Orthodox-Catholic Church of America - History

History

The Orthodox-Catholic Church of America was established in the United States in 1892 under the mandate of the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch, Ignatius-Peter IV. The founding archbishop, Joseph René Vilatte (ordained as Mar Timotheus) had been ordained priest by Bishop Ernst Herzog of the Old Catholic Church in Bern Switzerlandon June 7, 1885. Working in the Great Lakes area, predominantly in Wisconsin, Fr. Vilatte sought to bring about the return of a Western Rite of Orthodoxy. Fr. Vilatte received both support and opposition in this attempt, but eventually he was consecrated as archbishop for North America, in Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) by Archbishop Francis Alvarez with the permission of the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch in 1892. The history of the OCCA is grounded, therefore, both in the East and West.

In the 19th century, the Indian branch of the Syrian Orthodox Church had begun ordaining local priests for the western rite in order to supply ministers for their western rite congregations. Among these were Bishops Julius Alvarez, Paul Athanasius, Paul Evanious, and George Gregorius (the latter later canonized as St. Gregorius Geverghese). Father Vilatte was ordained by them as Mar Timotheus and appointed as metropolitan for the newly formed American diocese. The next patriarch (H.H. Ignatius Abdul Masih II, who was deposed in 1905) was not interested in a Western Rite church half way around the world and gave it no support. The synod of the American archdiocese, finding no support from the patriarchate, declared itself autocephalous (self-governing) in 1910. This declaration has not been recognized by other Orthodox churches and OCCA is, like many other Orthodox jurisdictions around the world, considered non-canonical by the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in America (SCOBA).

Soon after his return to the United States, various ethnic parishes began approaching Vilatte to consecrate bishops to create independent jurisdictions; all these gathered under the umbrella of the American Catholic Church (ACC), as it was then called, and formed a synod of bishops with himself at its head.

Increasingly for several years before his retirement in 1920, Vilatte left the affairs of the ACC under the care of his co-adjutor, Frederick E.J. Lloyd, whom he had consecrated to the episcopate in 1915. When Vilatte formally retired, Lloyd was elected Archbishop and Metropolitan. The following year Vilatte consecrated George Alexander McGuire to the episcopacy. The founding convocation of parishes and clergy who gathered earlier in 1921 to organize the African Orthodox Church (AOC) had elected McGuire to be their bishop, and sent a delegation to Vilatte to acquire an apostolic episcopacy. Before the consecration could take place, Lloyd and McGuire and their respective consultors negotiated a complex set of agreements to regulate relations between the ACC and the AOC; as a matter of principle the AOC insisted on being led by people of African descent, since most of the clergy who had gathered to establish the jurisdiction and elected McGuire as their bishop had left jurisdictions where they were marginalized on the basis of their race. Lloyd was a member of the AOC synod but McGuire was not subject to him, nor he to McGuire.

For the next decade, the jurisdiction and the AOC remained, so to speak, sisters. In 1928, McGuire consecrated one of Lloyd's priests who was serving in New York City, William Tyarks, as bishop; he also joined the synod but Archbishop McGuire deposed him in 1932 and consecrated Clement Sherwood as the new archbishop of his American Orthodox Catholic Church, which functioned as an eastern-rite diocese of the joint synod. Sherwood, who had been ordained presbyter by Archbishop Lloyd, was originally consecrated bishop by Tyarks, but after the latter's deposition, requested that McGuire conditionally reconsecrate him. The following year Archbishop Lloyd died and Sherwood became his successor. (One of the sources of the multiplicity of jurisdictions deriving their orders from Vilatte is the number of bishops consecrated by Lloyd or with his permission who later functioned as independent successors in their respective local communities.) Sherwood remained a member of the AOC synod until he died in 1969, functioning as sort of an Eastern Rite exarch for those not of African descent. In this role, he acted autonomously as primate of the jurisdiction.

One of his most courageous acts was the consecration, in 1957, of George Augustine Hyde to the episcopacy. 1970 Archbishop Hyde was elected and enthroned as metropolitan archbishop. His administration saw a consolidation of Western Rite liturgy and an emphasis on ministry to the marginalized in society. In particular, Archbishop Hyde was the first cleric in the United States to establish a parish (in Atlanta in 1946) for lesbian and gay Christians. He retired in 1980 with the subsequent election of Metropolitan Archbishop Alfred Louis Lankenau (1930–2010). Under Archbishop Lakenau the synod of the church agreed to the ordination of women. Archbishop Lakenau retired in 1999 and was suceeeded by Metropolitan Archbishop E. Paul Brian Carsten who died in March 2009. On June 1, 2009, Bishop Peter (Robert Zahrt) was elected and enthroned as the metropolitan archbishop of the jurisidiction.