The Order of Corporate Reunion (OCR), officially the Christian, Ecumenical, and Fraternal Order of Corporate Reunion, is an

ecumenical Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...

association of clergy and laity of

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

origin. The OCR was founded by

Frederick George Lee Frederick George Lee (6 January 1832 in Thame, Oxfordshire – 22 January 1902 at Lambeth, London) was a priest of the Church of England and a religious author. He co-founded the Order of Corporate Reunion. Biography Lee was trained in Ripon Coll ...

, Thomas Wimberley Mossman, and John Thomas Seccombe between 1874-1877 in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Established as an Anglo-Papalist society to continue the work of the

Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom The Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom (APUC) was originally established by Ambrose Lisle March Phillipps De Lisle in 1857 within England to promote unity among Anglicanism, Anglicans, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodoxy, O ...

, its founders sought to restore an

apostolic succession Apostolic succession is the method whereby the ministry of the Christian Church is held to be derived from the apostles by a continuous succession, which has usually been associated with a claim that the succession is through a series of bish ...

recognized by the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

through reordinations as a means for reunion. The founders of the Order of Corporate Reunion claimed to have been consecrated as bishops by Roman Catholic bishops. However, they did not state in public the names of their consecrators; over a century after their deaths it was revealed that cardinals

Luigi Nazari di Calabiana Luigi Nazari di Calabiana (1808 – 1893) was an Italian churchman and politician: a senator of the Kingdom of Sardinia and Archbishop of Milan. Biography He was born on 27 July 1808 in Savigliano to Filippo, count of Calabiana, and the nob ...

, Domenico Agostini, and

Vincenzo Moretti Vincenzo Moretti (14 November 1815 – 6 October 1881) was an Italian Roman Catholic cardinal and the Archbishop of Ravenna from 1871 until his resignation in 1879. He was elevated to the cardinalate in late 1877. He served first as the Bishop ...

allegedly consecrated Lee and Mossman. Following the deaths of its founders, the order fell dormant with its apostolic succession maintained, and initially revived in 1912. Prominent members and leaders of the revived order were believed to have included

Arnold Harris Mathew Arnold Harris Mathew, self-styled of Thomastown (7 August 1852 – 19 December 1919), was the founder and first bishop of the Old Roman Catholic Church in Great Britain, Old Roman Catholic Church in the United Kingdom and a noted author on ecc ...

, Hugh George de Willmott Newman, and

Peter Paul Brennan Peter Paul Brennan (November 1, 1941–August 1, 2016) was an American bishop in the Independent Catholicism, Independent Catholic movement. He was Bishop of New York for the Old Catholic Confederation, a bishop of the Ecumenical Catholic Diocese of ...

. This revived Order of Corporate Reunion, upon the death of Brennan, schismed into at least three separate bodies, though the organization incorporated by Brennan and others included Michael Kline as the disputed successive primate.

History

Following the dissolution of the Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom, the OCR was established in response to '' Apostolicae curae'', which declared all Anglican ordinations "absolutely null and utterly void". During the latter 19th and early 20th centuries, numerous Anglican clergy obtained conditional ordination (reordination) by bishops in the order, with the aim of receiving holy orders recognized as valid by the Roman Catholic Church. Most of these OCR ordinations occurred in secret, though information about some became public;

Richard Williams Morgan Richard Williams Morgan (1815–1889), also known by his bardic name Môr Meirion, was a Welsh Anglican priest, Welsh nationalist, campaigner for the use of the Welsh language and author. Morgan's outspoken criticism of English bishops in Wales w ...

and Charles Isaac Stevens were both consecrated within the Order of Corporate Reunion on 6 March 1879. Morgan had been previously consecrated by

Jules Ferrette Jules Ferrette, also spelled Julius Ferrette (22 April 1828 – 10 October 1904 or in 1903), was allegedly bishop of Iona; he is allegedly the founder of the Ancient British Church. Biography Ferrette was born in Épinal, France, possibly of Prot ...

. In 1912, the order was revived and allegedly involved the membership of Arnold Harris Mathew of the

Old Roman Catholic Church in Great Britain The Old Roman Catholic Church in Great Britain is an independent Catholic church claiming descent from Arnold Harris Mathew in 1910. Theology and practices The church holds Catholic dogmas as held by the Church of Utrecht. These include belief, ...

and Hugh George de Willmott Newman of the Catholicate of the West. From its revival, it became dormant again with the death of Mathew until its growth in the United States. In 1998, a new branch of the order was established by Diederik Quatannens; his leadership was succeeded by Bertil Persson. After Persson's retirement, the order was then led by Archbishop

of the

Old Catholic Confederation Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England *Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...

, who died in 2016. After Brennan's death, Michael Kline of the Exorcist Order of Saint Michael in Missouri was entrusted to be Brennan's successor as leader of the OCR, who alongside Persson and Brennan incorporated the OCR within the United States; during his tenure, the Order of Corporate Reunion schismed into at least three bodies. Upon the resignation of Kline as Primate of the OCR, Richard Cumming was appointed the Prime Bishop or Universal Primate of the Order of Corporate Reunion in 2022.

References

Religious organizations 1877 establishments in England Anglican organizations established in the 19th century Anglo-Catholicism Catholic–Protestant ecumenism Church of England societies and organisations Religious organizations established in 1877 Christian ecumenical organizations {{RC-society-stub

History

See also

References