Irl A. Gladfelter

Who is Irl A. Gladfelter?

Irl A. Gladfelter was the founder and first Metropolitan Archbishop of the Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church until his resignation from that position and from the ALCC on December 1, 2011.

Gladfelter was ordained a deacon and a priest by Archbishop Peter Paul Brennan, O.C.R. of the Ecumenical Catholic Diocese of the Americas. He was ordained a bishop by Archbishop Brennan as well as Francis Cajetan Spataro, O.C.R., and Paget Elkinah James Mack, O.S.B.M., both of the Apostolic Episcopal Church. Gladfelter was also a life professed priest of the ALCC's Augustinian Order.

On December 1, 2011, Gladfelter also resigned as the first Metropolitan of the Augustana Catholic Communion, which is a completely separate association of "Evangelical Catholic" Lutheran and "Anglo-Catholic" Anglican churches which have apostolic orders and share the goal of visible and corporate reunion with the Roman Catholic Church in whichever form is determined by that church to be the most practical.

Upon his resignation, Gladfelter returned to the Roman Catholic Church as a layman, but in November 2013 returned to the clergy of the ALCC as Metropolitan Archbishop Emeritus.