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Religious Organizations Parent Bodies

St Joseph Holding the Christ Child - Religious Organizations Parent Bodies Often Adopt Clergy As Their Own

Religious organizations parent bodies provide guidance, support, and a framework for their activities. These organizations include national and international bodies, as well as provincial or regional associations. Some examples include the Catholic Church, in each of its Rites and independent branches plus other various Christian denominations, and Muslim, Jewish, and Hindu organizations.

Importance of Religious Organizations Parent Bodies

Cooperation and Support
Parent bodies often provide resources, training, and networking opportunities for local organizations.
Legal and Regulatory Guidance
They can also assist with legal and regulatory issues, such as incorporation, bylaws, human resources considerations and fundraising.
Advocacy and Representation
Parent bodies can advocate for the interests of their members and represent them in public affairs.

Functions of Religious Organizations Parent Bodies

Coordination and Support
Parent bodies often provide support, resources, and coordination for their affiliated congregations or organizations.
Representation
They can represent the interests of their members in government, public policy, and interfaith dialogue.
Training and Education
Many parent bodies offer training programs and resources for clergy and lay leaders. We offer training via St. Brigit’s Seminary Studies as well as ongoing mentorship for those who find value in what we offer, regardless of their denomination.
Legal and Administrative Support
They can provide legal and administrative support for their affiliated groups.
Fundraising
Some parent bodies engage in fundraising for various charitable and religious purposes.

Examples of Christian Religious Organizations Parent Bodies

Anglican Church of Canada: A national body that governs the Anglican Church in Canada.
Baptist Union of Canada: An umbrella organization for Baptist churches across Canada.
Other Christian Denominations: Many other Christian denominations, such as Catholic, Pentecostal, and Presbyterian, also have national or provincial bodies.

Defining Legitimacy of Religious Organizations Parent Bodies
In Canada, Provincial Human Rights Commissions each recognize that organizations can establish their legitimacy through certification from established and recognized parent organizations.

When an esteemed group of faith leaders from many world religion traditions came together in 1984, in Ontario, to form Canada’s Interfaith Network,the four criteria they enunciated are still the most reliable for determining what is a faith: longevity, universality, charitable status, and the right to solemnize unions. To these four a fifth criterion, legitimacy has since been added.

Over and above the five criteria listed above, a religious community in good standing will endorse, uphold and act in accordance with the following:

The principles enunciated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights governing the equality of all peoples regardless of race, creed, religion, sex, income, etc.
The laws of its host nation and other jurisdictions.

The first of these other criteria is a safeguard against racist supremacists masquerading in the legitimacy of faith. Moreover, the second criterion will eliminate such groups that claim illegal substances as sacraments and such fringe organizations that stockpile weapons, kidnap or harm people or openly seek to overthrow the government in the name of faith. (All of these misuses of claims to faith are already documented occurrences.)

These criteria have become the official requirements for recognition of religious organizations parent bodies in Ontario. Exceptions to these criteria were also "grandfathered" into official recognition.

Meanwhile, across Canada their is now quite a range of recognition criteria with each province determining their own standards and requirements for such acceptance. Many provinces and territories only require religious bodies to meet the requirements of their Vital Statics Office for registration as Clergy Marriage Commissioners.

Ontario does not have a 'clergy marriage commissioners' status instead, choosing to use the terms 'wedding officiant' and designating them as 'religious' or 'civil' officiants.

This results in church plants (branches of a church moving into an area/province for the first time) facing 'qualification periods' to be seen as an established church in that province and the qualifying of their clergy as marriage commissioners. These qualification periods vary from a two year wait in most provinces, five years in some and ten years in the province of British Columbia.

Meaning that a mission parish/church plant in British Columbia could potentially have clergy who cannot perform marriage ceremonies/sacrament of Holy Matrimony in their faith for ten years and couples from that faith being forced to wait or marry outside their faith group. I fail to see how this is acceptable or how and why federal oversight has not yet been applied.

Across our country and in Ontario, there are religious bodies granted official status by virtue of being 'grandfathered', meaning they had been recognized prior to the new requirements being put into place. Some of these religious bodies will never be incorporated, registered as not for profits or charities and some of these faith groups exist only within the American continent (North and South America) and thus cannot claim universality.

Still other denominations and their parent bodies are are viewed as new strains and offshoots of the established world religions and would presume, often without permission, to speak on behalf of the main corpus of the faith tradition from which they claim to have emerged. Yet this is precisely how most Christian denominations came into existence and were then divorced by their parent church AND still accepted as legitimate religions.

These same religions, intentionally or not, now systemically work in concert to prevent or at least slow the growth and proliferation of more denominations precisely by introducing nearly impossible 'qualifications' for recognition and 'official' status.

Thus applications for recognition as a religious organization's parent body are on a case by case basis and subject to different 'rules' depending upon the specific province or territory in which the application is made. There is no currently established federal application or recognition policy for the establishment or recognition of religious organizations parent bodies.

That said the application of a working definition of an expression of faith or creed, does allow Canadian courts to avoid inadvertently extending Charter protections and rights to abnormal practices masquerading as religious observance, which could have the net effect of diluting the intent of Charter 2 protections.

Section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects fundamental freedoms, including freedom of conscience and religion, freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression, freedom of peaceful assembly, and freedom of association. These rights are essential for the quality of life and can only be infringed upon by the government in dire circumstances or when they threaten the freedoms of others.

As it now stands, religious denominations and or religious organizations parent bodies may be simultaneously recognized in one jurisdiction/province yet refused that recognition in another province. Each ruling depending on the specific requirements for that province and the final ruling of their Registrar General.

Lacking federal oversight, a religious body must make separate applications in every province or territory in which they intend to function and receive separate, possibly differing rulings from each respective Registrar General.

Unfortunately this leaves the door open for select religious bodies to engage in systemic abuses of their clergy. For example a clergy member may have been operating in good faith and 'good standing' with their religious body, often establishing a thriving 'wedding business' yet, in the event of a disagreement between them and the religious bodies administrators, those same administrators can immediately 'pull' or cancel the individuals clergy recognition thus terminating their wedding business.

With one call to the Registrars office the affected individuals income immediately stops. All future wedding bookings now find themselves without an officiant. Many couples, venues, caterers, D.J.'s and others lose their dates unless the couple and or the displaced officiant can find a substitute officiant with the same date free. Often these same administrators will step in to 'save the day'. Effectively taking over the business of the displaced officiant.

Not only is this not Christian, it is a method of controlling subordinates and it is abuse. An abuse that would not be tolerated outside of a 'religious' employment/contract setting. Dismissal without cause should not be tolerated in any career setting, including 'religious' organizations, often with unpaid clergy who may actually depend on their income from officiating at weddings as their livelihood.

Legitimate religious organizations have open appeal processes, outside mediation arrangements and release understandings that allow dissatisfied clergy to exit their organization and helps the process of incardination into other denominations and their organizations, without abusive practices. We have spoken elsewhere on this website about the concept and application of 'industry best practices'.

Many abusively, even simply arbitrarily dismissed clergy who then suffer loss of reputation and loss of income have a clear case for a lawsuit against the 'religious' administrators who so dismissively treated them. Too often these displaced clergy are simply unaware of their rights and protections under law, allowing the abusive practices to continue unchecked.

Dismissal for cause will be easily distinguished from the above situations as there will be a paper trail of interventions and disciplines and no arbitrary actions, no surprises for any involved party. Such would be the expected case in any employment or contractual relationship. Lawful and reasonably expected human relations policies and procedures should always be followed by any legitimate organization, religious or otherwise.

St. Brigit’s Community Catholic Church as a Religious Organizations Parent Body

Statuary of St. Joseph, the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Christ Child Lived examples of Parenthood and What a Religious Organizations Parent Body should be to their Clergy - Magnanimous Parents

St. Brigit’s Community Catholic Church is a recently incorporated not for profit faith organization wherein our clergy carry full Apostolic Succession and valid priesthood orders via nine distinct such Apostolic “Lines” including;

-Succession from the Chaldean Catholic Church

-Succession from the Syrian-Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch

-The Coptic Orthodox Succession

-Succession from the Russian Orthodox Church

-Succession from the Melkite Greek Patriarchate of Antioch and all East

-Duarte Costa Succession - Roman Catholic Succession

-Succession from Anglican Communion

-Succession from the Liberal Catholic Church

-Succession from the Ancient Catholic Church

We remain associated clergy with the Independent Liberal Catholic Fellowship, a unique gathering of clergy and communities in the liberal catholic tradition administered by the Old Catholic Apostolic Church , which came into being in early 2007 as a result of contacts between clergy in the Liberal Catholic Church which was founded in 1916 as an independent Catholic Church. Liberal Catholic Churches practice open communion (meaning anyone can participate), affirm the LGBT community, and emphasize individual freedom of belief.

We have Concordats with other independent Catholic Churches in Canada and now have clergy from provinces other than our home base in Newfoundland and Labrador seeking incardination (switch from their church of origin with their credentials as clergy intact to us). The latter creates a need for us to act as a Religious Organizations Parent Body for such clergy and the independent parishes they manage and serve.

We are indeed an independent body and do not represent, nor imply that we represent any of the church organizations from which we have our succession and history. Still we are very much a part of the “One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church”. Our sacraments and services are valid and fulfill the requirements for the faithful in any and all Catholic Rites.

Our Apostolic Succession ensures that we are a legitimate faith group with valid clergy ordinations, tracing our roots to the Apostles themselves in the universal/Catholic faith in the Liberal/Old Catholic traditions.

We are properly authorized to solemnize marriages in our home province and will work with those clergy who wish to be able to act as clergy marriage commissioners in their home provinces, territories and, potentially, countries.

As a branch of the Catholic faith we have sound lineage and acknowledge that we must allow time and growth to show our longevity as an autonomous branch of the faith.

We deliberately choose NOT to seek status as a charity preferring to de-emphasize monetary considerations. We operate as a ‘house church’ by definition and, if we purchase a building as a church, such buildings will be house sized, multipurpose, intimate community centers for the congregations they serve and never the focus of our ministry.

Our clergy are unpaid and our ultimate goal is to make having clergy in every home a reality in our ministry. Each parish and diocese will operate as an independent entity for which we will have no legal or financial responsibility. As a registered charity we would not have these same freedoms in our day to day operations and would be forced to involve more administrative and financial activities in the place of our ministry callings and goals.

We offer the sacraments and services in the Roman/Latin Rite or the Anglican Rite and our wedding services are done in one of those Rites or as a non-denominational service for couples from different Christian denominations and for ‘mixed religion’ marriages.

Resources

Vision TV, Code of Ethics, Section D. Mosaic Programming. http://www.visiontv.ca/about-vision/code-on-ethics/.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/.
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/page-12.html

Religious Organizations Parent Bodies

St. Brigit’s Community Catholic Church as a Religious Organizations Parent Body

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