Excerpt from the Liberal Catholic Statement of Principles
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The Liberal Catholic Church is an independent and self-governing body; neither Roman Catholic nor Protestant – but Catholic. It traces its Episcopal Succession to the Old Catholic Church of Holland, and came into existence as the result of a complete re-organization in 1915-16 of the Old Catholic movement in Great Britain. It aims at combining the traditional sacramental form of worship – with its stately ritual, its deep mysticism and its abiding witness to the reality of sacramental grace – with the widest measure of intellectual liberty and respect for the individual conscience. It therefore permits to its members freedom of interpretation of the Scriptures, the Creeds and the Liturgy.
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Regarding the mind as one of the great avenues to spiritual apprehension, it encourages among its adherents the freest play of scientific and philosophical thought. It welcomes to its altars all who reverently and sincerely approach them, erecting no barriers in the nature of standards of dogmatic belief. It has no wish to proselytize, in the aggressive sense, from among the adherents of any other Church, and as an earnest of this welcomes people to regular and full participation in its services without asking or expecting them to leave their original Church.
The Liberal Catholic Church is a living Christian Church – ‘modernist’ in that it maintains that the form of religion should keep pace with human growth and enlightenment; ‘historic’ in that it holds that the Church has handed down a very precious heritage from the Christ Himself.
The Liberal Catholic Church is a living Christian Church – ‘modernist’ in that it maintains that the form of religion should keep pace with human growth and enlightenment; ‘historic’ in that it holds that the Church has handed down a very precious heritage from the Christ Himself.
