Ancient Wisdom Family: Intrafaith Organizations

★1763 ★

Synod of Independent Sacramental Churches

Current address not obtained for this edition.

The Synod of Independent Sacramental Churches was founded in 1984 following a disruption in the Federation of St. Thomas Christian Churches, an organization which had served as an ecumenical home for many of the smaller independent liturgical churches that had developed an esoteric, gnostic, or theosophical perspective, many of which had a lineage tracing back to either the Liberal Catholic Church or the American Catholic Church. Much of the motivation for the formation of the new group came from Bp. Michael G. Zaharakis of the Mesbarim Fellowship, though Zaharakis died suddenly before the synod was fully organized.

The synod served as a point of unity for independent churches with a valid apostolic succession for the purpose of mutual aid and education. It imposed no doctrinal unity. The synod was fully in accord with the acceptance of women into all levels of the ministry and selected as its first chairperson Bp. Rosamonde Miller of the Ecclesia Gnostic Mysteriorium. While based in sacramental Christianity, it professed acceptance of the authenticity and validity of other religions and the ongoing nature of revelation.

Also included among the original member churches were the Independent Church of Antioch, the Independent Catholic Church International, the New Church of the East, the Johannine Catholic Church, the New Church Universal, the Church of the Seven Seals, the Apostolic Order of the Christos, and the Mesbarim Fellowship.

Membership: Not reported.

Periodicals: SISCOM.