Liberal Catholic Church International - History

History

The Church traces its apostolic succession to Archbishop Arnold Harris Mathew. Mathew was consecrated bishop on 28 April 1908, by Utrecht Archbishop Gerhardus Gul, assisted by the Old Catholic bishops of Deventer and Berne, in St. Gertrude's Old Catholic Cathedral, Utrecht. Only two years later, Mathew declared his autonomy from the Union of Utrecht, with which he had experienced tension from the beginning. It was only a short time later that Bishop Mathew found himself at odds with his own clergy in Great Britain and ultimately walked away to seek union with the Roman Catholic Church.

The founding Bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church was James I. Wedgwood of the Wedgwood China family, formerly a Cleric in the Church of England (Anglican). Wedgwood grew dissatisfied with the Church, and discovered the Theosophical Society, which had a stronger appeal to his sense of life and justice. When Archbishop Arnold Harris Mathew sought to ordain those clergy who were dissatisfied with the Church of England, Wedgwood was one who joined the new Old Catholic Church of England. Archbishop Mathew knew of Wedgwood's membership in the Theosophical Society, as well as that of other clergy in the Old Catholic Church of England, and originally promised that this would not be a problem, but later retracted that promise and asked all clergy to resign from the Theosophical Society. Not willing to do so, Father Wedgwood and most of the Old Catholic Church in England found themselves without a Bishop as they withdrew from Archbishop Mathew's leadership.

One of the men who Archbishop Mathew had consecrated to the Episcopate, Bishop Frederick Samuel Willoughby, offered to consecrate and elevate one of the withdrawn clergy to the Episcopate so that they would not be without a Bishop. Father Wedgwood was selected and elevated to the Episcopate on February 13, 1916. The Church was eventually reorganized and renamed The Liberal Catholic Church. Archbishop Wedgwood then consecrated another former Anglican Priest, Charles W. Leadbeater, later that same year, with Bishop Leadbeater going on to become the 2nd Presiding Bishop of the Church in later years.

The LCCI arose from the 1941 schism of the Liberal Catholic Church in the United States, which surrounded the controversy involving American Regionary Bishop Charles Hampton, who wished to keep adherence to Theosophical tenets optional for all clergy, in accordance with the wishes of the church's first two Presiding Bishops, James I. Wedgwood and Charles W. Leadbeater.

During the controversy of the 1940s, 3rd Presiding Bishop Frank W. Pigott, who embraced a more Theosophical vision for the church's future, suspended Bishop Hampton and all the clergy under him who refused to endorse his Episcopal replacement. Bishop Pigott also ordered the confiscation of church property at the Regionary headquarters in California. The American Synod saw this as a breach of canon law and a violation of the laws of California under which the church had been incorporated in America.

The majority of clergy in America, who had supported Bishop Hampton, broke with Bishop Pigott and continued as the Liberal Catholic Church, with Bishop Ray M. Wardall becoming the 4th Presiding Bishop in 1943. The Church eventually won the right in a court of law to use the name The Liberal Catholic Church (while being called the Liberal Catholic Church International in the rest of the world), although the litigation was settled after Bishop Hampton's death.

In 1955, Edward M Matthews became the 5th Presiding Bishop, followed by Francis Erwin in 1962. The 7th Presiding Bishop was William H. Daw in 1970, followed by Joseph Neth in 1974. The 9th Presiding Bishop was Dean E. Bekken in 1989, followed by Charles W. Finn and Bishop Roberts.