The Association for Promoting the Unity of Christendom (A.P.U.C.) was founded on 8 September 1857, by fourteen people including Roman Catholic priests Father Lockhart and Fr. Collins; the rest were Anglicans, with one exception, a Russo-Greek priest. Cardinal Wiseman gave it his blessing and A.W. Pugin was an early member. It was one of a number of initiatives in the spirit of the Oxford Movement that owed its motivation to the work of ecumenist Ambrose Philipps de Lisle (1809-78), and an important forerunner of the Order of Corporate Reunion (O.C.R.)

The only obligation incumbent on members of the A.P.U.C., who might be Catholics, Anglicans, or Greeks, was to pray to God for the unity of the baptised body. At first the association progressed rapidly. Philipps de Lisle wrote to Lord John Manners and said, “We soon counted among our ranks many Catholic Bishops and Archbishops and Dignitaries of all descriptions from Cardinals downwards; the Patriarch of Constantinople and other great Eastern prelates, the Primate of the Russian Church … I do not think any Anglican Bishops joined us, but a large number of clergy of the second order” – that is to say, presbyters. He gave the number of members as nine thousand. The formation of this association was, however, regarded with distrust by Cardinal Manning and a good number of other influential Catholics, who also took exception to Philipps de Lisle’s treatise On the Future Unity of Christendom. The matter was referred to Rome by Cardinal Manning and was finally settled by a papal rescript addressed Ad omnes episcopos Angliæ, dated 16 September 1864, which condemned the association and directed the bishops to take steps to prevent Catholics from joining it.

As might be expected, this was a great blow to Phillips de Lisle, who considered that “the authorities had been deceived by a false relation of facts”. He however withdrew his name from the A.P.U.C. “under protest, as an act of submission to the Holy See”. The ground on which the association was condemned was that it subverted the Divine constitution of the Church, inasmuch as its aim rested on the supposition that the true Church consists partly of the Catholic Church in communion with Rome, “partly also of the Photian Schism and the Anglican heresy, to which equally with the Roman Church belong the one Lord, the one faith and one baptism”. Philipps de Lisle’s own pamphlet was not censured, but the condemnation of the A.P.U.C. was regarded by him then as the death-blow of his hopes for the reunion of Christendom during his own lifetime.

There was no organizational connection between the A.P.U.C. and the Order of Corporate Reunion, which was founded in 1874, except that some people who had been members of the A.P.U.C. subsequently became members of the O.C.R. Certainly the aims and mission of the two bodies were identical. Ambrose Philipps de Lisle was a friend and supporter of the O.C.R.’s first Rector Pro-Provincial of Canterbury, Archbishop Frederick George Lee, and worked with Lee to organize the initial publication of its aims. It is also quite possible that it was Philipps de Lisle who worked with the Archbishop of Milan to arrange the consecrations of the first bishops of the Order.

On 12 January 1876 Philipps de Lisle wrote to Cardinal Manning concerning the Order, “I hear from various quarters – all more or less good and reliable sources – the actual number of whom Presbyter Anglicanus as the deputed mouthpiece variously estimated as from 500 to 1,000 of the clergy and from 50,000 to 100,000 of the laity. Be this as it may, if the snowball is favoured by the Holy See, it will gather round it even millions – all who care for Christianity in our very dear old England! – and of one thing I am perfectly certain, that WE with our countless encumbrances and our frightful burden of abuses from one end of the Earth to the other, shall never win England or any other nation again, but shall continue to lose every day more and more of the few that remain to us. But behold the Lord send us an offer of new Life, which may be the germ of moral regeneration for the whole earth under the fostering care of the Holy See.”

In a letter published in “Reunion” Magazine of 1877 (p. 355) Ambrose Philipps de Lisle wrote again of the O.C.R., “I hail the meeting of the first Synod of the new Ecclesiastical organization as one of the most important steps that has been taken since the era of the Reformation. I shall commend it to the prayers of our chaplain in the celebration of the most Holy Mysteries in our chapel tomorrow, and most heartily do I pray that God will pour out His Blessing upon the Synod, and guide it by His Holy and Life-long Spirit, so that it may become a great instrument towards promoting the Reunion of Christendom, and thus paving the way for the full development of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ over the whole world. The hearts of all good men seem now more and more turned towards Rome, and the healing of our deplorable divisions; but we have all sinned and we must all humble ourselves before God, and implore His mercy and assistance. The Holy Sacrifice will also be celebrated for this intention tomorrow in the Church of St Bernard’s Abbey.”

It may therefore be seen that Philipps de Lisle, as a faithful Roman Catholic, saw nothing objectionable in membership of the O.C.R. and was only too happy to support its aims and mission. Unlike the A.P.U.C., the O.C.R. was not to be the subject of condemnation by the Holy See, although in the event it attracted only limited support in Anglican quarters. It continues its work today with both Catholic and Anglican members who support its objective of ecumenical understanding and the achievement of unity in matters of faith and practice.

It is perhaps surprising to see that some former adherents to the false representations of Michael Kline (see notice here) have recently taken it upon themselves to re-found the A.P.U.C. This is a curious act, since they have no organizational descent or authority from the original Association, and can hardly be expected to achieve much ecumenically from re-establishing a body that Catholics are prohibited from joining.