The Ancient British Church in North America is a denomination founded by Jonathan Vartan Zotique and based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Although it identifies with Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions, it is in communion with neither the Roman Catholic Church nor the Eastern Orthodox Church.

History

Jonathan Vartan Zotique (original name Thomas William Brennand) was ordained as a bishop in the Old Catholic Church (Latin rite) by its primate, Boniface Grosvold, on 12 September 1976, taking the ecclesiastical name Mar Zitikos.[1][2] He founded the Ancient British Church in North America, with its headquarters in Toronto, to reach out to communities not being served by Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox communions, such as LGBT people and drug addicts.[1][3] The church adopted as its rite the Autocephalous Glastonbury Rite in Diaspora.[4] Mar Zitikos died on 3 June 1998.[2]

Organization

The church ordains both women and men as priests[3][4] and has a single monastic order (Celtic-Catholic Culdee Community of Orthodox Monks, Hermits, Missionaries and Evangelists of the Old Church of the Blessed Virgin, St. Mary of Glastonbury, Our Lady of Avalon, in Diaspora).[3] The clergy are self-supporting worker clerics. Church polity is episcopal with a presiding bishop who governs in consultation with the church's synod.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b Ward, Gary L.; Persson, Bertil; Bain, Alan, eds. (1990). Independent Bishops: An International Directory. Detroit: Apogee. p. 447. ISBN 155888307X.
  2. ^ a b staff (22 January 2014). "North American Old Roman Catholic Church". Net Ministries. The Colony, Texas: Net Ministries. Retrieved 25 December 2014.
  3. ^ a b c Lewis, James R. (1998). The Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects and New Religions. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. p. 60. ISBN 1573922226.
  4. ^ a b c Melton, J. Gordon (2003). "Ancient British Church in North America (The Autocephalous Glastonbury Rite in Diaspora)". Encyclopedia of American Religions (Seventh ed.). Farmington Hills, Michigan: The Gale Group. p. 1142. ISBN 9780787663841.
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