As you look at our Church Leadership page, you will see that our bishops come from both backgrounds.  That is true of our clergy as well.  All are committed to ecumenicalism and take to heart the prayer of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of John: "I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you." (Jn 17:20).  In our Locate Us  page you will find house churches, churches that meet in their own buildings, churches that meet in space utilized primarily by other Christian communities but are separate, and still others that reach in post-denominational ways to integrate in seamless service to all in the Body of Christ while still being true to the Catholic faith.  Not surprisingly, the United Catholic Church is also home to many missions and chaplains as well, as you will see in our ministries section of that page.  Some are supported by core United Catholic Church clergy and some by clergy who come into relationship with us as covenant members through our Associated Church provision.

Like our churches and our ministries, our ecumenical partners come with a variety of depth in relationship but all are sister churches whose commonality in faith we mutually recognize.  As noted above, there are a few with whom we share a closer covenant relationship as an Associate Church.  These churches and their clergy are full members of the United Catholic Church and also concurrently hold a member status elsewhere that is unique to them.  Our Canons in the Documents Section of this website describes these relationships in more detail.  The ecclesiology that enables a core church and related members to exist in an Associated Church relationship and still be true to the Catholic faith is discussed in the Faith Section (coming soon).