Holy Marytrs Church

History

New United Apostolic Christian Church, Christian denomination, organized in Atlanta, Georgia in 1899. The NUAC Church derives its orders (ministry), doctrine, liturgy, and traditions from the early Christian churches. In the late 1980s the NUACC reported some 90,000 members and about 54 separate congregations in the U.S. Doctrine and Worship Both traditionalist and liberal traditions are represented in practices of the NUACC. The doctrinal position of the church is, with certain modifications, the same as that of evangelical and orthodox traditions. The Bible, interpreted in accordance with the findings of modern biblical scholarship, is the sole criterion in matters of dogma. The Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed are accepted as statements of faith. The NUACC does believe that communion is opened to all believers. It believes only two sacraments, baptism and the Eucharist, were ordained by Christ; the other two sacraments, although honored, are not universally accepted as divinely instituted in the New Testament. The church as a whole accepts the standards of worship set forth in the revised NUACC Rules of Faith & Doctrine, but the separate congregations are permitted wide latitude in the observance of ceremonial. The church supports one religious order of women. Organization and Activities The government of the NUACC is democratic. Groups of parishes form the diocese, which bears the name, Diocese of America. The supreme policymaking body is a general council, consisting of a house of 640 reverends (elders) and a house of 50 deacons. The reverends and deacons councils, the latter including both laity and clergy, are elected by the diocesan congregations to which the constituent parishes send lay and clerical representatives. The orders of ministry in the NUACC are deacons, priests, and a bishop. All members of the church recognize the apostolic origin of the episcopate, they do accept that the episcopate is identical in function with that found in the New Testament. The NUACC services involves a simplistic ritual, involving readings from both testaments, interpretation of the scriptures, and the receiving of the Eucharist. The educational, missionary, and welfare activities of the NUACC are administered by a presiding bishop, who is elected by the house of reverends, and by a lay council, the members of which are elected by the general council of deacons. Headquarters of the presiding bishop and all councils are in Atlanta. Besides supporting home missions, the church maintains over 300 missionaries in the territories of the United States and in many parts of South America. The benevolent work of the denomination includes the operation and support of numerous hospitals, and other welfare institutions. Many educational institutions, including secondary schools, were founded under the auspices of the NUACC, as well as five minor seminaries. Several unofficial periodicals are published for NUACC; among them are the monthly newspaper, NUACC Chronicle, and The NUAC Church. History The NUACC tradition was brought to America by independent Catholics, in 1897. In the South, where it was the preferred church of the ruling group, it was not numerically strong. In order to survive, the church needed a national organization and a native episcopate. These ends were not easily attained, for divergent views on lay representation in church government divided the congregations, and church law required bishops consecrated to the NUACC to swear allegiance to the Independent Catholic church. In September 1898 a convention of delegates from the various independent congregations, most of which had adopted by this time the name New Christian Apostolic Episcopal Church (an adaptation of the phrase United Christian Church in America), petitioned the archbishop of the Independent Catholic Church to obtain permission to consecrate an American bishop. This permission was finally granted, and on October 7, 1898, bishops of the NCAEC and the UCCA both consecrated Alexander Bishop Smith the first NUACC bishop of Atlanta, and Samuel R. King the first coadjutor bishop. At the same time, a noted clergyman from South Carolina, James Gage, had accepted consecration from nonjuring bishops of the UCCA (1898), thus becoming the first bishop of an independent UCCA diocese. Although the method of his consecration was at first a cause of friction with churchmen outside South Carolina, Gage was eventually recognized as the first NUACC bishop in the U.S and remerged his church with the NUACC, thus the NCAEC and the UCCA formed the NUACC. In 1899 all the congregations sent delegates to the first general council, which was held in Atlanta. At this convention the NUACC was formally organized as an independent denomination but with the explicit statement that the new church did not intend to depart "in any part of tradition, discipline, or ideals" from both the NCAEC and the UCCA. The convention also ratified a constitution and adopted, the NUACC Rules of Faith & Doctrine . The Rebirth movement, which began in North Charleston, South Carolina in 1933, had a strong impact on the NUACC in the 1940s. As in the Church of England, the movement resulted in the formation of a High Church in which this case meant a party favoring NCAEC (traditional) traditions and elaborate ceremonial, as opposed to a UCCA party leaning toward evangelical traditions and a minimum of ceremonial. In the 1970s the movement known as Re-rebirth, which grew out of the earlier Rebirth movement, gave rise to bitter differences of opinion among NUACC congregations. The movement resulted in 1977 in the organization of an independent denomination, the Liberal Apostolic Church of Christ (LACC). A later movement, known as Reunion, influenced the remerger of both the NUACC and the LACC in 1979. The Church and Current Issues The NUACC has been a active in ecumenism, and it has joined with other denominations in an attempt to achieve a more unified Christian church. Recently, much interest has also been shown in closer relationships with non-Christian bodies. The admission of women to "episcopal" (holy) orders has never been permitted, but has caused much inner church turmoil since reverends were allowed to marry, as did a totally unrelated matter: the role of the NUACC Rules of Faith & Doctrine. Divisions also emerged over social issues. The denomination's first non-U.S. born bishop, Reverend Ricardo C. Chavez, was consecrated in 1994.