Who we are
We are an independent and autonomous worldwide Anglican Episcopal community
The Free Protestant Episcopal Church of England - World Communion (FPEC)
The World Communion of the Free Protestant Episcopal Church of England (FPEC) is a fraternal association of churches that respect and live the "ethos" of the English Reformation, being autonomous and encompassing self-governed churches and families of churches worldwide.
This Communion of Churches was organized in England under the name the Free Protestant Episcopal Church of England on November 2, 1897. Today, the English Church is our Original Church, maintaining its original name, formed by the union of three small British episcopacies established between the 1860s and the 1890s, independent from the Church of England:
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Old British Church, founded in 1866 by the Rev. Dom Charles Isaac Stevens;
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Nazarene Episcopal Church, founded in 1873 by the Rev. Dom James Martin;
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Free Protestant Church of England, founded in 1889 by the Rev. Dom Leon Checkemian.
The Rev. Dom Leon Checkemian (1848-1920), an Armenian Uniate bishop, had moved to Great Britain, became Anglican, and served as the first primate of the new Church.
The mission of the Free Protestant Episcopal Church of England was to serve as a church of unity and gathering among various Protestant groups, maintaining valid sacraments and thereby avoiding the objections raised by the Roman Holy See regarding the Holy Orders of the Church of England.
The 1662 Book of Common Prayer, the official liturgy of the Church of England, became the normative liturgy, while the Constitution and Canons adopted as official were from the Reformed Episcopal Church in Great Britain (Free Church of England) of 1878. The Rev. Dom Leon Checkemian (1848-1920), an Armenian Uniate bishop who had moved to Great Britain and become Anglican, was elected the first Primus as Mar Leon and served as the first primate of the new Church. The Pro-Cathedral of the Free Protestant Episcopal Church of England was St. Stephen's Church, East Ham.
In 1917, our Church and Communion were legally recognized by the English courts when one of its clergy was declared exempt from military service due to his ordination.
There is no central headquarters where "earthly goods" are held; all properties belong to the local communities, such as congregations, parishes, or clergy. The methodology of organization and identity in our communion may seem rare and hard to understand for imposing churches, but this structure is allowed for small congregations and churches that are not dependent on foreign entities, family churches, small groups, or cells with a missionary and evangelistic purpose in today's context.
Currently, the Free Protestant Episcopal Church of England - World Communion (FPEC), a name adopted on March 10, 2025, when The Most Rev'd Ricardo Lorite de Lima assumed the position of Archbishop Primus, is a large group of Anglican/Episcopal Christians from all parts of the world who value the "ethos" of the English Reformation. This serves as a living response to the growth of Anglo-Catholicism within the Church of England in the 19th century, based on the Middle Way between Lutheranism and Calvinism doctrinally, through its 35 Articles of Religion, a modern and contextualized re-reading of the 39 Articles of the Church of England.
We are a group of Christians updated with an inclusive and progressive vision, as are the Protestant Churches in Europe and North America, with broad liturgical expressions: Liturgical/Sacramental (High Church), Evangelical (Low Church), Broad Church, or Charismatic.
All the churches of the Communion are autonomous, comprising families of churches around the world, self-governing as in early Christianity, worldwide Anglicanism, and Orthodoxy. The Free Protestant Episcopal Church of England - World Communion (FPEC) is a communion of free Episcopal/Anglican churches worldwide, living a reconciliation and Anglican unity.