Evangelical Catholic Church (Lutheran)

On May 27, 1965, several members of the Congregation of the Servants of Christ, a Lutheran religious order based in Oxford, Michigan, together with some students at Concordia Senior College in Fort Wayne, Indiana, founded a religious society called the Order of the Servants of the Holy Cross. Due to their displeasure with the LCMS's conservative turn in the Seminex controversy of the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Order of the Servants of the Holy Cross withdrew from the LCMS and, in 1976, helped to organize the ECC.{{cite web|url=http://www.apostle1.com/barwin-ev-cath-church/OSHC.html|title=Order of The Servants of The Holy Cross|website=American Orthodox Church|access-date=April 12, 2018|archive-date=August 13, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180813100231/http://www.apostle1.com/barwin-ev-cath-church/OSHC.html|url-status=dead}}Melton, J. Gordon. Melton's Encyclopedia of American Religions. 8th ed. (Detroit: Gale, Cengage Learning, 2009), 116. The order was officially accepted as monastic community under the jurisdiction of the ECC on November 30, 1977. The order disbanded in the 1980s.

The first bishop of the ECC was Karl Julius Barwin, who was elected at the church body's organizational meeting in Peoria, Arizona, in 1976. In 1982, Barwin was reordained a priest and in 1984, was consecrated as a bishop by three independent bishops who claimed valid Apostolic succession. Five years later, he was reconsecrated by eight other bishops who also claimed valid Apostolic succession.{{cite web|url=http://www.apostle1.com/karl_barwin_in_memory_of_1.htm|title=In Memory of Metropolitan Archbishop +Karl Barwin|website=American Orthodox Church|access-date=April 11, 2018|archive-date=October 18, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171018200903/http://www.apostle1.com/karl_barwin_in_memory_of_1.htm|url-status=dead}} After Barwin's death on March 30, 2009, the ECC became inactive, but it was revived in 2014, when it received a new bishop. At that time, the ECC reported parishes in five states. The ECC disbanded in 2016, and its last parish joined the North American Lutheran Church.{{cite web|url=http://evangelicalcatholicchurch.net/transfiguration/|title=Transfiguration Church|website=Evangelical Catholic Church|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161012222545/http://evangelicalcatholicchurch.net/transfiguration/|archive-date=October 12, 2016|access-date=April 12, 2018}}{{cite web|url=http://www.transfigurationchurch.net/|title=Welcome!|website=Transfiguration Church, Staten Island, NY|access-date=April 12, 2018|archive-date=April 13, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180413125439/http://www.transfigurationchurch.net/|url-status=live}}

The ECC accepted the Apostles', Nicene (minus the filioque), and Athanasian creeds, as well as all the writings contained within the Book of Concord of 1580. Unlike most American Lutheran churches, the ECC taught the necessity of Apostolic succession and episcopal polity, and rejected the forms of congregational polity practiced by the LCMS and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.{{cite web|url=http://www.apostle1.com/barwin-ev-cath-church/the-church-what_we_believe.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613152001/http://www.apostle1.com/barwin-ev-cath-church/the-church-what_we_believe.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 13, 2010|title=The Church: What We Believe|website=American Orthodox Church|access-date=April 16, 2018}} Unique among American Lutheran church bodies, the ECC supported the practice of infant communion.{{cite web|url=http://www.apostle1.com/barwin-ev-cath-church/Communion_of_Baptized_Infants.htm|title=Communion of Baptized Infants|website=American Orthodox Church|access-date=April 16, 2018|archive-date=August 13, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180813095438/http://www.apostle1.com/barwin-ev-cath-church/Communion_of_Baptized_Infants.htm|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://clclutheran.org/atlanta/bibleclass/Lutheranchurches.pdf|title=A Brief Study of the Lutheran Churches in America|last=Lau|first=David|last2=Mayhew|first2=Nathanael|format=pdf|website=Church of the Lutheran Confession|access-date=April 11, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101121161735/http://clclutheran.org/atlanta/bibleclass/Lutheranchurches.pdf|archive-date=November 21, 2010|url-status=dead}} Other notable teachings included rejection of the ordination of women,{{cite web|url=http://www.apostle1.com/barwin-ev-cath-church/on_feminism_and_the_church.htm|title=Feminism & The Church|website=American Orthodox Church|access-date=April 16, 2018|archive-date=August 13, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180813095453/http://www.apostle1.com/barwin-ev-cath-church/on_feminism_and_the_church.htm|url-status=dead}} identification of Muhammad as "Satan's Disciple",{{cite web|url=http://www.apostle1.com/barwin-ev-cath-church/Islam_--_Satan%27s_Response_to_Christ.htm|title=ISLAM -- Satan's Response to Allah's Incarnation|website=American Orthodox Church|access-date=April 16, 2018|archive-date=October 22, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191022210850/http://www.apostle1.com/barwin-ev-cath-church/Islam_--_Satan%27s_Response_to_Christ.htm|url-status=dead}} and forceful condemnation of illegal immigration.{{cite web|url=http://www.apostle1.com/barwin-ev-cath-church/Illegal_Immigrants.htm|title=Illegal Immigrants|website=American Orthodox Church|access-date=April 16, 2018|archive-date=August 13, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180813100224/http://www.apostle1.com/barwin-ev-cath-church/Illegal_Immigrants.htm|url-status=dead}} In 2003, it declared fellowship with the Orthodox Anglican Church.{{cite web|url=http://www.apostle1.com/barwin-ev-cath-church/orthodox-anglican-communion1.html|title=Concordat of Intercommunion|website=American Orthodox Church|access-date=April 12, 2018|archive-date=October 22, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191022210918/http://www.apostle1.com/barwin-ev-cath-church/orthodox-anglican-communion1.html|url-status=dead}}

• Lutheran Church - International

{{Reflist}}

Category:1976 establishments in Arizona

Category:2016 disestablishments in the United States

Category:Christian organizations disestablished in the 2010s

Category:Christian organizations established in 1976

Category:Lutheran denominations in North America

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20050324010509/http://members.aol.com/EvCathCh/index.HTML Archived official website (1999–2008)]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20091004190847/http://www.evcathch.org/index.html Archived official website (2009)]
• [http://www.apostle1.com/barwin-ev-cath-church/index.html Former official website (2009 version, now hosted by the American Orthodox Church)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171018200858/http://www.apostle1.com/barwin-ev-cath-church/index.html |date=2017-10-18 }}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20170419092802/http://evangelicalcatholicchurch.net/ Archived official website (2011–2017)]