July 14 marks the 190th anniversary of the setting apart of the apostles in London—an event that can be regarded as the actual founding of the Catholic Apostolic communities in the sense of a religious community. The apostolic churches and communities that emerged later and trace their origins back to this tradition can also discover the essential roots of their faith here. Thus, July 14 is probably the most important—albeit long forgotten—holiday of the apostolic denomination family. We will celebrate it with a ceremony at 7:30 p.m. in the Brockhagen Archive.
How the events of July 14 came about and how they unfolded is described in a large number of publications on the subject. As an introduction, we recommend the book by Apostle Francis V. Woodhouse, “Narrative of Events” (free download as pdf). For those interested in details, there is a fairly recent book by Edwin Diersmann that documents and analyzes the English manuscript records of the events.
In addition, there are numerous other publications in our online archive of writings on the Catholic Apostolic congregations (Sgotzai Archive):
“For whom did God give His apostles of the end, who were set apart for their service on July 14, 1835? To whom were they sent? To a small group of Christians, to a few thousand whom they were to gather? No, the apostles’ mission concerns the whole Church. We say: God has given His church apostles again. The apostles themselves understood their mission to be not for individual people, but a Catholic mission for the whole Church of God.”
https://www.apostolische-geschichte.de/a-dokumente/a-0348.pdf
For many years, the Apostolic History Network has commemorated this day and its events. In the meantime, it is also being (re)mentioned in the divine services of various apostolic churches. This year, it will be the theme of the weekly divine services of the New Apostolic Church on July 16 and 17.
As usual, we will hold a commemorative event at the Brockhagen Archive on Monday, July 14, 2025, at 7:30 p.m. All interested parties are cordially invited to attend.
There will also be a broadcast via YouTube: