Catholic Apostolic Church

The Catholic Apostolic Church was a religious movement which originated in England around 1831 and later spread to Germany and the United States. While often referred to as Irvingism, it was neither actually founded nor anticipated by Edward Irving. The Catholic Apostolic Church was organised in 1835 under the lead of apostles. The last apostle died in 1901 after which the membership gradually declined.

The term Catholic Apostolic Church belongs to the entire community of Christians who follow the Nicene Creed. It has, however, also become specifically applied to the movement. The title was never assumed by the members, except insofar as it applied to the whole community of Christians as described above. This misapprehension results from later external analysis, which assumed that the results of the ecumenical prayer movement in the early 19th century, accompanied by what were regarded as outpourings of spiritual gifts in Great Britain (and elsewhere, though swiftly repressed by the local church authorities in other countries), was the genesis of yet another Christian sect.