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The Society of Traditional Old Catholics has its roots in the Church of Utrecht, which was granted autonomy from Rome to elect bishops and control its own internal affairs. In 1910 our founder Archbishop Arnold Harris Mathew established The Old Catholic Church in Great Britain.
The Society of Traditional Old Catholics was founded in 2020 to form a fraternal membership of Old Catholic Bishops and Priests, and other Clergy, who were desirous of remaining faithful to the Sacred Tradition of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Faith of the first millennium, when the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ, whose Body the Church, was truly One, and which stood upon the foundation stones of the Apostles themselves, and is defined by the early Church Fathers thus: ‘Moreover, in the Catholic Church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always and by everyone’ (St. Vincent of Lerin circa 434).
Those who hold the faith of the Catholic Church before the Great Schism of 1054, that is, with nothing added to, and nothing taken away from, are by definition, Old Catholic: moreover, this Old (or more accurately, Original) Catholicism, has trodden the way to the Narrow Gate through the Old Catholicism of St. Willibrord (circa 695), through the Papally endorsed Independent Church of Utrecht (circa 1145 -1520), through the separation from the Roman Church in 1724, through the establishment of the named Old Catholic Church of the 1850’s following the First Vatican Council, and to the present day. The Society of Traditional Old Catholics stands firmly and immovably upon this Rock of the Church of the first millennium, the Church of the Seven Ecumenical Councils, the Church of true Apostolic teaching, the Church on the Rock, which is Christ.
This fidelity to Sacred Tradition, which Archbishop Mathew espoused when he formed the Old Catholic Church in Britain in 1908, and more essentially in his Declaration of Autonomy and Independence of 1910, for ‘the antiquity and universality of the Catholic Faith against all profane novelties and heresies’ (ibid Lerin) since the Schism of 1054, is the beating heart of the Society of Traditional Old Catholics. Part of One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. We are a unique community of faith that is distinctly traditional in essential doctrine and liturgy, yet we express our faith in a compassionate manner. We are small, but have a big heart and offer a sincere welcome to all people while maintaining our heritage.
On August 5th 1911, a conference took place in Bredon’s Norton, Worcestershire, attended by Archbishop Arnold Harris Mathew, other members of the Old Catholic Church, Metropolitan Gerassimos Messarra, Archbishop of Beirut, Legate of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, and his companions. After a long and full discussion, the faith of the Old Catholic Church under Archbishop Mathew was considered in full accord with that of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Archbishop Mathew was then solemnly received by Mgr Messarra on behalf of Gregory IV (Haddad) and The Old Catholic (Western Orthodox) Church, into union with the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch as an autocephalous jurisdiction of the Holy Synod.
1912—February 26th, His Holiness, Pope and Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria, Photius, also accepted and recognised the union with Orthodoxy of the Old Catholics headed by Archbishop Mathew.
'Even if Catholics, faithful to Tradition, are reduced to a handful, they are the ones who are the true Church of Jesus Christ.' St Athanasius.
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