Apostolic Episcopal Church
The Apostolic Episcopal Church (AEC), also known as the Holy Eastern Catholic and Apostolic Orthodox Church, was founded in the United States in 1925 by Arthur Wolfort Brooks (Mar John Emmanuel; 1889-1948). The AEC claims to continue the heritage of the Chaldean Catholic Church and also the Catholic tradition within Anglicanism.[1]
The AEC regards itself as a branch of the Eastern church and as a valid part of the one apostolic worldwide or catholic church. The AEC derives its holy orders through episcopal succession from the ancient Church of the East.
The AEC's website says that the AEC is "oriented to New Thought and New Age according to the original understanding of those concepts, and works in the spirit of the declaration of the Assembly of the World Council of Churches held in New Delhi in 1961".[1]
History
In 1930, Brooks was received by the Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarchate through Archbishop Damaskinos who at that time was acting as the ambassador in the United States for Phitios II, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
Following Brooks's death in 1948, Wallace de Ortega Maxey was appointed as the second primate. However, he was not able to unify the movement and there was a period of division which continued until 1986, at which time the AEC became reunited under the leadership of its third primate, Bertil Persson (Mar Alexander).[1]
Succession of primates
- Arthur Wolfort Brooks (Mar John Emmanuel), 1925 - 1948
- Wallace de Ortega Maxey (Mar David I), 1948 - 1986
- Bertil Persson (Mar Alexander), 1986 - 1998
- Francis Spataro (Mar Timotheos III), 2000 - 2015
- John Kersey (Mar Johannes Edmundus), 2015 to present
Associated bodies
Among the bodies associated with the AEC are:
- Catholicate of the West - AEC claims that the catholicate is formally absorbed into AEC
- Order of Corporate Reunion