More About our Mission Diocese ...
Saint Ignatius of Antioch (1st c. A.D) is quoted as saying: "Where the bishop is, there let the multitude of believers be; even as where Jesus is, there is the Catholic Church.'' Some, through the history of the Christian Church, have taken this to mean that each validly consecrated bishop gathers around him or herself a valid expression of the Body of Christ—namely, a "local Church."
As this term implied, this was originally viewed as a local parish along with its missions or ministries that were geographically nearby. According to this understanding of Church polity (governance), many, many local churches existed throughout the Catholic (Universal) Church lead by many, many bishops. Each local church was united under its local bishop as the Universal Church was (is) united under the headship of Jesus Christ.
The Mission Diocese of Saint Nicholas is a "local church" as it exists under the pastoral jurisdiction of a bishop—currently The Reverend David Dismas, M.Div., S.T.M.—and is headquartered out of the bishop’s residence in Medford, Massachusetts, USA. In addition to David’s ministry to the Greater Boston area, we have three missionaries—Carol (serving Cape Cod), Rebecca (serving Boston’s MetroWest); and, John (serving the Worcester area). We also have affiliates serving in New Jersey, Maine and Florida.
Worship in the Mission Diocese is liturgically eclectic and may be conducted using a wide variety of liturgical sources. Some of us celebrate according to the Roman Catholic Novus Ordo Missae (The New Order of Mass, 1969). Others use the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, the Lutheran Book of Worship, the United Methodist Book of Worship, the Presbyterian Book of Common Worship, the Book of Worship of the United Church of Christ and other texts resulting from the liturgical consensus of the 1960s, especially those utilizing the translations of common prayers by the Consultation on Common Texts. Other sources may be approved by the bishop who is ultimately responsible for worship in this local church. Occasionally we will use our own Saint Nicholas Liturgy, a variation on the ancient Gallican Rite that our bishop has been tweaking for years.
Our polity [governance] is "Congregational Catholic" with strong influences from the House Church Movement, the Independent Sacramental Movement, and the International Council of Community Churches. In our model, local communities and ministries are responsible for their own properties and finances. Our bishop is neither a Chief Executive Officer [CEO] nor a Chief Financial Officer [CFO]. In some ways our common life is very similar to that of the “Old Catholic” churches; however, we are not adherents to the Old Catholic “Union of Utrecht.”
Our bishop is our chief pastor, responsible for keeping us faithful to the Apostolic Tradition of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church as taught in the Sacred Scriptures and the Seven Ecumenical Councils of the undivided Church. We maintain that our bishops stand in the unbroken Apostolic Succession of the churches catholic. We cherish as values congregational self-determination, freedom of conscience and the conciliar ideal [aka synodality]. We strive for "consensus building" in our common life.
The Mission Diocese is “open and affirming;” all are invited to full participation according to their call as God's children.
The Mission Diocese will always be a “work in progress” as we grow in following the Holy Spirit’s leading.
Prayer for an Inclusive Church
How great is your love, Lord God, how wide is your mercy! Never let us board up the narrow gate that leads to life with rules or doctrines that you dismiss; but give us a Spirit to welcome all people with affection, so that your Church may never exclude secret friends of yours, who are included in the love of Jesus Christ, who came to save us all. Amen. [From the [Presbyterian] Book of Common Worship, p. 804.
As this term implied, this was originally viewed as a local parish along with its missions or ministries that were geographically nearby. According to this understanding of Church polity (governance), many, many local churches existed throughout the Catholic (Universal) Church lead by many, many bishops. Each local church was united under its local bishop as the Universal Church was (is) united under the headship of Jesus Christ.
The Mission Diocese of Saint Nicholas is a "local church" as it exists under the pastoral jurisdiction of a bishop—currently The Reverend David Dismas, M.Div., S.T.M.—and is headquartered out of the bishop’s residence in Medford, Massachusetts, USA. In addition to David’s ministry to the Greater Boston area, we have three missionaries—Carol (serving Cape Cod), Rebecca (serving Boston’s MetroWest); and, John (serving the Worcester area). We also have affiliates serving in New Jersey, Maine and Florida.
Worship in the Mission Diocese is liturgically eclectic and may be conducted using a wide variety of liturgical sources. Some of us celebrate according to the Roman Catholic Novus Ordo Missae (The New Order of Mass, 1969). Others use the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, the Lutheran Book of Worship, the United Methodist Book of Worship, the Presbyterian Book of Common Worship, the Book of Worship of the United Church of Christ and other texts resulting from the liturgical consensus of the 1960s, especially those utilizing the translations of common prayers by the Consultation on Common Texts. Other sources may be approved by the bishop who is ultimately responsible for worship in this local church. Occasionally we will use our own Saint Nicholas Liturgy, a variation on the ancient Gallican Rite that our bishop has been tweaking for years.
Our polity [governance] is "Congregational Catholic" with strong influences from the House Church Movement, the Independent Sacramental Movement, and the International Council of Community Churches. In our model, local communities and ministries are responsible for their own properties and finances. Our bishop is neither a Chief Executive Officer [CEO] nor a Chief Financial Officer [CFO]. In some ways our common life is very similar to that of the “Old Catholic” churches; however, we are not adherents to the Old Catholic “Union of Utrecht.”
Our bishop is our chief pastor, responsible for keeping us faithful to the Apostolic Tradition of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church as taught in the Sacred Scriptures and the Seven Ecumenical Councils of the undivided Church. We maintain that our bishops stand in the unbroken Apostolic Succession of the churches catholic. We cherish as values congregational self-determination, freedom of conscience and the conciliar ideal [aka synodality]. We strive for "consensus building" in our common life.
The Mission Diocese is “open and affirming;” all are invited to full participation according to their call as God's children.
The Mission Diocese will always be a “work in progress” as we grow in following the Holy Spirit’s leading.
Prayer for an Inclusive Church
How great is your love, Lord God, how wide is your mercy! Never let us board up the narrow gate that leads to life with rules or doctrines that you dismiss; but give us a Spirit to welcome all people with affection, so that your Church may never exclude secret friends of yours, who are included in the love of Jesus Christ, who came to save us all. Amen. [From the [Presbyterian] Book of Common Worship, p. 804.
