Free Anglican Church In America

Background of the Church

This Church was originally established in Scotland in 1788 when a presbyter in the regular Non-juroring Scottish Episcopal Church, the Rev'd James Brown of Edinburgh, obtained consecration from the Rt. Rev'd Charles Rose, Bishop of Dunblane from 1774 until his death. Both Bishop Rose and Presbyter Brown were among those Scottish Non-jurors who would not accept George the Third and the House of Hanover when the rest of the Scottish Episcopal Church began to offer public prayers for the King in January of 1788. Bishop Rose hoped by consecrating Bishop Brown that the latter would continue on with a Jacobite Non-juroring episcopal church. Bishop Brown established what is known as the Old Episcopal Church of Scotland. Both Bishops Rose and Brown died in 1791. Before his death Bishop Brown had consecrated Donald Macintosh (1743 to 1808) as his successor. Bishop Macintosh made annual tours ministering to members of the Old Episcopal Church throughout the Perthshire Highlands to Banffshire. He was a Gaelic scholar of note and was highly respected in spite of his being "the last of the non-jurant clergy in Scotland". He lived quite comfortable as his many parishioners were very generous in supporting him. Bishop Macintosh was the holder of the position of Keeper of the Gaelic Records to the Royal Highland Society of Scotland. He died in Edinburgh on 17 February 1808 and is buried in Greyfriars Cemetery there.

One of his admirers was the Rev'd Dr. Alexander Niven (1760 to 1833), Church of Scotland (presbyterian) minister at Dunkeld. Dr. Niven was named by Bishop Macintosh to be one of the curators of his personal library which was bequeathed to the "Cathedral City of Dunkeld". According to oral history, sometime before Bishop Macintosh's death he consecrated Dr. Niven to continue the Old Scots Church episcopal succession. To keep his promise to Bishop Macintosh that he would guard this lineage, sometime after 1825 Dr. Niven consecrated his son, the Rev'd Alexander Niven (1798 to 1872), who served as minister at Balfron Church, Stirlingshire from 1825 until his death. The younger Bishop Niven died on 14 February 1872 in his 74th year. By this time there had arose what is known as the "Scots-Catholic Movement" within the Church of Scotland. Various presbyterian ministers were rediscovering the liturgical expressions of faith and worship but did not wish to leave the Church of Scotland for either the Roman Catholic or the Scottish Episcopal churches. The episcopal lineage of the Old Scots Church carried on into presbyterian clergy circles and in addition to the desire to be a 'primitive catholic', a hint of Scottish nationalism would be exhibited by these presbyter-bishops not under the authority of either Rome or the Anglican Communion. Also there were independent Anglican congregations within Scotland not part of the Scottish Episcopal Church that used the services of retired English or colonial Church of England bishops for giving them episcopal oversight.

John Thomas Seccombe (1835 to 1895), an English Anglican, came across the Old Scots Church while studying medicine at the University of St. Andrews. Dr. Seccombe was interested in all things pertaining to Christianity in early Britain which resulted in his receiving consecration from the younger Bishop Niven sometime before 1862. Dr. Seccombe was later to receive further consecrations from bishops involved with the Syrian Orthodox Church (1866) and The Order of Corporate Reunion (1877). He assisted as a co-consecrator for Richard Williams Morgan (1874) and Charles Isaac Stevens (1879) for the Ancient British Church. In his 1958 history on the Catholic Apostolic Church - The Man From Antioch: being an account of Mar Julius, Bishop of Iona, and of his successors, the British Patriarchs, from 1866 to 1944 - Mar Georgius (Hugh George de Willmott Newman) states on page four that Dr. Seccombe "appears to have himself been a Bishop, as a letter exists written by him in 1862, signed with an episcopal cross".

The direct episcopal succession of the Old Episcopal Church of Scotland came to the USA in the person of Archbishop Harry Edwin Smith who claimed he was consecrated by its last British Primus, Archbishop Cowan King - the Rev'd Canon Edward Julian Cowan King-Salter (born 1899), many years a Church of England priest in the Diocese of Manchester - on 10 July 1970. +Harry E. Smith was known to stretch the truth on occassion - there was no continuing Old Scots Episcopal Church, just the episcopal succession derived from it as shown above. Bishop Cowan King-Salter was probably consecrated sometime in the 1950s by Primus William Hall (1890 to 1959) of the Free Protestant Episocopal Church. Dr. Hall was known to have given episcopal rank to various Church of England priests during that decade and it is likely Canon Cowan King-Salter was one of them.

The California branch of the church was incorporated in that State on 23 April 1980 as the Free Anglican Church In America. Its first presiding bishop, the Rt. Rev'd Joseph Lampl (1925 to 1994) was consecrated in 1974 by Archbishop Smith.

In 1975 a priest ordained in the PECUSA, the Rev'd Edward Frederick Vazquez (born 1935) joined the Free Anglican Church. In 1991 he was consecrated as the Church's assistant bishop by +Lampl. On 1 December 1994 he was sub-conditione consecrated by +Lampl, assisted by +Paul Christian G.W. Schultz and +Jurgen Bless in Bishop Lampl's home in Sunland, CA, and installed as the Church's second Presiding Bishop. This was to remove any doubts as to +Vazquez's episcopal status as Bishops Schultz and Bless were also holders of the Old Scots Church episcopal succession.

Worship

The Free Anglican Church uses the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer as its main liturgy, since it is largely based on the 1764 Scottish BCP. It is socially progressive, welcoming all those in need of a church home. For some eighteen years Bishop Vazquez's congregation shared the use of Holy Trinity Metropolitan Community Church in Los Angeles until 2002 when it relocated to shared facilities within San Judas Tadeo Apotol Parish, courteously of the Prime Bishop of the Hispanic Catholic Church, the Most Rev'd Juan De Dios Correa, OSB. San Judas Tadeo Apostol Parish is located at 812 North Alvarado Street, Los Angeles. Administrative office of the Free Anglican Church is as indicated at the top of this website.

Episcopal Lineages:

The following is the most reliable episcopal lineage from Bishop Rose to Bishop Vazquez:
Charles Rose cons. in 1788
James Brown who cons. in 1791
Donald Macintosh who cons. in 1807 or 1808
Alexander Niven Sr. who cons. before 1833
Alexander Niven Jr who cons. before 1862
John Thomas Seccombe who cons. on 6 March 1879
Charles Isaac Stevens who cons. on 4 May 1890
Leon Checkemian who cons. on 2 November 1897
Andrew Charles Albert McLaglen who cons. on 4 June 1922
Herbert James Monzani Heard who cons. on 18 May 1939
William Hall who cons. on 6 April 1952
Charles Dennis Boltwood who cons. on 2 June 1957
Emmett Neil Enochs who cons. on 19 May 1963
Frederick Charles King who cons. on 18 May 1975
Paul Christian G. W. Schultz Jr. who cons. on 1 December 1994
Edward Frederick Vazquez

On 9 January 1984 the Most Rev'd Frederick Rea O'Keefe (born 1944) of Tampa, Florida became the archbishop of what is known as the restored Old Episcopal Church of Scotland , a church having a common origin with that of the Free Anglican Church In America resulting from the work of Archbishop H.E. Smith. Archbishop O'Keefe was originally consecrated a bishop for this body on 7 April 1982 by +Charles Virgil Hearn of the Old Catholic Church in North America (O'Keefe was originally a priest in that jurisdiction), assisted by +Smith. Dr. O'Keefe's episcopal succession is the same as +Edward F. Vazquez's as stated above down to
Herbert James Monzani Heard who cons. on 13 June 1943
William Bernard Crow who cons. on 10 April 1944
Hugh George de Wilmott Newman who cons. about 1949
Charles Dennis Boltwood (his first consecration) who cons. on 25 December 1950
Grant Timothy Billet who cons. on 16 June 1967
Charles Virgil Hearn who cons. on 7 April 1982
Frederick Rea O'Keefe