The Mission of The Open Episcopal Church
The Open Episcopal Church is called, as are all churches, by Jesus Christ to carry on the work that he began in all aspects of the daily life of people in our society today. His great commission is found in John chapter 20, verse 21 where he said, "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." (NIV). We believe that we have a special role to play in that great commission
Reformed religion has moved away from the Catholic Tradition of the first fifteen centuries to the extent that it is no longer recognisable as the Apostolic faith that our forefathers understood. Roman Catholicism has, since Vatican I, moved ever closer to autocracy and hierarchical practices that were alien concepts to the early church fathers. Fundamentalist evangelical churches have moved in to fill the void where the message of Salvation and Redemption through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is failing to be preached to the whosoever. The Open Episcopal Church presents a viable alternative to the growing tide of fundamentalism by offering evangelical outreach to all, regardless of race, colour, creed, sexuality. Like Jesus, we reach out to all, providing a true Catholic and Apostolic teaching and style of worship.
Consequently, the mission of The Open Episcopal Church could be summed up quite nicely as being the continuation of Archbishop Mathew's commission from the Dutch Mother Church to be a "non papal Catholic presence" in the United Kingdom.
Of course, this raises a few questions so we suppose the sceptics will not be satisfied with that statement alone. What IS a non papal Catholic presence?
Unlike those churches of the reformation The Open Episcopal Church lays no claim to the title "Protestant" and is most certainly not in any way fundamentalist.
Imagine if you will a thunderbolt of lightning striking a huge granite rock which shatters. Both parts are still true granite even though one of those pieces be so much larger. And who dare say that the larger piece of granite has the right to say it is the "true" granite because of its enormity. Is not the smaller fragment truly granite also? Old Catholicism is still true Catholicism, even though it be the smaller part when compared to Rome, and still maintains those Catholic beliefs and practices forged in the first thousand years of Christianity when the papacy was neither considered to be infallible nor considered to have universal jurisdiction. That Rome chose the road of autocracy is regrettable but can not be claimed to be right simply on the grounds that they are the larger of the split