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Arnold Harris Mathew Center for the Study of the Independent Sacramental Movement

The University's Arnold Harris Mathew Center for the Study of the Independent Sacramental Movement (CSISM) is the first university center anywhere in the world to be devoted to the study of the independent sacramental movement originating within Catholicism and widely prevalent today. It disseminates rare archive material online, principally photographs and documents, and conducts research into the historic and contemporary independent sacramental movement. The Center is directed by the University President, John Kersey, who is an ordained minister in the Liberal Catholic tradition within the Liberal Catholic Apostolic Church, the Independent Liberal Catholic Fellowship and The Sophia Circle, in addition to the Society for Humanistic Potential.

The Independent Sacramental Movement (ISM) embraces many Christian communities, most relatively small, which stand in the Apostolic Succession from the Papacy and/or the Orthodox Churches and have, in the main, developed during the period from the mid-nineteenth-century onwards. These communities range in outlook from arch-conservative to highly liberal and embrace almost all possible shades of Christian belief and practice. Their study is important both in order to establish a historical record for its own sake, and also because the more experimental and evolving of these communities point the way to new means of becoming church, and of fulfilling ministry in the modern world. 

To an outsider, the ISM often appears impossibly complex, and this complexity is increased by the wide degree of change and mutability of the groups concerned and the clergy within them. Yet there are common threads that unite even the most disparate of groups. In its diversity, the ISM offers a contemporary parallel to the pre-Constantinian Church, in that it is decentralized - even anarchic at times - and open to wide spiritual influence stemming from the leaders of each group and their spiritual influences in turn. Those leaders are also highly diverse in every respect; most notably in their gender, sexuality, ethnicity, educational backgrounds, theological standpoints and approaches to worship. This very diversity is the whole point of the ISM, since it mirrors the diversity of creation itself and promotes a far greater inclusivity than do most of the major denominations.

Scholarship concerning the ISM is extensive but has generally taken place outside the mainstream, not least because of hostility towards the ISM influenced by the vested interests of the major denominations, which have seen the ISM as a threat and a competing movement. Much publication has been private, in the form of books, monographs and pamphlets which have seen limited circulation within the denominations concerned. Some of these have been works of high quality and historical significance.

However, in recent years important works have emerged that have brought the ISM to wider attention and suggested that it may have more general applicability within the study of church history and the nature of church development in general. The efforts of the U.S.-based Apocryphile Press in particular have resulted in the re-publication of several key works of a historical nature as well as the commissioning of new studies and theological works from ISM clergy.

CSISM is closely associated with the Liberal Catholic Apostolic Church and the Independent Liberal Catholic Fellowship, but is not affiliated with other groups that may be referred to in its pages.

>>Official CSISM blog

Historical and organizational studies
>>About Independent Catholic Churches
>>History of the Independent Catholic movement
>>Historic documents and photographs relating to the Independent Sacramental Movement
>>Arnold Harris Mathew and the Utrecht Succession
>>A history of the independent Celtic churches in the modern era
>>About the Apostolic Succession and independent bishops
>>About ordination and consecration per saltum
>>Roman Catholic views on holy orders in the Old Catholic and independent sacramental movements
>>The Barnet Tithe Barn Church and the ministry of Archbishop John S.M. Ward
>>Mar Georgius and the Catholic Apostolic Church
>>The titles of Mar Georgius: His validity as a fons honorum

Ancient Catholic Church archive
The Ancient Catholic Church archive has now moved to the Liberal Catholic Apostolic Church website.

Bishop Francis Glenn archive
>>The ministry of Bishop Francis Glenn
>>"Outreach" and related publications

Reproductions
>>Orthodox Catholic Leaflets No. 8 - The Catholic Apostolic Church (Catholicate of the West) commonly called the Western Orthodox Church: Table of Apostolic Succession (English Old Catholic Line) (1947): page 1; page 2

Discursive articles
>>A path to creative faith

Obituaries from The Glastonbury Bulletin
>>See Glastonbury Bulletin page

Monographs by Archbishop Professor Bertil Persson
Archbishop Professor Bertil Persson is Primate Emeritus of the Apostolic Episcopal Church and was from 1987-95 Archbishop for Europe of the Philippine Independent Church (Iglesia Filipina Independiente). He has held clerical office in many other denominations since his ordination as a Pastor in the Church of Sweden in 1962 (an office which he still holds) with responsibility for special projects. As a result, his role in the independent sacramental movement has been uniquely and widely ecumenical. His episcopal lineage has spread across the world. His scholarship, published through the former St Ephrem's Institute, Solna, Sweden, which he co-founded in 1974, has addressed the history of the ISM and many of its key figures, focussing in particular on the Apostolic Succession as a means to unite otherwise separated communities.

See: Ecclesiastical Biography of the Most Rev. Prof. Dr. Bertil Persson, FRSA (1983)

Most of the monographs below were sent directly by Archbishop Persson to +John Kersey, Director of the Mathew Center, and are reproduced here for educational purposes without prejudice to his copyright ownership. Any further reproduction or use of these materials for other than personal research requires written permission from Dr. Persson.

>>Ordo Supremus Militaris Templi Hierosolymitani - Apostolic Heritage from Benedictus PP XIII to Today (1995): page 1; page 2; page 3; page 4; page 5; page 6; page 7
>>The Apostolic Successions of the Apostolic Episcopal Church; An outline at the prospect of the 21st century (2nd revised ed., 2004)
>>The Apostolic Succession of the Apostolic Episcopal Church from the Order of Corporate Reunion (no date)
>>A Brief Biographical Sketch on Arnold Harris Mathew (2001)
>>A Brief History of the Apostolic Episcopal Church (The Holy Eastern Catholic and Apostolic Orthodox Church): page 1; page 2
>>The Line of Succession through the Order of Corporate Reunion (no date)
>>The Order of Corporate Reunion (2000)
>>A Brief Biographical Sketch on Anthony Joseph Aneed (2000)
>>A Biographical Sketch on Joseph Rene Vilatte: part 1; 2; 3
>>William Montgomery Brown (no date)
>>Joseph John Skureth (no date)
>>A Brief Biographical Sketch on William Albert Nichols (2000)
>>Arthur Wolfort Brooks (no date)
>>A Brief Biographical Sketch on Sophronios Bishara (2000)
>>The legitimate successor of Jesus (2006)
>>Scholarly equipment necessary for Peace Building and Human Development in the Near East (2007); lecture summary (2006)

Documents concerning the Apostolic Succession
>>Various lines of Apostolic Succession (1980, rev. 1981): page 1; page 2; page 3
>>The Apostolic Heritage from the Catholic Church (1987)
>>The Apostolic Heritage from the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Anglican Communion (1987)
>>The Coptic (Ethiopian) Orthodox Succession (1990): page 1; page 2
>>ITS Apostolic Heritage from the Church of England (n.d.)
>>ITS Apostolic Heritage from the Chaldean Catholic Church (n.d.)
 
Lectures
>>Talk given by John Kersey to the Adam Smith Institute TNG, December 2007

Related programs
>>Programs in Christian Theology
>>Master of Theology in the Independent Sacramental Movement
>>Master of Theology in Thanatology

Liberal Catholic Studies
CSISM devotes particular attention to the movement originating from the Liberal Catholic Church, which was founded in 1916 as a re-organization of the Old Catholic movement in the U.K. and is one of the most prominent communities of the ISM.

Liberal Catholicism was a movement significantly ahead of its time, with originating influences from Theosophy, panentheism, the religions of the East, the Wisdom Tradition and universalism among others. Its founders, Bishops Wedgwood and Leadbeater, sought to create a church of mystical Catholicism within which would pertain complete freedom of faith and conscience. This movement has spread along with their Apostolic Succession to all corners of the globe and now accounts for one of the most dynamic elements within the ISM.

Historical and organizational studies
>>Liberal Catholicism - a brief organizational history
>>Historic documents and photographs relating to Liberal Catholicism

Reproductions
>>Table of the Apostolical Succession in the Liberal Catholic Church (Liberal Catholic Church of Ontario, Canada, 1986): page 1; page 2; page 3; page 4
>>The Official Records of Synod 1910-1915, as compiled and annotated by Presiding Bishop E. James Burton

Discursive articles
>>Liberal Catholicism - a faith for today

Resources
>>Resources relating to Liberal Catholicism, the Wisdom Tradition and the independent sacramental movement

Related programs
>>Programs in Christian Theology
>>Master of Theology in Liberal Catholic Studies

Book publications

Two Works by Archbishop Bernard Mary Williams, Second Archbishop of The Old Roman Catholic Church in Great Britain: A Summary of the History, Faith, Discipline, and Aims of The Old Roman Catholic Church in Great Britain (1924); A Pastoral Letter for Advent, 1920
New edition edited and with a preface by John Kersey

Archbishop Bernard Mary Williams was the successor to Archbishop Arnold Harris Mathew in the Old Roman Catholic Church in Great Britain and established the strongly traditionalist and conservative pattern still followed by that church's successors. These works speak of his conception of the ORCCGB as a Uniate Rite conforming to the Roman Catholic Church in most respects, but differing in the admission of a married priesthood and a vernacular liturgy.

Unavailable for many years, this edition has a Preface by John Kersey and is available as a free-to-download e-book as well as in hardcover. 47 pages.

To download or purchase a copy, please visit the University Press page here.

The Apostolic Succession in the Liberal Rite
John Kersey

The book "The Apostolic Succession in The Liberal Rite" by its Presiding Bishop John Kersey has now been published. It is available in hardcover only and runs to 276 pages. Extensively illustrated, it is one of the most complete surveys of the Apostolic Succession in the independent sacramental movement ever published. Copies are available to order from the University Press

The Science of the Sacraments
Charles Webster Leadbeater
New edition edited and with a preface by John Kersey

This book, first published in 1920 is of crucial importance in understanding the origins and spiritual significance of the Eucharist and other sacraments within the Liberal Catholic rite. +C.W. Leadbeater explains the esoteric significance of each moment during the liturgy with side-by-side comparisons with the Roman (Tridentine) Rite and many pictures and diagrams. This new edition, complete and unabridged with a preface and updated notes by John Kersey, is available as a free-to-download online e-book as well as in hardcover. 495 pages including all original illustrations and tables.

To download or purchase a copy, please visit the University Press page here.

An Outline of Theosophy
Charles Webster Leadbeater
New edition edited and with a preface by John Kersey

This short and accessible book, first published in 1902, is a key introduction to Theosophy from one of its most significant advocates. +C.W. Leadbeater was a master of the spiritual arts and of what we would now refer to as an interfaith and synthetic outlook on faith. With +J.I. Wedgwood he created the Liberal Catholic movement that continues today. This new edition by John Kersey is available both as a free online e-book and in a printed hardcover edition for $10. 59pp.

To download or purchase a copy, please visit the University Press page here.