The ECC traces it’s roots to the Catholic traditions of the Conciliarists of the Middle Ages, who held the most ancient tradition of Christianity: that the highest authority of the church resides in the church councils in which the leaders (i.e., Bishops, Church Councils, etc.) of the whole church join together to affirm its teaching and governance.

In 1870, the Pope declared his authority to be higher than all Church Councils.  A group of Catholics, refuting this assertion, gathered to form the Union of Utrecht. They became known as the Old Catholics, as they did not accept the new dogma of papal infallibility, and held to traditional  practices about church authority (i.e., Church Councils as governing body). 

The “old Catholic” movement spread through Europe and eventually to America.  In 2003, a group of independent Catholic  communities,  inheritors of this Old Catholic tradition, drafted a constitution and become the Ecumenical Catholic Communion (ECC). The ECC,  now with faith communities throughout North America, bears witness to the early Catholic tradition (i.e., the first 1000 years of Christianity), that included election of bishops by the people, priests who were married or celibate, and a variety of ways to be Catholic.

The ECC celebrates the seven traditional Catholic sacraments, is led by bishops and priests, and welcomes all.