An Inclusive Catholic Faith Community in Brea
Saint Matthew Ecumenical Catholic Church sits on East Imperial Highway in Brea, a city on the northern edge of Orange County where it has been welcoming Catholics and seekers since April 2025. The parish moved to the Brea location after roughly forty years of worship in the City of Orange, and it now describes itself as "an emergent church, practicing an ancient faith in new ways; a church of inclusivity where all are welcome." What sets Saint Matthew's apart is not its setting but its belonging to the Ecumenical Catholic Communion, a Catholic body that is independent of Rome yet steeped in the same liturgy, sacraments, and apostolic succession that Catholics have known for centuries. The parish welcomes divorced and remarried Catholics, LGBTQ Christians, and people who feel excluded by other churches, while still celebrating the Mass in a recognizably traditional Catholic form.
Sunday is the heart of the week here. The 9:30 a.m. Mass is celebrated in English and streamed live on Facebook, and a 12:00 p.m. Mass follows in Spanish. On those rare months that have a fifth Sunday, the parish holds Unity Sunday at 10:30 a.m., a multilingual celebration held outdoors under the tent on the property. A weekly Thursday morning Mass at 8:30 a.m. in the chapel offers a quieter weekday rhythm, and the church offices are open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The parish phone line, 714-647-1770, runs through those same hours.
Roots in the Old Catholic Tradition
Saint Matthew's identity is rooted in the Old Catholic Movement, which traces its modern origins to 1870 and the First Vatican Council's pronouncement of papal infallibility. The Ecumenical Catholic Communion received its apostolic succession through that movement, and the parish's theology follows from it: Catholics by tradition, but free of the mandates of the Roman Catholic Church. The church venerates Mary and the saints, affirms the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, recognizes the seven sacraments, and traces its ordained ministry to historic apostolic succession. Where it diverges from Rome is on questions of authority, conscience, and inclusion.
The parish's introductory materials summarize the difference in plain language. Communion, the church teaches, is not earned but is a free gift; the call to priesthood is understood to include women and married men as well as unmarried men; and laypeople play a prominent role in governance and the selection of clergy. The church's statement of faith invokes St. Augustine's maxim, "in essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity," and it frames its openness to divorced and remarried Catholics, to LGBTQ members, and to all baptized Christians at the Eucharistic table as a return to the practice of the undivided Christian Church before the East-West schism of 1054.
A Forty-Year Journey Through Four Locations
The parish was founded in November 1985 when a young priest, Fr. Peter Hickman, celebrated the first Mass of what was then called Saint Matthew Old Catholic Mission Church of Orange County in a mortuary chapel in Tustin called Saddleback Chapel. Six people were present at that first liturgy, and Fr. Peter played the guitar and led the singing himself because he had not yet met a musician. The community grew quickly. By Easter of 1986 it had moved into a wedding chapel in Old World Village, a German-themed shopping and dining complex in Huntington Beach, where the Sunday congregation grew to roughly thirty and then to about eighty as more priests and deacons joined the mission.
By the end of 1989 the church had outgrown Old World Village. A relocation committee helped the parish lease a facility on Orangewood Avenue near Anaheim Stadium, and over the next several years the parish sponsored new daughter communities elsewhere in Southern California, in Colorado, and in Minnesota, while also becoming a co-founder of Xela Aid, the humanitarian organization that has provided relief and medical care in Guatemala since 1993. In 1995 the parish elected Fr. Peter to be consecrated as its bishop, and in May 1996 he was ordained by the bishops of the Ecumenical Communion of Catholic and Apostolic Churches. The following year the parish purchased its first permanent home in the City of Orange, celebrated the dedication in January 1998, and over the next four decades it sponsored still more faith communities and ordained the first women priests in its history.
In April 2025, after roughly forty years in Orange, the parish loaded the moving trucks again and settled into its current home at 500 East Imperial Highway in Brea. The church's own pastoral letter from March 2025 marked the move as a major new chapter, and Sunday Masses in the new location began on April 6, 2025. The building includes a main sanctuary for Sunday liturgy and a smaller chapel that hosts the weekly Thursday Mass, weekday prayer, and the monthly confession schedule.
The Sunday Liturgy and Online Worship
Saint Matthew's Sunday Masses follow the Catholic liturgy with readings, hymns, Eucharistic Prayer, and the reception of Holy Communion. The English Mass at 9:30 a.m. is led by a rotation of the parish priests and is broadcast live on Facebook Live; a link is shared on the parish homepage so that anyone, anywhere, can join the celebration from a phone or computer. The Spanish Mass at 12:00 p.m. is celebrated in the same sanctuary for those who prefer the liturgy in Spanish or whose first language is Spanish. On months with five Sundays, the two congregations come together for Unity Sunday at 10:30 a.m., a multilingual outdoor Mass that gathers people from both language communities as well as members of the Simbayan Ecumenical Fellowship, a Filipino Catholic gathering associated with the parish.
For those who cannot attend in person, the church maintains a rhythm of online resources. Liturgical aids with the readings, responses, and prayers are posted each week as downloadable PDFs, so that anyone following along at home can participate fully. Recordings of the English Mass are also posted to Facebook after the liturgy, and Reverend Jetty produces edited recordings that are added to YouTube and to the parish's own videos page. The parish publishes weekly bulletins and pastor's letters as PDFs that can be downloaded or read online.
For the reverent reception of the sacrament of Reconciliation, the parish offers two routine opportunities each month. On the first Sunday of every month, one or two priests are available to hear confessions in the chapel from 8:30 a.m. until the English Mass begins at 9:30, and a confessor remains available between the English and Spanish Masses until the 12:00 service begins. Anyone can also make an appointment with a priest for confession at another time, and Mother Leslie, one of the parish priests, offers confession by phone or Zoom for those who cannot come to the church in person.
Healing, Devotion, and Weekday Prayer
Alongside the Mass schedule, Saint Matthew's offers several additional gatherings for prayer and spiritual care. On the first Tuesday of every month at 7 p.m., the Healing Service fills the sanctuary with meditation music and prayers for the sick. The liturgy is a quiet one, organized around the laying on of hands and individual prayer with a priest, and it is open to anyone who would like to attend, whether or not they are a member of the parish.
On the third Friday of every month at 6:30 p.m., the parish gathers in the chapel to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet, the Catholic devotion revealed to St. Faustina Kowalska and centered on the words, "For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world." A short teaching precedes the prayer for those unfamiliar with the devotion, and a potluck and fellowship hour follows in the parish hall.
Weekday Mass on Thursday mornings gathers a smaller group of regulars in the chapel. For those who cannot attend Mass on a given week, the church offers several other regular rhythms: a weekly rosary devotion, a weekly time of prayer and meditation, novenas on the great feasts, and a men's and women's ministry that meets in smaller groups. A monthly Bereavement Ministry provides group sharing, pastoral counseling, and prayer for those who have lost a loved one; the gatherings are led by a member of the clergy and are open to anyone in the wider community who is grieving.
Son Shine Club and the Formation of Children
The religious education of children is a major area of life at Saint Matthew's, and it is led by Reverend Jetty Van Den Berghe, the parish's Director of Religious Children's Education. The program is called the Son Shine Club, and it serves children ages four through twelve with a curriculum that follows the Catholic liturgical year. Classes use age-appropriate films of scripture stories, learning activities, crafts, music, and snacks, all geared toward two different age groups: four to seven, and eight to twelve. Reverend Martha Rogers, who chairs the parish's adult education program and serves as Dean of the Saint Cyprian School of Theology, also helps with the children's program.
Son Shine Club originally met in person before the pandemic, but since 2020 the program has shifted primarily online. Most Sundays, except the third Sunday of the month, a half-hour Son Shine class is livestreamed at 11:15 a.m. on the parish's Facebook page, with slides, stories, and craft instructions for parents and grandparents to use with their children at home. The parish also maintains a closed Facebook group called the "Son Shine Club," where the lesson videos and printable craft sheets are archived so that families can work through them at their own pace. The program is explicitly open to children beyond the immediate parish community; teachers from several surrounding parishes have used the Son Shine Club materials with their own students.
For older children and teens, the parish offers First Communion and Confirmation preparation as part of the same catechetical program. The catechists use the lectionary-based curriculum to walk students through the Sunday readings, the meaning of the Eucharist, and the key prayers of the Catholic tradition, preparing them to receive the sacraments alongside the rest of the parish community. The parish's preferred path for older students runs through the Son Shine Club into Confirmation classes that are scheduled in coordination with the bishop or the bishop's delegate.
St. Matt's Youth Group and Young Adult Life
Teenagers at Saint Matthew's are invited into St. Matt's Youth Group, or SMYG, a lay-led fellowship of young people who meet on Sundays after Mass to plan service projects, social events, and fundraisers for the parish. The youth group was first organized in its current form in 2005, when a handful of teens began gathering in the classrooms after the Sunday liturgy to talk about faith and plan a pancake breakfast. From those modest beginnings it grew into a recurring community that has organized car washes, bake sales, and an annual summer camping trip, always with a focus on serving the wider parish as well as having fun together.
SMYG members also volunteer their time for parish events and for outreach projects with the Social Justice and Outreach Ministry, including the Sunday food drive. Several of the youth group's alumni grew up at Saint Matthew's and have stayed involved as young adults, which the parish sees as a quiet sign of the program's success in forming the next generation of the church's lay leaders.
Spiritual Growth for Adults
For adults, Saint Matthew's offers a steady diet of formation and study. Between the two Sunday Masses the parish hosts adult education on topics ranging from world religions to Catholic theology and church history, occasionally inviting visiting clergy from Muslim, Jewish, and other worship communities to lead discussions. Author lectures and visiting speakers, such as Julie Byrne, author of "The Other Catholics: Remaking America's Largest Religion," have rounded out the program.
Wednesday evenings are the church's main intellectual gathering time. Bible Study meets weekly in the parish hall or at the House of Ruth and Junia at 618 West Grafton Place, with most sessions also available on Zoom. Recent studies have worked through the Book of Enoch in parallel with Revelation, the New Testament Epistles in the order they were written, the Letters of John, the Gospel of Mark, and major contemporary works of Christian spirituality such as Richard Rohr's "Falling Upward" and "Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality." The Bible Study series runs for roughly twelve weeks at a time and is led by Reverend Martha Rogers, Reverend Jetty Van Den Berghe, and other clergy or lay leaders who are expert in the topic.
The Saint Cyprian School of Theology is the parish's more formal offering for adults, with a focus on preparing candidates for the diaconate in the Ecumenical Catholic Communion. The school meets at Saint Matthew's and runs structured courses on the Old and New Testaments, Catholic theology, and the pastoral skills needed for ordained ministry. A separate weekly Monday Bible Study adds yet another regular opportunity for adults who want to dig into Scripture with others.
Sacraments of the Church
The seven Catholic sacraments are at the center of the parish's life. Baptism is open to anyone who desires it, regardless of race, gender, or the marital status of the parents, and the parish invites anyone who has been refused baptism at another Catholic church to receive the sacrament in Brea. The application form on the website lets families request a date and an officiating priest.
Weddings are a particular area of pastoral care at Saint Matthew's, because the parish's independence from Roman jurisdiction gives it more flexibility than most Catholic parishes in the United States. The priests of Saint Matthew's will marry couples who have been previously married without an annulment, who want to marry at a location other than a parish church, who are of mixed Catholic and Protestant backgrounds, or who are of two women or two men. The priests will officiate weddings in the parish sanctuary, in another church, in a garden, at home, on a hotel terrace, on a boat, or anywhere else that couples can legally be married in California; they will also officiate jointly with clergy of other denominations in interfaith ceremonies. Many of the priests are fluent in English, Spanish, and Tagalog.
Quinceañeras are a major part of the Hispanic ministry at Saint Matthew's, which the parish has maintained for more than thirty-five years. The 12:00 p.m. Spanish Mass on Sundays is the regular home of the quinceañera community, and the priests will celebrate the Mass of Thanksgiving either in the parish sanctuary or at a separate venue of the family's choosing, after the required pre-celebration class for the young woman, her parents, godparents, and court. Funerals follow the standard Catholic order and are available to anyone in the parish family, regardless of past church affiliation; arrangements are made through the parish office. The parish also offers the Sacrament of the Sick, especially through the Healing Service and through clergy visits to homes and hospitals.
Music, the Arts, and the Church Building
Music has been part of Saint Matthew's since the earliest days in Tustin, when Fr. Peter played guitar to lead the singing. The current music ministry is directed by Mirella Morra Hickman, the parish's Music Director and the wife of Bishop Peter, who also serves as the parish's office manager and the keeper of much of its institutional memory. The musicians who serve at the Sunday liturgy include instrumentalists and cantors drawn from the parish community, and the music ranges from traditional Catholic hymns to selections written for contemporary worship.
In January 2025 the parish adopted a new church logo, a stylized cross drawn in the shape of a fleur-de-lis with three petals representing the Trinity and four-fold repetition of the petals representing the Twelve Apostles. The center of the cross holds a diamond shape that symbolizes love, faithfulness, purity, permanence, and perfection, all in a single visual image. Designed by parishioner Sharon Smith in collaboration with her niece Sarah Smith, the cross draws on the budded crosses of the Old Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Greek Orthodox churches while remaining recognizably its own piece of parish art.
The Brea building provides space for the church's various ministries. The main sanctuary hosts Sunday Mass and special services, the smaller chapel hosts the Thursday morning Mass, weekday prayer, and the regular confession schedule, and the parish hall is used for community meals, the Healing Service, adult education, and other gatherings. The building can be rented for meetings, receptions, and other events; the parish's facility rental page collects the basic details and routes inquiries to the rental coordinator.
Clergy and Pastoral Care
The pastoral team at Saint Matthew's is led by Bishop Peter Hickman, the founding pastor of the parish, who now serves as Council Moderator with a focus on the church's wider relationships in the Ecumenical Catholic Communion. Bishop Arturo Querijero serves as Interim Pastor, overseeing the day-to-day life of the parish in Brea. Reverend Jetty Van Den Berghe chairs the Clergy Council and carries the portfolio for religious education and digital presence, including the parish's livestream and video archive. Reverend Martha Rogers chairs the Adult Education ministry and the Saint Cyprian School of Theology.
The wider priest team includes Father Bhaskar Madanu, who speaks both Spanish and English, Father Tony Russo, Father Ben Madriaga, and Mother Adelia Sandoval, who leads the parish's healing prayer ministry. Mother Leslie, who is remembered in the parish community even after her passing, was a familiar presence for many years and her gifts are still felt in the parish's commitment to those who grieve. The parish deacons include Deacon Jay Thompson, Deacon AnthonyRay, and Deacon Steve Smith. Within the Simbayan Ecumenical Fellowship, a Filipino Catholic community associated with the parish, Father George Florendo and Father Toting Tronco provide pastoral care in addition to their work with the broader church. Many of these priests are available by appointment for live visits, prayer calls, and confession, with several of them also offering televisits by FaceTime or Zoom for those who cannot come to the church in person.
Outreach, Food Collection, and Global Mission
The Social Justice and Outreach Ministry at Saint Matthew's is built around a long-running food drive that benefits the Western Service Workers Association, a volunteer-run organization in Santa Ana that serves Orange County's lowest-paid workers. Every Sunday, the 9:30 and 12:00 Mass congregations bring non-perishable food, toiletries, cleaning supplies, and diapers to a collection point at the church door, and the donations are delivered to WSWA for distribution. The parish also collects aluminum pull-tabs from canned drinks for the Children's Hospital of Orange County, which converts them into a cash donation to the Orange County Ronald McDonald House.
Beyond local outreach, Saint Matthew's maintains a long-standing international partnership with Xela Aid, the humanitarian organization the parish helped to co-found in 1993. Xela Aid sends volunteer teams to Guatemala to run mobile medical clinics, build homes for families in need, and support community-led environmental and development projects. Several Saint Matthew's members, including Mirella Morra Hickman, Bishop Peter Hickman, and the late Leslie Baer Dinkel, have served on Xela Aid missions over the years, and the parish continues to promote the organization through its bulletin and website.
The parish also marks the turning of the liturgical year with seasonal services. Ash Wednesday is celebrated with a noon Mass and an "Ashes to Go" option for those who cannot attend the liturgy, with ashes distributed in the church and a drive-by station on Sycamore at Imperial for passersby. Holy Week brings communal Reconciliation services in addition to the regular confession schedule. On the fifth Sunday of those occasional months that have one, the parish hosts Unity Sunday, an outdoor multilingual Mass that gathers the English, Spanish, and Simbayan communities in a single liturgy.
Membership, Giving, and Stewardship
Saint Matthew's encourages all members and friends to consider their financial support as a spiritual practice. The parish offers three ways to give: a personal check or bank bill pay, a transfer through Zelle, and an online credit or debit card donation through the website. Special designated funds include the John Deane Memorial Fund, the Brea building projects fund, and the 2026 Growing Together Drawing, a fundraising raffle that runs from January through December of each year and gives away one hundred dollars each month. Members and friends can also support the church's ministries through RaiseRight, the gift card program that rebates a percentage of every purchase to the parish.
For those who want to make a regular commitment, the parish publishes an annual pledge form in both English and Spanish that asks households to estimate their weekly, monthly, or annual giving. The form's introduction frames the tithe as a spiritual discipline rather than a legal obligation, and the parish encourages members to grow toward the Biblical standard of a ten-percent tithe over time. For those who would rather give their time and talents than money, the parish's Get Involved pages list active lay ministry teams that work on building and property maintenance, communications and public relations, community life and hospitality, finance and stewardship, social justice and outreach, and environmental stewardship.
Becoming a member of the parish starts with a visit. Anyone who would like to learn more can attend a Sunday liturgy in person or online, explore the I"m New" page on the website for answers to common questions, and contact the parish office during the week to introduce themselves. The clergy are available for prayer calls, home visits, and televisits by Facetime or Zoom for those who cannot get to the church in person, and the parish will work with anyone who wishes to be baptized, married, anointed, or simply welcomed into the community.