Eucharistic Catholic Church
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Eucharistic Catholic Church in Canada is an Independent Catholic denomination based in Toronto, Ontario which seeks to minister to people without regard to their sexual orientation. It has a special concern for all those who are excluded by their former churches, including gays and lesbians.
The Canadian church grew out of a now-defunct American church of similar name. It had been founded in 1946 by an American teacher and a former bishop of the Church of Greece who had been exiled because of his sexual orientation.
A group of gays and lesbians at Sacred Heart (Roman Catholic) Parish in Atlanta, Georgia had been consistently refused Communion. In protest, they adopted the practice of remaining at the altar rail until the end of Mass. Soon, heterosexual sympathizers joined them. Untimately, a new church was founded for these worshippers.
The Canadian church was founded in 1977 and was active for several years in Montreal. By 1981, however, all of the members had left the church and joined a branch of the Old Roman Catholic Church. The Eucharistic Catholic Church in Canada was refounded in 2004 by Bishop Darrel Hockley of Regina. He then relocated to Vancouver, but in the next year Bishop Hockley retired, permitting Roger LaRade, then a friar of the Apostolic Society of Catholic Faith Communities (formerly a Jesuit and later a priest of the Old Catholic Church of Canada) to be consecrated as his successor. Bishop LaRade resides in Toronto serving Beloved Disciple Eucharistic Catholic Church, now a part of the ECCC. Bishop Hockley remains a supporter of Propitiation (Toronto).
