| Ecumenical Catholic Church | |
|---|---|
| Iglesia Católica Ecuménica | |
| Abbreviation | ECC |
| Classification | Western Christian |
| Orientation | Independent Catholic |
| Polity | Episcopal |
| Primate-Archbishop | David John Kalke |
| Language | English, Spanish |
| Headquarters | Guadalajara, Mexico |
| Founder | Mark Steven Shirilau |
| Origin | 1987 Santa Ana, California, U.S. |
| Branched from | Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Episcopal Church in the United States, and Metropolitan Community Church |
| Separations | United Ecumenical Catholic Church |
| Official website | ecumenicalcatholicchurch.org |
The Ecumenical Catholic Church (Spanish: Iglesia Católica Ecuménica) (ECC/ICE) is an Independent Catholic church established in Santa Ana, California by Mark Steven Shirilau and Jeffrey Michael Lau, in 1987.[1] Adhering to conventional Latin Catholic Trinitarian theology and professing the Nicene Creed, the Ecumenical Catholic Church practices a liturgy similar to the Pauline Mass. Also considered an offshoot of the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church,[2] the ECC differentiates from Roman Catholicism and independent Brazilian Catholicism through affirming and ordaining persons within the LGBTQ+ community.
The Ecumenical Catholic Church was founded in Santa Ana, California,[1] in 1987 by Mark Steven Shirilau—a former member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Metropolitan Community Church—and Jeffrey Michael Lau, a former member of the Episcopal Church and the Metropolitan Community Church;[3][4] the first edition of its canon law was completed and ratified on January 11, 1987.[5]: 27
Shirilau was ordained a priest for the Ecumenical Catholic Church within the chapel of the Claremont School of Theology on December 27, 1987, by an Independent Catholic bishop.[3]
The first public service—at St. John Ecumenical Catholic Church—was held on September 4, 1988, at the home chapel of Mark Shirilau and Jeffery Shirilau in Santa Ana. Robert Oscar Simpson became the first person baptized in the Ecumenical Catholic Church on July 10, 1989, at his house in Los Angeles. Simpson died of AIDS a few days later.[5]: 30
Mark Shirilau was consecrated into the episcopacy by Bishop Donald Lawrence Jolly of the Independent Catholic Church International in San Bernardino, California, on May 19, 1991.[3] At the service, Jeffery Shirilau—a non-ordained deacon of the Metropolitan Community Church—was ordained to the diaconate by Bishop Jolly. Bruce David LeBlanc—a community college professor and former Roman Catholic—became the first priest ordained by Bishop Shirilau.[5]: 35 The ordination took place at an Episcopal Church parish in Pocatello, Idaho, although between 1993-1995, LeBlanc and other clergy resigned.[5]: 44
During the 1990s, the Ecumenical Catholic Church expanded into Africa, with a parish in Nairobi, Kenya numbering an estimated 25 parishioners.[5]: 42 By 2011, it expanded with missions and parish churches throughout Mexico, Latin America, and Italy.[3]
Following the death of Bishop Shirilau from complications with pneumonia on January 12, 2014 while traveling in Sicily,[6][7] Bishop David John Kalke of Mexico was elected as new primate archbishop for the Ecumenical Catholic Church.[8] Some parishes rejected the new primate and moved to the similarly-named Ecumenical Catholic Church of Christ under the jurisdiction of Archbishop Karl Rodig.[9]
As of 2024, the membership of the Ecumenical Catholic Church has been governed by five bishops in Mexico, Costa Rica, the United States, and Kenya.[8]
Ecumenical Catholic doctrine and worship is very similar to Roman Catholic doctrine; within the Ecumenical Catholic Church, however, the LGBTQ+ community is affirmed and allowed ordination.[5] While affirming and ordaining lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender clergy, the Ecumenical Catholic Church—claiming to uphold conventional Catholicity—rejects Gnosticism, New Age and Theosophy, and Protestant worship practices found among other Independent Catholic churches.[10]
While most (but not all) of the active Independent Catholic and Orthodox bodies have relatively formal and historical liturgies, derived from one or more of the various traditions, the same is not easily said about their theologies. Like many of the schismatic Protestant groups, many Independent Catholic/Orthodox groups espouse gnosticism, New Agism, Eastern mysticism, and other heresies which are clearly neither Catholic nor Orthodox. Others, on the other hand, hold on so rigidly to decrees or liturgies of historic church bodies that they are as narrow-minded as Evangelical fundamentalists. Meanwhile, many of them, including the Ecumenical Catholic Church, strive to provide meaningful Christian worship and traditional theology to the modern world.
