer ecumenical links and the blessing of the Oecumenical Apostolic Succession.
At the same time, it was necessary to consider the relationship between Liberal Catholicism and the outer church. Many Liberal Catholic churches had sought to emphasise their independence from Rome, and this self-reliance extended in some cases to ambitions that had long been at profound odds with the actual size and resources of the body in question, especially as aging congregations were not met by an influx of younger members. Furthermore, the concentration of those limited resources on the provision of public worship had led to some congregations being composed largely of those who had little interest in esotericism or the Liberal Catholic tradition, but were instead disaffected Roman Catholics seeking the Tridentine Mass.
In such a situation, a reconsideration of the esoteric traditions in the light of the historic inner church brought about a realization that a mission in the form of that inner church could achieve all that had been aspired to in terms of worship and practice, without the need to define itself as separate from the outer, mainstream, expression of Catholicism except in terms of the necessary matter of jurisdiction – necessary, because any prospect of full reconciliation would remain some considerable way off, and the resulting body must have the means available to sustain it with the required goods for spiritual life. Where public worship was desirable, the resources could be found to facilitate it, but such a provision was not the chief role of the emergent Ecclesia.
Nor would the Ecclesia seek to provide an universal ministry, considering the efforts of the mainstream denominations to be eminently sufficient for that purpose. It would concentrate its efforts on those with a specific call to a full and traditional expression of the Catholic faith who were also active in the practice or study of the esoteric traditions, and who could reconcile the two without difficulty. It would therefore largely speak to those who sought to be admitted to Catholic ministry, whether in the active or contemplative traditions, but were prevented from proceeding by the prevailing attitudes of the outer church towards their esoteric interests. It would thus echo the 1945 Statutes of the Catholic Apostolic Church of Brazil under Archbishop Carlos Duarte Costa which stated that the church respected “freedom of thought in matters…religious, civil, political, scientific and philosophical…not permitting any person to be questioned under any pretext in relation to his beliefs, so that his rights and obligations are not conditioned or limited in any way.”
A further issue has been the change in what society understands by the word “liberal”, which today has quite a different meaning and implications from those which it had at the time of the foundation of the Liberal Catholic Church in 1915. In the understanding of the founders, liberalism was the alliance of a traditional Old Catholic liturgical practice with freedom of conscience and interpretation. It had nothing to do with political liberalism (which in the United States refers to a left-wing ideology), still less with “liberation theology”, Protestantism, or the anticipation of post-Vatican II developments in the church. Because the term “liberal Catholic” is today more widely associated by the public with these branches of modernist thought than with the movement begun by +Wedgwood and +Leadbeater, thus promoting misunderstanding and confusion, we decided that this term should not be a part of the official title of our Ecclesia.
Where E.A.D.M. stands in relation to Liberal Catholicism today
The result in the form of the Ecclesia Apostolica Divinorum Mysteriorum is thus a development of the Liberal Catholic tradition, and continues to share with it its succession, liturgy and a number of perspectives on the Christian faith, while having a number of points of difference from it. Where others permit a complete freedom of conscience, E.A.D.M. requires of its clergy a public acceptance of the unified groundwork of the historic Christian faith, as expressed in the seven Oecumenical Councils and the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds, while recognising a degree of individual interpretation in these matters that would not be unfamiliar to liberally-minded Catholics within the mainstream denominations.
Further, E.A.D.M. is specifically dedicated to those concerned with esoteric practice and study, those terms being appropriately widely interpreted, and does not seek to minister outside those boundaries, although some public ministry is undertaken in specific cases. Equally, it does not teach any esoteric school as dogma, nor promote any teaching not in keeping with the true Catholic Faith, and specifically does not prescribe adherence to Theosophy or belief in reincarnation. Nor does it require of the clergy that they should follow a vegetarian diet or should abstain from alcohol and tobacco. Holy Communion is normally celebrated using wine (the fermented juice of the grape) and not unfermented grape juice.
E.A.D.M. does not practice open intercommunion. There is some selective collaboration with other jurisdictions, and an agreement of intercommunion with the Apostolic Episcopal Church, with which we have particularly close links in mission. At present, we find that differences of belief and practice with most other Liberal Catholic denominations are too marked to consider such links with them. However, we are always ready to engage in ongoing dialogue with the aim of reaching a greater oecumenical understanding, and where appropriate will consider participation in oecumenical events and projects that are in keeping with E.A.D.M.’s mission.
There are many websites that give information on aspects of Liberal Catholicism, almost all of which represent different jurisdictions and consequently give the viewpoints of that jurisdiction. The reader should be aware that E.A.D.M. does not endorse any website run by any church with which it is not in communion, and there is no single website that gives reliable information on all jurisdictions of the movement. However, as a general resource, we do recommend St Alban Press, which offers many valuable Liberal Catholic texts and thus provides a good starting point for those seeking to learn more about our movement.
