The Liberal Catholic Church

wpeb.jpg (32274 bytes) The Liberal Catholic Church

A tri-annual magazine exploring the deeper aspects of religious thought, experience and practice in the world today

The Liberal Catholic Church

In a rapidly changing world searching for greater and more meaningful spiritual values, there is an increasing awareness of the hosts of angels who work with mankind in alleviating distress and who guide mankind in opening themselves to higher influences invoked through meaningful and ancient rituals. The Liberal Catholic Church is a ceremonial church; adhering to a ritual that is believed to be the closest as is humanly possible to the original form as Jesus had wanted it to be. The Church is not a ceremonial church for the sake of ceremony, but sees ceremony as a divine means of invoking the help of those Angels of Worship who are ever ready to respond to such call by an ordained Priest and to assist by preparing for the descent of Our Lord Christ to consecrate the Bread and the Wine offered in His name.

In Genesis 1:26 and 27, God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; so God created man in his own image. It was Origen who pointed out that we are all made in the image of God, but that the likeness of God is to be earned through spiritual labour. While we are all blessed with a divine Presence in our heart, in order to come into full realisation of this Presence we need to work for it. One method is by partaking in the ancient mystery rites of the Holy Eucharist, and by the study of the Ancient Wisdom, shrouded in esoteric expressions of divine and eternal truths.

Freedom of Belief
The Liberal Catholic Church erects no barriers around her altars. All who come in a spirit of reverence are welcome to Holy Communion and to all other services of the Church. What opinions or beliefs an individual holds are considered to be their own affair. A mind that is free is in the best condition to grow. Growth into spirituality enhances the perception of truth, which each one must discover for himself and in his own way. Anything less than full mental freedom is thought to retard progress.

Religious Equilibrium
The Liberal Catholic Church seeks to give the world the best elements of Catholicism with the best of Protestantism. On the Catholic side are the seven Sacraments; but these have been hedged about with all kinds of man-made dogmatic encumbrances such as creeds, rigid beliefs, the confessional, penance, indulgences, etc. On the Protestant side we have an earnest attempt to promote religious freedom; but the reformers discarded the Sacraments, lost the Apostolic Succession and soon lost much of the intellectual emancipation they had previously gained, which development has led to the rise of innumerable sectarian movements.

Thus the difference between The Liberal Catholic Church and all other Catholic and Protestant Churches lies in the fact that with the ancient sacramental worship have been associated the widest measure of intellectual freedom and respect for the individual conscience.

A Ceremonial Church
The Liberal Catholic Church is one of thirty or more Catholic Churches in the world, which are independent of Rome, such as the Greek Orthodox, Coptic, Old Catholic, etc. She teaches the Christianity of the Christ and administers the seven Sacraments, which are regarded as channels of His blessing. She is a church wherein there is intellectual and religious freedom and a natural balance between ceremonial worship, devotional aspiration, scientific and mystic thought. She uses a revised Liturgy in the language of the country; a Liturgy devised to sound a note of joyous and uplifting aspiration. The Liberal Catholic Church welcomes all and everyone to its services, those who have faith and those who have lost faith; those who believe in the literal exposition of the scriptures and those who accept the allegorical spiritual interpretation. Above all, she wishes to serve those who are earnestly seeking spiritual enlightenment.

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