[1] The church was the first in Britain to ordain a woman as bishop and to perform religious wedding ceremonies for gay couples.
In 1994 Jonathan Blake, who had been a priest in the Church of England for over 12 years, effected a Deed of Relinquishment,[2] severing his denominational ties.
Over 100 people contacted him, among them Richard Palmer,[8] who had been consecrated as a bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church in 1997, but had resigned in April 1999.
In February 2001, Blake conducted the first gay wedding blessing on Richard and Judy's prime time TV programme This Morning.
The three bishops issued the "Hazlewood Declaration" on 10 November 2001, which facilitated the creation of the Open Episcopal Church.
[32] Following Jade Goody's wedding, Christopher Woods, Chaplain and Director of Studies in Theology at Christ's College, Cambridge, called upon the Church of England to speak out against Blake and the OEC.
[41] The church has clerics from Anglican, Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, Lutheran and Franciscan backgrounds and has grown internationally into America, Egypt, Brazil and Thailand.