Liberal Catholic Church
How to infiltrate organized religion…
Origin
The Liberal Catholic Church came into existence as the result of a complete re-organization in 1915-16 of the Old Catholic Church in Great Britain upon a more liberal basis. That Church derived its Apostolic Orders through the Old Catholic archiepiscopal see of Utrecht in Holland. The LCC is neither Roman Catholic nor Protestant. The Church is called Liberal Catholic because its outlook is both liberal and Catholic.** It aims at combining Catholic forms of worship, stately ritual, deep mysticism and witness to the reality of sacramental grace with the widest measure of intellectual liberty and respect for the individual conscience.
When Bishop James Ingall Wedgwood became the First Presiding Bishop of The Liberal Catholic Church, he worked tirelessly to establish The LCC throughout the world. Bishop Wedgwood did not found a series of unaffiliated or independent churches, nor did he found a "movement" — Bishop Wedgwood founded a single, unified, world-wide Church, made up of national Provinces and Parishes, all under a single name, a single book of Canon Law, a single Liturgy, and a single Episcopal Synod working under an elected Presiding Bishop.
The Liberal Catholic Church began as — and continues as — a united, unique, and global Church working in accord under its own Episcopal Synod and directed by its own Archbishop Primate. Since its founding in 1916, The Liberal Catholic Church has faithfully carried forth its mission and has become known and respected in the Christian world.
February 13, 1916--The Consecration of Bishop James Ingall Wedgwood (seated, l-r) Bishop Robert King, Bishop James Wedgwood, Bishop Frederick Willoughby, Bishop Ruppert Gauntlet.
This ritual is marked as the official start of the Liberal Catholic Church.
The Liberal Catholic Church (LCC) was founded 13 February 1916 in Australia by James Ingall Wedgwood (1883-1951) and Charles Webster Leadbeater (1847-1934), both of them enthusiastic Theosophists and self-proclaimed clairvoyants. Despite its name there is no link to the Roman Catholic Church, and the designation "Liberal" refers to its independence from Catholicism.
Succession
That Apostolic Succession, through the Episcopal Synod of The LCC, has been carefully and canonically preserved in unbroken lineal descent from Bishops Mathew, Willoughby, and TLCC Founding Bishop James Ingall Wedgwood, through Second Presiding Bishop Charles W. Leadbeater, to the current Presiding Bishop Graham Wale and all the Bishops of the Episcopal Synod of the authentic and original Liberal Catholic Church.
What They Believe
A hallmark characteristic of The Liberal Catholic Church is support for each individual’s exploration of Truth rather than an imposition of dogmas one is expected to accept, adhere to, and believe in. We recognize that Truth is ultimately a process of self-discovery and self-realization.
What opinions or beliefs people hold is considered to be their own undertaking. The mind that is free is in the best condition to grow. Growth into spirituality enhances the perception of truth that each of us must discover for ourselves and in our own way.
The LiberaI Catholic Church believes that there is a body of doctrine and mystical experience common to all the great religions of the world and which cannot be claimed as the exclusive possession of any. Moving within the orbit of Christianity and regarding itself as a distinctively Christian church, it nevertheless holds that the other great religions of the world are divinely inspired and that all proceed from a common source, though different religions stress different aspects of this teaching and some aspects may even temporarily drop out of recognition.
Summary of Doctrine
1. The Liberal Catholic Church teaches the existence of God, infinite, eternal, transcendent and immanent. He is the one essence from which all forms of existence are derived. ‘In him we live and move and have our being’ (Acts 17:28).
2. God manifests in His universe as a Trinity, called in the Christian religion Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three Persons in one God, co-equal and co-eternal; the Father the cause of all, the Son the Word who was made flesh and dwelt among us, the Holy Spirit the life-giver, the inspirer and sanctifier.
3. Man is a complex of spirit, soul and body. The spirit of man, made in the image of God, is divine in essence. Therefore he cannot cease to exist; he is eternal and his future is one whose glory and splendour have no limit.
4. Christ ever lives as a mighty spiritual presence in the world, guiding and sustaining His people. The divinity, which was manifest in Him, is gradually being unfolded in all of us, until each shall come ‘unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ’ (Eph. 4:13).
5. The world is the theatre of an ordered plan, according to which the spirit of man, by repeatedly expressing himself in varying conditions of life and experience, continually unfolds his powers. This spiritual unfoldment takes place under an inviolable law of cause and effect. ‘Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap’ (Gal. 6:7). His doings in each physical incarnation largely determine his experience after death in the intermediate world (or world of purgation) and the heavenly world, and greatly influence the circumstances of his next birth. Man is a link in a vast chain of life extending from the highest to the lowest. As he helps those below him, so also he is helped by those who stand above him on the ladder of life, receiving thus a free gift of grace. There is a communion of saints, just men made perfect (Heb 12:23) or holy ones, who help mankind. There is a ministry of angels, who transmit God’s love and vitalizing energy to all parts of His evolutionary scheme.
6. We have ethical duties to ourselves and to others. ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment and the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and Prophets’ (Matt. 22:37-40). It is our duty to learn to discern the divine light in ourselves and in others; that light ‘which lighteth every man’ (John 1:9). Because we are the children of God, we are all inseparably linked together. We all share His life. That which harms one, harms all. Hence we owe it as a duty to God, both within ourselves and in others, to live up to the highest that is in us, thereby enabling the God within to be more perfectly manifested in our lives; and also, to recognize the unity of all humanity by constant effort towards unselfishness, by love of, consideration for, and service to, our fellow human beings. The service of humanity, reverence for all life and the sacrifice of the lower self to the higher, are laws of spiritual growth.
7. Christ instituted various sacraments in which an inward and spiritual grace is given to us through an outward and visible sign. The Liberal Catholic Church recognises and administers the seven traditional sacraments, which are: Baptism, Confirmation, the Holy Eucharist, Absolution, Holy Unction, Holy Matrimony, and Holy Orders. To ensure their efficacy it guards with the greatest care the administration of all sacramental rites. The doctrine of these sacraments is sufficiently set forth in the authorised liturgy of the Church. Christ, the living head of the Church, which He founded, is the true minister of all sacraments.
How to Recognize the Authentic TLCC
To determine whether you have found the authentic TLCC or whether you have found impersonators, you need only ask one question of the clergy:
Who is your Presiding Archbishop? (Correct answer: Abp William Downey. Any other response identifies a counterfeit.)
To continue, you can also ask the clergy in charge...
What Bishop holds your Canonical Obedience? (Correct answer: must be one of the Archbishops or Ordinary bishops on the list, below, depending upon the territory. For example, in Ghana, the correct answer would be Archbishop Kofi Anyomi. Or, in in Finland, the correct answer would be Archbishop Gunnar Lindberg.)
If you are at a web site that claims to be Liberal Catholic...
look for a statement that App William Downey is the Presiding Archbishop of The Liberal Catholic Church. The site is false if anyone other than the App William Downey is listed as the Presiding Archbishop. If no identification of Presiding Archbishop William Downey is provided, the site is false.
a warning about the Wikipedia entry: The entry "The Liberal Catholic Church" at Wikipedia is controlled by those who are not part of the authentic and original TLCC. Corrections to the false data at the site are immediately removed by the inauthentic editors. Therefore, much of the "history" given there is rewritten to appear to give authenticity to the schismatic group; key points of the information in the Wikipedia article are incorrect and misleading, especially in the portion that claims that the actual Episcopal Synod of the authentic and original TLCC "left" the Church--no, it is they who quit the real TLCC, taking with them property that belongs to the original body.
A Key Figure in the USA
The Most Rev. William S.H. Downey
Presiding Archbishop of The Liberal Catholic Church and Archbishop of the Province of the United States, Archbishop William Downey did his undergraduate studies at White College and Zarapath Seminary. He graduated from Miracle Valley Bible College in Arizona. From an early age, Apb. Downey found himself most interested in religious and esoteric subjects, and he spent many hours reading and researching related studies. He spent a few years exploring Evangelical Christianity as well as non-Christian religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and related disciplines of meditation and Yoga. As is the case with many spiritual seekers, he wandered through many divergent paths, such as Spiritualism, New Thought, and Theosophy. When he moved to California in the sixties, he came across The Liberal Catholic Church, and as soon as he experienced worship through The LCC Liturgy, he realized that he had found his spiritual home. In 1985, Abp. Downey married his beloved wife Anita Martin in Pune, Maharashtra India.
An Outsider’s View
Liberal Catholic Church teachings are gnostic, neo-platonist and universalist, and include the practice of “sacramental magic” and the doctrine of reincarnation. The LCC offers a re-interpretation of Christianity. The doctrine of judgment and salvation at the end of only one single human lifetime, is replaced by “liberation from the need for rebirth” after many lifetimes. The doctrine of the unmerited divine gift of the free grace of rescue from the consequences of sin through the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus Christ as Lord, is replaced by “the just and educative reaping” of whatever had been sown in earlier human incarnations under “an inviolable law of cause of effect”, also called the “Law of Karma.”
From its inception, the LCC has insisted on its “essentially Christian character”. Whatever other common ground its representatives might point out, from the beginning its doctrinal teachings built on Theosophical foundations were inevitably seen by the orthodox as non-Christian, or as anti-Christian (and most extremely as the satanic deceits of the Antichrist straight out of the pits of hell). As mentioned above, LCC groups have embraced eastern religious concepts such as karma and reincarnation, and there has been at least one instance of an LCC bishop openly promoting Hinduism with a Christian facade.
The Liberal Catholic Church combines revisions of the rituals of Catholicism with teachings more in common with Plotinus and the Neo-platonic Christianity of ancient Alexandria, than with the current doctrines of any of the mainstream churches. Both of the founding bishops, J. I. Wedgwood and C. W. Leadbeater, and their associates, were deeply committed members of the Esoteric School of Theosophy, and were actively involved in the work of the Theosophical Society under the powerful influence of Annie Besant, then its International President. Wedgewood, after having spent a very strenuous term as General Secretary (national administrator) of the Theosophical Society in the United Kingdom, in 1916 in Australia joined the much older C. W. Leadbeater, who had long been a close associate and trusted colleague of Annie Besant, with whom he had co-authored a number of major theosophical treatises, to build the foundations of the new church. Leadbeater had lectured for the Theoosphical Society in several countries, and had written extensively on theosophical themes, often emphasizing “the hidden side of things.” The LCC official Statement of Principles opens with the words, “The Liberal Catholic Church exists to forward Christ’s work in the world.”
In England, however, there was little support for the Old Catholic movement and the church tended to be filled by a number of priests who for one reason or another did not fit in either the Church of England or the Roman Catholic Church. Among them were some who had developed a belief in Theosophy and were preaching a theosophical interpretation of Christianity. Mathew was somewhat tolerant of Theosophy at first, and in 1914 consecrated a person known to be a Theosophist, Frederick Samuel Willoughby, as a bishop to assist him. He became more aware of theosophical teachings and the influence they were beginning to have in his church, however, and in 1915 he condemned it as a heresy and ordered all of his priests to sever their ties with it. The result was that the majority of the priests
withdrew and largely gutted the Old Catholic Church. The clergy who had withdrawn reorganized, and on February 13, 1916, Willoughby consecrated James Ingall Wedgwood (18831951) as the regionary bishop for England. At this time the group was operating as the Old Roman Catholic Church, and Wedgwood set out on a world tour to build support among ritually-oriented Theosophists around the world.
C. W. Leadbeater to Annie Besant
Sydney, July 25, 1916 Wedgwood has arrived, and is in good health. His consecration to the Episcopate has had the unexpected result of putting him practically at the head of the Old Catholic movement as far as the British Empire is concerned, all his colleagues (except, I think, one) in it being Theosophists ready to work under his direction. This being so, he desires most earnestly to offer the movement to the World Teacher as one of the vehicles for His force, and a channel for the preparation for His Coming. I took him therefore to the LORD MAITREYA at the Festival, and He was graciously pleased to accept the offer, and to say that He thought the movement would fill a niche in the scheme, and would be useful to Him. From what He said I inferred that He Himself had so guided events as to produce this curious result, that a branch of the Catholic Church, having the Apostolic Succession in a form which cannot be questioned, should be entirely in the hands of Theosophists, who are willing and eager to do exactly as He wishes. He explained that this was a method of bringing over the Holy Orders of the old plan into the new one, and that this Old Catholic Church might very likely be the only branch of Christianity which would wholly and officially recognize and follow Him when He comes. He does not wish it to be aggressive in any way, but to go on quite quietly for the present, carrying on its services for its small congregation in London (as it is doing), gradually drawing round it those who love the Catholic ritual, but want a Theosophical interpretation of it and of the doctrine of the Church. It will slowly spread, but will be ready to receive a sudden impetus when He wants to use it ; it is to mark time now, but to be prepared to march forward when the order comes. With His permission Wedgwood has consecrated me as a Bishop, on the understanding that I am at perfect liberty to wear my ordinary dress, and am in no way bound to perform any ecclesiastical ceremonies or take any outward part in the work unless 1 see it useful to do so, but am to act as intermediary between the LORD and this branch of His Church, referring to Him any points of action or of doctrine upon which it desires instruction. An interesting little glimpse of occult ways came to me the night after my consecration. My own Master referred very kindly to it, and spoke of the additional power to help that it had given to me ; and then He remarked : “You thought you had given up all prospect of a bishopric when you left your Church work thirty-two years ago to follow Upasika 1 ; but I may tell you that it would have been in this very year that you would have reached it if you had remained in your original work, so you have lost nothing except the emoluments and the social position, and have gained enormously in other ways. No one ever loses by serving Us ! ” That struck me as curious, for I had never thought of it in that way.
Symbolism
Closing
I look at the Liberal Catholic Church as the training program utilized to create Infiltrators who are steeped in Roman Catholic orthodoxy and are thus able to mix right into a Catholic congregation, eventually rising to the levels of Priests and Bishops. And since these people are Luciferians, they work to promote Satanism in the Catholic Church. And this program has been ongoing for over 100 years.
And here we are…
