Order of Corporate Reunion

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Order of Corporate Reunion
Christian, Ecumenical, and Fraternal Order of Corporate Reunion
Abbreviation
  • OCR
Established1874; 147 years ago (1874)
FounderFrederick George Lee
TypeEcumenical association
HeadquartersEngland, United Kingdom
Prelate
Disputed
Key people

The Order of Corporate Reunion (OCR), officially the Christian, Ecumenical, and Fraternal Order of Corporate Reunion, was an ecumenical association of clergy and laity of Anglican origin. The OCR was founded by Frederick George Lee, Thomas Wimberley Mossman, and John Thomas Seccombe in 1874 in London.[1] Established as an Anglo-Papalist society to continue the work of the Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom,[2] its founders labored to restore an apostolic succession recognised by the Catholic Church through reordinations as a means for reunion.[3]

The founders of the Order of Corporate Reunion claimed to have been consecrated, 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 and Domenico Agostini consecrated Lee and Mossman.[4]

Following the deaths of its founders, the order fell dormant with its apostolic succession maintained, and initially revived in 1912.[1][5] Prominent members and leaders of the revived order included Arnold Harris Matthew, Hugh George de Willmott Newman, and Peter Paul Brennan.[6] This revived Order of Corporate Reunion, upon the death of Brennan, schismed into at least three separate bodies. One notable branch incorporated in the United Kingdom and United States is led by John Kersey of the , an independent Catholic denomination established claiming succession through the Chaldean Catholic Church.[7][8]

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".[9] During the latter 19th and early 20th centuries, numerous Anglican clergy obtained ordination by bishops in the order as a conditional ordination (reordination), with the aim of receiving holy orders they could regard as valid. Most of these OCR ordinations occurred in secret, though information about some became public; Richard Williams Morgan 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.

In 1912, the order was revived and involved the membership of Arnold Harris Matthew of the Old Roman Catholic Church in Great Britain and Hugh George de Willmott Newman of the Catholicate of the West.[5] From its revival, it became dormant again with the death of Matthew until its growth in the United States. In the United States, its leadership became unified with the Apostolic Episcopal Church with the appointment of Newman as a superior-general in the British Isles.[10]

In 1998, a new branch of the order was established by Diederik Quatannens. His leadership was succeeded by Bertil Persson, who retired. The order was then led by Archbishop Peter Paul Brennan of the Old Catholic Confederation, who died in 2016 without naming a successor.[6][11] Since Brennan's death, the OCR schismed into numerous bodies claiming the legitimacy of the order.[12] One group claiming to have succeeded Brennan's leadership was previously led by Michael Kline of the Exorcist Order of Saint Michael in Missouri before his retirement.[13] Kline was succeeded by Dario Caldarelli in Italy, who was consecrated within an independent Catholic denomination in Brazil. Another group which was incorporated in the United Kingdom and United States, and has maintained its affiliation with the Apostolic Episcopal Church claims succession and argues:

Furthermore, historically since 1946, that position has been occupied by the presiding bishops of the Apostolic Episcopal Church, the church which has the longest unbroken formal relationship with the OCR, dating from 1933. It was only in 1998 that the joint offices of head of the AEC and the OCR were separated. Since the late Archbishop +Peter Paul Brennan did not appoint a successor to his position as head of the OCR on his death in 2016, the rightful candidate for its headship in accordance with historical precedent is the Presiding Bishop of the Apostolic Episcopal Church.

— The Most Reverend +John Kersey OCR, DD, Prelate, Bishop and Rector Pro-Provincial of Canterbury, Clarification on the Order of Corporate Reunion

References[]

  1. ^ a b "History of the Order of Corporate Reunion". Order of Corporate Reunion. Retrieved 2021-09-11.
  2. ^ Chapman, Mark D. (2007). "The Fantasy of Reunion: The Rise and Fall of the Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom". The Journal of Ecclesiastical History. 58 (1): 49–74. doi:10.1017/S0022046905004331. ISSN 1469-7637.
  3. ^ Henry R. T. Brandreth, Dr Lee of Lambeth: A Chapter in Parenthesis in the History of the Oxford Movement, London, 1951.
  4. ^ Persson, Bertil (2000). "The Order of Corporate Reunion". Pennsylvania State University. The Vilatte Guild Extension Academy of the Peoples University of the Americas Inc. p. 22. Retrieved 2021-09-11.
  5. ^ a b Persson, Bertil (2000). "The Order of Corporate Reunion". Pennsylvania State University. The Vilatte Guild Extension Academy of the Peoples University of the Americas Inc. pp. 24–26. Retrieved 2021-09-11.
  6. ^ a b Kersey, John (2016-08-08). "Death of Archbishop Peter Paul Brennan". The Abbey-Principality of San Luigi. Retrieved 2021-09-11.
  7. ^ "Apostolic Episcopal Church". Order of Corporate Reunion. Retrieved 2021-09-11.
  8. ^ "Succession". The Abbey-Principality of San Luigi. 2021-03-23. Retrieved 2021-09-11.
  9. ^ "Apostolicae Curae (1896)". New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2021-09-11.
  10. ^ "Part 2: History of the Apostolic Episcopal Church – 1941-48". The Abbey-Principality of San Luigi. 2021-03-23. Retrieved 2021-09-11.
  11. ^ "Bishop Peter P. Brennan". Old Catholic Confederation - Old Catholic Church in the United States. Retrieved 2021-09-11.
  12. ^ "Clarification on the Order of Corporate Reunion". Order of Corporate Reunion. Retrieved 2021-09-11.
  13. ^ "Exorcist Order of Saint Michael". Exorcist Order of St. Michael. 2012-06-21. Archived from the original on 21 June 2012. Retrieved 2021-09-11.


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