I have been honoured to receive the decoration of the Związku Polskich Spadochroniarzy w Warszawie – the Polish Union of Parachutists, Warsaw branch. The Union was established in 1989 by a group of former paratroopers. It brings together military veterans, current military paratroopers and reservists, as well as some civilians involved in parachuting professionally or for recreation. It is officially registered as a public benefit association in law and is a member of the European Federation of Paratroopers and the Federation of Associations of Reservists and Veterans of the Polish Armed Forces. The Warsaw branch is one of forty branches in Poland and Germany.

The Sovereign Orthodox Order of the Knights Hospitaller of St John of Jerusalem is a direct descendant of the world’s oldest order of chivalry. Founded around 1023 by Blessed Gerard Thom to provide care for poor, sick and injured pilgrims to the Holy Land, it was associated with an Amalfitan hospital in Jerusalem. When Jerusalem was conquered by Christians during the First Crusade in 1099, a Papal charter was issued to the Hospitallers as a religious and military order responsible for the care and defence of the Holy Land. After the Holy Land fell to the Muslims in 1291, the Order moved first to Cyprus, and then in 1309 captured Rhodes, where it became sovereign. The dissolution of the Knights Templar in 1312 was to the benefit of the Order, and at this time eight “tongues” of the Order were established in the countries where it was active. In 1522, the knights were defeated after six months of siege by the Muslim forces, and retreated to Sicily. In 1530, King Charles of Sicily gave them Malta, Gozo and Tripoli, which they ruled as a perpetual fiefdom in exchange for an annual falcon as tribute. In 1565, following the Great Siege of Malta, the knights won a significant victory over the Muslims, though hugely outnumbered.

During the Reformation, some of the Order’s commanderies in northern Germany and the Netherlands became Protestant and have remained so ever since, and the Order was disestablished in England, Denmark and other northern European countries. Having lost the initial reason for its existence, and with no battles to fight, it turned its attention to combatting piracy and saw a period of economic decline as its currency, the scudo, lost value. As a result, the knights began to attack Muslim ships in search of plunder, and again became wealthy. Many enrolled in foreign navies in search of adventure. This meant that grants to the Order diminished and that its economic survival became more and more dependent on conquest. Notwithstanding this, Malta flourished under the Knights and became regarded as one of the great powers of Europe.

The French Revolution saw the attempted abolition of the Order, and in 1798, Napoleon I captured Malta, forcing the knights to surrender. This signalled the end of the Order on Malta after 268 years. The largest group of knights made their way to Russia, where Czar Paul I (pictured at left wearing the Crown of the Order) gave them shelter and was elected their Grand Master, with the Apostolic Delegate to St Petersburg, Mgr. Lorenzo de Litta, officiating at the ceremony. Historians differ as to whether the original Order survived at this point, or whether, the original Order having been dissolved by Napoleon, new Orders of St John were now created respectively by Czar Paul I in 1798 (the Russian Order), and by the Pope from 1803-14, revived in 1879 (the Sovereign Military Order or Order of Malta), both of which have claimed the tradition of the original Hospitallers, together with various other bodies, some of which gained the protection of their respective states*.

The Order under Czar Paul I was recognized among the Russian Imperial Orders and the Czar created a Russian Grand Priory consisting of 118 commanderies. The Czar was Orthodox and his Grand Priory was open to all Christians, also having provision for Roman Catholic members of the Order. Under decrees of Czar Alexander I of 1810-11, the Russian Grand Priory was made a fiscally separate community from the Order overseas, and in 1817 a further decree forbade the wearing of decorations of the Order that had been granted outside the Russian Grand Priory by the Roman Catholic Order. In 1811, total membership of the Russian Grand Priory stood at 853 knights. A number of the commanderies were hereditary and portraits of Russian nobles wearing the Order can be found throughout the nineteenth-century, including that of Count Vassiliev pictured above. In 1916, Czar Nicholas II appointed two Hereditary Commanders in the Order.

In the wake of the Russian Revolution of 1917 the Order went into exile. In 1928, thirteen surviving Hereditary Commanders of the Order met in Paris as the Union des Commandeurs et Chevaliers Hereditaires, supported by three others, and set about re-establishing the Russian Grand Priory. Their Declaration read, in part:

“Later events have limited the activity of the Grand Priory of Russia; a revolution had provoked a deficiency in the legitimate power throughout the Empire; yet nothing could weaken our hereditary right as a regular affiliation and as a sovereign order of chivalry. We were born with this privilege and we retain it without further question in law. Circumstances dictate that we should now sustain without futile and vain ostentation, the prerogatives acquired by our ancestors. The tragic test which overwhelmed our Fatherland calls us to an activity full of abnegation and sacrifice worthy of the best traditions of the illustrious Order of St John of Jerusalem. It is, therefore, our duty that all of us shall initiate the following:
1) Re-establish the activity of the Russian Grand Priory of the Order of Malta created and regularised by a treaty signed on the 4th-15th January, 1799, between the Throne of Russia and the Sovereign Order of Malta.
2) Appeal to direct descendants of other Russian Hereditary Knights of Malta in order to urge them to rally with us within the fold of the Grand Priory of Russia which we are reconstituting abroad.”

The Grand Priory was under Grand Priors Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich until 1933, and Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich from 1933 to 1956. On 31 July 1950, Grand Duke Andrei issued a declaration that the Order of St John and its Hereditary Commanders were never abrogated in Russia and continued to exist. In addition, Grand Duke Kyrill Vladimirovitch, as Head of the Imperial House (also Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Thorns), made several appointments of Hereditary Commanders in the Grand Priory during the period 1934-36. On 9 December 1953, a constitution was established at a meeting in Paris, and in February 1955 the Grand Priory was registered as a foreign association under French law as “The Russian Grand Priory of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem”. In 1956, Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich became Protector to the Grand Priory, but refused the title of Grand Prior. He was succeeded as Dean by Hereditary Commander Nicholas Tchirikoff, who died in 1974, and by the Secretary of the Paris group, General Georges Sergeievitch Rtitcheff, who died in 1975.

Two of the Hereditary Commanders had become members of the branch of the Order of St John (Order of St John of Jerusalem, Knights Hospitallers), that was under High Protection of the late King Peter II of Yugoslavia, who is pictured at right. Following the death of King Peter in 1970, these two, Prince Sergei Troubetskoy and Prince Serge Sergeievitch Belosselsky-Belozersky, formed a Priory in New York in 1972 together with another Hereditary Commander, Count Nicholas Alexeievitch Bobrinskoy, great-great-great grandson of Empress Catherine the Great. This Priory became the centre for attempts to unify the remaining Hereditary Commanders and their descendants, and to bring together other elements of the King Peter Order which had split into factions after the King’s death. An alliance was also pursued for a time with the Most Sacred Order of the Orthodox Hospitallers, which was under the patronage of the President of Cyprus. On 20 April 1977, a meeting took place at which three Hereditary Commander families were present along with other Russian nobles, and this elected Count Bobrinskoy as Grand Prior of the revived Russian Grand Priory.

The Russian Grand Priory was registered and incorporated as a non-profit charitable institution in the United States and began an energetic programme of fundraising. It received canonical recognition from the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia (1974), the Russian Orthodox Church in America (1974) and the Orthodox Church of America (1983), and in 1992, HH Alexey II, Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, became Spiritual Protector of the Russian Grand Priory and permitted its return to its ancient homeland, which occurred in 1996. Although under Orthodox protection, the Russian Grand Priory has preserved its ecumenical character; however, a condition of the blessing (strictly maintained since) is that the Russian Grand Priory should not admit Roman Catholics or Freemasons. In addition, the Russian Grand Priory gained the Imperial Protection of the House of Romanoff from 1977 until 2008, with successive Protectors Prince Andrei Alexandrovitch of Russia (1977-81), Prince Vassily Alexandrovitch of Russia (1981-89) and from 1990-2008 Prince Michael Andreevitch of Russia, who was Vice-President of the Romanoff Family Association. In 2006, following the death of Count Bobrinskoy, Prince Michael was elected Grand Prior of the Russian Grand Priory. He was succeeded in 2009 by Hereditary Family Commander Count Alexander Woronzoff-Dashkoff. In 2011, the Order changed its registered name to the Knights of the Orthodox Order of St John Russian Grand Priory, known for short as the Orthodox Order of St John.

In 1998, the Russian Grand Priory commemorated the 200^th anniversary of its foundation in St Petersburg. In 2004, the Russian Grand Priory announced the re-establishment of the 1928 Union des Commandeurs et Chevaliers Hereditaires in France, with the involvement of descendants of the original Hereditary Commanders and their families. The Russian Grand Priory has never appointed a Grand Master, and continues to regard the Grand Master of the (Roman Catholic) Sovereign Military Order of Malta, currently Fra’ Matthew Festing, as overall Head of the Order. It is, however, organizationally completely separate from the Order of Malta and is not subject to its governance. A charter from the late King Baudouin of Belgium led to the admission of the Russian Grand Priory to the United Nations as an NGO.

My involvement with the Order of St John began not with the Russian Grand Priories but with the Sovereign Order of St John of Jerusalem – The Hereditary Order. This branch of the Order had developed from the King Peter Order and was led from Malta by the late Marquis Kelinu Vella Haber as Grand Master. It was internationally represented and active, publishing a quarterly journal of its affairs. In 2002, following nomination by Dr W.H. Munro, who I had come to know through the World University Roundtable, I was admitted as a Knight of Grace of the Order at a ceremony at the Guildhall in Coventry. The Order in Great Britain was headed by the late Baron Kenneth Benfield de Palmanova, who was a former Mayor of Coventry and was Lieutenant Grand Master of the Order internationally. At the time, I was one of the youngest members of the Order. Kenneth Benfield was 87, while the Grand Prior, Captain Bruce Peace, TD, had just celebrated his 88th birthday. I was presented with a set of Italian-made insignia that had previously been owned by the musician and educationalist Dr Leonard Henderson, who had been a Knight of the Order and a member of many of the musical associations with which I was involved.

The investiture at Coventry Guildhall – I am first on the left with two Dames, the Grand Prior, and the Chaplain, the Revd. Douglas Pharaoh

Unfortunately, the Order in England became inactive after the death of Kenneth Benfield in 2007, and my letters to the English office and the Malta headquarters received no reply.

In the intervening years I had been ordained and consecrated bishop, and in 2011 had been elected Prince-Abbot of San Luigi. In 2012, I accepted an invitation from the Prelate, my friend the Most Revd. Howard Weston-Smart, to become a Chaplain to the British Association of the Russian Grand Priory. This had developed from the former Grand Priory of the British Isles of the King Peter Order, and was subsequently constituted as a registered charity under the Presidency of Alexandre Tissot Demidoff, who was a descendant of a Hereditary Commander of the Order. I was installed at the investiture at the Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer, Clerkenwell, London, on 30 June 2012. After nine years as Chaplain, I resigned from all appoitments in the British Association in September 2021.

After my installation

Meanwhile, in September 2005, Prince Michael of Russia and Count Bobrinskoy had erected the Commandery of Carpathia of the Russian Grand Priory. Among the very limited appointments subsequently made to this Commandery were the late Dom Klaus Schlapps, OPR, OA, Duke of Saih Nasra in the Abbey-Principality of San Luigi, and myself. Both of us were appointed as Prelate – Knight Grand Cross of Justice, and the privilege of extraterritoriality was extended to my appointment. The category of Justice is exclusively reserved, as was the case historically, for those who can provide proof of noble status. Dom Klaus and I discussed the formation of a presence of the Russian Grand Priory in the United Kingdom on several occasions. We both deplored the divisions that had come to exist between the representatives of the Russian and Yugoslav traditions of St John and sought, in the spirit of the efforts of the 1970s, to bring about unity where possible.

Following the sudden and unexpected death of Dom Klaus in January 2013, a number of changes took place. It became clear that, although it was wished that amicable relations should continue with the Carpathian Commandery and the present-day Russian Grand Priory, some degree of independent re-organization would be necessary in order to continue the work that Dom Klaus and I had planned together.

In August 2013, the committee of the Supreme Council of the Abbey-Principality of San Luigi that had been created to examine the matter petitioned me in my office as Prince-Abbot to exercise my right as a fons honorum to erect an autonomous and extraterritorial Protectorate of San Luigi of the Orthodox Order of the Knights Hospitaller of St John of Jerusalem. The Protectorate used the former name of the Order to distinguish itself from the name that was currently in use by the Russian Grand Priory. This name was used in full on all official documents.

The Proclamation, no. 2013/72, issued by me in my office as Prince-Abbot of San Luigi on 20 August 2013, reads as follows:

“We, Edmond III, by the grace of God Prince-Abbot of San Luigi etc. etc., being desirous of giving a proof of our particular esteem and affection towards the Orthodox Order of the Knights Hospitaller of St John of Jerusalem, declare, that we take the said Order under our protection and that of the Abbey-Principality of San Luigi; and that we will employ every possible care and attention to maintain it in all its rights, honours, privileges and possessions.”

When I additionally succeeded as Prince of Miensk and Ecclesiast of All Byelorussia and as head of the Royal House Polanie-Patrikios in March 2015, the decision was taken to elevate the Protectorate to the status of a Royal Byelorussian organization, thus bringing it closer to its immediate history and heritage.

As a result, the present character of the Royal Byelorussian Protectorate of the Orthodox Order of the Knights Hospitaller of St John of Jerusalem is that of an ecumenical and extraterritorial Christian ecclesiastical community under my aegis as Prince of Miensk and Ecclesiast of all Byelorussia. As such, it represents a return to the Order’s origins as a body under religious governance.

While it shares a common history with other institutions representing the Order of St John and the Russian Grand Priory and is open to the possibilities of collaboration with them, the Protectorate is self-governing and has no official relationship with any other Order of St John at the present time. Membership in the Protectorate is strictly by personal invitation of the Prince of Miensk and is extended ecumenically to all Christians, with non-Christians admitted to all ranks as honorary Knights or Dames. Associate membership is extended to members of other legitimate Orders of St John who wish to support the work of the Protectorate; if admitted as associates, they retain their existing rank in their “mother Order” and cannot be promoted within the Protectorate. The Protectorate preserves the historical and nobiliary traditions of the Order that it has inherited by virtue of its antecedence, and as is traditional, voting rights are reserved to members in the category of Justice. Since it also has a distinctive ecclesiastical character, it is especially devoted to the support of the work of all Johannites worldwide through prayer.

*Those interested in the history of the Order of St John and the modern representatives of its legacy are recommended to read the thesis of Dr. Hendrik J. Hoegen Dijkhof “The legitimacy of Orders of St. John” (doctoral thesis of the University of Leiden, 2006, available online at https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/4576).

The present-day Military and Hospitaller Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem looks back to an ancient origin. At some time after 1098, the crusaders at the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem founded this order of chivalry at a leper hospital. The founding knights were themselves lepers, and they devoted their order to the treatment of those with the disease. King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, who was a leper, may have been a knight of the Order or received assistance from it. It was probably by the end of the twelfth-century that the Order had become a military order, and the four classes of members – brothers, knights, clerics and donors – were acknowledged in a Bull of Pope Gregory IX of 1227. Definite evidence of the Order’s active participation in military campaigns is only documented in 1234 when Pope Gregory IX made a general appeal for aid to the Order to clear debts contracted in the defence of the Holy Land. The Ordinis Fratrum & Militum Hospitalis Leprosorum S. Lazari Hierosolymitani under the Augustinian Rule was confirmed by the Papal Bull Cum a nobis petitur of Pope Alexander IV in April 1255. The order established “Lazar houses” across Europe to care for lepers, and was well supported by other military orders which compelled brethren in their rule to join the order on contracting leprosy.

The symbol of the Order of St Lazarus is the eight-pointed green Maltese cross. This is believed to have given rise to the use of a green cross as a symbol by pharmacies worldwide.

The order remained primarily a hospitaller order but it did take part in a number of battles, including the Battle of La Forbie on 17 October 1244 (where all of the Lazar brethren who fought died) and the Battle of Al Mansurah on 8–11 February 1250. The leper knights were protected by a number of able-bodied knights but in times of crisis the leper knights themselves would take up arms. The order quickly abandoned their military activities after the fall of Acre in 1291 and the dissolution of the Knights Templar due to their relative poverty. After this, the knights moved to Cyprus, then Sicily and finally to Boigny near Orléans in France, where King Louis VII of France (ancestor of the Princes of Miensk) had given the Order a property in 1154, which had been the Order’s headquarters outside the Holy Land.

In 1308, the Order was placed under the temporal protection of King Philippe IV of France. This protection was confirmed in 1604 by King Henri IV, and in 1608, the order was merged with the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, becoming the Royal, Military and Hospitaller Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Lazarus of Jerusalem. This amalgamation eventually received canonical acceptance on 5 June 1668 by a bull issued by the Cardinal Legate de Vendôme under the authority of Pope Clement IX. While being a French Royal Order, the Order remained under apostolic authority. Meanwhile, in 1572, Pope Gregory XIII had merged the Italian branch of the Order with the Order of St Maurice (founded 1434), creating the Order of Ss. Maurice and Lazarus, of which the Head of the Royal House of Savoy is Grand Master today.

In 1791, the French Revolution suppressed the Order in that country and confiscated its property. However, the future King Louis XVIII (pictured left wearing the Grand Cross) continued to confer it in exile, and on the restoration of the monarchy the Bourbon monarchs continued as protectors until 1830. On 12 March 1825, King Charles X issued a declaration that the United Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Lazarus of Jerusalem would be allowed to become extinct. Under canon law, this would occur one hundred years after the death of the last member unless the Order was canonically re-organized. The last such member died in 1856, which would have allowed for canonical re-organization until 1956.

In the event, canonical re-organization had occurred in 1841, when the Melkite Greek Patriarch Maximos III (Mazloum) granted his spiritual protection to the Order, and this state of affairs continued under his successors until the Patriarch transferred the government of the Order to a Council of Officers in Paris in 1910. This was confirmed by blessing of Patriarch Cyril VIII (Geha) (pictured right) on 3 June 1911. The factual position regarding the protection of the Order in the nineteenth-century has since been confirmed by successive Melkite Patriarchs to this day, notably by Patriarch Maximos IV (Sayegh) in 1965 and Patriarch Gregorios III in the Kevelaer Declaration of 2012. It should also be remembered that the Patriarch was a fons honorum by right of his office.

Although much of the nineteenth-century had been a period of decline for the Order, by the 1930s it was active once more, being led by Comte Charles Otzenberger-Detaille (pictured left) and the Duke of Seville. Otzenberger-Detaille was a member of the Order of the Crown of Thorns, and Prince-Abbot Edmond I of San Luigi was a member of the Order of St Lazarus under him, as well as having a close relationship to the Melkite church through Patriarch Antoine Aneed, who re-established the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of San Luigi in 1946. As a result, all the Prince-Abbots of San Luigi from Edmond I onwards, including the present Prince of Miensk, are in the episcopal succession of the Melkite Patriarchs. From 1961, at the initiative of the late Colonel Robert Gayre of Gayre and Nigg, the Order agreed to admit Protestants for the first time and became ecumenical rather than purely Catholic. Gayre became an enthusiastic promoter of the Order and ensured its expansion, though unfortunately a good deal of his energy was spent in attacking other Orders so as to vaunt the legitimacy of St Lazarus.

In 1973, the Order divided into two factions, the Paris Obedience and the Malta Obedience, which continued under separate Grand Masters, the Duke of Seville and the Duc de Brissac. A third faction emerged in 2004 under Prince Charles Philippe, Duke of Anjou. In 2008, a partial reunion was promoted between the larger Lazarite bodies, resulting in the emergence of the United Grand Priories.

The Constitutional Jurisdictions of Carpathia (Grand Priory of Carpathia) of the Order were formerly organized under the Paris Obedience. In 2008, they rejected unification under the United Grand Priories, citing many points of difference, among which was the proposed dilution of the hierarchical and nobiliary character of the Order and the rejection of its traditional history, and continued autonomously. The late Dom Klaus Schlapps, OPR, OA, Duke of Saih Nasra in the Abbey-Principality of San Luigi, became a member of the Order in 2005, becoming Senior Chaplain for the Commandery of Slovakia in 2006 and was subsequently promoted to Almoner (Grosskapitel) and Ecclesiastical Grand Cross Chaplain, the most senior chaplain in the Grand Priory. Dom Klaus held the offices of Preceptor of Bavaria and Commander of Klausenberg in Siebenbürgen. He was Patron of the International Green Cross Organization in Bavaria and a member of its Board of Directors. In November 2012, Dom Klaus was responsible for introducing me in my office as Prince-Abbot of San Luigi (also from 2015 Prince of Miensk) to the Order, in which I was appointed a Senior Chaplain in the rank of Knight Commander, in the category of Justice. The privilege of extraterritoriality was extended to this appointment so as not to bring about any conflict with existing Lazarite bodies in the United Kingdom; nor was any oath of obedience imposed. The category of Justice is exclusively reserved, as was the case historically, for those who can provide proof of noble status.

Following the sudden and unexpected death of Dom Klaus in January 2013, a number of changes took place. It became clear that, although it was wished that amicable relations should continue with the Carpathian Grand Priory, some degree of independent re-organization would be necessary in order to continue the work that Dom Klaus and I had planned together.

In August 2013, the committee of the Supreme Council of the Abbey-Principality of San Luigi that had been created to examine the matter petitioned me in my office as Prince-Abbot to exercise my right as a fons honorum to erect an autonomous and extraterritorial Protectorate of San Luigi of the Military and Hospitaller Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem in which, in consequence of my role as Protector, I would serve as Prelate Grand Cross of Justice.

The Proclamation, no. 2013/73, issued by me in my office as Prince-Abbot of San Luigi on 20 August 2013, reads as follows:

“We, Edmond III, by the grace of God Prince-Abbot of San Luigi etc. etc., being desirous of giving a proof of our particular esteem and affection towards the Military and Hospitaller Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem, declare, that we take the said Order under our protection and that of the Abbey-Principality of San Luigi; and that we will employ every possible care and attention to maintain it in all its rights, honours, privileges and possessions.”

When I additionally succeeded as Prince of Miensk and Ecclesiast of All Byelorussia and as head of the Royal House Polanie-Patrikios in March 2015, the decision was taken to elevate the Protectorate to the status of a Royal Byelorussian organization, thus bringing it closer to its immediate history and heritage.

As a result, the present character of the Royal Byelorussian Protectorate of the Orthodox Order of the Military and Hospitaller Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem is that of an ecumenical and extraterritorial Christian ecclesiastical community under my aegis in my offices as Prince of Miensk and Ecclesiast of all Byelorussia. As such, it represents a return to the Order’s origins as a body under religious governance.

While it shares a common history with other institutions representing the Order of St. Lazarus and is open to the possibilities of collaboration with them, the Protectorate has no official relationship with any other Order of St Lazarus at present.

Membership in the Protectorate is strictly by personal invitation of the Prince and is open to baptised Christians of any denomination. Non-Christians may be admitted to the ranks of the Order as honorary Knights or Dames. Associate membership is extended to members of other legitimate Orders of St Lazarus who wish to support the work of the Protectorate; if admitted as associates, they retain their existing rank in their “mother Order” and cannot be promoted within the Protectorate. The Protectorate preserves the historical and nobiliary traditions of the Order of St Lazarus that it has inherited by virtue of its antecedence, and as is traditional, voting rights are reserved to members in the category of Justice. Since it also has a distinctive ecclesiastical character, it is especially devoted to the support of the work of all Lazarites worldwide through prayer.

I have been honoured to receive the title of Honorary Datu from the Sultan of Baloi, Mindanao, Philippines, HRH Tuanku Dr Datu Camad M. Ali, and to be adopted as a Noble of the Royal Dynasty of Baloi.

Baloi is one of the Sultanates of Lanao in Mindanao, Philippines. These were founded in the 16th century through the influence of Shariff Kabungsuan, who was enthroned as first Sultan of Maguindanao in 1520. The Maranaos of Lanao were acquainted with the sultanate system when Islam was introduced to the area by Muslim missionaries and traders from the Middle East, Indian and Malay regions who propagated Islam to Sulu and Maguindanao.

Unlike in Sulu and Maguindanao, the Sultanate system in Lanao was uniquely decentralized. The area was divided into Four Sovereign States of Lanao or the Pat a Phangampong a Ranao which are composed of a number of royal houses (Sapolo ago nem a Panoroganan or The Sixteen Royal Houses) with specific territorial jurisdictions within mainland Mindanao. This decentralized structure of royal power in Lanao was adopted by the founders, and maintained up to the present day, in recognition of the shared power and prestige of the ruling clans in the area, emphasizing the values of unity of the nation (Kaiisaisa o Bangsa), patronage (kaseselai) and fraternity (kaphapagaria).

The Sultanates of Lanao had maintained and had successfully defended their Sultanate from all Spanish attempts. After the last attempt, the Spanish never again ventured in all their duration in the Archipelago for 333 years. In the modern-day Philippines, there is no official recognition accorded to the former Royal Houses, but they continue to be regarded as an important source of regional and local leadership and to be accorded the rights of traditional leaders under the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act, 1997.

I have been honoured to receive awards from the Rt. Revd. Christian Kliver, Bishop for the German-speaking countries in the Apostolic Pastoral Congress and a member of the Confraternitas Oecumenica Sancti Sepulcri Hierosolymitani.

The Apostolic Pastoral Congress is a Pentecostal Holiness church and a member of the Evangelical Alliance of Great Britain as well as a number of ecumenical groups.

Bishop Kliver has awarded the Medal “Pro Deo et Ecclesia” and the “Abbot Klaus D. Schlapps OPR” Memorial Medal to me. The latter medal commemorates the late Dom Klaus Schlapps OPR OA, Grand Prior and Duke of Saih Nasra in the Abbey-Principality and a member of the Order of Antioch, who was a mutual friend of Bishop Kliver and myself.

I have been honoured to receive the Medal of the Regent of the Union of the Polish Monarchists Association (Unia Polskich Ugrupowań Monarchistycznych or UPUM).

The Medal of the Regent of the UPUM was established by resolution of the Council of Regency UPUM No. 15/010 November 11, 2010. The medal is awarded to long-serving members of UPUM for their great loyalty to the Union and to other persons who are active in fostering awareness of monarchist ideas in society.

I have been honoured to receive the Jerusalem Cross of the Union of the Polish Monarchists Association (Unia Polskich Ugrupowań Monarchistycznych or UPUM).

The Jerusalem Cross of the UPUM was established by resolution of the Council of Regency UPUM No. 4/08 of 5 June 2008 to honour charitable work. This is one of the highest honours of the Union of the Polish Monarchists Association. It is a distinction for UPUM members, for members of the Collegium Heraldicum Concordiæ, and for other people from friendly organizations who have promoted the common good in an extraordinary way. The Jerusalem Cross of the UPUM is in one class with a neck decoration and a certificate accompanies the award.

I was delighted to be presented with Fellowship of the Society of Crematorium Organists. I spent several years regularly playing the organ for funeral services at crematoria, principally at Enfield Crematorium but also at others in north and south London. Indeed, when needed, I have both taken the service (in my capacity as a minister) and played the organ for the hymns. The work of a crematorium organist is often overlooked, and I am very pleased to see that there is now a Society to bring these hard-working musicians together, predominantly light-hearted in tone, but also with a suggestion that it may provide a forum for the discussion of conditions within the profession.

I have been honoured to have been awarded the Cross of Merit of the Polish Society of War Veterans and Former Political Prisoners (Związek Kombatantów RP i Byłych Więźniów Politycznych). The ZKRPiBWP is an official Polish Veterans association and the largest such, with 43 regional chapters across Poland as well as 2364 clubs. Membership may be granted to any Polish citizen who was an active duty member of the Polish military (including partisan, self-defence units, and Polish Underground State) in or during the war, campaign, or conflict, as well as to all survivors of German concentration camps and pro-Soviet political imprisonment in the communist era. The constitution also requires members to have not been discharged under any conditions other than honourable.

I have been honoured with Knighthood in the Order of the Precious Blood of the Old Roman Catholic Church in America (since 2017, the Society of Mercy). The Order is administered by Bishop William Myers, and describes itself as “an award of merit for those who have promoted the common good in an extraordinary way. Awarding meritorious service is a long-held tradition, and the Order of the Precious Blood is the second highest order awarded. It is awarded by the Superior General at his choice to those who have served him or the common good, and recipients may be of any faith background. It is in two classes with a neck decoration or a breast star and certificate accompanies the award.”

Bishop Myers, who is a member of the Order of the Crown of Thorns, met with me on his visit to England in 2014 and presented me with the Order of the Precious Blood on that occasion.

I have been delighted to have received Honorary Associateship of the Faculty of Church Music of the Central School of Religion.

The Faculty of Church Music was originally formed as a diploma-awarding body in order to provide the Free Churches with an alternative to the Guild of Church Musicians. The first President (from 1957) was the Rt. Revd. G.F.B. Morris, who was a Bishop of the Church of England in South Africa and a leading evangelical. The founding Honorary Secretary and Executive Officer was Dr Douglas Geary, who in 1967 became President of the Central School of Religion.  A few years after this the FCM was absorbed into the CSR, where its diploma programmes continue alongside the degrees in Church Music that were introduced in 1980. The current Director of the FCM, Dr Andrew Padmore, was formerly Organist of Belfast Cathedral.

The awards of the original grades of Associate and Fellow were made after examination; this was changed in 1958 to a system of accreditation of prior learning and experience and this method of award has continued ever since, supplemented by teaching and coursework. The award systems were revised in about 1997. A scheme of examinations for lay readers and their counterparts in the Free Churches has also been operated, leading to the former Bronze and current Silver and Gold Medals of the FCM in the Spoken Word and to the AFCM and LFCM in the same discipline.

The Society of Church Musicians was formed along similar lines to the FCM circa 1970 and merged with the FCM in 1980. This merger saw the FCM introduce a greater level of support and teaching in theoretical aspects of church music.

I was presented with the diploma of my award by Dr Mark Gretason, President of the Faculty, in a short ceremony at the Church of All Hallows by the Tower in London.

 

An honorary military commission is considered by some to be the American equivalent of being knighted. The honorary title of Colonel is conferred by some states in the United States of America. The origins of the titular colonelcy can be traced back to colonial and antebellum times when men of the landed gentry were given the title for financing the local militia without actual expectations of command. This practice can actually be traced back to the English Renaissance when a colonelcy was purchased by a lord or prominent gentleman but the actual command would fall to a lieutenant colonel, who would deputize for the proprietor. It has come to be associated in popular culture with the image of the aristocratic Southern gentleman, not least because of one of the most famous Kentucky Colonels, Harland D. Sanders.

Some states bestow other military commissions. The highest honour of the State of Nebraska is that of Nebraska Admiral (or in full, Admiral of the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska), bestowed personally by the Governor of Nebraska. The title is deliberately tongue-in-cheek; Nebraska is landlocked, and the diploma makes humorous reference to the command of tadpoles and goldfish. The Great Navy of the State of Nebraska was created in 1931 when the Acting Governor appointed twenty or so prominent Nebraskans as Nebraska Admirals. Today, recipients are considered to qualify on the basis that they have “contributed in some way to the state, promote the Good Life in Nebraska, and warrant recognition as determined by the Governor”.

Since the 1930s, the Governor of Texas has bestowed the honour of Honorary Texan upon any person who, in his or her opinion, is worthy of the qualities of the Lone Star State but has not had the good fortune to be counted among its citizens.

The award of Honorary Texan has frequently been bestowed by the Governor on foreign visitors to Texas and for foreigners who have provided assistance to Texas businesses doing business in a foreign country. Another category of recipients is children of native Texans when those children have been born outside the boundaries of Texas. While the honour is understood no longer to be bestowed on foreign nationals today, two notable British recipients in the past few decades have been Lord Hague of Richmond (in 1999, when leader of the Conservative Party; he was quoted as saying “I might be persuaded to wear the boots, but I’m certainly not going to wear the hat”) and musician Phil Collins (in 2015).

I was delighted to be commissioned an Honorary Texan in 2014.

The Tennessee Squire Association was established in February 1956 by the famous Jack Daniel Distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee.

Following World War II, the demand for Jack Daniel’s whiskey was higher than production could keep up with and their first National Sales Manager, Winton Smith, was looking for a way to keep customers around the country happy while supplies were low. He decided that loyal fans who had written the Distillery saying they could not get any Jack Daniel’s whiskey would instead receive a plot of land, a square inch of unrecorded property on the Distillery’s grounds. This would make them part owners, or Squires, and the first members inducted into the Tennessee Squire Association.

Today, the Tennessee Squire Association is an exclusive club, with many prominent members from the worlds of government, business and entertainment. To become a member, you must be nominated by an existing Squire. By tradition, however, each Squire can only nominate one member in his or her lifetime (thank you, Zackary). There is a secret room reserved for Squires at the Lynchburg Distillery, and not even the tour guides are allowed to mention it.

Ownership of a square inch of the Distillery land is generally unproblematic. From time to time, others request to graze their cattle on it, and occasionally there is trouble with skunks or possums. By and large, however, peace reigns.

The honour of Tennessee Squire is probably one of the more unusual distinctions around today. It goes without saying that it is the more valued because the quality of the product it commemorates remains second to none.