The Christ Catholic Church is an

Old Catholic The terms Old Catholic Church, Old Catholics, Old-Catholic churches or Old Catholic movement designate "any of the groups of Western Christians who believe themselves to maintain in complete loyalty the doctrine and traditions of the undivide ...

denomination founded by

Karl Pruter Karl Hugo Prüter, commonly referred to as Karl Pruter (July 3, 1920 – November 18, 2007), was an Old Catholic bishop in the United States. He founded the Christ Catholic Church. Pruter was raised in a Lutheran church and served as a Congrega ...

in 1965.

History

Creation

The denomination was founded when Pruter founded a

congregation A congregation is a large gathering of people, often for the purpose of worship. Congregation may also refer to: *Church (congregation), a Christian organization meeting in a particular place for worship *Congregation (Roman Curia), an administra ...

in 1965 in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, under the authority of the

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or "canonical") ...

Abp. Peter A. Zhurawetsky (1901-1994), head of the

Christ Catholic Church of the Americas and Europe The Christ Catholic Church of the Americas and Europe (also called Old Orthodox Catholic Patriarchate of America) was an Old Catholic denomination. The denomination was founded in 1937 when several churches merged. The denomination has also bee ...

. In 1967, Pruter was

consecrated bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of dioceses. The role ...

of the

Diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

of Boston by Abp. Peter A. Zhurawetsky and Abp. Uladyslau Ryzy-Ryski (the latter was part of the

American World Patriarchs American World Patriarchs is a Christian religious organization established in 1967. Founding The group was founded by Uladyslau Ryzhy-Ryzhski, a priest from Belarus who had been consecrated as bishop of Laconia, New Hampshire and the states of Ne ...

). In 1968, Pruter decided his diocese would be independent, and Zhurawetsky agreed. Bishop Karl Pruter and the Cathedral of the Prince of Peace

After this, over the years the denomination, headed by Pruter, moved its headquarters from Boston to

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

, then to Scottsdale in Arizona, then to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, and then finally, in the early 1980s, to Highlandsville in Missouri. In Highlandsville, Pruter was the bishop of a small

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

called the Cathedral Church of the Prince of Peace. In 1988, Frederick P. Dunleavy was consecrated bishop by Pruter. In 1989, the denomination of which Dunleavy was the head, the Ontario Old Catholic Church, consisting of a single

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

, merged into the Christ Catholic Church. In 1991, Dunleavy was elected as the head of the Christ Catholic Church, replacing Pruter. The denomination was officially incorporated as a

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

in November 1990.

Merge

In 1992, in an optic of expansionism, the Christ Catholic Church and the Liberal Catholic Church of Ontario merged to form the Christ Catholic Church International. The bishop who headed the now merged Liberal Catholic Church of Ontario became the head of the Christ Catholic Church International.

Unmerge

Thereafter, Pruter, retired, disagreed with some actions done by the new entity. In 1995, he came out of retirement, called for the dissolution of the merge and reorganized some of the former Christ Catholic Church

parishes A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

under his leadership as the Christ Catholic Church. Those who disagreed with Pruter remained in the Christ Catholic Church International. In 2004, the Christ Catholic Church claimed to have about 2000 members and 3 bishops (including Pruter). Pruter's denomination took the name ''Christ Catholic Church (Diocese of Boston)'' in 2006. Pruter died in 2007.

Today

In 2008 William Martin Sloane, a priest in the Southern Episcopal Church of the USA, was consecrated a bishop of "Christ Catholic Church (Diocese of Boston)" and of the

Southern Episcopal Church The Southern Episcopal Church (SEC) is an Anglican Christian denomination established in Nashville, Tennessee in 1953, and formally organised in 1962, in reaction to liberal political and theological trends within the Episcopal Church USA. It is ...

. The consecrating bishops were Huron Clay Manning, Jr.; William Harold Corley; Charles George Fry; Robert William Hotes; Richard Melvin Johnson; and Robert Louis O'Block. The board of directors of the Christ Catholic Church (Diocese of Boston) then voted for Sloane to be the CCC/DoB's archbishop and for the "CCC/DoB to function as a diocese of the SEC/USA." The diocese brings traditional Anglicans and Old Catholics into fellowship together, believing "in the essential unity of all Christians, and the Sacramental unity of those in communion with validly consecrated Bishops of the Apostolic Succession, who teach and practice the Faith of the undivided Church. . . . The work of Christ Catholic Church today is the same as that of the Apostolic Church, to lovingly offer the fullness of Orthodox-Catholic Faith, Worship and Witness to all who would seek Christ and His Kingdom."{{cite web , url=http://www.christcatholicchurch.com/statementoffaith.html , title=Christ Catholic Church (Statement of Faith) , website=www.christcatholicchurch.com , access-date=January 12, 2022 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161228064852/http://www.christcatholicchurch.com/statementoffaith.html , archive-date=December 28, 2016 , url-status=dead

References

External links

Archive of the official website
Christian organizations established in 1965 Old Catholic denominations in the United States Christian denominations established in the 20th century