On January 14, 1979, the six members of the General Apostolic Council of the New Covenant Apostolic Order (NCAO)—Peter Gillquist, Jack Sparks, Jon Braun, J.R. Ballew, Gordon Walker, and Kenneth Berven—stood in a circle and self-ordained and proclaimed each other bishops.[7] The following day they announced the formation of a new denomination—the Evangelical Orthodox Church—consisting of congregations following the NCAO.[8] According to NCAO leaders, the EOC was launched with 2,500 members in fifty churches organized into seventeen dioceses.[9][10] However, former members reported the membership as less than 1,000.[11][12]
Controversies
The EOC generated controversy throughout its short history, mostly regarding its view of apostolic succession and of apostolic authority. In mainstream Eastern Orthodoxy the hierarchy of authority is based on belief in an unbroken line of apostolic succession, from which the appointment of bishops proceeds. Jack Sparks argued that any attempt to trace such a succession inevitably included false apostles and bad men. In place of the Eastern Orthodox tradition of apostolic succession, Sparks argued for "charismatic" succession.[13]
The EOC was itself criticized by both secular and evangelical sources for the bishops’ exercise of binding authority over members.[14][15][16] The EOC was plagued with internal problems, one notable case involving disclosure of confidential communications from a penitent in confession which was taken to civil court. In that case the California Courts of Appeal denied the EOC leaders’ legal claim to ecclesiastical privilege.[17]
In 1984 the bishops applied for the EOC's membership in the National Association of Evangelicals. Their application was tabled over concerns by members of the executive committee concerning the EOC’s teachings and practices.[21][22] Growing impatient with the lack of progress in dialogues with the OCA and Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the EOC bishops travelled to Istanbul where they were turned away and not given an audience with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.[23][24][12] Orthodox sources have stated that the two primary reasons why the collective Eastern Orthodox Church was hesitant to embrace the EOC were the continued influence of Shepherding Movement teachings regarding hierarchical authority and the EOC bishops’ desire to remain as bishops, which was unacceptable as Eastern Orthodox bishops must be celibate and appointed by the appropriate authorities through standard procedure based on apostolic succession. It was unthinkable that any Eastern Orthodox Church patriarch would agree to these terms.[25][26]
Disposition of parishes
Fr. John Bartke, who had been a member of the Christian World Liberation Front with Jack Sparks and had acted as the primary intermediary with the AOCANA, served as host for the initial set of chrismations and ordinations of the EOC at St. Michael's Church in Van Nuys, California.[27][28] The group of 20 parishes became known as the Antiochian Evangelical Orthodox Mission, which subsequently issued a statement to Metropolitan Philip of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America stating that they knew what Orthodoxy was. The Antiochian Evangelical Orthodox Mission lasted until 1995 when it was disbanded and the parishes put under the standard diocesan framework of the archdiocese.[29]
Conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy
On September 8, 1986, the majority of the EOC became part of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America under Metropolitan Philip Saliba. The bishops of the EOC who joined were demoted to the rank of priests—a requirement by the Antiochian Archdiocese which caused some EOC bishops to refrain from joining. According to Peter Gillquist, about three-fourths of the bishops accepted Metropolitan Philips' terms and joined, a total of 17 parishes.[30][12]
Peter Gillquist said to the Los Angeles Times, "We will not be a ‘church within a church.' Metropolitan Philip wants us to maintain our evangelical identity and to concentrate on evangelism and building mission churches."[12]
Modern-day
According to the EOC's official website, as of September of 2024 it consists of five churches: three in the United States, and one each in Canada and Sweden. The EOC is overseen by a synod of bishops currently consisting of: Bp. Jakob Palm (Saskatoon, Canada), Bp. Thomas Andersson (Halmstad, Sweden), Bp. Mike Quigley (Brookfield, Missouri), and Bp. Joshua Beecham, presiding (Indianapolis, Indiana). Over 200 African parishes that had belonged to the EOC were released in August of 2024 on the grounds that the EOC did not have the resources to care for them properly.[31]
We believe that apostolic succession is primarily a matter of holding apostolic faith...
We believe that the traceable lineage of bishops is one aspect of apostolic succession but not the exclusive condition upon which apostolic succession rests.
We have retained our self-governing status in order to avoid being required to follow some other ethnic expression of the faith rather than an indigenous and culturally authentic one.
^Lloyd R. Thompson, “A Critical Analysis of the Evangelical Orthodox Church (New Covenant Apostolic Order)” (Ph.D. diss., Yale Divinity School, 1979), 20.
^Ruth Stiling, “An Examination of the Evangelical Orthodox Church” (M.A. thesis, Dallas Theological Seminary, May 1980), 17-18.
^Steve Barth, “Development of Evangelical Church Traced: Twelve Years of Theology Change Moves Away from Anti-Authority,” Daily Nexus (November 13, 1979): 2.
^D. Oliver Herbel, Turning to Tradition: Converts and the Making of an American Orthodox Church (Oxford University Press, 2014), 104-117.
^Walker, Gordon (September 1983). "Odyssey to Orthodoxy". Again. Vol. 6, no. 3. p. 10.
^Stiling, Ruth L. (1980). An Examination of the Evangelical Orthodox Church (MA). Dallas, TX: Dallas Theological Seminary. p. 25.
^Hitt, Russell T. (March 1980). "Go East, Young Men". Eternity. Vol. 31, no. 3. p. 13.
^Vecsey, George (March 11, 1979). "New Group Combines Evangelism and Orthodoxy". The New York Times. p. 25.
^Counts, Bill (November 2, 1979). The Evangelical Orthodox Church and the New Covenant Apostolic Order (Report). Berkeley, CA: Spiritual Counterfeits Project. p. 1.
^Herbel, D. Oliver (2014). Turning to Tradition: Converts and the Making of the American Orthodox Church. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 108–110. ISBN9780199324958. OCLC869486494.
^Liacopulos, George P. (2000). Lights of the Modern World: Orthodox Christian Mission and Evangelism in the United States. Minneapolis, MN: Light & Life Publishing. p. 125. ISBN1880971577.
^Fester, Joseph H. (1982). The Evangelical Orthodox Church and Its Dialogue with the Orthodox Church in America (M.Div.). Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Seminary. p. 46. OCLC926121110.
^Gillquist, Peter (1992). Becoming Orthodox: A Journey to the Ancient Christian Faith (rev. ed.). Ben Lomond, CA: Conciliar Press. pp. 125–128. ISBN9780962271335. OCLC27034433.
^Fester, "The Evangelical Orthodox Church", p. 49, citing Alexander Schmemann, "Report on Participating in the Session of the Council of Bishops of the Evangelical Orthodox Church—Santa Barbara, Ca., June 7–9, 1981", a report submitted to the Metropolitan Council of the Orthodox Church in America.
