In 2018, I was faced with a challenging combination of circumstances. With our third child now expected, my family had outgrown San Luigi House and needed a bigger home. Moreover, having elderly family members living on the other side of the country, we no longer wished to make marathon train journeys to see them. Added to this, the AEC had continued to grow overseas, but had dwindled in Great Britain to the point where I was now the only remaining clergyman in major orders. With the exception of my own family, the remaining laity were, through age and geographical disparity, no longer in a position to form a viable worshipping community.

In such circumstances, a public chapel could no longer easily be sustained, and when we moved to Shropshire in December 2018, it was with an awareness that the provision of congregational worship in Great Britain would no longer be a priority. Even in far larger and better-resourced churches than ours, the decline in congregational worship was endemic. For all that our vision of the church is built upon the worshipping community, it proved necessary for us to reconsider how and where ministry can take place when people are no longer turning to the church as they have done in the past. Our immediate solution was in various forms of voluntary service in the community and in the preservation of the distinctive history, tradition and identity of our communion through curation of its archives, the preparation of further book and article publications, and the maintenance of its detailed and informative website. Through all of this, we continued to support our overseas parishes and missions through practical assistance and in prayer. In time, we would develop a more substantial view of the mission of an inner church dedicated to the contemplative tradition.

During 2019, I was particularly pleased when a group of Brazilian clergy joined the Byelorussian Patriarchate, having previously been part of the related Belarusian jurisdiction of the American World Patriarchates (which was now issued a Perpetual Charter in the Catholicate of the West). The creation of the Brazilian Exarchate under Dom Nagui Zayat brought about a new headquarters for our mission there in the form of the Cathedral of St George and St Sebastian in Rio de Janeiro.

The new year and the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic brought a much-needed opportunity to re-think the structure and organization of our missions going forward. The outcome of this was that the Abbey-Principality of San Luigi became the parent body for all jurisdictions, and the Catholicate of the West was established as the ecumenical organization within the Abbey-Principality under which they would be gathered.

The most visible blows dealt to us by the pandemic were the deaths of Dom Nagui Zayat from complications of Covid-19 and the death of the wife of one of our senior priests in Scandinavia as a result of a reaction to the Covid-19 vaccine.

Following the death of Dom Nagui, the Synod of the Byelorussian Patriarchate elected Dom Bartholomews his successor as Exarch. Unfortunately, the Cathedral in Rio de Janeiro was claimed by Dom Nagui’s family as their personal property and consequently became unavailable for worship. Fortunately, alternative premises were soon found and a new Cathedral of St George and St Expedite established in Águas Lindas do Goiás, and it was not long before the Patriarchate was once more engaged in a productive mission among some of Brazil’s poorest citizens, also expanding further overseas.

In Holy Week of 2023, the decision was taken to bring a formal end to the Patriarchate’s remaining missions and congregational outreach, returning it to its pre-2015 role as a purely dynastic ekklesia, and to transfer its clergy and laity to the Apostolic Episcopal Church and the Order of Antioch where their missions would be better served.

Between October 2021 and November 2022, I also took on responsibility for the oversight of a number of parishes and missions in Spain and Latin America under the aegis of the Apostolic Episcopal Church. These parishes followed the Use of Sarum, a rite with a long tradition within the Catholicate of the West, and had previously been organized under a Continuing Anglican ministry.

During this time, we had seen very welcome growth in the membership of the Order of Corporate Reunion, in which I serve as Prelate and Rector Pro-Provincial of Canterbury, and the roll of the Order now stands at well over one hundred members. The Order has been associated with the Apostolic Episcopal Church for over ninety years, with the AEC described as “the only concret result of the vision of a uniate church, once created by abbé Portal and Lord Halifax, and that has its ideological root in The Order of
Corporate Reunion.” (Bertil Persson: The Order of Corporate Reunion, Solna, St Ephrem’s Institute, 2000, p. 30).

The Order of Corporate Reunion is dedicated to ecumenical unity between Catholics and Anglicans, a cause which has long been close to my heart. In August 2023, the Order was granted a Federal service mark for its name in the United States, affirming its position as the only legitimate legal successor of the 1874 foundation.

Throughout my ministry, I have also maintained a supplementary ministerial status with the Universal Life Church in California, USA. I have written on my experiences with the ULC here.

As a postscript to this series, I have included some general observations drawing on my experiences of exercising the episcopate in the smaller churches, which can be read here.

The late Dom Klaus Schlapps OPR (1959-2013) was responsible for the revival of the Order of Port Royal (OPR) and the foundation of its Abbey of St Severin in Germany where he and other men served as Cistercian monks. In 2004, the Order became a part of the Union of Utrecht of the Old Catholic Churches, and Dom Klaus was recognized as a bishop of the Union of Utrecht, sharing a number of the Apostolic lineages that I had myself received at my consecration in 2008. However, the modernist direction of the Union did not sit well with the theology of the Order, and in 2010 it became independent once more, establishing its own synod, the Christ Catholic Church in Germany. This was in 2012 accepted as the German administration of the Nordic Catholic Church under the Union of Scranton. Sister communities were established in the USA, Haiti and Cameroon, the latter two of which were under the protection of Anglican bishops. Dom Klaus was appointed an Honorary Canon of St Michael’s Anglican Cathedral, Cameroon, in 2008. He was German Superintendent of the International Council of Community Churches.

A Cistercian monk’s life is necessarily one dominated by silence, but each day, Dom Klaus and I would set aside time to communicate via an online messaging application. I was struck by the high priority that he gave to this contact, amid the stringent demands of his monastic life and the administration of the monastery. He became both a friend and a mentor.

Dom Klaus was strongly involved in chivalry and was of the same mind as me regarding the sacred nature of kingship and the existence of noble prerogatives within the historic Churches. He held senior office in branches of the Order of St John and the Order of St Lazarus, and was also expert in the nobiliary and chivalric traditions of Africa. When, prompted by my contact with some of its few surviving members, I raised with him the possibility of the revival of the Abbey-Principality of San Luigi, whose headship had been vacant since the death of the seventh Prince-Abbot, Edmond II, in 1998, he became one of the major architects of the revival. San Luigi was briefly an independent monastic state in the Fezzan during 1883-84, and had then passed through a succession of bishops in France and the USA, with notable connexions with European and African royalty. In 1962, King Peter II of Yugoslavia gave official recognition to Prince-Abbot Edmond II, also granting to him Royal Yugoslav honours. Notably, Prince-Abbot Edmond II had also been a bishop of the Apostolic Episcopal Church.

Another important friendship that developed at this period was with Prince Kermit Poling de Polanie-Patrikios. He was a direct descendant of Russian, Polish, European and Byzantine kings, held a number of hereditary titles of nobility, and was head of the Royal House Polanie-Patrikios, which had been established in 1970 when he was elected by the Orthodox Patriarch of Belarus as the candidate for a proposed Belarusian monarchical restoration. Moreover, having been consecrated bishop by Mar Basilius Abdullah III (Dr William Bernard Crow), he was now the only living bishop of the Apostolate of the Holy Wisdom, one of the leading jurisdictions of its time to combine Orthodoxy with esoteric study. He had spent his career in ministerial service, having served in the pastorate of the United Methodist Church, and was now living in retirement in West Virginia. His connexions in the church, nobility and chivalry ranged very widely. Importantly, he had been a good friend of Prince-Abbot Edmond II of San Luigi, and was honoured by him both through senior rank in the San Luigi Orders and with a dukedom.

With Dom Klaus’s and Prince Kermit’s help, it was established that the Supreme Council of San Luigi was the responsible body for electing a successor to the last Prince-Abbot, who had died without nominating an heir, and the present representation of Supreme Council in descent from that body as it had stood in 1998 was traced in detail. Following this work, new appointments were made to the Supreme Council by its President and I was asked by the Supreme Council to accept election to the vacant Prince-Abbacy. I duly became the eighth Prince-Abbot of San Luigi with the regnal name Edmond III on 25 August 2011.

After my election, application for recognition was then made to H.M. the Omukama (King) of Bunyoro-Kitara. Bunyoro-Kitara is today one of the constituent kingdoms of Uganda, with its monarch recognized under the Constitution, but when the monks of San Luigi arrived there in 1885, it was an absolute monarchy under Omukama Chwa II Kabalega. The Omukama had granted to the Prince-Abbot the title of Mukungu, translated as Prince-Governor, in perpetuity, and our application to the present Omukama, who is the grandson of Omukama Chwa II Kabalega, was therefore to recognize the succession to this title. On 25 January 2012, His Majesty responded to our petition by issuing Letters Patent accordingly.

Moreover, H.M. the Omukama graciously consented to become a Royal Patron of the dependent chivalric Orders of San Luigi, the Order of the Crown of Thorns and the Order of the Lion and the Black Cross, and issued new Royal Charters for both Orders. This placed these Orders under the patronage and protection of a reigning monarch.

The work of re-establishing San Luigi would take up many hours of research, writing and administration. From the outset, I took the view that the membership of the San Luigi Orders would be highly selective and that we would take as our model the dynastic Orders of the European former ruling houses. Equally, I was determined that the membership would not be restricted to the wealthy or well-connected. As had always been the case in the past, we looked to merit wherever it was to be found, without distinction of class or background. As part of the administration a Charitable Trust for San Luigi was established in the United Kingdom. A permanent chapel for San Luigi was also established by the membership in France. Prince Kermit became a Royal Patron, and Dom Klaus oversaw the Grand Priory for Continental Europe.

The church tradition of San Luigi was extremely rich, including its Benedictine Roman Catholic foundation, the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of San Luigi itself (re-established by a bishop of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church in 1945), and the Order of Antioch, a religious order which had been established in 1928 by the Western extensions of the Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate. Two past Prince-Abbots had also been Anglican clergymen. New appointments of clergy were made, but as with the Orders, this was done selectively rather than with a view to building up numbers.

On 3 November 2012, Dom Klaus in his capacity as Grand Prior of the Confraternitas Oecumenica Sancti Sepulcri Hierosolymitani (Ecumenical Brotherhood of the Holy Grave of Jerusalem, or COSSH) erected a Prefectory of Great Britain under my leadership. The COSSH is an ecumenical fraternity open to men and women that draws inspiration from the “pilgrims to Jerusalem from the chivalric Brotherhood of the Holy Land in Haarlem” founded in 1394. It was revived in 1996 and Dom Klaus was elected Grand Prior in 2009. In May 2012, I received the Gold Cross of Merit of the COSSH, and in October 2012 I was appointed as a Brother of COSSH honoris causa.

The sudden death of Dom Klaus in January 2013 prevented many of our plans from coming to fruition, and it became necessary in a number of cases to take decisive action in order to preserve the organizations he had led. Accordingly, I exercised the sovereign prerogative of San Luigi in order to ensure that his representation of the Johannine and Lazarite Orders could continue, and worked with the Revd. Christian Kliver, who as Prefect of Bavaria was now the only other remaining senior officer of the COSSH, to ensure that the COSSH was not suppressed as was the intention of some others.

In July 2014, Archbishop Francis C. Spataro appointed me as his co-adjutor with right of succession to the Primacy of the Apostolic Episcopal Church.

Archbishop Spataro subsequently announced that he would retire as AEC Primate on 5 February 2015, his seventy-ninth birthday, and I duly succeeded him the following day. As an urgent priority, I promulgated canons for the AEC after a long period of rule by decree, and worked to re-activate fully the historical, jurisdictional and canonical legacy of the AEC, most particularly in its role as the successor of the Catholicate of the West. This was ultimately the fulfilment of the commission I had received in respect of the Ancient Catholic Church in 2008 and the Apostolic ordination I had received within the communion of the AEC in 2006. The AEC’s corporate nonprofit status had been unclear for some years, and in order to resolve this and manage its affairs effectively, I established a nonprofit religious Corporation Sole for the Primate and Presiding Bishop of the AEC under the special legislative provision that exists for such corporate entities in Hawaii.

To my surprise, after many years of the friendliest contact, Bertil Persson opposed my election to the Primacy, proposing that he should resume that office instead. A power struggle ensued for some months, in which (despite severe provocation and threats) I refused to criticize my opponents or descend to their level. Likewise, Archbishop Spataro was steadfast and unflinching in his support for me. The Persson camp, which consisted of Persson and a young bishop who he had recently consecrated, was implacably opposed to a canonical or hierarchical organization for the AEC, despite this being the original historical basis of the church, and also rejected anything that represented the legacy of Mar Georgius of Glastonbury. It was further apparent that, for them, these issues had become deeply politicized, and that they favoured a progressive theology of the style of the contemporary Vatican rather than my traditionalist Catholic and esoteric outlook. It was necessary to quash the dissenters firmly, and after much forebearance, rejected attempts at dialogue, and an abortive attempt at schism, they were excommunicated by the AEC.

It was also my duty to conduct a thorough review of the serving clergy and the state of the various intercommunions that had been entered into over the years. I came to the conclusion that the extremely wide scope of the ecumenical developments in the AEC during the primacy of Bertil Persson (1986-98) had taken the AEC into a position where its core identity was in danger of being lost. Following the work of Archbishop Spataro, I therefore re-emphasised the Continuing Anglican and Orthodox core identity of the AEC, while making clear its openness to diverse intellectual traditions including the esoteric.

On my accession to the Primacy, I was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology by the AEC.

On 1 March, Prince Kermit adopted me as his successor in all his honours, and on 31 March he died, whereupon I succeeded him as Ecclesiast of the Byelorussian Patriarchate of St Andrew the First-Called Apostle and as head of the Apostolate of the Holy Wisdom.

I moved from London to Norfolk in September 2015, and took up residence at what was to become San Luigi House. This was a magnificent Victorian home that was the subject of an extensive and painstaking restoration by the previous owner and myself. It became the headquarters for San Luigi and the AEC.

Among the outbuildings was a former store that I converted into a fully-fledged chapel. I embarked on the project intending that this would serve not only as a domestic chapel for the worship of my young family and myself, but that it would form a focal point for San Luigi and AEC members in Great Britain. The resulting Vilatte Chapel was duly registered with the civil authorities as a place of worship.

On 1 August 2016, Archbishop Peter Paul Brennan, Universal Primate of the Order of Corporate Reunion, died. Archbishop Brennan had been a friend for many years and we would meet on his regular visits to London. He was one of the rare breed of clergymen who had the ability to work both within conservative and liberal church traditions, and sought throughout to bring about unity and to find common ground between groups of Christians. He appointed no successor, and following a period of transition the AEC reasserted its own historic representation of the Order of Corporate Reunion (which dates from 1933). Subsequently, the OCR would be re-organized under the AEC and the Catholicate of the West and incorporated once more in its homeland of England. This also marked a revival of its founding mission as a religious society to bring about unity between Anglicans and Roman Catholics. This mission grew internationally to include both clerical and lay members on several continents.

In 2017, I was also awarded the degree of Doctor of Letters, jure dignitatis, by the Western Orthodox University, which since 1977 has been an integral part of the AEC. Since the degree-granting authority of the University was not only secular (it having been chartered in the Commonwealth of Dominica) but depended upon the Presiding Bishop of the AEC in his office as Catholicos of the West, I had to sign my own certificate. I had previously received the degrees of Doctor of Divinity, Doctor of Canon Law and Bachelor of Letters of the Western Orthodox University during 2015, as well as being formally admitted to its Fellowship. The degrees were awarded in consequence of my having incorporated degrees conferred by other institutions according to the University’s Regulations on such matters.

The AEC has always remained an intentionally small communion, with something of the character of a church society, but under my Primacy I was delighted to see fresh growth with new missions joining us in Scandinavia and in Latin America. I was also particularly pleased to sign an intercommunion agreement between the AEC and the Patriarchate of Bunyoro-Kitara. In Great Britain, I had dialogue with several clergy of the Church of England who were concerned about developments in that communion, and one of our clergy was also accepted to minister in the Free Church of England in parallel with his AEC responsibilities.

Against this, there was the continual difficulty that both clergy and laity were predominantly of the older generation, and one of my duties was to deal with a steady flow of retirements and obituaries. Past experience in the LCAC and EADM had shown that the younger generation rarely stays the course in the smaller communions. This highlights, of course, the considerable challenges of undertaking this kind of independent, self-reliant ministry, but it also speaks of a generation that has either rejected institutional and formal religion, or that regards the larger communions as fulfilling adequately the need for such.

>>Continue to part 5

Following my ordination and consecration by Dom Phillip Kemp, the church which I co-led experienced a period of growth and development. The new name The Liberal Rite was adopted with effect from 1 January 2007 and reflected our position as part of the Liberal Catholic movement, consisting of churches that used the Liturgy or Rite of the Liberal Catholic Church.

The word “liberal” means different things to different people. I am liberal in some aspects, particularly in my pastoral approach and in my openness to the study of esoteric teachings, but conservative in others, such as the essentials of orthodox theology and my preference for a hierarchical church organization. Others draw the line in different ways. I also believe that liberalism in the context of the Liberal Catholic movement should signify adherence to a positive set of precepts rather than an absence of theological principles and organization.

In many respects, the Liberal Catholic Church from which the Liberal Catholic movement descends is highly conservative. The liturgy is formal, ceremonial in nature and differs little from the pre-Vatican II Tridentine Mass (hence the attraction of the Liberal Catholic Church to a number of Traditional Catholics). The church is administered hierarchically and according to a corpus of canon law, policies and regulations. Its emphasis is sacerdotal rather than evangelical, and it is oriented towards the contemplative and mystic. It has never laid great emphasis on numbers of parishes or followers, and is more concerned with reaching those who have a particular calling to follow its distinctive charism.

What is certainly liberal, however, is the freedom of individual interpretation that is permitted. For many years, this was wholly unrestricted, and in some cases came to embrace a good deal of syncretism and Eastern teachings, but in more recent years more orthodox official Summaries of Doctrine or lists of Teachings have been adopted by some Liberal Catholics. For those who, like the founders of the LCC, had come from a background of Roman dogma and unquestioning constraint, interpretative freedom must have seemed revolutionary. From an Anglican perspective like my own, it was a much more natural approach to faith, in which the intellect is welcomed and the spiritual journey of the individual emphasised. However, during my time, I saw a number of people come into the Liberal Catholic movement whose background was not necessarily in the LCC or its related churches, but instead in theological and liturgical liberalism, with its opposition to traditionalism, hierarchy and formality. This approach was not in line with my own, and indeed it was a major reason why I had left the Church of England.

The principal causes of division between the different churches of the Liberal Catholic movement are long-standing and as seemingly intractable as the other principal obstacles to ecumenical reunion. Firstly, there is controversy as to the importance of Theosophy and its teachings. It should be stated that there has never been an official relationship between the original LCC or any of the churches of the Liberal Catholic movement and the Theosophical Society, and indeed the Theosophical Society early on issued a statement dissociating itself from the LCC. The fact remains, however, that the founding clergy and many other members of the LCC have also been members of the TS, and this has led to a number of Theosophical ideas entering into some Liberal Catholic jurisdictions. Principal among these are belief in the Ascended Masters, compulsory vegetarianism and abstention from alcohol and tobacco. A strong connexion between the LCC and Co-Freemasonry is also evident. In the modern era, there have been further divisions concerning the ordination of women.

The position of The Liberal Rite was that it did not endorse Theosophy or any other esoteric school, holding that it was for the individual to determine to what extent they accepted such views. Nor did it prescribe vegetarianism or teetotalism. It also followed the practice of the non-Theosophical Liberal Catholic churches in ordaining women to the major orders. While I had not been part of the vigorous opposition from Anglo-Catholicism to the ordination of women in the Church of England, neither did I agree with the “progressive” view in favour of the matter that had its origins in egalitarian politics. Instead, influenced by Metropolitan Kallistos Ware’s comments on the female diaconate, the practice of the Greek Orthodox Church and a number of the esoteric churches, and ultimately by the Eglise Gnostique of Doinel, I took the view that the ordination of women was a parallel but separate ministry to that of the ordination of men, with its own distinctive character and charism. Some years later, I would come to see this view as excessively idealistic. The fact was that where the ordination of women was being advocated, it was being done in the name of egalitarianism rather than with reference to any origins in orthodox theology and church history, and it was being used to undermine the traditional values that I wished to support.

Having made positive contact with other Liberal Catholic groups, including The Young Rite on the Continent, The Liberal Rite also had a good working relationship with the Apostolic Episcopal Church and the Ancient Catholic Church as two jurisdictions with similar approaches and aims. Our worship continued to be based in London, but, reflecting both perceived need and our resources and interests, had moved from a general congregational outreach to a more specialized mission that would of its nature be of interest to a smaller group of people.

On 15 August 2007, I was the principal consecrator for two bishops at the former Well Chapel at Witnesham, Suffolk. Assisted by Andrew Linley and Old Catholic bishop Michael Skelly, I consecrated priests Charles Mugleston and Alistair Bate, who had both previously been members of other Liberal Catholic churches. Charles was responsible for the community of the Well Chapel and in secular life is a professional actor. He worked tirelessly to try to achieve reunion between the churches of the Liberal Catholic movement and remains in communion with my church today. After some years during which he served as a bishop in my jurisdictions, Alistair ceased to be in communion on 31 May 2011.

During the earlier part of 2008, I was much occupied with the complex ecclesiastical and legal aftermath of the loss of the Cathedral Church of the Good Shepherd in Clapton to the Ancient Catholic Church, which I have written about elsewhere. The eventual outcome was that the Ancient Catholic Church merged with The Liberal Rite to create the new Liberal Catholic Apostolic Church, which I led as its first Metropolitan Primate.

In August 2008, I returned to the Well Chapel when Bishop Charles Mugleston ordained Sr. Magdalena Stebbing to the priesthood.

With the death of Archbishop George Boyer in the same year, the Apostolic Episcopal Church (AEC) elected me to succeed him as their Archbishop of Great Britain; I was also appointed as Bishop and Rector Pro-Provincial of Canterbury in the Order of Corporate Reunion.

The AEC required me to undergo subconditional consecration, this being necessary since the AEC was a Continuing Anglican body and maintained the Anglican practice of having a minimum of three bishops consecrate rather than allowing for consecrations to take place solus by a single bishop (as is more commonly accepted by Rome). This took place on 23 November 2008 in the beautiful Arts and Crafts setting of Golder’s Green Unitarian Church. The principal consecrator was Archbishop Bertil Persson, Primate Emeritus of the AEC, assisted by Archbishop Paget E.J. Mack of the AEC (acting as Commissary of the Primate, Archbishop Francis C. Spataro) and Archbishop-Primate Phillip Lewis of the Ethiopian Coptic Orthodox Church of North and South America and Europe. Other bishops were present, including Andrew Linley and Alistair Bate of the LCAC and Leila Boyer of the Church of the Ascension. During the service, I was enthroned as Archbishop of Great Britain in the AEC and confirmed in my positions within the LCAC and the Ancient Catholic Church. As well as the outer aspect of the ceremony, there was also an inner aspect, in which all the bishops present gave each other additional commissioning.

This consecration conferred upon me the Apostolic Succession through the Anglican Communion (Philippine Independent Church) and Old Catholic Union of Utrecht successsions. The validity of the orders of the Apostolic Episcopal Church had been confirmed by the Bishop of London in the Church of England during the 1980s when several AEC clergy were incardinated into the Church of England.

Archbishop Bertil Persson signs the major consecration certificate above during the ceremony

Inevitably some reorganization of my responsibilities became necessary, and I retired as Metropolitan Primate of the LCAC in January 2009. There were already tensions in the LCAC between those clergy who were, in line with the Liberal Catholic movement, traditionalists who were open to esotericism, and those clergy who saw the phrase “liberal catholic” as signifying a commitment to liberal theology and practice within a broadly Roman context. On September 26, 2009, Adrian Glover was consecrated bishop for the LCAC at Golder’s Green Unitarian Church and he would eventually succeed to its primacy. The principal consecrator was Andrew Linley, and the assistant consecrators were Alistair Bate, Charles Mugleston and myself.

On Easter Day, 2010, I established a new ekklesia within the Apostolic Episcopal Church called the Ecclesia Apostolica Divinorum Mysteriorum (EADM; Apostolic Church of the Divine Mysteries), in which I was designated by the name Tau Eleutherius. This reflected a number of lessons learned from the way the LCAC had developed. EADM positioned itself as a reformed Liberal Catholic rite in the contemplative tradition. The strands that were of particular importance in its identity were a pre-Nicene Western Rite Orthodoxy and Traditionalist Catholicism emphasising Johannine spirituality, and an openness to esotericism, including the traditions of the Eglise Gnostique, Rosicrucianism and the Wisdom Traditions. EADM was hierarchically and formally governed by a Council of Three operating under a corpus of canon law, and had soon come to include all of the esoterically-minded clergy of the LCAC. As well as activity in London, there was an active parish in Edinburgh and other missions in Europe and the Americas.

On 19 June 2010, EADM chartered the Companions of the Cross and Passion, an order of men following the Passionist charism. In July 2010, EADM provided a charter and constitution for the new Mission Episcopate of Ss. Francis and Clare, and the necessary mandates for the consecration of its two bishops, Br. Thomas and Sr. Magdalena Stebbing. This was to be an independent body whose ministry would be carried out chiefly in the United States. On 14 August, these bishops were consecrated at Newington Green Unitarian Church by Alistair Bate assisted by myself, Andrew Linley, Adrian Glover and Louise Lombard, bishop of The Young Rite.

The impetus of EADM was sound, but it did not succeed in achieving stability. This was largely due to the divergent personalities involved, some of whom were not committed to living within a disciplined and ordered canonical community. As 2011 progressed, the majority of EADM’s clergy defected in order to form a new church that would be more in line with the looser and less accountable norms of the independent sacramental movement. This set in place a process of complete reorganization that saw EADM emerge with its purpose and mission intact, but occupying a more specialized role and with a significantly lower profile compared to the other aspects of my ministry.

Around this time I was completing the research for my biographies of Arnold Harris Mathew and Joseph René Vilatte. These built on a much more extensive earlier book that traced the history of the smaller sacramental churches from the nineteenth-century to the present day. The archival holdings of my jurisdiction were continuing to expand, with many gifts of historic papers and church publications that were often rare and ephemeral. My book on Mathew had been expanded from my doctoral thesis at the Universidad Empresarial de Costa Rica, and I was pleased some years later to see it extensively referenced in further doctoral work at a British university.

Meantime, several events happened that would set the tone for my life in the church during its next phase. The first was my election to the vacant Prince-Abbacy of San Luigi, and the second was the beginning of my friendships with the late Dom Klaus Schlapps and Prince Kermit de Polanie-Patrikios.

>>Continue to part 4

As a result of the issues that had arisen concerning Illtyd Thomas (see previous post), it was decided that Andrew Linley and I should undergo subconditional ordination to all the major orders as a cautionary measure.

Dom Phillip Kemp OSB(csr) was Primate of the Old Catholic Church of Great Britain, which had been founded in 1968. He was for twelve years employed at the Department of Work and Pensions, where he rose to become a manager. He then became a learning and development officer, and latterly Regional Manager, for the public service trades union Unison. An able chef, he served for eight years in the Territorial Army Catering Support Regiment, Royal Logistics Corps, and was promoted from the ranks to Second Lieutenant in 1992. Further promotion to Captain followed before he left the T.A. in 1998. Although he had not pursued university education after leaving school, he studied later in life with the Open University.

Phillip Kemp was consecrated by Aelred Peter Distin, then Primate of the Old Catholic Church of Great Britain, as Titular Bishop of Elmham on 6 June 2004 and appointed additionally as Co-Adjutor Metropolitan. He was a professed member of the Benedictine Community of St. Romuald. On 13 September 2004 Distin formally retired as Metropolitan Archbishop of the OCCGB in favour of Kemp. Under Kemp, the OCCGB was regularized and registered as a charity. Undergoing several changes of name, it was known at the time of our ordination and consecration as the Independent Catholic Alliance and latterly was called the Traditional Catholic Orthodox Church.

The services that took place on 11 November 2006 took up an entire day. The venue was the Oratory of the Holy Spirit in Enfield, north London, which was then the principal house-chapel of our church. All services used the Roman Pontifical. The services were open to the public and were attended by laity. Dom Phillip ordained us conditionally to the diaconate and priesthood and then consecrated us to the episcopate. We then at Dom Phillip’s request conditionally consecrated him to the episcopate, and I then conditionally ordained Dom Simon Scruton of the OCCGB to the priesthood.

 

When Dom Phillip died at the early age of 46 in 2012, the Administrator of the Old Catholic Church of Great Britain requested that I, as the senior of the two bishops consecrated by him, should succeed him as Primate and Titular Archbishop of Elmham.

>>Continue to part 3

A number of factors led me to leave the Church of England, the church of my birth and in which I had undertaken lay work as a musician for some twelve years. My background was in the Diocese of Edmonton under the late Bishop Brian Masters. Some of the parishes there, including one where I worked for several years, used the full Roman Rite, and in general there was a strong legacy of High Tory working-class Anglo-Catholicism. When Bishop Brian died in 1998, it was effectively the end of an era. The Times published what I and many others considered a mean-spirited obituary, and my letter protesting at this was duly published by that newspaper in reply.

Having first felt a call to ordination in my teenage years, I now found myself revisiting the idea of non-stipendiary ministry to be pursued alongside my teaching and other work. The response to my enquiries was not encouraging, however, and I was left with the firm impression that someone of my traditionalist theological and political views would not be welcome in the present-day Church of England. This seemed to me to be the case even were I to remain a layman, as liberal evangelicalism enjoyed its ascendancy. Ultimately, I came to feel that it was as much the case that the Church of England had left me as the other way around. Many in a similar position crossed the Tiber; I however found myself unable to accept either of the Vatican Councils in conscience, and regarded the second as an open door to the modernism to which I was opposed. I was also becoming increasingly interested in Christian Esotericism and wanted the freedom to explore this tradition. Under the circumstances, I concluded that it was preferable to serve within a smaller communion where my viewpoint would have a chance of accommodation, rather than a larger one where I would be a marginal figure at best. At this point, initially through common interests in other areas, I came to meet some members of the Society of the Divine Spirit.

The Society was a small autocephalous group of Christians that had first formed in South London in 1999. First called the British Liberal Free Church, and later renamed the Society of the Divine Spirit (SDS), the inspiration for this foundation was the work of Revd. J.M. Lloyd Thomas and the Society of Free Catholics earlier in the twentieth-century, with the aim of combining the intellectual freedom of the Free Church tradition with gently Catholic worship. The Society of Free Christians was also formed in 1999 as a ministerial organisation working in parallel with SDS.

Ministerial training in the Society of the Divine Spirit ensued, and resulted in my receiving my licence. For some years, our worship took place in the side chapel of Bloomsbury Baptist Church and the chapel of Wimbledon YMCA, and the community eventually came to be led by three co-equal ministers including myself. A number of liturgies were specially written for our church by the ministers, and resulted in beautiful and moving celebrations.

Subsequent developments saw the evolution of SDS into the English Liberal Free Church (ELFC), a stronger sacramental emphasis to our worship and a more formal administration, in which I served as Chancellor. In 2006, several major changes took place. The longest-serving of our ministers, the Revd. Stephen Callander-Grant, decided to leave ELFC in order to exercise a specifically Unitarian ministry. The other two ministers, the Revd. Andrew Linley and myself, with the support of the laity, decided to seek Holy Orders in the historic Apostolic Succession in order that we might bring sacramental validity to our community.

There was a strong synergy between our approach to theology and church practice and that of the Liberal Catholic Church. The Liberal Catholic Church was formed in 1916 by British Old Catholic clergy who were seeking a church that was historically rooted, liturgically and structurally traditionalist, while also being open to freedom of interpretation, including that provided by esotericism. Later developments in the LCC had led to the existence of a Liberal Catholic movement consisting of a number of different churches. These churches maintained a similar ecclesiology deriving from their common origin, but differed on such matters of practice as the emphasis given to Theosophy, compulsory vegetarianism and abstention from alcohol and tobacco.

In addition to those churches that described themselves as Liberal Catholic, we also became aware of the Apostolic Episcopal Church, which had been founded in the United States in 1925 as a Continuing Anglican and Orthodox body, but that had also had extensive contact with bishops from the esoteric tradition, notably the late Archbishop George Boyer who was then its senior representative in Great Britain. We also came to know the Ancient Catholic Church, then based at the Cathedral Church of the Good Shepherd in Clapton, London, which had been canonically established in 1950 under the aegis of the British archbishop of the Apostolic Episcopal Church, and which had taken a path very similar to that of Liberal Catholicism. The esoteric teachings of John Sebastian Marlow Ward, a bishop of the Catholicate of the West, were also an important discovery, and I formed a friendship with his son Bishop John Cuffe of the Orthodox Catholic Church in Australia that endures to this day.

From this came the overriding concept which has remained with me throughout my ministry, of an orthodox and traditionalist theology and practice within a formal and hierarchically-structured communion that is also intellectually open to other currents, including esotericism. My models in this came to be the bishops Arthur Wolfort Brooks, William Bernard Crow, Harold Percival Nicholson, J.S.M. Ward and, at least in the earlier part of his ministry, Hugh George de Willmott Newman. The connexion between all of these bishops was the Apostolic Episcopal Church and the Catholicate of the West which the AEC eventually absorbed.

Although we explored the option of uniting our work with another church through discussion with several bishops, our conclusion was that our jurisdiction had developed its own particular character and that its independence should be maintained. In particular, we did not find that all of the smaller sacramental churches shared our ideas as to the nature and direction of our mission. Nevertheless, it must be said that few of the churches that we encountered corresponded to the Anglican stereotype of uneducated wandering bishops obsessed with extreme ritualism and exaggerated titles, and it was obvious that a number were patently sincere and engaged in laudable work in the community. Our aim was therefore to find a bishop who would be prepared, through ordination in the Apostolic Succession, to bestow valid sacraments upon our communion.

It was certainly not the case that I regarded the prospect of becoming a bishop as desirable per se. But within a traditionalist church hierarchy, there is no viable alternative to episcopally-based organization. Only a bishop can ordain and confirm, and if a church is to be fully autocephalous, it must have its own bishops to ensure its succession and survival. It was with this duty in mind, therefore, that it was accepted that we would need to be consecrated to the episcopate.

The late Thomas Illtyd Thomas was Primate of the Celtic Catholic Church, which was then in communion with the Apostolic Episcopal Church, and had while living in Canada in 1986 served as Assistant Bishop in the Liberal Catholic Diocese of Niagara. Consequently, he represented two of the significant strands with which we wished to unite our heritage. He had been consecrated bishop by the Primate of the Holy Celtic Church, Archbishop Anthony Walter John Williams, in 1979, and in 1985 was subconditionally consecrated by Archbishop Bertil Persson of the Apostolic Episcopal Church, also receiving the Cross of Merit of St Martin the Evangelist from that church. Illtyd Thomas had undertaken many ordinations and episcopal consecrations, and we were interested to note that two of the men who had been consecrated by him also held active office in the Church of England.

Cardinal Hume, then Archbishop of Westminster, with Illtyd Thomas and the wife of one of the deacons of the Celtic Catholic Church

At the time we contacted Illtyd Thomas, he was eighty-nine years old. He was mentally acute and physically vigorous but greatly limited by arthritis and a leg injury. His study contained an extensive library of books on theology and ministry, and although he was clearly self-taught, he was both widely read and knowledgeable. He produced the church magazine, The Visitor, without interruption for twenty-five years, and this enjoyed a wide circulation among members and friends of his church. It was printed for him by a clergyman of the Church in Wales.

Before agreeing to ordain us, Illtyd Thomas examined us thoroughly in theology and ministry, and took a keen interest in understanding the nature and work of our denomination. At the conclusion of his enquiries he not only agreed that we had met the standards required for ordination and consecration, but expressed enthusiasm about our ministry and candidacy for Holy Orders.

The Celtic Catholic Church (in conjunction with the Religious Society of the Good Shepherd in Austria under Bishop Viktor Schoonbroodt) had in 1985 established its own seminary, St David Œcumenical Institute of Divinity. This conferred degrees after the manner of Lambeth degrees, on the basis of the achievement of the candidate, and without charging fees (thus being exempt from the restrictions of the Education Reform Act 1988). As will be seen, the wording of the degree certificate also commends the graduate’s moral character and social status. The Institute decided to confer on me the degree of Sacræ Theologiæ Professor (Doctor of Divinity) as a mark of recognition.

The remainder of our discussions with Illtyd Thomas centred on the history of the smaller churches in England, and I was interested to hear his memories of such figures as Archbishop Geoffrey Peter Paget-King and Archbishop Williams. He also kindly gave us some books, vestments and archival documents that he no longer needed.

While our relationship with Illtyd Thomas was at all times civil and friendly, we had a number of reservations that led us to maintain our distance. Illtyd Thomas was a widower with three adult children, and lived alone (except for his Jack Russell terrier Simon) in a three-bedroom house in London’s Muswell Hill. He operated what was in effect an open house policy at his home, and invited anyone in need of ministry to call at any time. It seemed to us, however, that a number of those who took advantage of his hospitality were in fact unsavoury characters who were exploiting his goodwill, and that he was too naïve to see this. It came as no surprise when he reported to us that some of his regular house guests had stolen money from him and engaged in drunken misbehaviour. Unfortunately, any advice to dissociate himself from these individuals was clearly unwelcome.

The Celtic Catholic Church, like our own, was a small house-church and community ministry movement that would hire church buildings from other denominations for major services. It was Illtyd Thomas’s and our wish that the ordinations should take place in a local church, but it quickly became clear that his age and lack of mobility would not make this possible. We therefore agreed that they would instead take place in his house chapel dedicated to St David. The resulting ceremonies were modest and homely in style (and none the worse for being so), but thanks to the input of a knowledgeable liturgist, every care was taken to ensure that they were conducted to the highest standard. They were open to the public, and lay representatives were present. Concerning the episcopal consecration, Illtyd Thomas acted solus rather than being assisted by other bishops, a practice also seen in several other British Old Catholic churches.

Before we proceeded to ordination, we were conditionally baptised and confirmed by Illtyd Thomas. We were then ordained to the Sacred Diaconate on 10 June 2006:

On 8 July 2006 we were ordained to the Sacred Priesthood:

 

On 8 July 2006, we were elected to the Episcopal Order:

In order to ensure that there was no misunderstanding on certain points, a statement was signed by Illtyd Thomas before our episcopal consecration. This would prove a prudent measure in light of subsequent events.

On 29 July 2006 we were consecrated to the Sacred Episcopate:

A summary of some key points is given below:

1. When we made contact with Illtyd Thomas in 2006, we did so as an existing church (the English Liberal Free Church) which was jointly led by the Revd. Andrew Linley and myself.
2. At no point during my preparation for ordination to the diaconate and priesthood and consecration to the episcopate were either of us under any Oath of Canonical Obedience to Illtyd Thomas.
3. At no time did we ever sign any Instrument of Canonical Obedience to Illtyd Thomas or any other document to similar effect.
4. It was made clear from the outset and understood clearly throughout the entire process of preparation for Holy Orders that Andrew Linley and I had come to Illtyd Thomas as clergy of an independent and fully autocephalous church; as a result, we remained autocephalous before, during and after the ceremonies of ordination and consecration. The sole purpose of these ceremonies was to transmit the Apostolic Succession for the benefit of our church.
5. No payment of money or any benefit in kind was ever made to Illtyd Thomas by us in connection with my ordination and consecration, nor did he ever request the same.

The following photograph and announcement would appear in the magazine of the Celtic Catholic Church, The Visitor, in September 2006, demonstrating its official endorsement of the consecration:

Following my ordination, contact with a former police officer and further contacts with fellow clergy provided me with compelling evidence that showed that Illtyd Thomas had been wholly untruthful with us regarding the details of some of his ordinations, the nature of his associations with others (including individuals with serious criminal convictions), and his own past history, which included a criminal conviction for theft. This information was shared by us with other jurisdictions, including the Apostolic Episcopal Church, and caused us to discontinue our contact with Illtyd Thomas. As a cautionary measure, it was agreed that we would undergo ordination and consecration to all the major orders sub conditione, which took place at the hands of a Traditional Catholic bishop that November.

During the following year, the elderly and vulnerable Illtyd Thomas came under the malign influence of several individuals, including a convicted felon, who sought to use him for their own purposes. Documents have since been posted online by these individuals that they allege were written by Illtyd Thomas, and that purport to be “instruments of laicisation” directed at us and at a bishop of another jurisdiction who was also ordained and consecrated by Illtyd Thomas. It should be added that no contact was ever received by us from Illtyd Thomas directly regarding these matters, nor were enquiries directed to him in their aftermath acknowledged.

We note that Illtyd Thomas habitually took care in the preparation of official documentation, which was generally printed or typed on headed paper and that bore his official seals. Examples are provided on this page. He was not accustomed in our experience to issuing official documents by scrawling them in pencil on scraps of notepaper, not least because his arthritis made it difficult and painful to write. Even if they were to be authentic, the legitimacy of the circumstances in which these documents were procured would be highly questionable.

No bishop can laicize a person who is not a member of his church, and any act or purported act of this kind by Illtyd Thomas would be canonically null and void. The purpose of such behaviour is, of course, to sow discord and to attempt to create doubt. Fortunately, no doubt as to the facts of the case exists, as is clearly demonstrated by the evidence above.

The position of the Apostolic Episcopal Church is as follows:

• A bishop of another jurisdiction who was affected by these actions performed a solemn excommunication of Illtyd Thomas on 1 March 2007. While this was undertaken outside the Apostolic Episcopal Church, it was done with the support of the Apostolic Episcopal Church and has consequently been recognized as effective within the Apostolic Episcopal Church by decision of Metropolitan Synod.
• The intercommunion that existed between the Apostolic Episcopal Church and the Celtic Catholic Church has been repudiated.
• Holy Orders that were conferred by Illtyd Thomas continue to be regarded as valid in principle by the Apostolic Episcopal Church, although a careful examination on a case-by-case basis is necessary in light of the above facts.

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