Apostolic vs Catholic: What “Apostolic” Means, and How Apostolic Churches Differ

“Apostolic” means two things, depending on who says it. Catholics profess one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church in the Creed, and their Church calls itself apostolic because it is built on the apostles and its bishops succeed them. Apostolic churches are Pentecostal, many of them Oneness churches that baptize in Jesus’ name and do not confess God as three persons.

Beneath both uses lies one old word. An apostle is someone sent. The Catholic Church calls itself apostolic “in that she is ‘sent out’ into the whole world” (Catechism 863), and the Apostolic Church from Wales speaks of being called “to belt the globe with the same gospel which was entrusted to Christ’s first apostles.” Christians who differ over bishops, baptism and the Trinity still agree that the gospel was handed to them to be carried.

The largest Oneness body is the United Pentecostal Church International (UPCI). Two other churches carry the word in their names. The Armenian Apostolic Church is one of the ancient Oriental Orthodox churches and is not in full communion with Rome. The New Apostolic Church, led by a Chief Apostle, is a separate body again.

Catholic and Apostolic churches side by side

What does “apostolic” mean in the Creed?

The Nicene Creed names four marks of the Church: one, holy, catholic and apostolic. The creeds are one part of a free course of eighteen short lessons, Christianity: What Christians Have Believed for 2,000 Years.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains the last mark, apostolic, in three parts. The Church “is apostolic because she is founded on the apostles, in three ways”: it was and remains built on “the foundation of the Apostles”; it “keeps and hands on the teaching” it heard from them; and it “continues to be taught, sanctified, and guided by the apostles until Christ’s return, through their successors in pastoral office: the college of bishops” (Catechism 857). The first part echoes Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, where believers are “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone” (Ephesians 2:20).

The third part is what Catholics mean by apostolic succession. The apostles, the Catechism says, handed their work to “their immediate collaborators” and made the rule that “on their death other proven men should take over their ministry” (861). From this it teaches that “the bishops have by divine institution taken the place of the apostles as pastors of the Church” (862). The Second Vatican Council put the claim in one sentence: the one Church of Christ, “professed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic,” “subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him,” though “many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside of its visible structure” (Lumen Gentium 8).

Apostolic also has an active sense. The whole Church is apostolic, the Catechism says, because it remains in communion with its origin “and in that she is ‘sent out’ into the whole world” (863).

What is the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church?

In Spanish the full phrase is católica, apostólica y romana. Argentina’s constitution still says that the federal government “sostiene el culto católico apostólico romano”, that is, it supports Catholic, apostolic and Roman worship. Each word has its own job. “Catholic” means “universal,” in the Catechism’s words, “in the sense of ‘according to the totality’ or ‘in keeping with the whole’” (830). “Apostolic” is the mark described above. “Roman” names the Church’s communion with the bishop of Rome, the successor of Peter.

Who else calls their church apostolic?

Most churches that say the Nicene Creed claim the word. Thomas Hopko, writing for the Orthodox Church in America, explains that “the word apostolic describes that which has a mission, that which has ‘been sent’ to accomplish a task,” and that the Church is apostolic as it is built upon Christ, the Spirit and “those apostles who were sent by Christ.” The Catholic Church agrees that the Orthodox keep the apostles’ line. The Second Vatican Council said of the Eastern churches that “these Churches, although separated from us, possess true sacraments, above all by apostolic succession, the priesthood and the Eucharist” (Unitatis Redintegratio 15). What still divides the two is set out in Orthodox vs Catholic.

Anglicans claim it in their own terms. The Church of England’s Declaration of Assent, made by its deacons, priests and bishops when they are ordained, begins: “The Church of England is part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.” So does the Apostolic Church from Wales. Its confession says the Church “is One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic” and reads the last word as mission: the Church is “called across cultures and languages to belt the globe with the same gospel which was entrusted to Christ’s first apostles.”

What is an Apostolic church?

In ordinary speech, an Apostolic church is a Pentecostal church. The Pentecostal movement began, in the words of the UPCI, “with a Bible school in Topeka, Kansas, in 1901 and with the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles, California, in 1906.” Pentecostals, the UPCI says, “look to the Book of Acts as a guide for how to live out their Christian faith.” The word “Apostolic” is used by two quite different families of them.

Oneness, or “Jesus’ Name,” Apostolic churches

The UPCI, which calls itself “the largest Oneness Pentecostal organization,” traces its roots to 1916, “when a large group of Pentecostal ministers began to unite around the teaching of the oneness of God and water baptism in the name of Jesus Christ.” It was formed in 1945 by the merger of two Pentecostal bodies. By its own count, as of October 2026, it has more than 49,000 churches, counting preaching points, and “more than six million constituents worldwide.” Oneness churches use the word of themselves. The UPCI speaks of restoring “correct biblical belief” and experiencing “apostolic power,” and the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, another Jesus’ Name body led by bishops, says its Presiding Prelate’s calling was “nurtured in apostolic assemblies” through “a Jesus Name lineage.”

The Apostolic Church from Wales

The other family began in Carmarthenshire. Daniel Powell Williams, a miner from near Pen-y-groes, was converted in the Welsh Revival on Christmas Day 1904 and later led a group of revival converts who “cherished the vision of an ‘apostolic church’,” with apostles and prophets in its ministry. The Dictionary of Welsh Biography records that “in 1916 the official legal constitution of the Apostolic Church was drawn up.” Today the church calls itself “a Trinitarian, Pentecostal movement,” established, by its own count as of October 2026, “in more than 100 countries.” Unlike Oneness churches, it confesses “one true and living God, the Holy Trinity.”

Do Apostolic churches believe in the Trinity?

The Apostolic Church from Wales does. Oneness churches teach something else. The UPCI’s statement of belief reads: “There is one God, who has revealed Himself as Father; through His Son, in redemption; and as the Holy Spirit, by emanation. Jesus Christ is God manifested in flesh. He is both God and man.” The statement speaks of one God revealed in three ways, and not of three persons.

The Catholic Church confesses three persons in one God: “We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons, the ‘consubstantial Trinity’” (Catechism 253). The two agree that Jesus is God. The Catechism says, “Jesus Christ is true God and true man” (464), and the UPCI says, “He is both God and man.” They part over whether the Father, the Son and the Spirit are three persons, and that difference runs through everything that follows.

Why do Apostolic churches baptize in Jesus’ name?

Because they read Jesus’ command at the end of Matthew and the baptisms in Acts as one instruction. The UPCI’s statement says believers are to “be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ,” and it cites “Acts 2, 8, 10, 19.” Catholics, like the Apostolic Church from Wales, baptize in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. These are the two verses at issue:

Oneness teachers hold that baptism in Jesus’ name obeys Matthew 28:19. David K. Bernard, the UPCI’s general superintendent, writes in an essay on the baptismal formula that “the word name in this verse is singular,” and that the phrase “describes one supreme name by which the one God is revealed, not three names of three persons.” The apostles, he writes, “fulfilled His command by baptizing in the name of Jesus,” so “the one supreme, saving name of Matthew 28:19 is Jesus.” The UPCI’s statement reads Acts 2:38 as the pattern of the new birth: we obey the gospel “by repentance (death to sin), water baptism in the name of Jesus Christ (burial), and the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the initial sign of speaking in tongues.”

The Catholic Church quotes Peter’s words too. The Catechism teaches that “from the very day of Pentecost the Church has celebrated and administered holy Baptism,” and gives Acts 2:38 as its example (Catechism 1226). On which words to say, it sets out the Church’s practice rather than a reading of Acts. In the Latin Church the minister says, “N., I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (1240), and anyone who baptizes in an emergency must intend “to apply the Trinitarian baptismal formula” (1256).

Does the Catholic Church accept a baptism in Jesus’ name?

Not as valid baptism. Canon law says baptism “is validly conferred only by a washing of true water with the proper form of words” (canon 849), and diocesan guidance names that form as the Trinitarian formula. The Archdiocese of Baltimore’s list, drawn from a canon-law handbook, states that “the ‘form’ is the Trinitarian formula as found in the liturgical books,” lists “Apostolic Church” among “Some Ecclesial Communities without Valid Baptism,” and counts Pentecostal baptism among those “for which investigation is required in each case.”

The church’s name on a certificate does not settle the question by itself, since the Apostolic Church from Wales immerses believers “in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” When an Apostolic Christian asks to become Catholic, the parish looks at what was done. Canon 869 says that a person baptized in another Christian community “must not be baptized conditionally unless,” after an examination of the water, the words and the intention, “a serious reason exists to doubt the validity of the baptism.” A person baptized with the Trinitarian words is ordinarily not baptized again. A person baptized in Jesus’ name alone counts, by the rule the Baltimore list applies, as not yet baptized.

How is a person saved, in each church?

All three teach that salvation comes through Jesus Christ. The UPCI says that “salvation comes by grace through faith based on the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ,” and it expresses that faith in the three steps of Acts 2:38. It adds: “We do not reject those who have not received the complete New Testament experience, but we encourage them to receive everything God has for them.” The Apostolic Church from Wales teaches that believers “are both justified by grace alone through faith alone” and that Spirit baptism is “a recognisable experience, distinct from regeneration.”

The Catholic Church teaches that “our justification comes from the grace of God,” and it defines grace as “the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call” (Catechism 1996). Justification, it says, “is conferred in Baptism, the sacrament of faith” (1992). So it teaches that “Baptism is necessary for salvation” for those who have heard the Gospel and could ask for it (1257), and it baptizes infants so that children too receive “the new birth in Baptism” (1250). It ties Pentecost to a sacrament: the effect of confirmation “is the full outpouring of the Holy Spirit as once granted to the apostles on the day of Pentecost” (1302). How Catholics and Pentecostals see tongues, healing and prophecy is compared in Pentecostal vs Catholic beliefs.

How does worship differ?

Catholic worship centers on the Mass. The Catechism calls the Eucharist “the source and summit of the Christian life” (1324) and teaches that in it “the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained” (1374).

Apostolic churches give the Spirit’s gifts a central place. The UPCI counts “passionate worship” as part of its identity and teaches that “the supernatural gifts of the Spirit, including healing, are for the church today.” The Apostolic Church from Wales also keeps the Lord’s Supper as a sacrament, in which, its confession says, the Lord “meets with us in His body and blood for our sanctification and spiritual sustenance.”

Who leads an Apostolic church?

The Catholic Church is led by the bishops in communion with the Pope, the successor of Peter. Apostolic churches take two other paths.

The UPCI is “basically congregational”: each local church “elects its pastor and other leaders, owns its property, decides its budget.” Ministers meet in district and general conferences to elect officials. The General Conference is the highest governing body, and the chief officer is a general superintendent. The Pentecostal Assemblies of the World is led by bishops under a Presiding Prelate.

The Apostolic Church from Wales gives the word its fullest sense. It teaches that Christ governs the Church through “gifts of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, elders and deacons,” and that “the Lord sets apart His choice to the ministry in ordination through prayer and the laying on of the apostles’ hands.” Its apostles are living ministers, as Daniel Powell Williams was. Catholic teaching holds that bishops succeed the apostles.

Is the Armenian Apostolic Church Catholic?

No. The Armenian Apostolic Church is one of the Oriental Orthodox churches, with the Coptic, Syrian, Ethiopian and Malankara churches, and together they have held an official theological dialogue with the Catholic Church since 2003. It traces itself to the apostles: Pope John Paul II, in Yerevan in 2001, traced Christianity in Armenia “according to tradition to the preaching of the Apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew.” Its center is Holy Etchmiadzin, near Yerevan, which became the seat of its head, the Catholicos of All Armenians, in the fourth century, after Saint Gregory the Illuminator converted King Tiridates III in 301.

The two churches are close. When Pope Francis and Catholicos Karekin II met at Etchmiadzin in 2016, they wrote that “what unites us is much more than what divides us” and called for deeper collaboration “with a view to sharing full communion.”

A separate Armenian Catholic Church is in full communion with Rome. Its synod of bishops elects the Patriarch of Cilicia of the Armenians, who then asks the Pope for “ecclesiastical communion,” as Patriarch Raphaël Bedros XXI Minassian did after his election in 2021.

Each of these churches, whatever its name, looks back to the men Christ sent out. Paul gave all of them one picture to stand in: believers “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone” (Ephesians 2:20).

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