The Liberal Catholic Apostolic Church

The roots of The Liberal Rite go back to 1999, and the foundation of a small autocephalous group of Christians that was first called the British Liberal Free Church, later renamed the Society of the Divine Spirit. The inspiration for this foundation was the work of Revd. J.M. Lloyd Thomas and the Society of Free Catholics earlier in the twentieth-century, with the aim of combining the intellectual freedom of the Free Church tradition with gently Catholic worship. The Society of Free Christians was also formed in 1999 as a ministerial organisation working in parallel with SDS.

Our worship took place for some years in the side chapel of Bloomsbury Baptist Church and the chapel of Wimbledon YMCA, and the community eventually came to be led by three co-equal ministers, two of whom were from a Free Church background and the other of whom was a former Old Catholic. A number of liturgies were specially written for us by the ministers, and resulted in beautiful and moving celebrations.

Subsequent developments saw the evolution of SDS into the English Liberal Free Church. In 2006, several major changes took place. The longest-serving of our ministers decided to leave ELFC in order to exercise a specifically Unitarian ministry. The other two, as a result of extensive research and contact with bishops in other denominations, decided to accept Apostolic ordination and consecration in order that they might bring sacramental validity and a historic link to their community. As a result, they were both consecrated by Archbishop Illtyd Thomas, of the Celtic Catholic Church and formerly of the Liberal Catholic Church of Ontario, Canada, in July 2006, using the Liberal Catholic rite of 1967, and subsequently consecrated sub conditione according to the Roman Catholic rite by Archbishop Phillip Kemp of the Independent Catholic Alliance in November 2006. In November 2008, the bishops received a further subconditional consecration from Archbishop Bertil Persson, Emeritus Primate of the Apostolic Episcopal Church. These events brought them within the historic Apostolic Succession, including lines from all the major Liberal Catholic and esoteric movement traditions.

Following a parallel re-organisation in 2006, the Catholic elements of the Society of Free Christians were renamed as the Religious Society of St. Simon, while the ecumenical and interfaith elements of the Society continued independently of ELFC as the Society for Humanistic Potential, which is primarily engaged in educational work and sponsors its own educational programmes.

The changes in ELFC, and specifically those to its ministerial team, set in place a re-organisation and renewal of mission that was largely complete by the end of 2006. Having used the name IOCCUS (Independent Old Catholic Church of the Utrecht Succession) in the interim period, the Presiding Bishops announced that from 1 January 2007, the denomination would bear the name The Liberal Rite. As independent Liberal Catholics within the esoteric tradition, the denomination has had no affiliation with other current denominations using variations of that name, but remained autocephalous throughout.

In 2008, following a year of significant growth and development, The Liberal Rite was charged with a commission to carry on the work of Archbishop Harold Nicholson. This heritage was united with The Liberal Rite in the new Liberal Catholic Apostolic Church.

Institutions that became part of The Liberal Rite

	The Society of the Divine Spirit
	The Society of Free Christians
	The English Liberal Free Church
	The Independent Old Catholic Church of the Utrecht Succession