The Liberal Catholic Apostolic Church
An independent Catholic church in the liberal tradition

The late Victorian era and the early twentieth-century was a time of great upheaval in Christian affairs. For Anglicans, the Oxford Movement caused a renewed focus on Rome and on questions of validity of Holy Orders and of the Mass which refused to go away, and to which the official answers were often unsatisfactory. For Roman Catholics, the First Vatican Council brought about difficulties in the wake of the formal definition of the infallibility of the Pope, and marked both the triumph of the Ultramontanists and the separation of the Old Catholics, who could not accept the Ultramontanist position.

All of this brought about the position in the first half of the twentieth-century where a number of men sought to pursue Christian ministry in a setting that could accept their beliefs and conscience, and in which their stance would not simply be seen as heretical and condemned outright. These men were ordained and often consecrated in valid Holy Orders by bishops of the Eastern Orthodox, and Old Catholic churches, and attempted to establish communities that enjoyed the freedom of the earliest pre-Constantinian Christians. Many of these fledgling communities did not survive, or amalgamated with other bodies after a time. However, some took root and became the foundation for a new Independent Catholicism that expressed itself in diversity rather than centralised conformity. These communities were led and strongly patterned after their bishops, and grew from the grass roots with notable working-class involvement.

Mar Georgius unifies the independent movement and charters the Ancient Catholic Church

By the 1940s, there was a number of distinct lines of Apostolic Succession from diverse sources that existed within the independent movement. Fr. Hugh George de Willmott-Newman had a vision of uniting these different lines within a single church structured on Orthodox polity, and he obtained consecration from many different bishops so as to form the Catholic Apostolic Church (Catholicate of the West) in that decade. As Mar Georgius, Patriarch of Glastonbury and Prince-Catholicos of the West, he was the pre-eminent figure in the independent movement of his time, coming to unite all of the Apostolic Successions then in existence in the independent movement within his person.  For a detailed history of Mar Georgius and his church, see this page.

Harold Nicholson (1905-68) was a man of humble origins originally from Guernsey who became drawn to the Wisdom Tradition after the tragic death in infancy of his son, Noël, as a result of hospital negligence. He contacted a medium who was able to reassure him that Noël was at peace with God. This inspired Nicholson to begin to pursue his ministry. He conceived of a church in which the charismatic gifts of the Spirit known to the earliest Christians could find a special place, and where dogmatic Romanism would be replaced with an all-embracing church based on the love of God.

Nicholson began a Christian house church movement in Clapton during the 1930s, and then moved to a former Baptist chapel in Thornton Heath. In 1943 he was ordained priest by Mar Georgius and became a member of clergy of the Catholic Apostolic Church (Catholicate of the West). After World War II Nicholson's community acquired the former Baptist chapel in Lower Sloane Street, Chelsea, which had been damaged in the Blitz. They restored this neo-Byzantine-Romanesque building in the highest Catholic tradition, and it opened as the Church of the Good Shepherd in Autumn 1947.

Mar Georgius described the church as:

"devoted especially to the work of Divine Healing, wherein Father Nicholson was greatly experienced, having many authenticated cures to his credit under God...its activities were oftimes reported in The West London Press and The Battersea Star...at that time there were Healing Services being held in the Church on Tuesday afternoons, and on Wednesday and Friday evenings, in addition to the usual Sunday morning and evening services."

[Mar Georgius: The Sad Case of George Forster (1963)]

In 1949, Nicholson requested and was granted leave to resign from the ministry of the Catholic Apostolic Church. Mar Georgius reports as follows:

"At the beginning of April [1949], The Reverend H.P. Nicholson made formal application to me for his release from my jurisdiction, and, at a subsequent interview, discussed with me his reasons for making this request. It appeared that his congregation at the Church of the Good Shepherd, most of whom had been previously of one or other of the Nonconformist bodies, had objected to Catholic teaching and ceremonial, urging him to "get rid of the trappings", and to provide them with plain and simple services of a type to which they had been previously accustomed. He felt that he had to make a choice between agreeing to their demands or losing the majority of his followers. He felt that his duty lay in keeping the congregation together, but at the same time realised that to do so would be incompatible both with the duties of the Catholic priesthood, and also with his obligations toward THE CATHOLIC APOSTOLIC CHURCH (Catholicate of the West). Under the title of The New Pentecostal Church of Christ, he was already catering for Free Church people, and he thought that his best solution would be to ask me for release, so that he could turn the whole of his work over on to a Free Church basis. In view of the position stated, I felt that I had no alternative but to consent to his release, and told him that I would issue the necessary document."

On April 29 that year, Nicholson's former deacon, George Forster, who had become estranged from him through Forster's jealousy and ambition, caused a libel to be published in the Spiritualist paper "The Two Worlds" concerning this release from Mar Georgius' jurisdiction. Fr. Nicholson was instigated by Forster wrongly to blame Mar Georgius for this incident.

Somehow, a most unlikely reconciliation then occurred between Nicholson and Forster, who had meanwhile been consecrated as Mar David and was leading a new denomination called the English Orthodox Church. On 10 September 1949, Forster consecrated Nicholson as his Missionary Bishop, an event concerning which Mar Georgius wrote "certainly the ceremony took place, and the whole matter has remained a mystery to me from that time to this."  Nicholson obtained a full release from Forster's jurisdiction, which never extended to the Church of the Good Shepherd, on 26 December.

The following year, the now Bishop Nicholson re-established relations with Mar Georgius through the intermediation of the Reverend Christopher Moore of the Evangelical Catholic Communion. Mar Georgius offered the opinion that "he had been released at his own request, and all that had happened between us was a stormy interview, after which I had just refrained from keeping in touch with him, though had he at any time approached me, my feelings were not of such a nature that I would not have been [glad]...On the day appointed, we duly met, and for the first time I beheld the recently finished Church of the Good Shepherd in all its glory, and stood amazed. It suddenly occurred to me that, when Dr. Nicholson had asked for his release, he had done so in order to turn over to a Free Church basis, as his congregation objected to ritual and ceremonial, and wanted this plain. When I enquired as to this, Dr. Nicholson recounted with amusement what had happened. He had stripped his altar of cross, candlesticks, etc., and had worn a plain black gown. After a week or two, his people had come to him, saying: "What have you done with all the beauty; it does not seem to be the same place." When he had pointed out that he had done this because of their previous complaints, they had said that they had not realised how they would miss these things, and would like him to put them back, and this he had done."

In a splendid ceremony at Chelsea on 27 May 1950, Mar Georgius issued a charter to the Ancient Catholic Church, creating it as an independent and autocephalous tropus of the Catholicate of the West, and consecrating Nicholson sub conditione according to the Byzantine Rite as its first Primate. Nicholson took the Primatial title of Mar Joannes, Archbishop of Karim, and Mar Georgius conferred upon him the degrees of D.D. (Glastonbury) and Doctor of Spiritual Therapeutics of the International University.

The Orthodox Catholic Review of June 1950 reported that:

"the congregation enjoyed themselves in a convivial atmosphere of love and brotherhood...those colourful ceremonies performed in the beautiful surroundings of a Cathedral Church, built up by the devoted labours of Archbishop Nicholson over a period of years, are very seldom to be witnessed in England, and that those present felt very happy to be privileged to attend. The Church is well-known for the wonderful work of Divine Healing carried on there, for which the Archbishop trains his own workers, and has received world-wide publicity for the innumerable cures effected through the laying-on of hands."

Writing in the 1960s, +Nicholson summed the position up as follows:

"The work in its present form started some years prior to the 1939-45 War, and progressed in various parts of the country, the Headquarters eventually being located at The Church of the Good Shepherd, Lower Sloane Street, London, where it attracted very favourable world-wide attention. On 27 May, 1950, Dr. Harold Percival Nicholson, the Founder and Leader, was consecrated to the Sacred Order of the Episcopate in that Church at the hands of His Sacred Beatitude Mar Georgius I, Patriarch of Glastonbury and Prince-Catholicos, the Head-at-Line of the Syrian-Orthodox Mission established in Britain and Western Europe in 1866 on authority of the Patriarchate of Antioch, he being assisted by his Auxiliary Mar Benignus, Titular Bishop of Mere. A large congregation was present, and the ceremony was officially witnessed by Mr. J.D.V. Hinde, Solicitor, who attended to the legal side, and the Instrument of Consecration legalised before Mr. John Newton, Notary Public, Whitehall, London. The consecration was a recognition by the Patriarch and his Hierarchy throughout the world of the good work done by Dr. Nicholson before, during, and after the War, and especially during the London “blitz.” At the same time His Beatitude granted canonical status to the Movement under the title at present in use of THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH by bestowing upon it a Charter as an Autocephalous Church, by virtue of which it is completely independent and autonomous. Prior to this, Dr. Nicholson had received training and ordination to the Priesthood and work under the auspices of THE CATHOLIC APOSTOLIC CHURCH over which the Patriarch presides. For the benefit of any who may have encountered false and misguided statements to the contrary, the Orders conferred upon Dr. Nicholson are recognised as valid by the Church of Rome, as will be seen from an article entitled THE EAST-WEST BRIDGE appearing in the R.C. paper “The Universe” on 19th August, 1949 [A copy of this article was framed and hung on a wall of the cathedral at Clapton].

The Lines of Apostolic Succession wherein Dr. Nicholson stands are: (1) Syrian-Orthodox, (2) Syrian-Malabar, (3) Syrian-Gallican, (4) Syro-Chaldean, (5) Chaldean-Uniate, (6) Coptic-Orthodox, (7) Armenian Uniate, (8) Order of Corporate Reunion, (9) Old Catholic, (10) Mariavite, (11) Greek –Orthodox, (12) Russian-Orthodox.  He also has the Liberal Catholic, Anglican, and Nonjuring lines.  The full data as to this is contained in a booklet called "Validation of the Orders of the Ancient Catholic Church" which is obtainable at the Cathedral upon application."

Between 1950 and circa 1955 the Ancient Catholic Church functioned as an autocephalous tropus of the Catholicate of the West, but ceased this membership due to doctrinal differences with the Catholicate, which was moving closer to mainstream Orthodoxy. In any case, following the Synod of Glastonbury, the Catholicate was dissolved and an application made to strike it off the Register in India, where it had been chartered in 1950. The reason for this action (concluded in 1955) and the reformation of the body as the United Orthodox Catholic Church (the former title of Catholicate of the West was re-adopted in 1959) was to bring a formal end in law to relations with the various non-Orthodox autocephalous tropoi - which of course included the ACC. Notwithstanding this, Mar Georgius and Mar Joannes I continued to enjoy a good personal relationship, and were to work together on a number of occasions in future years as Mar Georgius presided at certain services of ordination and consecration at the Ancient Catholic Cathedral.

The Chelsea years

Mar Joannes I was highly progressive and esoteric in his theology. He supported the ordination of women, and allowed some services (though not sacraments) to be led by the laity. He was effectively a Liberal Catholic in all but name. He believed in the Ascended Masters, and that elements of Truth existed in every religion. As a believer in Reincarnation he denied that Death existed. He was interested in the Aquarian Gospel and used extracts from it in services. He had the gift of healing that was effective for almost any condition, and his cathedral in Chelsea became known as the Miracle Cathedral. He was strongly drawn to minister to animals and introduced a popular series of animal blessings at the Cathedral Church. The national press featured his work.

Mar Joannes I's "Services of Love and Blessing" is a model of positive and loving Christianity (this text will be found at the Liturgies page). Drawn from ancient and modern Eastern and Western sources, but most particularly from the Liberal Catholic Church, this was prefaced with the lines, "although fully Catholic, all these services are essentially bright and modern in outlook, embracing as they do the great truth of survival, and the nearness of those who are able to aid us from a higher life."

This followed on "The Seven Principles governing Divine-Human Relations" (1950) which sets out the beliefs of the Ancient Catholic Church and is also available in summary on the Liturgies page. Nicholson also devised musical settings for the liturgy, using existing compositions.

On 19 February 1951, Mar Joannes I and Mar Georgius were consecrated sub conditione by Mar Lukos (+Davison Quartey Arthur), the Bishop of Lagos, Accra and Trinidad of the Coptic Orthodox Church, in order to receive the Coptic Orthodox line of succession. Mar Lukos was appointed Archbishop of the West Indies in the Ancient Catholic Church.

Three religious Orders were instituted in 1951. The Order of S. Teresa - The Little Flower was erected in memory of St Therese of Lisieux, and was an order set up to support the work of the clergy through prayer. The Valiant Order of St. John the Baptist and the Order of Ave Maria were likewise founded, each of which had an inaugural Charter hand-illuminated by Mar Joannes I himself and entered into the registries of both the Ancient Catholic Church and the Catholicate of the West. Each order was open to both men and women, and the Primate was established as its head.

By 1951, Mar Joannes I had five churches and several chapels under his guidance, and around 5,000 lay followers. On 8 September, he elevated Fr. Cecil Valentine Wainwright, M.A., D.D., to the episcopate, assisted by Mar Georgius, with the style of Mar Valentine, titular Archbishop of Mount Carmel and Primate of the Ancient Catholic Church. Mar Valentine, however, separated from the Ancient Catholic Church and founded a new body called the Ancient Apostolic Catholic Church. On 14 April 1952, Mar Joannes I consecrated Philip Charles Stuart Singer, L.Th. (Mar Phillippus, titular Bishop of Hebron), and Melville Peregrine Knill-Samuel, Mus.Bac. (Mar Peter, titular Bishop of Naim).

On 8 November 1952, Mar Joannes I consecrated Fr. John Brabazon Brabazon-Lowther, who was given the title of Bishop Francis Huntingford and later Archbishop ad personam. He was the founder of the ecumenical Order of the Cloister of the Holy Presence (which died with him), a vegetarian and a defender of the rights of animals. On his death in 1966 his estate amounted to £75,028.

In 1953, the Ancient Catholic Church absorbed the remnant of the Free Catholic Church that had been led by the Archbishop of Waltham (Victor Palmer-Hayman) and later (1960s) the Old Roman Catholic Church (Palmer-Hayman branch) under Archbishop Edgar Melville Barker. Archbishop Barker was in 1960 enthroned by Mar Joannes I as second Primate of the Free Catholic Church following the death of Palmer-Hayman, but died a few years afterwards.

On 18 September 1954, both Mar Joannes I and Mar Georgius were consecrated sub conditione by Clemente Alfio Sgroi Marchese, the Mariavite Bishop for Sicily. On 17 July 1955, Mar Joannes I was consecrated sub conditione by Odo Acheson Barry (Mar Columba).

A good insight into the work at Chelsea is provided by the Guidebook published  by the Ancient Catholic Church in around 1956. Click on a page below to download it in a new window:
1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8

The move back to Clapton

In 1956, the leader of the Agapemonites, Ruth Preece (the "spiritual wife" of John Hugh Smyth-Pigott, one-time minister at the Church of the Ark of the Covenant at Clapton) died and no clergyman could be found to conduct the funeral within the Established Church. Archbishop Nicholson offered to do so. His contact with the Agapemonites was through a member of his clergy, the Revd. John Traynor (Fr. Aidan) who was a journalist in secular life. Fr. Aidan's father was a minister in Islington, and in his vestry there hung a photograph of the opening ceremony of the Church of the Ark of the Covenant. From this, Fr. Aidan made contact with the Agapemonite community, which had settled at Spaxton in Somerset after the scandals that had beset their cult in the early twentieth-century.  A picture of the funeral at Spaxton is below.

As a result of Fr. Aidan's influence, the former Agapemonite Church of the Ark of the Covenant was leased to the Ancient Catholic Church by the trust that now owns it, starting in 1956. The community moved there from Chelsea and their former cathedral there was later demolished. Most of the church furnishings at Clapton were transported from the original cathedral in Chelsea. The Clapton cathedral officially opened on December 2, 1956.

John Montgomery writes in his "Abodes of Love" (1962):

"It was not until April 6th, 1956 that “Sister Ruth”, Mrs. Ruth Annie Smyth, died at Spaxton, believing until the last that her “husband” would return from the dead.  Was not death an admission of sin?  About fifty people attended the funeral service in the lofty, oak-panelled chapel which, at “Sister Ruth’s” request, had been consecrated.  The three children attended, and the service was conducted by the Most Rev. H.P. Nicholson, self-styled Archbishop of the Ancient Catholic Church of the Good Shepherd, Sloane Street, Chelsea.  He described the chapel in which they knelt as “a mighty temple which to the world is not known”.
 
In May 1956, Archbishop Nicholson announced that he would lease the Church of the Ark of the Covenant at Clapton as the new home of the Ancient Catholic Church of the Good Shepherd.  Before Sister Ruth died she had said, “I want you to have the church.”
 
Later, he said to a reporter: “There will be no spiritual brides for me.  I have a lady wife who has her hands full looking after our family.”  The church would be devoted to faith-healing and to services for animals.  Lady Munnings, the wife of Sir Alfred Munnings, the painter, had her own special corner seat."

The Times of May 12, 1956, reported,

"Clapton Church to be Re-opened: The church of the Ark of the Covenant in Rookwood Road, Clapton. E., which has been shut for many years, has been leased by the body known as the Church Council and Synod of the Ancient Catholic Church of the Good Shepherd. It is planned to hold the first services in July. The Church of the Good Shepherd, which has 11 churches in this country has its headquarters in Sloane Street, Chelsea, where in addition to normal services an animal service is held monthly. The church at Clapton was built in 1895- 96 to the designs of J. Morris of Reading. It was erected by the Supporters and followers of the Rev. J. H. Smyth-Pigott, who in September, 1902, proclaimed his divinity there. Later he withdrew to the village of Spaxton, Somerset, where, as successor to Henry Prince, he became head of the Agapemone, or Abode of Love."

Despite the unique spiritual atmosphere and historic importance of the new Cathedral, its location was less than ideal compared to the central nature of the previous building in Chelsea. The Clapton cathedral stands in the middle of an Orthodox Jewish area and within a few hundred yards of the magnificent Roman Catholic Church of St Ignatius, and this was to mean that those who found their way to the ACC tended to do so as a result of conscious effort rather than simply considering it their local church. These problems were to be compounded in later years by a policy of keeping things deliberately low-key.

There was some success in forming links with some small churches in the Catholic tradition within Europe and North America. These were embraced as part of what was known as the United Hierarchy of the Ancient Catholic Church.

Mar Joannes I continued to work in secular employment throughout his time as Primate, and did not believe in making money from his spiritual work. Before the war he had been a Head Waiter in a West End restaurant, no mean achievement for a man from the working class in those days. Afterwards, he worked in a soft furnishings store located between Tottenham's Royal Dance Hall and Palace Theatre for some years, before acquiring his own haberdashery shop in Dalston Kingsland which he called "Harold's". His marriage to his wife Mavis ended during the 1950s and after this, his partner was a German woman whom he had met through the ACC. He lived life to its fullest, smoked tobacco, drank alcohol and was a member of a casino, and saw no contradiction between this approach and his faith.

Divine Healing

Ministry to Animals

From the outset, the Ancient Catholic Church had a special ministry to animals. Mar Joannes I established a popular series of animal blessing services at the Cathedral in Chelsea and these continued at Clapton. At Chelsea, the animal services attracted the attention of the newspapers. On 27 June 1952, the West London Press reported as follows:

"Sir Alfred and Lady Munnings have presented to a local church an oil painting of the Virgin Mary. Recipients are The Church of the Good Shepherd, Lower Sloane Street, "The Miracle Church." Gift is for benefits both have received from the Ancient Catholic Church, an announcement states. Also for the help afforded "Black Knight," Lady Munnings'  famous dog, and her other dog, "Toby" during its last illness. It is at this church that services for animals are held."

At least one such service was televised in the early 1950s. The Daily Mail of 4 September 1950 gave a full report of an animal blessing service. The West London Press of 2nd January 1953 reported,

"As for the Cathedral Church of the Good Shepherd, it may be observed that orthodoxy has no monopoly on Christian goodwill. There is no denying the happiness radiated by the services of this unusual church, apparent to even the most sceptical visitor.  Considering particularly the church's concern for our dumb friends, it is as well to deal with facts. At the recent animal service filmed for television, over 300 people with their pets made their way to the church through dense fog. After the singing of hymns and songs each individual animal was blessed. The Church's Archbishop...hopes that by example, children will grow to love animals and cruelty disappear."

Mar Joannes I believed strongly that animals were of great importance and that they were beloved of God. In the Daily Mail he stated "All doggies go to heaven...Children must not cry when their doggies die, because they have a greater life hereafter." This emphasis continued with monthly blessings at the Clapton cathedral, where there was an Animal Chapel adorned with miniature animals of all kinds (see photograph above).

A new beginning for an ancient church