The Holy Catholic Church is the first Christian Church, the Church founded by Jesus Christ and described in the pages of the New Testament. Its history can be traced in unbroken continuity all the way back to Christ and His Twelve Apostles.

Incredible as it seems, for twenty centuries the Holy Catholic Church has continued in its unalterable Faith and Practice. Today its Apostolic doctrine, worship and structure remain the same. The Holy Catholic Church claims to be the living body of Christ in the world - the One True Church of Christ. None of the Protestant denominations and sects dare to make such a claim.

Many folk are surprised to learn that for the first thousand years of Christian history there was just one Church in the whole world, known as the Holy Catholic Church. It was in the 11th century that a disastrous split occurred between the Eastern and Western parts of the one Church. The popes (bishops) of Rome, began to claim sole, supreme and absolute authority over the whole Church. The Eastern Church rejected their claim, rightly seeing it as an innovation and constituting a major addition to the Catholic Faith – which can neither be added to nor taken from. But the popes succeeded in establishing acceptance of their claim over the Western Church. This meant that the Western Church, under the popes, hereafter known as the Roman Catholic Church, had separated itself from the visible unity of the Holy Catholic Church. The Eastern Church, increasingly known as ‘Orthodox’ (meaning right belief) continued to be the Holy Catholic Church in all its fullness.

The word ‘Rite‘ means forms of worship or liturgy. There was always a Western Rite and an Eastern Rite in the One Church prior to the 11th century split. As Western Catholics, we believe and accept the same holy Faith as that professed and believed by our Eastern Orthodox Catholic brethren. But we express that one holy Faith in the traditional Western manner, and especially by our restoration of the traditional Rite of the Western Church in the celebration of Holy Mass, a rite which is our true liturgical inheritance.

We are the Western Catholic Church but we do not follow the Church of Rome. This means that the healing of the eleventh century split between the Eastern and Western Churches has begun.

It also means that we are a true restoration of the Catholic orthodox believing Church, the Church of our forebears. Although our unity of Faith with our Eastern Orthodox Catholic brethren is a reality, it will take time for this to be publicly acknowledged. We, Western Rite orthodox Catholics, are comparatively small in numbers. We now extend to many parts of the world, with a membership of many thousands in our overseas dioceses, but our numbers here in this country are comparatively small.

Much of what passes for Christian Faith today ought to be rejected. The mainline denominations increasingly compromise basic Christian teaching and take to themselves the decadent moral standards of today. Yet, there is an unspoken yearning on the part of many for something more than this world can offer.

If there is no presence of the Church in your area, with your help we could establish a mission.

If you are house-bound, we could arrange ministry for you.