Catholic Apostolic Church – Decree

  1. Whereas Act 3 of the Holy Governing Synod of the Catholic Apostolic Church (Catholicate of the West) of 1945 resolved that the Catholicate of the West had come to regard “the work of the Catholic Apostolic Church as a model or pattern of a greater and more extensive work yet to be brought into manifestation among the peoples of the world.” [Mar Georgius, A Personal Statement, Metropolitical Press, Glastonbury, 1971, p.7]
  2. And whereas on 14 June 1947 the succession of the Restored Apostles passed into the Catholicate of the West and remains alive in our communion today.
  3. And whereas we acknowledge the Restored Apostolate as having been raised up and commissioned by God.
  4. And whereas we accept the Great Testimony of the Restored Apostles, as published in Edward Miller, The history and doctrines of Irvingism, Kegan Paul, London, 1878, vol. 1, pp.347-436.
  5. And whereas we have enacted the Fourfold Ministry in the Apostolic Episcopal Church such that there is provision for commissioning men as Elders, Prophets, Evangelists and Pastors within our communion.
  6. (1) And whereas the Apostolic Episcopal Church was chosen to have the pastoral care of several European communities of the Catholic Apostolic Church during the 1970s. (2) And whereas an agreement of intercommunion between the Catholic Apostolic Church and the Apostolic Episcopal Church was entered into at that time under the late Norman Priddle of the CAC. (3) And whereas the Apostolic Episcopal Church was permitted to use the Central Church, Gordon Square, owned by the Catholic Apostolic Church, for the episcopal consecration of Mar Timotheos III (Francis C. Spataro) on 31 October 1992, and that this was the only such service to take place there since the Time of Silence began in 1901.
  7. And whereas we are cognisant of the Work of the LXX as foretold in Mar Georgius, A Personal Statement, Metropolitical Press, Glastonbury, 1971, and that we are obedient to the will of Our Lord insofar as He may choose to use our communion in the fulfilment of that Work. “Revelation has made clear, and the Holy Ghost speaking in the Church is still testifying, that God will prevail to bring to a close this Dispensation by an instrumentality similar to that which He has always employed in dealing with His people, and working out His Eternal Purposes. That instrumentality is a Ministry of Twelve and a Ministry of Seventy. By these the Lord began His work of the Christian Dispensation; by these he will conclude it.” [W.W. Andrews, 1891]
  8. Now therefore within the Catholic Apostolic Church (Catholicate of the West) both the Catholicos and the Apostolic Primates, who are bishops, are declared to hold inherently the office of Apostle as that office was understood in the Great Testimony.