Order of Corporate Reunion

Order of Corporate Reunion
Christian, Ecumenical, and Fraternal Order of Corporate Reunion
Abbreviation
  • OCR
Established1877; 147 years ago (1877)
FounderFrederick George Lee
TypeEcumenical association
HeadquartersDisputed
Primate
Disputed
Key people

The Order of Corporate Reunion (OCR), officially the Christian, Ecumenical, and Fraternal Order of Corporate Reunion, is an ecumenical association of clergy and laity of Anglican origin. The OCR was founded by Frederick George Lee, Thomas Wimberley Mossman, and John Thomas Seccombe between 1874-1877 in London.[1]: 23  Established as an Anglo-Papalist society to continue the work of the Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom,[2] its founders sought to restore an apostolic succession recognized by the Catholic Church through reordinations as a means for reunion.[3]

The founders of the Order of Corporate Reunion claimed to have been consecrated as bishops by Roman Catholic bishops. However, they did not state in public the names of their consecrators; over a century after their deaths it was revealed that cardinals Luigi Nazari di Calabiana, Domenico Agostini, and Vincenzo Moretti allegedly consecrated Lee and Mossman.[1]: 22 

Following the deaths of its founders, the order fell dormant with its apostolic succession maintained, and initially revived in 1912.[1]: 24–26  Prominent members and leaders of the revived order were believed to have included Arnold Harris Mathew, Hugh George de Willmott Newman, and Peter Paul Brennan.[4] This revived Order of Corporate Reunion, upon the death of Brennan, schismed into at least three separate bodies, though the organization incorporated by Brennan and others included Michael Kline as the disputed successive primate.[5]

History

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Following the dissolution of the Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom, the OCR was established in response to Apostolicae curae, which declared all Anglican ordinations "absolutely null and utterly void".[6] During the latter 19th and early 20th centuries, numerous Anglican clergy obtained conditional ordination (reordination) by bishops in the order, with the aim of receiving holy orders recognized as valid by the Roman Catholics. Most of these OCR ordinations occurred in secret, though information about some became public; Richard Williams Morgan and Charles Isaac Stevens were both consecrated within the Order of Corporate Reunion on 6 March 1879.[1]: 24  Morgan had been previously consecrated by Jules Ferrette of the Ancient British Church.

In 1912, the order was revived and allegedly involved the membership of Arnold Harris Mathew of the Old Roman Catholic Church in Great Britain and Hugh George de Willmott Newman of the Catholicate of the West.[1]: 24–26  After their consecration within the Old Catholic Churches of Utrecht, its claimed that Mathew was conditionally consecrated by Frederick Cornwallis Conybeare in 1909. Conybeare was consecrated in 1894 by Lee, Mossman, and Seccombe.[7] From this revival, it became dormant again with the death of Mathew until its growth in the United States. In 1998, a new branch of the order was established by Diederik Quatannens; his leadership was succeeded by Bertil Persson.[8] After Persson's retirement, the order was then led by Archbishop Peter Paul Brennan of the Old Catholic Confederation, who died in 2016.[9]

Succession

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After Brennan's death, Michael Kline of the Exorcist Order of Saint Michael in Missouri claimed to have been entrusted to be Brennan's successor as leader of the OCR,[10] who alongside Persson and Brennan incorporated the OCR within the United States. During his tenure, the Order of Corporate Reunion schismed into at least three separate groups.

One notable OCR group has been based in the United Kingdom and led by John Kersey, a claimant successor to the defunct Catholicate of the West and dispenser of the Vilatte orders.[11]

Upon the resignation of Kline as Primate of the OCR, Richard Cumming was appointed the Prime Bishop or Universal Primate of the OCR group incorporated by Brennan, Kline and Persson, in 2022.[8]

In 2023, the OCR group led by Richard Cumming reorganized itself as its predecessor—the Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom.[12]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Persson, Bertil (2000). "Order of Corporate Reunion". Pennsylvania State University. St. Ephrem’s Institute, The Vilatte Guild Extension Academy of The Peoples University of the Americas Inc.
  2. ^ Chapman, Mark D. (2007). "The Fantasy of Reunion: The Rise and Fall of the Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom". The Journal of Ecclesiastical History. 58 (1): 49–74. doi:10.1017/S0022046905004331. ISSN 1469-7637. S2CID 161504856.
  3. ^ Henry R. T. Brandreth, Dr Lee of Lambeth: A Chapter in Parenthesis in the History of the Oxford Movement, London, 1951.
  4. ^ Kersey, John (2016-08-08). "Death of Archbishop Peter Paul Brennan". The Abbey-Principality of San Luigi. Archived from the original on 4 June 2022. Retrieved 2021-09-11.
  5. ^ "The Order of Corporate Reunion - Notice". Order of Corporate Reunion. Archived from the original on 4 June 2022. Retrieved 2022-06-04. The following points are a matter of record: (1) all claimants recognize that Peter Paul Brennan was the Prime Bishop or Universal Primate; (2) the corporation formed by Peter Paul Brennan, Bertil Persson, Francis Spataro, and Michael Kline in 2010 has clearly defined protocols for succession outlined in Article VIII of the Articles of Agreement filed with the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri; (3) in accordance with the protocols set forth in Article VIII of the Articles of Agreement filed with the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri, upon the death of Peter Paul Brennan, Michael Kline was appointed Prime Bishop of the Order of Corporate Reunion by the administrators and executors of the corporation identified by name in Article VIII.
  6. ^ "Apostolicae Curae (1896)". New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2021-09-11.
  7. ^ Kersey, John (2017). "Arnold Harris Mathew and the Old Catholic Movement in England: 1908-52" (PDF). Old Catholic Church of North America. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-08-15. Retrieved 2024-08-15.
  8. ^ a b "The Order of Corporate Reunion". Order of Corporate Reunion. 2023-03-29. Archived from the original on 2023-03-29. Retrieved 2023-06-30.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  9. ^ "Bishop Peter P. Brennan". Old Catholic Confederation - Old Catholic Church in the United States. Archived from the original on 9 June 2021. Retrieved 2021-09-11.
  10. ^ "Exorcist Order of Saint Michael". Exorcist Order of St. Michael. 2012-06-21. Archived from the original on 21 June 2012. Retrieved 2021-09-11.
  11. ^ "Notice and Clarification on the OCR (amended June 20, 2022)". Order of Corporate Reunion. Retrieved 2023-06-30.
  12. ^ "Notice". Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom. Archived from the original on 2023-06-30. Retrieved 2023-06-30. For almost one hundred and fifty years, we undertook our public work in the name of the Order of Corporate Reunion. In 2023, however, we made the decision to reprise the public name of our predecessor organization, The Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom. This decision was intended as an act of "Kingdom-thinking." On account of the liberalizing trajectory pursued by certain elements, the name of the Order of Corporate Reunion acquired a negative association in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In addition, due to a variety of personality conflicts which have given rise to acts of separation, there are now four organizations claiming to be the Order of Corporate Reunion which are engaged in various disputes with each other. For these reasons, as an organization, we decided that the best course of action was to withdraw from all of these disputes and make a break with the past so that we could distance ourselves from the schisms and scandals of the past and serve as a more effective witness to Christian truth.
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