The Old Catholic Church :: essays research papers

Long before Christianity was divided into splinter groups, there was the old catholic Church. Each locality had a church, and each church had its bishop who superintended their spiritual life. All churches and all bishops stood on equal footing with one another. For they were all direct recipients of the Gospel of Jesus Christ from the Apostles. Each locality applied the Sacred Scriptures to their unique cultures. And from that effort, four great branches of Christianity developed: Asian, Greek, Latin and Celtic. The Asian branch represented the Aramaic and Parthian perspective, which developed into the "Church of the East". It was later called the Nestorian Church. This great church evangelized the Asian world (including China) and gave us the Peshitta - the Textus Receptus in the language spoken by our Lord. The Greek branch developed in the Hellenistic world which later became the Byzantine Empire. Most of the great Church Fathers came from this branch. They were responsible for formulating the early Creeds of Christianity. The Latin branch originated in North Africa and later rooted in southern Europe. The Roman Catholic Church and many Protestant denominations have come from this branch. It became the Classical expression of Christianity during the Middle Ages. The Celtic branch of Christianity has been the minority branch within Latin Christianity for the last one thousand years. But during the first one thousand years of the Christian era, it was the dominant branch in northern Europe and the British Isles. It was responsible for the survival of Christianity and of general knowledge during the barbarian invasions following the collapse of the Roman Empire. Celtic Christianity represented the interaction of the Druids with the teachings of the Bible. It was responsible for the unique personal consciousness, love of liberty, and the curiosity of Western man. THE CAMBRIAN CHURCH The Church of Cambria was the fountainhead of Celtic Christianity from the time of the Apostles and for many centuries thereafter. This was the logical result of the fact that Cambria had also been the center of Druidism. Converted Druids became the leading bishops of the Celtic world. During the early Middle Ages, the Cambrian Church formed the core of the resistance to the dictatorial tendencies of the Roman Popes. During the late Middle Ages and the early Modern Era, its spiritual heirs continued that resistance against the entire edifice of Latin Christianity, whether Roman Catholic or Protestant. Today, the Cambrian Church is in "diaspora", especially in America.