A Letter to the Bishops, Priests and Deacons

A Letter to Clergy for Holy Thursday

Dear Brothers in Christ,

Grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

On this most sacred of evenings, when the Church gathers to remember the night on which our Lord took bread, broke it, and gave it to his disciples with the words This is my body, I write to you with a grateful heart. Holy Thursday is, before all else, the feast of the priesthood: not the priesthood as institution or office, but the priesthood as gift. The gift of Christ to his Church, and through the Church to a world that is hungry, broken, and longing to be loved.

It is also the night of the basin and the towel. Before he took bread, he knelt. Before he gave himself, he served. In that gesture of washing feet, our Lord did not simply offer a lesson in humility; he defined the shape of all priestly ministry. We are not lords over the flock entrusted to us. We are servants of the servants of God. Whatever else this letter says, let it say that first and say it plainly.

A Year of Foundations

The past year has been, in the most literal sense, a year of foundation-laying for the Ancient Apostolic Catholic Church, and I use that phrase with full theological seriousness. The foundations we have laid are not merely administrative. They are ecclesial. They are an expression of what we believe the Church to be, and of what we believe God is calling us to become.

The promulgation of the Declaration of the AACC gave our Church its constitutional identity. In that foundational document, we set out the forming principles of our life together: our apostolic faith, our commitment to genuine catholicity, our governance structures, and our missionary vocation. Every church that endures must know what it is and why it exists. The Declaration gives us that clarity, and I commend it to each of you as a living document, one that deserves to be read, prayed over, and understood not merely as a legal instrument but as a statement of faith.

From that constitutional foundation, the Synod of Bishops was established as the Church's primary collegial body, giving episcopal governance a proper conciliar shape and ensuring that no one voice bears the weight of the whole Church alone. Episcopacy rightly understood is not monarchy; it is a college, and a college that must pray and discern together.

Our jurisdictional structure has also taken clear and ordered form. The See of the East Angles was established as the Primatial See, giving the office of Archbishop Primate a proper canonical home. The Archdiocese of Ghana, the Archdiocese of Northern England, and the Archdiocese of Eastern United States each emerged as distinct local churches, called to embody the ancient apostolic faith in their own cultural and geographical contexts. All parishes and communities not belonging to one of these named jurisdictions fall under the direct authority of the Primatial See, ensuring that no community is without a canonical home. Beyond these archdiocesan structures, the Missionary Diocese of Pakistan and the Missionary Diocese of Cameroon were established, giving canonical form to our most active missionary frontiers. Mission is not an optional extra for a church that takes the Gospel seriously. It is constitutive of who we are.

The Code of Canon Law

One of the most significant achievements of this past year has been the promulgation of the Code of Canon Law of the Ancient Apostolic Catholic Church. This represents far more than an administrative milestone. It is a theological statement: that we are a Church with roots, with order, and with a genuine commitment to the life of the Gospel expressed in institutional form. Good law serves the same purpose as the Rule of a monastic community; it creates the conditions in which grace can flourish and in which the rights and responsibilities of all the faithful are properly protected.

I ask every bishop, priest, and deacon to make themselves thoroughly familiar with the Code's provisions. It exists not to constrain ministry but to serve it, providing a clear and stable framework within which clergy and communities can exercise their vocations with confidence and security. The Code also provides a sound basis for our relationships with other independent Catholic jurisdictions, offering them a point of reference and a sign of our seriousness as a canonical body. I am grateful to all who contributed to this work, which has been years in the making and will serve this Church for generations.

The Order of St David

The Order of St David has had a year of considerable and fruitful labour, and I wish to acknowledge that work with genuine gratitude. The production of the Rule of St David, the spiritual exercises in A Path of Prayer, and The Little Hours: A Celtic Prayer Book represents a body of formational and devotional resource that is now available to all who seek a deeper life of prayer shaped by the ancient Davidic and Camaldolese Benedictine traditions.

These are not merely publications. They are instruments of encounter with God, shaped by centuries of Celtic Christian wisdom and the contemplative heritage that has nourished so much of our common life. The motto of the Order, Gwnewch y pethau bychain, do the little things, has proved itself again this year. Patient, faithful, often unnoticed labour has yielded fruit that will outlast the labour itself. I commend the resources of the Order to every member of our clergy as an aid to your own prayer and formation, and I encourage those who feel drawn to the Order's way of life to enquire further. A dispersed religious community that takes seriously both the interior life and the active apostolate is a gift to any church, and the Order of St David is precisely that.

The Seminary of Saint Thomas Aquinas

The formation of future clergy is among the most serious and consequential responsibilities we bear as a Church, and this year the Seminary of Saint Thomas Aquinas has made substantial strides in fulfilling that responsibility with greater rigour and reach than ever before.

The Seminary's commitment is to a formation that is genuinely integrated: not merely academic, though academic rigour matters greatly, and not merely practical, though practical wisdom is indispensable, but a formation in which theological learning, pastoral skill, spiritual depth, and personal maturity are developed together. We seek to form not simply competent ministers but holy and wise ones, men and women whose learning is ordered to service and whose service is sustained by prayer.

I am particularly pleased to note that the Seminary has extended this formational offering beyond our own Church, making its resources available to clergy of other independent Catholic jurisdictions. This is an act of genuine ecumenical generosity. It reflects our belief that the formation of good clergy serves the whole Church, not only our own. It also positions the Seminary as a recognised centre of learning and formation within the broader independent Catholic world, and I believe that in time this work will bear significant fruit for the wider renewal of apostolic ministry. I ask your prayers for all who are currently in formation, and for the faculty and staff whose dedicated work makes that formation possible.

The Franciscan Missionaries of the Holy Cross

The establishment of the Franciscan Missionaries of the Holy Cross as a canonical Society of Apostolic Life of Primatial Right was one of the most significant structural developments in our Church this year. I want to explain the thinking behind it, both for those already part of this body and for those who may be considering whether it is a home for them.

The apostolic life of our missionaries does not fit neatly within the classical framework of a religious institute or congregation, which is primarily oriented towards the common pursuit of evangelical perfection through public vows and established residential community life. Our missionaries are dispersed across countries and cultures, serving in challenging and often unpredictable pastoral contexts. They need flexibility and adaptability. A Society of Apostolic Life was created precisely for clergy whose primary purpose is apostolic work. Members make sacred bonds rather than public vows, providing genuine commitment and stability without the full canonical obligations of religious life. The Franciscan spirit of poverty, simplicity, joy, and service to the poor animates this Society fully and authentically.

As a canonically established body of Primatial Right, the Franciscan Missionaries of the Holy Cross have full juridic personality, proper governance structures, and a direct relationship with the Primate. Their rights and responsibilities are protected under canon law. They have all the stability of a canonical body, with the freedom that genuine mission demands. I invite any independent Franciscan missionary within the AACC who has not yet discerned a relationship with the Society to look seriously at this new direction. There is room for those who feel the call.

The Missionaries of the Punjab

I must speak with particular warmth and gratitude about the witness of Fr Daniel, Fr Stefan, and Deacon Josephkutty in the Punjab over the course of this past year. The Missionary Diocese of Pakistan was established in June of last year, and almost immediately our brothers found themselves ministering not in the conditions they might have anticipated but in the aftermath of devastating flooding that left entire communities without homes, without livestock, and without the livelihoods on which their survival depended.

Fr Daniel, Fr Stefan, and Deacon Josephkutty did not withdraw. They stayed. They wept with those who wept, helped rebuild what could be rebuilt, and brought the sacramental presence of Christ into the most devastated corners of the flood's aftermath. This is the Gospel in action. I am profoundly proud of these brothers and I ask every bishop, priest, and deacon who reads this letter to give thanks for their witness. They have represented this Church with extraordinary honour, and in the mud and grief of the Punjab they have shown what it truly means to wash feet.

Our Mission in Cameroon

Alongside the work of our brothers in Pakistan, the mission in Cameroon continues under the episcopal care of Fr Marcelin Ba'Ana. The orphanage at Ebolowa gives shelter, love, and hope to children who have been deprived of all three. It is also a work in genuine need of our support: in prayer, in practical generosity, and in the kind of sustained attention that prevents urgent needs from fading from view once the initial moment of concern has passed. I ask each of you to ensure that the mission in Cameroon does not become a footnote to our more comfortable concerns. These are our brothers and sisters. Their needs are our responsibility.

Looking Forward: The Challenges Before Us

I would be less than honest if I spoke only of blessings. Holy Thursday is also the night of Gethsemane. The cup does not always pass from us.

We face the perennial challenge of visibility and credibility in a world that is deeply suspicious of institutional religion. The wounds left by the failings of the wider Church, failings that are not ours, but whose shadow falls across all who wear a collar, mean that we must work harder than ever to demonstrate by the quality of our lives and the integrity of our ministry that the Church of Christ is not an apparatus of power but a living community of love. The answer to that suspicion is not clever arguments. It is the basin and the towel, again and again. It is Fr Daniel and Fr Stefan in the floodwaters of the Punjab. It is Fr Marcelin in Ebolowa. It is Archbishop Chris walking the wards. It is Archbishop Michael visiting the sick. It is you, in whatever corner of the vineyard God has given you, doing the little things faithfully.

We face the challenge of formation and continuity. A Church without well-formed clergy is a Church without a future. I ask each of you to take seriously your own continuing formation and to invest in the formation of those who come after you. Read. Pray. Seek out good counsel. Ordination was not the end of the journey; it was, at most, the end of the beginning.

We face the challenge of unity across distance. Our communities are dispersed, and many of our clergy serve without the daily companionship of brothers in ministry. I want to say clearly to any among you who finds that isolation difficult: you are not forgotten. You are part of something that now stretches from the East Angles to Ghana, from Northern England to the Eastern United States, from the Punjab to the forests of Cameroon. Your Primate thinks of you, prays for you, and is always willing to listen. The Church is not an institution you serve from a distance. It is a family you belong to.

A Word for Tonight

On this Holy Thursday, I invite you to enter fully into the mystery being celebrated. Whether you are celebrating the Mass of the Lord's Supper, joining in prayer with your community, or keeping vigil alone, let the meaning of this night penetrate you. The God of the universe knelt to wash the feet of fishermen. The Lord of Life took the form of bread and said, Take and eat: this is myself, given for you. And then he went out into the garden to pray, knowing what was coming, and he did not turn back.

That is the priesthood we have been called to share. Not a priesthood of privilege, but of self-offering. Not a ministry of status, but of love that costs something.

Gwnewch y pethau bychain. Do the little things. This past year has shown, again and again, that the little things: the faithfully tended mission, the canonical structure quietly put in place, the rule written for those who seek God in the ordinary, the seminary that forms the next generation with care, the priest who stays when the floods come: these are not little at all. They are the whole of it.

I close this letter with something practical and, I hope, something useful. Attached to this letter you will find a document entitled My Journey through Holy Week, which is the first part of a new book I have been writing: a Companion to Holy Week for personal prayer, preparation, and reflection. It is not a theological treatise, nor is it a liturgical manual. It is a personal pilgrimage through the days of the Triduum, written in the conviction that Holy Week asks to be entered rather than merely observed. You will find in it reflections on each day of the sacred Triduum, drawing on the wisdom of the patristic tradition and the Benedictine and Celtic contemplative heritage that shapes our common life. I offer it to you not as your Primate but as a fellow pilgrim, a man who has found, year upon year, that this week has more to give than the last time he walked through it. I hope it will be of use to you in your own prayer, and that you will feel free to share it with any in your care who might benefit from it.

I hold each of you in my prayers as this sacred Triduum unfolds. I give thanks for your fidelity, your patience, and your willingness to labour in what is often a difficult and demanding vineyard. I ask for your prayers in return, as I seek each day to lead this Church with the wisdom I do not have but am not ashamed to ask God for.

Go, and do likewise.

In Christ the Servant,

✠ ✠ ✠ Felix Gibbins OSD
Primate & Presiding Archbishop