The Liberal Catholic Apostolic Church

The Apostolic Episcopal Church (The Holy Eastern Catholic and Apostolic Orthodox Church) maintains its official website at http://www.bertilpersson.com. This page makes use of source material and images provided on that site. Further information will be found in Archbishop Persson's "A Brief History of the Apostolic Episcopal Church", "The Apostolic Successions of the Apostolic Episcopal Church: An outline at the prospect of the 21st century" and "The Apostolic Succession of the Apostolic Episcopal Church from the Order of Corporate Reunion".

The AEC introduces itself in the following statement:

"The Apostolic Episcopal Church is an autogenic, episcopally governed denomination open to all who seek to better understand and experience the mystery of Christ within.  A pivotal tenet of the AEC is the spirit of ecumenical cooperation reflected in Christ's prayer that the Church strive to attain oneness and love for one another, even in the face of doctrinal differences. Our ministry reflects a novel understanding of the ancient apostolic tradition wherein we are of the conviction that the concept of apostolic succession is clearly reflected in both the spirit  of the original twelve Apostles, who initiated physical, or outer lines of succession, and that of the Apostle Paul, whose ministry reflected the validity of an inner succession.  In this manner, we hold that the full ministry of apostolic succession includes not only the offices of Bishop, Presbyter, and Deacon, but that of Pastor, Evangelist, Reader, Minister of Music, and the priesthood of the laity as well. With apostolic roots in the Eastern Church, through the utilization of liturgical elements in celebration of both East and West, and by welcoming clergy to our fold from multiple expressions of the Christian faith, the AEC has sought, since its inception, to boldly live Christ’s request that we love one another — and through this love, allow peace and understanding to flourish."

During its entire history, but the past thirty years in particular, the Apostolic Episcopal Church has been one of the most important and visible conduits to Christian unity within the independent sacramental movement. Bridging the larger mainstream churches and the smaller movements of Apostolic Christendom, the significance of the AEC's work has been in its ability to cross boundaries often regarded as insuperable. As the AEC says, "We take seriously the request to love one another, and do so regardless of differing opinions."

Mar John Emmanuel

The AEC was canonically organised in New York City in 1925 by the Most Revd. Arthur Wolfort Brooks (Mar John Emmanuel) (1889-1948). +Brooks was a priest of the Episcopal Church, a seminary professor and journalist with Walt Whitman's renowned Brooklyn Eagle newspaper. On May 4, 1925, he was elevated as Archbishop of Ebbsfleet by the Patriarch of the Eastern Chaldean Church.

The AEC writes, "Archbishop Brooks determined that some of the most divisive elements within Christianity stemmed from the early Councils of the Fourth and Fifth Centuries, and that if the followers of Christ could envision the possibility of one vine with many branches as envisioned by some of the earliest leaders of the Church, many obstacles to unity could be eliminated. Out of this vision of peace and unity was born the Apostolic Episcopal Church."

+Brooks together with +George W. Plummer founded the Seminary of Biblical Research, New York City, where he taught as Professor of Eastern Studies and served as an administrator. In 1929, as a public demonstration of the ability of Christian love to triumph over doctrinal differences, +Brooks coordinated a united Holy Communion service at Christ’s Church By The Sea, Broad Channel Island, NY, with clergy representing ten separate communions participating in one accord. 

Successors to Mar John Emmanuel

The legacy of Archbishop Brooks was severalfold. His immediate successor was Archbishops Wallace de Ortega Maxey (Mar David I), Patriarch of Malaga, whom he had consecrated in 1948. Maxey, who was an early champion of gay rights, resigned in 1951. After some years as a Unitarian minister, he rejoined the AEC in 1977. In 1951, the church entered an interregnum at the conclusion of which separate Provinces of East and West were established, the former led by +Harold F. Jarvis and the latter by +Robert R. Ramm from 1976-86.

The AEC writes, "Bishop Jarvis’ ministry focused less upon the liturgical experience and more upon a hands-on mission outreach to the disenfranchised, infirmed, and unchurched. Establishing an active Church Mission Headquarters on Shelter Island, New York, +Jarvis, other clergy, and lay leaders endeavored to visit homes, hospitals and places of business in order to address the needs of the sick and discouraged.  Prayer, guidance, and consolation were offered abundantly to all in need.  AEC archives indicate that +Jarvis and his staff were responsible for visiting thousands of individuals in an effort to enrich their lives through a better understanding of the Christian experience."

In 1943, Archbishop Brooks suggested that a British abbot who was serving under his jurisdiction should be consecrated to the Episcopate. This abbot was Fr. Hugh George de Willmott Newman, who was then serving in the Old Catholic Orthodox Church of which Archbishop Brooks had become Presiding Bishop. After Archbishop Brooks provided the mandate for his consecration he was consecrated and enthroned the following year as Patriarch of Glastonbury and Catholicos of the Catholicate of the West with the ecclesiastical name of Mar Georgius. At this time, both Mar Georgius' and Archbishop Brooks' churches were strongly characterised by a New Age, ecumenical approach. This synergy led to a formal Act of Union between the AEC and the Catholicate of the West in 1946, under whose terms Mar Georgius and his successors as Patriarchs of Glastonbury became members of the AEC Synod in perpetuity. However, in 1994, Mar Georgius' former church united with the Coptic Orthodox Church and its Patriarch by that act resigned all affiliations with the AEC.

Mar Nikolaus

Bishop Jarvis retired in 1976, at which point Archbishop Perry Cedarholm (Mar Nikolaus) (1890-1979), who was Primate of the AEC Svea Synod in Sweden, took on administrative responsibility for the church. +Cedarholm had attended the Methodist Swedish Theological Seminary in Illinois and pastored the Valdemarsvik Methodist Church. He served as a missionary to the Philippines and with the Brooklyn City Mission and Tract Society. In 1940, he was accepted by Mar John Emmanuel into the AEC, served as Canon at Christ's Church By The Sea, NY, and was consecrated in 1949 by John More-Moreno (Mar Chrysostomos). In 1953, marking his return to Sweden, he was installed as AEC Bishop of Scandinavia by Archbishop Herman Abbinga (1894-1968), AEC Primate for Europe and a professor at Tokyo University, who had formerly been a Liberal Catholic priest before his consecration by +Brooks in 1946. Cedarholm established a working relationship with the Church of Sweden and his episcopate was accepted by that body.

Mar Nikolaus consecrated in 1971 the future Archbishop Bertil Persson (Mar Alexander), who succeeded him in 1974 and was formally installed as Primate of the AEC upon Archbishop Ramm's retirement as Presiding Bishop of the AEC Province of the West in 1986.

Mar Alexander

The AEC writes: "A professor of Literature, Philosophy, and Religion since 1962, Dr. Persson was co-founder and Director of St. Ephrem’s Institute for Eastern Studies (1974), National Chancellor for the International Association of Educators for World Peace (UNESCO) (1972), Corresponding Professor at the Peoples University of the Americas, New York (1976), Principal in the Swedish school system (1977-1999), Consultant to the Swedish National Board of Education, Corresponding Professor at the Central School of Religion, United Kingdom (1984), Professor for Scandinavia at University for Peace (UNESCO) (1988), President of Svenska Dyslexiföreningen [The Swedish Dyslexia Association] (1998-2001), and Academic Fellow, Council for Human Rights and Religious Freedom (2002). He has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, London, since 1982. +Persson’s theological development explicitly demonstrates the driving philosophy of ecumenical cooperation which lies at the heart of the Apostolic Episcopal Church.  Dr. Persson was ordained a priest in the Church of Sweden in 1962, and would later receive ministerial standing in the Moravian Church (1965-1971) and within independent Anglican orders (1969).  He served as Consultant to The Syrian Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East and to the Church of the East (1974-1977), Consultant to Slaviska Missionen [The Slavic Mission] and the Swedish Church Youth Society (1974), assisted in the establishment of the Caribbean Episcopal Church, United Kingdom (1984), Chaplain of the Patriarchal Order of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem (1988), and Ambassador for Peace at the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace, Universal Peace Federation (ECOSOC) (2001).  Dr. Persson has made considerable contributions within the fields of Education and Religion, and is the author of numerous books and articles including Cults, Sects, Congregations (1970, 1971), The Pharisees and the Scribes (et al, 1971), From the Language of Jesus (et al, 1975), The Concept of God in the World Religions (1985), Speaking Signs. An Encyclopedia of Symbols (1990), Apostolic Episcopal Ministry (1992), and Applied Scholastics. The Key to Efficient Education (2006)." During the +Persson era, the AEC experienced a dynamic growth in ecumenism. It signed Concordats of Intercommunion with many Christian Churches which thereby recognise the validity of its sacraments. These include The Catholic Apostolic Church [”The Irvingites”] (through Rev. Norman Priddle, Int. HQ, Gordon Square, London, UK), The Syrian Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East (through Patriarchs Moran Mor Ignatius XXXIX Yacoub III and Moran Mor Ignatius Zakka I Iwaz), The Ancient Church of the East (through Patriarch Maran Mar Adhai II), Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria, Eparchy of France (through Amba Marcos; Archbishop Persson has also been honoured with the Croix de St Antoine du Désert awarded by the Patriarchate), The Melkite-Greek Catholic Church (through Patriarch Maximos V Hakim), Iglesia Católica Apostólica Méxicana (through Archbishop-Primate Emile Rodriguez Fairfield), Iglesia Filipina Católica Independiente (through Obispo Maximo Macario Vilches Ga), and the Igreja Católica Apostólica Brazileira (through Archbishop-Primate Luís Castillo Méndez).

The photograph above right shows Archbishop Persson with Patriarch Gregorius III Laham in the Greek Melkite Cathedral in Jerusalem in May 1992. Patriarch Gregory installed Archbishop Persson as a bishop in the Templar order in 1992.

It was originally suggested to Archbishop Persson by the late Fr. Henry Brandreth (author of "Episcopi Vagantes and the Anglican Church") that he might continue his work of research into the independent churches through some short articles on particular bishops, which work has continued through his many monographs on these matters, principally published in the Swedish language through St. Ephrem's Institute.

Archbishop Francis C. Spataro

Reverend Francis C. Spataro (b. February 5, 1936), who had served the AEC in a junior administrative capacity since 1976, was elevated to the office of Bishop-Elect in 1980, and eventually, to Presiding Bishop (1992) of the Apostolic Episcopal Church, Province of the East, USA.

Bishop Spataro, a lifelong resident of New York, received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Long Island University in 1959, a Master of Arts degree from New York University in 1971, and a Master of Science degree from St. John’s University, New York, in 1984.  He holds a Licentiate in Religion from the Peoples’ University of the Americas (1976), and a Doctorate of Divinity from St. Ephrem’s Institute, Solna, Sweden (1982). On October 31, 1992, Dr. Spataro was consecrated in the Cathedral of Christ the King, Gordon Square, London, by Archbishop Bertil Persson, then Primate of the Apostolic Episcopal Church, to serve as Bishop of the AEC, Province of the East. This was the only consecration outside the Catholic Apostolic Church ("Irvingites") ever to have taken place in the Cathedral, marking the special relationship between the AEC and the CAC. Until his death, the Catholic Apostolic Church Deacon of Bornholm was also a priest in the AEC.

Archbishop Spataro's consecrators at Gordon Square included the late Archbishop Eric Frank Eades of the Holy Celtic Church, who shared his initial consecrator with Mar Joannes III of the LCAC.

According to the AEC, "Archbishop Spataro's headquarters centered at Camp St. Cassian, Potter Hollow, New York. Camp St. Cassian was a retreat-skete nestled in the tranquil Catskill Mountains established with the mission to rehabilitate clergy suffering from burnout.  +Spataro would remain affiliated with the Camp until it was sold to its present owners, the Orthodox Church, in August of 2005. On June 25, 1976, +Spataro, with Father Eugenio N. Loreto of the Philippine Independent Catholic Church, founded the Vilatte Guild, an historical and research organization with which he as been integrally involved over the course of 30 years.  It was also during this period that Dr. Spataro served as an Instructor in English as a Second Language at American College and Seminary, Bronx, New York. In 1987, +Spataro published Charles Mason Remey and the Baha'i Faith (paperback, 2003), the first comprehensive biography of the founder of the Orthodox Baha’i movement.  In addition to this work, +Spataro has demonstrated himself as an accomplished and award-winning poet (for God the All-Glorious and Blank Spaces), Editor-in-Chief of several academic newsletters (most notably, The Tover), and contributor to numerous religious magazines and journals.  Among his other published works of note are The Rascal Sage, A Brief Glimpse of Gurdjieff for Understanding Cults and Spiritual Movements (1988), With God in Spirit and Truth (1992), Images of Godly Living (1994), and The Divine Liturgy of Marqos (1999). Bishop Spataro continues to ably serve the AEC as Presiding Bishop from its World Mission Headquarters in Queens, New York. He remains active in the establishment of ecumenical relationships in fulfillment of the AEC’s commitment to serve as a “church for all people.”

Archbishop Persson has said, "The Apostolic Episcopal Church is the only concrete result of the vision of a uniate church, once created by abbé Portal and Lord Halifax, and that has its ideological root in The Order of Corporate Reunion. This church is today a world-wide communion." The following of the AEC today is estimated at 12,000 laity worldwide.