The New Apostolic Church is led by apostles and a Chief Apostle, and most of its members live in Africa.
Restorationist & other movements1832 / 1863arose within Evangelical revivals
The Catholic Apostolic movement emerged from nineteenth-century British revivals and called apostles from 1832. A disagreement about replacing deceased apostles led to the Hamburg separation in 1863, from which the New Apostolic Church developed. The Dutch mission began in 1863; the Chief Apostle ministry developed from 1897. These are distinct milestones, not interchangeable founding dates.
The New Apostolic Church is an international Christian church. It reports over nine million members in some 200 countries, most of them in Africa, and it is led by apostles under a Chief Apostle 1,2. Its whole shape follows from one conviction: that the apostle ministry Jesus gave to the first twelve was restored in the nineteenth century, and that it exists to prepare people for his return.
The story starts in London. Edward Irving, a minister of the Church of Scotland, preached the near return of Christ at Regent Square and gathered around him people who had been pushed out of other congregations for exercising spiritual gifts; he was deposed from the Church of Scotland ministry in March 1833 6,5. Irving is the name attached to the movement, and members of the community that formed described his relation to it as John the Baptist's to the early church, a forerunner rather than a founder 5. In 1832 John Bate Cardale was called as an apostle through prophecy, the first of what the movement called the second sending, and by 1835 the Catholic Apostolic Church was organised with a fourfold ministry of apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastors 4,5.
The break came over what to do when apostles died. The Catholic Apostolic Church held that the twelve of the second sending were not to be replaced. The congregation at Hamburg disagreed. At the afternoon service of 4 January 1863 its leader, Angel Schwartz, put to the congregation the calling of a new apostle and most of them accepted it; on 6 February 1863 Apostle Woodhouse wrote to inform the Hamburg congregation that it was expelled 4. That is the Hamburg schism, and 4 January 1863 is the date the New Apostolic Church counts as its founding 4.
The first months were precarious. The man whose calling had caused the split returned to the Catholic Apostolic Church on 17 January, which left Hamburg with no apostolic authority at all: nobody could be sealed and no minister could be ordained 4. On 12 April 1863 a deacon prophesied the calling of Priest Carl Louis Preuss as an apostle, and on 25 May Friedrich Wilhelm Schwartz was called in the same way 4. Schwartz began the Dutch mission in 1863 7. The year 1897 marks a different development: the emergence of the Chief Apostle ministry as the church's leading office 8.
That last detail turned out to matter more than anything else in its history. The church that began in a German port city is now overwhelmingly African, and the apostle sent to South Africa in the nineteenth century is the reason.
The church states its own position in a sentence: it professes the Bible and the interdenominational foundations of Christianity as the basis of its doctrine, is led by apostles, and acknowledges three sacraments, with regular divine services at the centre of church life, serving the believer's preparation for the return of Christ 1.
The apostle ministry is the distinguishing thing. New Apostolic apostles understand themselves as successors of the apostles Jesus sent, charged with preaching the gospel and preparing people for his return, and the church holds that they are the ones commissioned on earth to forgive sins and to dispense the Holy Spirit 4. When the church says the apostle ministry is necessary for salvation, it means that God has re-established it to gather Christians for the return of Christ, and it is careful to say that this does not answer the question of who will be there: the Holy Spirit acts in other churches, God alone forgives sins, and people may be found by God without Holy Sealing 4. On its own account the church denies any claim to be the only way 4.
There are three sacraments. Holy Baptism with water is the first act of grace and part of the spiritual rebirth. Holy Sealing is the dispensing of the Holy Spirit through an apostle; baptism and sealing together are held to constitute the rebirth out of water and Spirit, and sealing is given to children as well, their parents professing the faith on their behalf. Holy Communion is celebrated in the divine service 4,5.
The most distinctive teaching, and the one the church itself describes as controversial, concerns the departed. Three times a year a divine service is held for the dead, in which apostles administer the sacraments to a living minister acting on their behalf, and the church points to texts including Paul's reference to baptism for the dead in 1 Corinthians 15 4. It holds that the dead may find grace and forgiveness, and also that they may be saved by Christ's grace without any apostle's help, in the same way a living person may be saved without ever finding this church. On most of the questions this raises, the church says plainly that they cannot be fully answered 4.
On the ordinary questions of modern life the church has published positions and they are not what an outsider might guess. It has no objection to blood or organ donation where the donor consents or brain death has occurred; it regards life as beginning at fertilisation and opposes embryo research while approving work with adult stem cells; and it distinguishes evolution, which it treats as the continuing development of the world under laws God prescribed and not in conflict with Scripture, from the theory of evolution offered as a complete account of the origin of life, which it does not accept 4.
Worship and practice
The divine service is the centre of New Apostolic life, and the church says so in as many words: the services serve the believer's personal development in preparation for the return of Christ 1.
The tradition it came from has elaborate liturgies, and this church carried that inheritance forward 5. Holy Communion is administered in every divine service held by a district apostle or the Chief Apostle 4. The pattern is consistent wherever the church is, which is part of the point: a member can walk into a service in another country and find it recognisable.
Ministry is layered. Apostles, district apostles and the Chief Apostle carry the offices that define the church, and priests and deacons serve individual congregations 4. The church is comprised of legally independent local churches under a uniform doctrine and shared leadership boards, and both its institutions and its humanitarian work are financed by the voluntary contributions of its members 1,2.
Scripture and Bible translations
The New Apostolic Church professes the Bible as the basis of its doctrine, and its apostles interpret it, on the church's own account, in the same way Protestants and Catholics do, apart from their reading of Holy Sealing and of the state of the departed 1,4. That is an unusually precise statement of where a church thinks it differs, and it is worth taking at its word.
Alongside the Bible the church publishes a Catechism, which it describes as the normative and most systematic description of its doctrine, containing the principal statements of the Old and New Testaments, the basic convictions common to all Christians, and the specific features of the New Apostolic faith 3. The church says the Catechism is meant to deepen personal knowledge, give a standard for the life of faith, and support dialogue with other denominations, and adds that despite differences of interpretation it has great respect for other churches and their doctrinal statements 3. It runs to 517 pages, and there is a shorter version arranged as 750 questions and answers, both free to download and both available as phone apps 3.
German-speaking congregations have traditionally read Luther's Bible, and the Lutherbibel of 1912 is on this site. Elsewhere the church uses whatever translation its country reads, which for most of its members means an African language. The verses below are given in the Berean Standard Bible, plain modern English.
In church
The church prescribes no single version. German-speaking congregations, its historic heartland, read the Lutherbibel, and its catechism in German quotes the Luther text; congregations elsewhere read the standard translation of their own language.
These passages illustrate themes discussed in this profile; they are not a survey of members' favorite verses. Each is quoted from the Berean Standard Bible and links to its chapter. You can explore the text for study or personal reflection; memorization is optional.
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone.
Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. This church reads that foundation as something meant to stand in every generation rather than only in the first.
Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Holy Sealing, the sacrament that most distinguishes this church, is drawn from this passage.
If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.”
If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven. The commission the church understands its apostles to carry, and the reason the office matters so much here.
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise.
The Lord Himself will descend from heaven. Everything in this church, the apostles, the sealing, the services, is described by the church as preparation for this.
People
Edward Irving1792 to 1834 A Church of Scotland minister who preached the near return of Christ in London and sheltered people expelled elsewhere for exercising spiritual gifts. He was deposed from the Church of Scotland ministry in March 1833 6, and the movement that followed regarded him as its forerunner rather than its founder.5
John Bate Cardalecalled as an apostle in 1832 The first apostle of what the movement called the second sending, called through prophecy in England in 1832. The Catholic Apostolic Church was organised around that ministry by 1835.4
The Hamburg congregationexpelled 6 February 1863 The congregation that accepted the calling of a new apostle at its afternoon service on 4 January 1863 and was expelled from the Catholic Apostolic Church five weeks later. That date is the one this church counts as its founding.4
Friedrich Wilhelm Schwartzcalled as an apostle on 25 May 1863 Called through prophecy in the months after the split, when the Hamburg congregation had been left with no apostolic authority at all, and afterwards the founder of the church's work in the Netherlands.4
Helge MutschlerChief Apostle The present Chief Apostle, the office that leads the worldwide church. Writing from Luanda in Angola, he put the church's message to its members as simply as it can be put: you have not been forgotten, you are deeply loved, you are important.1
Today
The church reports over nine million members in some 200 countries, organised as legally independent local churches under a shared doctrine and common leadership boards 1,2. The great majority are in Africa, which is why a church founded in Hamburg now holds district apostle meetings in Cape Town and ordains apostles for Malanje and Luanda 1. It is financed entirely by voluntary contributions 1,2.
Its relations with other churches have changed markedly. For most of its history the New Apostolic Church stood apart, and its own statements record that doctrinal differences kept it from joining in ecumenical services while it worked to build good relations locally 4. It has since become a full member of the Council of Christian Churches in Germany, admitted by a unanimous decision of the member churches, and its own summary of the aim is contributing to reconciled diversity 1.
The church has also revisited its own past teaching. On Christmas Day 1951 Chief Apostle Johann Gottfried Bischoff announced in a service at Giessen that the Lord had made known to him that he would not die before the return of Christ. The announcement, known as the Message, divided the church: apostles resigned in South Africa in 1954, in Europe in 1954 and 1955, and in South America in 1957. Bischoff died on 7 July 1960 and it had not come to pass 4. The church's later leadership set the Message at liberty for each member to form their own view of it, and Chief Apostle Wilhelm Leber stated that it is no dogma any more 4. The church's committees describe this kind of revision as focusing, on the understanding that the Holy Spirit continues to give knowledge 4.
Words to know
sacrament
A sacred act Christians believe carries God's grace, such as baptism and communion. Traditions count and understand them differently.
prophet
In the Bible, someone who speaks God's message to the people, often calling them back to justice and faithfulness. Isaiah, Jeremiah and Amos were prophets.
creed
A short statement of belief said together in worship. The Nicene Creed is shared by nearly every Christian tradition.
Trinity
The Christian teaching that God is one in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. A few bodies on the tree do not hold it, and say so.
schism
A formal parting between churches. The Great Schism of 1054 divided Catholic West from Orthodox East.
liturgy
The set form of a service: its prayers, readings and actions in their usual order. The Orthodox call their main service the Divine Liturgy.
new birth
Being born again: a change worked by God in which a person passes from a nominal faith to a living one. Pietists, and the evangelical movements that came out of them, hold that this is what makes a Christian, rather than baptism and correct belief on their own.
confession
In the Reformation churches, a written statement of what a church believes, such as the Augsburg Confession. In Catholic and Orthodox use, also the sacrament of telling one's sins to a priest.
Christmas
The Christian feast of the birth of Jesus on 25 December, kept since the fourth century; churches on the Julian calendar keep the same date on 7 January.
How is this church different from other Christian churches?
By its ministry and by two teachings. It is led by living apostles under a Chief Apostle, and holds that this ministry was restored in the nineteenth century to prepare people for the return of Christ 4. Its own account of where it differs from Protestants and Catholics is precise: it says its apostles read the Bible the same way they do, except on Holy Sealing and on the state of the departed 4. Everything else follows from those.
What is Holy Sealing?
One of the church's three sacraments, alongside baptism with water and Holy Communion. It is the dispensing of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of an apostle's hands, taken from the account in Acts 8 of Peter and John 4. Baptism and sealing together are held to make up the rebirth out of water and Spirit. It is given to children as well as adults, with the parents professing the faith 4.
Does the church say only its own members will be saved?
No, and it is explicit about it. The church teaches that the apostle ministry is necessary for salvation in the sense that God re-established it to gather Christians for Christ's return, but it states that this does not settle who will be there, that the Holy Spirit acts in other churches, that God alone forgives sins, and that people may be found by God without Holy Sealing. It says in its own words that it denies any claim of absoluteness 4.
What are the services for the departed?
Three times a year the church holds a divine service in which the sacraments are administered on behalf of the dead, an apostle giving them to a living minister who stands in their place. The church cites Paul's reference to baptism for the dead in 1 Corinthians 15 among its grounds 4. It also holds that the dead may be saved by Christ's grace without any apostle, and says openly that most of the questions this raises cannot be fully answered 4.
Where is this church strongest?
Africa, by a wide margin, though it began in Germany and is still headquartered in Europe. It reports over nine million members across some 200 countries 1,2. Its early missionary expansion included South Africa by 1895 4; the present distribution reflects subsequent generations of church growth.
Sources
Numbered references link the account above to its sources. These include the tradition's own documents and outside reference works. The review status below distinguishes source checking from completed member and scholarly review.
BibleVerse. “New Apostolic Church: where they came from, what they hold, and the Bible they read.” bibleverse.site, version 2026-09-09, https://bibleverse.site/denominations/newapostolic/
Awaiting review by a member of the tradition. First published 2026-09-08; last changed 2026-09-09. Years before the common era are written BC, and later years plainly, as the site's Christian pages do.
Found something wrong? Send it through the contact page. A correction checked against two sources is made within a week and logged in this page's change history.
Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Nine million people in two hundred countries have organised their whole church life around reading that sentence in the present tense.
