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The Church of the Holy Paraclete respects and embraces diversity. We are an all-inclusive Catholic church and invite everyone to celebrate at the table of Christ.
The Church of the Holy Paraclete has strong commitments both to tradition and to the search for contemporary meaning. As Catholics, we encourage all Christians to enhance their own lives by reclaiming our shared heritage and becoming active participants in the building of a future of deep ecumenism and a truly integral spiritual life.
The Church of the Holy Paraclete is part of the independent sacramental movement. Old Catholicism originated when various Catholic churches separated from Roman Catholicism over the issue of Papal authority. The initial separation from Rome occurred in Holland in 1724 which formed the first Old Catholic Church. The churches of Germany, Austria, Czech Republic and Switzerland became part of the Union of Utrecht after Vatican I (1871) over the Dogma of Papal Infallibility. In the early 1900's the movement included North America, thus forming different catholic groups in America. While the Independent Catholic churches in America are not yet part of the Union of Utrecht, we are working towards unity.
Catholic Tradition is a living thing, rooted in the revelation of Jesus Christ and growing in the experience of the Church. We strive to look beyond the sectarian details and seek in a deliberative fashion to understand what it means to be a committed Christian today, grounded in perceiving the Scriptures in the light of the experience of Reason and Apostolic Tradition. It is therefore embracing of the Church as a whole. It holds a vision for a grown-up Christianity, which reconciles genuine faith and commitment with intelligence and experience.
Independent Catholicism in America was influenced by the great spiritual and transcendental movements of the 19th century, and was infused with greater vigor by the liberation of the Catholic Apostolic Church of Brazil.
The Church of the Holy Paraclete carries forward catholic Christianity's perpetual process of renewal.
Egalitarian, sacramental, and service-oriented in nature, the movement maintains focus and continues the Church's ministry of episcopal and historic lineage through an apostolic succession of bishops, which reaches directly back to the apostles of Jesus of Nazareth. The Church of the Holy Paraclete seeks to bring historical connectivity, creativity, relevance, joy, and an all-embracing awareness to spiritual practice, as a path to healing our hearts and finding balance and wholeness.
Our Church acts to fully include all Christians and to respect all peoples. The movement helps to heal the world by promoting justice, freedom, responsibility, caring for all life and for the Earth that sustains our life.
