What Does It Mean to be Evangelical Orthoxox Catholic?

We are "Evangelical" because we are committed to preaching, teaching and proclaiming the Gospel message of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We are "Orthodox" because we adhere to the "One True Faith of the early Apostolic Church of our Lord Jesus Christ" as proclaimed during the first thousand years of the Church and its first seven great Ecumenical Councils.

We are "Catholic" because we are part of the One, Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, gathered within small worshipful eucharistic communities grounded in the in the early self-governing "Old Catholic" understanding of the early Church.

We seek to help people return to a Catholic spiritual and sacramental life, who have for whatever reason found themselves at odds with their church - whether because of divorce, remarriage, "priestly celibacy", lack of ordination of women, artificial contraception, or a lack of traditional devotions, prayers and spiritual depth within the worship experience.

We are a welcoming, reconciling, healing and loving Catholic Christian gathering of Eucharistic Communities of Oratory / Chapel / Missions. We welcome all who visit, as we would welcome Christ for this is the Christian calling: to see Christ in everyone, and in all of God's creation.

In the light of Jesus' resurrection and the darkness of persecution, many Christians first gathered for worship in one another's homes. The home was the house for the church! In the orthodox Christian understanding, the Church is a collection of communities (often called parishes or missions) where priests and deacons, under the headship and spiritual authority of the bishop, present the Holy Mysteries (Sacraments) to preach and teach the Word of God.

The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ calls us all to live simply so that others may simply live. Translating this call into our apostolic community life means that we have pledged ourselves not to seek after brick and mortar, struggling rather to keep our ministry outreach focus on the "living stones" that make up God's Kingdom, His Household if you would, the faithful who attend and whom God has led to our Altars to minister His Holy Mysteries/Sacraments.

There is a deep spiritual hunger today and yes you might even say a real mystical hunger in our society today. We seek to address this hunger in our tradition of spiritual direction and discernment which seeks to combine the best of contemporary insight within the framework of the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and Orthodox faith.

On the positive side, there is great diversity in the life of the Church, even as we pray for unity in essentials and great love in the midst of diversity. On the negative side, often people of faith find it difficult to be at home in a particular parish or even in a church tradition. Few parishes or church traditions actively seek to exclude people, but often this is the practical result of certain theologies or policies. On this side of God's Kingdom, there is no faith family that has achieved perfection, no faith family that has translated the Gospel completely and faithfully into action.

Our individual Orthodox Catholic Eucharistic Communities are an expression and instrument of unity as expressed through Apostolic Catholic spirituality and tradition available and accessible to all those, who for whatever reason have felt excluded from other churches.

We welcome all of our Christian brothers and sisters who believe in the absolute, real and true presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ within the Holy Eucharist to join us at the Altar of our Lord, Savior and God Jesus Christ.

[Note: Please refer to our page on "Our Beliefs."]

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