TOTAL VISITORS since 1999:
"Prejudice Makes Prisoners of the
Hated and the Hater"
At the End of June 2009 this website be closed down and will be able to viewed at
http://www.apostle1.com by going to that web site and looking on the left side for our Church Logo
We ask for your patience as we undergo a renovation to restore this web site to its original status when it had been hosted by AOL which no longer is hosting...
A Message from His Beatitude, Metropolitan Karl
Feast of the Prophet Joel
Pentecost XIX Saturday
19 October 1996
Welcome to our Home Page!
This is probably your first acquaintance with The Evangelical Catholic Church. And that's certainly understandable since She is an extremely small jurisdiction and has not received much publicity. She does not own any real estate or sanctuaries. Her congregations are all missions -- struggling just to get off the ground. All of Her priests are tent-makes, i.e., they must find other ways in which to support themselves and their families. She is, all in all, a seemingly insignificant Lutheran Church body. But despite Her size and lack of worldly resources, She hopes -- under the guidance of Our Lord -- to make a salutary impact upon American Lutheranism.
The Evangelical Catholic Church seeks to do this -- not by appealing to the latest theological gimmickry, not through liturgical buffoonery or relying upon ecclesiastical bureaucracies, not even by continuing in the numbing banality of so much of what passes under the name Lutheran in the U.S. -- but by seeking something so old that it has become new. She has sought a profound reconnection with the ancient historic Church and a thorough appropriation of the ancient Catholic Faith. Her members are not inveterate romantics nor have they rejected modernity. Rather, Her clergy and lay members have come to know that it is only in that ancient Catholic Faith, at once so utterly simple and yet so utterly profound, that one can
find rest and security for one's soul.
The Evangelical Catholic Church takes the Catholic claims of Her 16th century Lutheran Fathers and Confessors most seriously. She believes that they were truthful and honorable men who meant what they said, that they wanted nothing more than to be in agreement with the ancient Fathers, to restore true Orthodoxy to Western Christendom and to remain within the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. Not much credence is placed by The Evangelical Catholic Church, therefore, in those moderns who assert that the claims of the 16th century Lutheran Confessors were really just public-relations puffery. The words and actions of the Reformers were the sincere products of their Catholic Faith.
We present to you, therefore, the following pages with the hope that they will enable you to better understand The Evangelical Catholic Church and Her members. But most of all we hope that they will assist in bringing to the fore those issues which all of American Lutheranism must address if She is to return to Her Evangelical Catholic roots.
--The Mt Rev'd Karl J. Barwin, Th.D., Bishop
Metropolitan Primate Karl Julius Barwin, Th.D.
Symbol of The Evangelical Catholic Church
The Orthodox Cross
over Luther's Seal --
-- proclaims The Evangelical Catholic Church to be part of The Lutheran Confessional Movement within The One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, tracing Her Orders and Faith back to the historic Church of The Apostles.
The Heart --
-- representing the rule of God within the life of every member of this Church.
The Messianic Rose --
-- the symbol of The Promised Messiah, upon Whom the Signed hearts of The Faithful repose.
The Cup of Suffering --
-- reminding us that The Church is nourished, forgiven, and sustained by the life, death, and resurrection of Our Lord through The Means
of Grace.
The Ship of The Church --
-- with a cross-shaped mast, representing the abiding presence of Christ with His Church, sailing through the troubled waters of this life.
The Chi Rho with the Alpha & Omega --
-- proclaiming that Our Lord, Jesus The Christ, is the beginning and the end of all things.
Greek --
"One is Holy, One is Lord, Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father. Amen."
--Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom
German --
"That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art
in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us: That the world may believe
that Thou hast sent Me."
--John 17:21
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