Our Response to The Archbishop of Seattle

Letter to the parishes
In response to the letter that the Archbishop of Seattle sent to the parishes in Lacey and Olympia WA, we make the following statement:

There is more than one way to be Catholic:

The Roman Catholic Archbishop Peter Sartain sent a letter to parishes in Olympia and Lacey, claiming that only faith communities in union with the Pope can properly call themselves “Catholic.”  He mentions our Emmaus Ecumenical Catholic Community by name so we believe it is important to clarify who we are. 

We make no claim to being Roman Catholic. Rather, we are a parish in the international Ecumenical Catholic Communion. We share theological and liturgical tradition with them as part of a wider or “universal” Catholic Church. We consider our clergy successors of the apostles, as do the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Old Catholic Church, and others.

We follow the Old Catholic tradition of refusing to accept the infallibility of the Pope as proclaimed in 1870 by the First Vatican Council.  We honor the Pope as the first among bishops, but not as having final authority in matters of faith and morals.  Because of this decision all Ecumenical Catholics participate in selecting our bishops and in making decisions for our Communion.

We are an inclusive, welcoming, equalitarian faith community.  We welcome anyone to worship with us, particularly those who have left the Roman Catholic Church and are seeking a spiritual home.  We are here to stay!

Response of our Presiding Bishop

 Although the RomanChurch can be properly called a Catholic Church it is one among many. Historically, there have been many Christian churches that have identified themselves as “Catholic” for nearly two millennia that are not in union with Rome. The various Eastern Orthodox Christians, the Coptic Christians of Egypt, the Syriac and Armenian Christians of the East, as well as the Old Catholics to name but a few. The original use of the term “catholic” by ancient churches meant that a so designated faith community was trinitarian, apostolic, creedal, and sacramental. It would be more precise to say that “only those faith communities that are in union with the Roman Pope can properly be called “Roman Catholic.” Catholic is too general a term to be applied to only one church exclusively especially since many Christians use that term in reference to themselves. Therefore, it is incumbent upon all church leaders who use the term catholic in their name to employ a modifier such as Roman, Syrian, Old, or Ecumenical to avoid confusion among the faithful.

Bishop Peter Elder Hickman