The Liberal Catholic Apostolic Church

"That which is on the Altar is Yourselves. Receive the Mystery of Yourselves." - St Augustine

This page contains links to external publications on issues in Liberal and Independent Catholicism as well as general spiritual resources centred on the UK.

Official documents will be found on the Publications page.

Many resources of a ministerial and ecumenical nature can be found at the Cross-Denominational Mission.

See also, for spiritual reflections, the official blog of the Society for Humanistic Potential and, for news and reflections on the independent sacramental movement, the official blog of the Arnold Harris Mathew Center for the Study of the Independent Sacramental Movement at European-American University.

Spiritual Learning
The Hamblin Trust
The Wrekin Trust
The Prometheus Trust
The Universal Order
Shrine of Wisdom
The Fintry Trust
Temenos Academy
Fellowship of Contemplative Prayer
Small Pilgrim Places
The Scientific and Medical Network
The Phiroz Mehta Trust

Liberal Catholicism

St Alban Press, operated by the Universal Catholic Church in California, is the place to go to purchase works of Liberal Catholic liturgy and much more. Included among the available items are the complete works of Bishop Edward Murray Matthews, from whom the bishops of the LCAC are in succession. In addition, their incense is among the most distinctive we have used.

The new synod (liberal) wing of the LCC operates Albanus Press, which supplies some books that are not available elsewhere. It is not willing to supply items to other Liberal Catholic communities, but independent enquirers may find them more conducive. The old synod (conservative) wing of the LCC operates its own St Alban Press from Ojai, California, but this does not have a website at present. Again, it does not supply books to other Liberal Catholic communities.

A number of key works of theology and philosophy related to Liberal Catholicism are available as free e-books to read online. For this we have the new synod LCC (kingsgarden.org) website and Bishops Wynn Wagner and Rob Angus Jones of The Eternal Christ to thank, along with the members of their respective communities.

• LibCath Sacraments; also many works by +Leadbeater, +Wedgwood  and other Liberal Catholic writers at The Global Library
• Writings on Theosophy, including those of Mrs Besant, at The Global Library
• Online bibliography of writings by and on +Leadbeater, from the Blavatsky Study Center
• Helena P. Blavatsky Texts online, from the Blavatsky Net Foundation
• Liberal Catholic Digital Library at the kingsgarden.org site
• Collected Christian Writings from kingsgarden.org - including Theosophy, Gnosticism and other traditions
• Liberal Catholic Calendars and Liturgy, including the complete "Blue Book" of ceremonial online from kingsgarden.org
• The Theosophical Society in England

Independent Catholicism

The literature of Independent Catholicism is rich. As well as key works from mainstream Christianity that are considered by Independent Catholics as essential, which for reasons of space we will not discuss here, there are works that are specifically Independent Catholic in nature, ranging from the liturgical and historical to the discursive. 

The Apocryphile Press in the U.S.A. has reprinted many useful texts, though a word of warning is necessary regarding some of them, which are written from a Roman Catholic or Anglican perspective with the intention of disparaging the Independent Catholic movement. Fr. Kurt Messick, an Old Catholic priest, has said "The bias is understandable in many respects – again, largely political rather than theological, but designed to protect the Anglican/Episcopal institutions. Its is unfortunate that there are few histories available of a similar scope written from an Old Catholic perspective". 

Such discursive histories as those of Anson, Moss and Brandreth are wanting in this respect, thus meaning that the tremendous amount of useful information they contain has to be sifted carefully by the reader. Father Gregory Tillett of the British Orthodox Church writes,

"Such approaches are manifest in the two standard works dealing with the subject: Brandreth’s Episcopi Vagantes and the Anglican Church and Anson’s Bishops at Large. Brandreth’s book is further flawed by an enthusiastic and bitter hostility towards any Orthodox “invasion” of the West, and needs to be understood in the historical context of desperate, but ultimately unsuccessful, attempts by the Anglican authorities (in which Brandreth was involved) to gain approval from the Orthodox Churches as some sort of British equivalent to the Orthodox national churches. This necessitated the preservation of the ethnic mission model of Orthodoxy in the West, and opposition to any alternatives.

Anson’s work was flawed, if made highly entertaining, by his strong sense of irony and sarcasm, but also by his zealous commitment (perhaps more zealous because he was a convert from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism) to the view that the Roman Catholic Church solely represented the entirety of true Christianity. Those he described as seeking to promote an Orthodoxy for the West could thus simply be written off as “failed” Roman Catholics."

There are also important new books available from Apocryphile Press, including significant works of progressive theology by independent bishop John Mabry.

First steps
An accessible book for those beginning to explore Independent Catholicism for the first time is 'Who are the Independent Catholics?' by Bishop John Plummer and John R. Mabry. Bishop John Plummer's 'The Many Paths of the Independent Sacramental Movement' is an excellent survey of the diversity, practice and beliefs of many of the communities to be found in the United States today.

Another significant book which discusses independent ministry in a liberal context is 'For God's Sake, Don't Go to Church', by Bishop Jonathan Blake, which is available both in print and online here.

One outstanding book, written by an Independent Catholic bishop of liberal and progressive views as well as a thorough understanding of the historical tradition of Independent Catholicism, is Bishop Lewis Keizer's The Wandering Bishops: Apostles of a New Spirituality. This work is available to download in full free of charge here, and offers a recommendable introduction to the progressive and esoteric elements of the independent movement through portraits of some of its most significant figures.

Directories and databases

There are several directories on the web. The Eternal Christ by Bishops Rob Angus Jones and Wynn Wagner is one of the most user-friendly, with an excellent introduction by Bishop John Plummer. It also links to The Global Library, a thorough collection of written resources. There is no currently available up-to-date directory of the independent churches, although the LCAC maintains its own set of records.