The Apostolic Temple, Pen-y-groesThe former Apostolic Church International Bible School, Pen-y-groes
The earliest historians of the Apostolic Church date its beginnings to 1911, when three groups of people in three locations in the village of Pen-y-groes received the Pentecostalbaptism in the Holy Spirit.[2]
The Apostolic Church had adopted a system of presbyteries to govern the church collegially.[3] While ministers were ordained as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, elders or teachers all were involved in prayer and deliberation together in presbyteries at local, sectional and national levels. The names of these governing bodies eventually became distinct: the presbytery of the local church retained the name "presbytery", the regional body became known as the classis, and later, the Area Pastors' Meeting and the national governing body adopted the name of General Council. Church government was not reserved to the apostles alone, as they were regarded as first among equals (primus inter pares) among the other ministers, requiring a collegial government.[4]
For a period, the Welsh churches were associated with William Oliver Hutchinson and the Apostolic Faith Church in Bournemouth, England.[5] However, on 8 January 1916, Daniel Powell Williams and most of the Welsh assemblies separated from Hutchinson and the Apostolic Faith Church over doctrinal matters, and established the Apostolic Church in Wales (ACW).[6][7][8][9] After 1916, the two groups had no further contact and developed along different doctrinal paths.[clarification needed][3] Hutchinson had begun to claim all authority as "Chief Apostle", a claim that Williams and the Welsh churches could not accept, seeing his claims to infallibility as contrary to both the Protestant principle of sola scriptura and collegial church government.[3]
In 1917, a second group was formed, centred on Birmingham, affiliated to the Apostolic Church in Wales. The following year the Burning Bush Pentecostal Congregation in Glasgow came into cooperation with the Apostolic Church.[6] In the same year, a group using the name "Apostolic Church" in Hereford also came into cooperation with the ACW.[6]
In 2016, the denomination celebrated its 100th anniversary.[10] It had 15 million members in approximately 100 countries.[11]
Ecclesiology has taken a prominent place in the theology of the movement. The Church is defined as the Body of Christ and the headship of Christ is given prominence. Christ is seen to express his headship through the ministries of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, elders and teachers.[12]
The theological beliefs of the Apostolic Church are summarized in its confession of faith, known as the Tenets, which read as follows:[13]
The unity of the Godhead and the Trinity of the Persons therein.
The utter depravity of human nature, the necessity for repentance and regeneration and the eternal doom of the finally impenitent.
The Constitution of the Apostolic Church in the United Kingdom states that "These Tenets shall forever be the doctrinal standard of the Apostolic Church and shall not be subject to change in any way whatsoever."[14]
The Apostolic Church established its first theological college, the Apostolic Church International Bible School, in the village of Pen-y-groes in 1933.[15] Colleges and seminaries have also been established in eleven other countries.[16]
^Turnbull, Thomas Napier (1959). What God Hath Wrought: A Short History of the Apostolic Church. Bradford: The Puritan Press. p. 11.
^Black, Jonathan (2020). The Theosis of the Body of Christ: From the Early British Apostolics to a Pentecostal Trinitarian Ecclesiology. Leiden: Brill. pp. 232–233. ISBN978-90-04-41222-4.
^ abcApostolic Church Presbytery Reports. Penygroes: The Apostolic Church. 1919.
^Introducing the Apostolic Church: A Manual of Belief, Practice and History. Pen-y-groes: The Apostolic Church. 1988. p. 179.
^Allan Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity, Cambridge University Press, UK, 2013, p. 101
^ abcKay, William K. (2002). "Apostolic Church". In Stanley M. Burgess (ed.). The new international dictionary of Pentecostal and charismatic movements (Rev. and expanded ed.). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Pub. House. pp. 322–323. ISBN0310224810.
^ William Kay, Anne Dyer, European Pentecostalism, BRILL, Leiden, 2011, p. 44
^Black, Jonathan (2020). The Theosis of the Body of Christ: From the Early British Apostolics to a Pentecostal Trinitarian Ecclesiology. Leiden: Brill. p. 6.
^Black, Jonathan (2016). Apostolic Theology: A Trinitarian, Evangelical, Pentecostal Introduction to Christian Doctrine. Luton: The Apostolic Church UK.
