"A Welcoming Community of Faith Rooted in the Catholic Tradition"

Commentary
to the
Code of Canon Law
for the
Evangelical Catholic Church

Canon 1:   Introduction

1.1 The corporate name of the faith community shall be The Independent Evangelical Catholic Church in America.

1.2 Within these canons it shall also be referred to as "this church", "this faith community", or "the Evangelical Catholic Church." 

1.3 The Independent Evangelical Catholic Church in America is a validly consecrated and constituent member of Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, which unites all Christians throughout the world and throughout history.

1.4 The Independent Evangelical Catholic Church in America shall be incorporated in the State of Illinois as a not for profit religious corporation.

During the 1996 Synod which ultimately gave birth to the Evangelical Catholic Church engaged in a lengthy debate at to the name of our community.  Two factors played strongly in this discussion.

The first factor was the general practice within the Autocephalous Catholic movement in the 1990's was that all jurisdictions include the word "independent" in their titles.  Though many of the participants of that Synod had strong misgivings about using the word independent in our title, the ultimate consensus was to incorporate it in our name.

The second factor was the little known existence of another independent jurisdiction named the Evangelical Catholic Church, which at that time was a professed Lutheran faith community.  The date of their establishment has always been in some doubt, nevertheless in order to create corporate uniqueness from the Lutheran ECC the final decision was made for the title of our Church to be the Independent Evangelical Catholic Church in American - under which we received our 501C3.

For practical purposes, this Church is commonly referred to as the shorter Evangelical Catholic Church.

When filing NFP Incorporation papers in any State for the Church corporate, they are filed with the name Independent Evangelical Catholic Church in America.

It was the desire to establish the fact in Canon 1.3 that this Church community is undeniably rooted in historic Apostolic Succession through the lines of Bishop Carlos Duarte Costa and that this Church is a community of faith rooted in the Catholic lines and traditions.

 

 

National Church Office
Post Office Box 170336  Chicago Illinois  60617-0336
(T)  773-721-5383   (F)  773-721-2581
evcathchurch@evangelicalcatholicchurch.org
©2015