New Church Restructuring Announced

The Patriarchate of the Holy Nicholean Catholic and Holy Imperial Russian Orthodox Church is announcing a complete restructuring of the Church dynamic effective immediately. As of today, all ministers, deacons, and priests, whether in active or inactive status must reapply to the new foundation ministry organized to bridge the gap between both the external and internal ministerial authority. Any minister, deacon, and/or priest who received ordination under the authority of the Holy Nicholean Catholic and/or Holy Imperial Russian Orthodox Church and fails to reapply to the new ministerial authority by September 30, 2012, for renewal of their ministerial license, will be automatically laicized with all of the rights and privileges of their current Orders revoked. All ministers must reapply by submitting in writing a request for a new license at office@nicholean.org. Reapplication will require a mandatory training program before reception of a new license to practice is issued. All current licenses for active ministry are now in a state of complete suspension. Any minister, deacon, and/or priest deciding not to reapply and found operating an active ministry independent of the Churches will be declared a schismatic operation and found to be illicit and invalid on the basis of failing to follow proper excardination procedures. As with all motions associated with the new restructuring of the Church, there will be no exceptions to these actions.

It is distressing to the Patriarch that he has been forced into declaring this action, but such is the state of things within the Independent Sacramental Movement, and to some extent, within the greater conventional Church as well. This new structure is designed to strengthen the Church by reeducating its ministers with new and better understandings of Sacramental theology.

If you wish to determine the active ministerial status of any minister, deacon, priest, and/or bishop operating under the Sacramental authority of Patriarch Nicholas III, whether it be within union or outside of the union of our Churches, please contact our chancery office at office@nicholean.org or call 207-370-9077.

Our Formal Position on Female Clergy

At this time, the Holy Nicholean Catholic Church yields to the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches on the question of female priests and bishops. Like homosexual marriage, such a serious deviation from the traditional teaching of the Church, we contend, must come from the actions of an ecumenical council or via reasonable historical precedent. While we do recognize that the extra-canonical sources (e.g. the Gospel of Philip and the Gospel of Mary) appear to reflect a favorable theology and St. Paul himself may have had high ranking female clergy under his pastoral care, we feel such a decision must be made by the Church as a whole. We have decided, however, to begin ordaining female deaconesses in keeping with the traditions of the early Church as demonstrated abundantly in such writings as the third century A.D. Didascalia Apostolorum. Additionally, the Eastern Orthodox Churches have a standing history of ordaining women to the Order of Deaconess, the rites of which can be found in the seventeenth century A.D. Dmitrievsky's Eucholgia. Also, the icon of St. Dorothy of Kashin (see right) pictures her holding a censor, the common attribute of a deacon. Such evidence proves to our satisfaction the sacramental nature and validity of the Office of Deaconess.

In the HNCC, both Deacons and Deaconesses are eligible to receive ministerial license (Reverend status) and have the sacramental authority to perform baptisms, weddings, funerals, last rites, exorcisms, communion services outside of Mass, read the Gospel at Mass, offer pastoral counseling, and offer sermons.

The Ordination of Reverend Bryan D. Ouellette, Ph.D. to the priesthood of the Russian Orthodox Tradition.

The Ordination of Reverend Bryan D. Ouellette, Ph.D. to the priesthood of the Russian Orthodox Tradition. from Universal Church of Autogenes on Vimeo.

Dr. Bryan Ouellette is ordained priest in the Universal Church of Autogenes and is officially elevated to Abbot of the Holy Monastic Order En Deus. Later he celebrates the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.

A Very Busy Week

Greetings All!

My apologies for not contributing much activity to the blog this week. My ordination to priesthood and my formal elevation to abbot will take place on Lazarus Saturday (March 27, 2010), but we will be celebrating the vigil of Palm Sunday at the liturgy. Needless to say, the preparations for this event are huge and have been taking up all of my time. The complete event, however, will be filmed and posted to the blog probably sometime after Easter. Then things should start returning to normal.

Blessings to you all!