Of all recent denominations formed, the Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church is surely the most eclectic. It was formed by a group who broke away from the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in 1997. All Lutherans, this group claims, are Catholics formed into involuntary schism by the Catholic Church’s reaction to Martin Luther’s attempt at reform. (Give these Lutherans credit for a concept new in Christian history: “involuntary schism.”) This position holds that all Lutherans are Catholics — that is, except those who hold any Calvinist or Zwinglian views.
The Anglo-Lutherans also accept the Anglican Book of Common Prayer’s Articles of Religion as interpreted by John Henry Newman (when he was still Anglican) and insofar as they do not conflict with Catholic teaching. In their worship they use the liturgy the Church has provided for Anglican Use parishes. They claim they accept all official Catholic teaching, and they accept primal papacy and papal infallibility (though, of course, they are not subject to the primacy and infallibility). This group holds that its clergy have received the apostolic succession through various schismatic and Anglican offshoots.
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