History of the Order of Corporate Reunion

The history of the Order of Corporate Reunion (O.C.R.) is intimately connected to the Oxford Movement, the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, and the Old Catholic Church of Great Britain and Ireland.

Established in 1874 at the impetus of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Milan, the Order of Corporate Reunion was initially intended as a means whereby Rome’s objections to the validity of the Holy Orders of the Church of England could be overcome through the practice of subconditional (sub conditione) ordination or consecration of Anglican clergy. Three clergymen— Dr. Frederick George Lee, Thomas Wimberly Mossman, and John Thomas Seccombe—were consecrated bishops in the Catholic and Orthodox successions and formed the episcopal college of the Order.

At the first Synod of the Order of Corporate Reunion on July 3-4, 1877, Lee took on the ecclesiastical style of Thomas, Bishop of Dorchester, Rector of the Order of Corporate Reunion and Pro-Provincial of Canterbury; Mossman became Joseph, Bishop of Selby and Provincial of York; and Seccombe became Laurence, Bishop and Provincial of Caerleon.

The Order was not successful in gaining the support of the Church of England although many senior clergy, apparently including the Archbishop of Canterbury, +Frederick Temple, underwent conditional ordination at the hands of its prelates. Following the death of its first Prelate and Rector Pro-Provincial of Canterbury, +Dr. Frederick George Lee (who served as a priest in the Church of England) in 1901, the Order became dormant for some years.

The Order was revived as a result of a decision by the Synod of the Old Roman Catholic Church in Great Britain of 27 May 1912 under the British Old Roman Catholic Archbishop Arnold Harris Mathew, assisted by Bishop Francis Herbert Bacon. +Mathew and his bishops then became extremely active in conditionally re-ordaining clergy of the Church of England, which became a point of conflict with that church. Following the death of +Mathew in 1919, the Order became dormant once more, although several bishops carried on its work.

In 1933, the Order came to the United States of America with the appointment of the first Provincial, +William Albert (Ignatius) Nichols of the Order of St Basil. +Nichols in turn conditionally consecrated and appointed to office in the O.C.R., +Arthur Wolfort Brooks, the first Presiding Bishop of the Apostolic Episcopal Church (A.E.C.). The Apostolic Episcopal Church had been formed in 1925 by a missionary bishop of the (Roman Catholic) Chaldean Catholic Church and +Brooks, who was at the time a priest of the Episcopal Church. It was thus directly aligned with the O.C.R.’s intention to be a bridge between Rome and Canterbury. The connexion between the A.E.C. and the O.C.R. has continued unbroken from 1933 to the present day.

In 1941, +Brooks appointed the then Fr. Hugh George de Willmott Newman, a British priest under his charge, as Abbot Nullius of St Albans in the O.C.R. On 17 November 1946, +Brooks succeeded +Nichols as Prelate of The Order of Corporate Reunion and Rector Provincial of the State of New York. When +Brooks died in 1948, he was succeeded firstly by +Wallace David de Ortega Maxey and then by +de Willmott Newman (since consecrated as Mar Georgius of Glastonbury) as Ruling Prelate. Mar Georgius, who was also a senior bishop of the A.E.C., continued a much-reduced practice of re-ordaining Anglican clergymen until 1959, when in an Encyclical he announced that this practice would cease permanently. After this time, the O.C.R. entered a further period of inactivity.

In 1976, +Maxey came out of retirement and resumed his former duties in the Apostolic Episcopal Church. The O.C.R. was not revived at this time although sources indicate that +Mar Georgius was still regarded as its head. After the deaths of both +Mar Georgius and +Maxey, Archbishop Paul G.W. Schultz of the A.E.C. served as administrator of the O.C.R. On his death in 1995, the primacies of the A.E.C. and the O.C.R. were formally unified once more.

From 1998 onwards a further branch of the O.C.R. became active, deriving from the Belgian archbishop +Diederik Quatannens. The former A.E.C. Primate +Bertil Persson was appointed by +Quatannens as his successor and used the title Universal Primate in respect of the O.C.R. While good relations between this branch of the O.C.R. and the A.E.C. existed for a number of years, recent examination of the historical basis for +Quatannens’ claims in respect of the O.C.R. (and other claims concerning his episcopal consecration) has shown that they are not supported by the necessary evidence and cannot be relied upon.

As a result, the O.C.R. today relies purely on its antecedence within the Apostolic Episcopal Church and the united AEC-OCR Primacy that was first established in 1947, this being the only evidenced and reliable descent for the Order that is traceable today. The Order of Corporate Reunion is incorporated in England and the United States of America. It continues so far as is practicable its original mission and values.