Catholicate of the West

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The Catholicate of the West was a Christian denomination established in 1944 and which ceased to exist in 1994 to become the British Orthodox Church.

The denomination was also known as the Catholic Apostolic Church, the Catholicate of the West (Catholic Apostolic Church), The United Orthodox Catholic Rite, The Celtic Catholic Church, the Patriarchate of Glastonbury, The Western Orthodox Catholic Church, and the Orthodox Church of the British Isles.^{[1]: 443, 448–9, 459, 460–1, 466, 500 [2]: 293}

History

Background

Notice from Aphrem I

On 1 December 1938,

• "[T]o all whom it may concern that there are in the
  schismatic bodies which have come into existence after direct expulsion from official Christian communities and have devised for themselves a common creed and a system of jurisdiction
  of their invention".
• "To deceive Christians of the West being a chief objective of the schismatic bodies, they take advantage of their great distance from the East, and from time to time make public statements claiming without truth to derive their origin and apostolic succession from some Apostolic Church of the East, the attractive rites and ceremonies of which they adopt and with which they claim to have relationship".
• "[W]e deny any and every relationship with these schismatic bodies [...]. Furthermore, our Church forbids any and every relationship and, above all, all
  sects
  and warns the public that their statements and pretentions as above all altogether without truth".

The statement alarmed the head of the Ancient British Church, the Patriarch Herbert James Monzani Heard (religious name: Mar Jacobus II).^{[3]: 224–5, 239}

Council of London

On 17 October 1943, a council later known as the Council of London took place, as Mar Jacobus II had decided to respond to Aphrem's notice. The council was composed of major and minor prelates from the Ancient British Church, the British Orthodox Catholic Church, the Apostolic Episcopal Church, the Old Catholic Orthodox Church, the Order of Holy Wisdom, and the Order of Antioch.^{[3]: 239–241} The council took place at 271 Green Lanes, Palmers Green, n. 13.; part of the building was rented as an office of the Patriarch of the Ancient British Church.^{[3]: 239–241}

The summary of the decision of this council which was printed on a leaflet stated, among other things, the following:^[3]: 240

• "The Council, embracing steadfastly the definitions of the
  Seven Ecumenical Councils and the Holy Apostolical Traditions repudiated the heresies of Monophysitism and Jansenism
  and all other heresies"
• "[I]n view of Ignatius Ephrem I having disclaimed all connection with the above-mentioned extensions of his patriarchate, lawfully made by his predecessor, the said Ignatius Ephrem was no longer recognized as holding office, that in consequence of the
  Malabar
  having adhered to the aforementioned the right to elect to the vacant see was declared to be now vested in the Council"

All those churches present at the council claimed to be an extension of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch; this claim rested upon Jules Ferrette's claim. According to Anson:^{[3]: 242–3}

If the truth must be told, those so-called 'extensions' of the Antiochene Patriarchate were a chimera, based on the tradition handed down from the eighteen-sixties that the apostate French

Arabian Nights tale. For none of the prelates who took part in its brief session could claim jurisdiction

over more than perhaps a dozen followers, and some of the Churches had only a paper existence. They did, on the other hand, take themselves quite seriously.

The first Catholicos of the West, head of the Catholicate of the West, was Hugh George de Willmott Newman, also called Mar Georgius. He was consacred as this status by Abdullah III on 10 April 1944 under the name and title: Mar Georgius, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Holy Metropolis of Glastonbury, the Occidental Jerusalem, and Catholicos of the West. Thereafter, Mar Jacobus II stepped down from his office of fifth Patriarch of the Ancient British Church, passing his rank of Patriarch to Willmott Newman; thus Willmott Newman was both Catholicos of the West and the sixth Patriarch of the Ancient British Church. Mar Jacobus II died in 1947.^{[1]: 449–50 [3]: 243}

On 14 July 1945, Patriarch Abdullah III and Newman mutually agreed that the Catholicate of the West and its head would be completely independent, that the Catholicate would not be under the jurisdiction of Abdullah III and would only be under the jurisdiction of the Catholicos of the West. Thus, "[i]t was decreed that the Catholicate was an

1. Patriarchal Archdiocese of Glastonbury (counties of Somerset, Wilts, Dorset, Hants, Surrey, London, Middlesex), headed by Newman (Patriarch Mar Georgius) with his assistants (Mar Joannes, titular bishop of St Marylebone, and Mar Benignus, titular bishop of Mere)
2. Diocese of Selsey (Sussex), headed by Mar Jacobus II
3. Diocese of Siluria (Principality of Wales and county of Monmouth), headed by Mar Hedley
4. Diocese of Mercia (Berks and Oxon), headed by Mar Theodorus
5. Diocese of Repton (counties of Derby, Stafford, Cheshire, Lancashire), headed by Mar David
6. Diocese of Minster (Kent and Essex), headed by Mar Francis
7. Diocese of Deira (County of York), headed by Mar Adrianus
8. Diocese of Verulam (Hertfordshire), headed by Mar John

"All the rest of the British Isles remained under the personal jurisdiction of Mar Georgius, pending the erection of more dioceses".^[1]: 459

By a bull dated 27 July 1947, Newman "erected a small group of ex-Latin Catholics in Belgium" into a rite "under his own jurisdiction. This new body was given the name of L'Église Catholique du Rite Dominicain".^[1]: 462

The Catholicate had also been divided, by the 12 November 1947 or by 1948, into 12

1. of all
   Britons
   (British Isles and British overseas possessions outside of America), headed by the Patriarchate of Glastonbury
2. of all the Iberians (Spain, Portugal, Portuguese overseas possessions, Andorra and the Americas), headed by the Patriarchate of Malaga
3. of all the Frisians (Netherlands and Indonesia), headed by the Patriarchate of Amersfoort
4. of all the
   Helvetians
   (Switzerland and the Principality of Lichtenchtein)
5. of all the Latins (Italy, Italian overseas possessions, Vatican City, San Marino)
6. of all the Franks (France, French overseas possessions, Belgium and its overseas possessions, and the Principality of Monaco)
7. of all the Teutons (Germany, and the Free City of Danzig)
8. of all the
   Pannonians (Austria and Czechoslovakia
   )
9. of all the
   Baltic States
   )
10. of all the Turanians (Hungary, Finland, and Turkey)
11. of all the
    Scandinavians
    (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, and Greenland)
12. of all the
    Asia Minor
    , and Egypt)

Five

On 1 June 1952, Newman published a book titled The Glastonbury confession,[a] a profession of faith which was binding for all clergy of the Catholicate. Anson states there were "few bishops and clergy" left at the time.^{[1]: 490 [5]: 568}

Loss of churches

Between 1951 and 1953 included, the following churches under the jurisdiction of the Catholicate left it: the Orthodox Catholic Church in England (expelled from the Catholicate in August 1951), the Ancient Catholic Church, and the Indian Orthodox Church.^{[1]: 491, 496}

Dissolution and continuation

In 1953, Newman held a

By 1959, the Catholicate of the West only had only six bishops left, and the Catholicate's twelve eparchies, Anson notes, were "little more than half-forgotten memories". In 1960, Bishop Boltwood left the Catholicate of the West.[1]^: 497–8

By 1964, the Catholicate had never applied to become part of the World Council of Churches, nor was it ever invited to join it.^[1]: 500

At one point, under Newman, the Catholicate of the West became known as the Orthodox Church of the British Isles.^[6]

Death of Newman, end of the Catholicate

In 1979, "

In 1994, the Orthodox Church of the British Isles (formerly named Catholicate of the West), led by William Henry Hugo Newman-Norton, joined the Coptic Orthodox Church; Newman-Norton was consecrated as bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church. Thus, in 1994, the Patriarchate of Glastonbury of Willmot Newman's succession ceased to exist. Some clergy members of the Orthodox Church of the British Isles refused to join the Coptic Church and therefore left the Orthodox Church of the British Isles.^[4][6] The Orthodox Church of the British Isles thus became the British Orthodox Church by joining the Coptic Church.^[8][9]

Claim of succession

In 1976, another continuation had appeared when "Mar David,^[c] erstwhile Apostolic Primate of the Iberians in the Catholicate of the West," claimed that "the purported dissolution had neither been lawful nor effective and that the Catholicate of the West had continued to exist independently of Mar Georgius".^[11] "In 1977, the then-Patriarch of Malaga, Mar David I," merged his Catholicate of the West with the Apostolic Episcopal Church, of which he was also primate. Since then, "[t]he Prince-Abbot of San Luigi succeeded to the primacy of the Catholicate of the West and the Apostolic Episcopal Church in 2015".^[12] The current claimant to this alleged succession is John Kersey (Edmond III), also claimant successor to the Order of Corporate Reunion and dispenser of the Vilatte orders.^[13][14][15]

Doctrine

The Catholicate of the West considered itself to be

On 17 January 1947, the Holy Governing Synod of the Catholicate issued a decree which stated it rejected the Filioque and had removed it from the Nicene Creed of the Catholicate.^[1]: 458

In 1955, the Catholicate adopted its Chapter and Organic Constitution. The Chapter's article VI stated: "This