Catholicate of the West

Background Notice from Aphrem I of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch On 1 December 1938, Ignatius Aphrem I of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, issued a notice in which it was stated among other things: • "[T]o all whom it may concern that there are in the United States of America and in some countries of Europe, particularly in England, a number of 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 intercommunion with all and any of these schismatic 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, Patriarch Herbert James Monzani Heard (religious name: Mar Jacobus II). and between 1951 and 1953, the following churches under the jurisdiction of the Catholicate of the West severed communion: the Orthodox Catholic Church in England (expelled from the catholicate in August 1951), the Ancient Catholic Church, and the Indian Orthodox Church. Death of Newman, end of the church In 1979, "Hugh George de Willmott Newman (1905-1979), [...] patriarch of Glastonbury [...], commonly known as Mar Georgius" died. He was succeeded as the patriarch of Glastonbury by William Henry Hugo Newman-Norton (Mar Seraphim) from 1979 to 1994. Previously, in 1977, Newman-Norton was appointed as perpetual coadjutor for the Catholicate of the West (Orthodox Church of the British Isles) under Mar Georgius. In 1971, he was ordained priest by his uncle, Mar Georgius. == Claims of continuation ==

Since the Catholicate of the West became the British Orthodox Church and united with the Oriental Orthodox Churches, at least two administrative continuations have existed, both claiming to be the legitimate successor organisations. These claimed continuations have been led by John Kersey (Edmond III) of the Abbey-Principality of San Luigi and the Catholicate of the West, and Demetrius Brown of the Body of Christ Sanctified Church International (Orthodox Church of Christ). Abbey-Principality of San Luigi and the Catholicate of the West According to Kersey, the Catholicate of the West's existence persisted in 1976 when "Mar David, 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". In Independent Bishops: An International Directory, Wallace David de Ortega Maxey (Mar David) resigned from the Catholicate of the West around 1950; when he returned to the independent sacramental movement, Mar David founded the Catholic Christian Church in 1970. "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". Through the Abbey-Principality of San Luigi and the Catholicate of the West, Kersey is also a claimant successor to the Order of Corporate Reunion, Order of Antioch, the Order of Holy Wisdom, the American World Patriarchates, and dispenser of the Vilatte orders. Body of Christ Sanctified Church International (Orthodox Church of Christ) According to Demetrius Brown—founder of the Body of Christ Sanctified Church International as a Pentecostal denomination before being renamed the Orthodox Church of Christ—the defunct Catholicate of the West was "picked up" by himself alongside his claim to being the sole, legitimate successor of the African Orthodox Church. The Abbey-Principality of San Luigi and the Catholicate of the West under Kersey disputed his claims and publicly disassociated themselves, citing an alleged request for incardination and lack of successive evidence; Kersey's organisation also alleged harassment of its clergy, and resolved that such actions were "the tactics not of a bishop but of a street thug". == Organisation ==

The Catholicate of the West was organised into several autocephalous patriarchates and dioceses or eparchies. The Catholicate of the West had been divided into 8 dioceses by March 1947: • 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) • Diocese of Selsey (Sussex), headed by Mar Jacobus II • Diocese of Siluria (Principality of Wales and county of Monmouth), headed by Mar Hedley • Diocese of Mercia (Berks and Oxon), headed by Mar Theodorus • Diocese of Repton (counties of Derby, Stafford, Cheshire, Lancashire), headed by Mar David • Diocese of Minster (Kent and Essex), headed by Mar Francis • Diocese of Deira (County of York), headed by Mar Adrianus • 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". 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''". The catholicate had also been divided, by the 12 November 1947 or by 1948, into 12 eparchies (later called "apostolikes") representing the 12 tribes of the spiritual Israel. Those eparchies were "constituted on a general basis of the origins, races, and languages of Europe and Asia Minor in the days of the Undivided Church. Territories since discovered were regarded as 'suburbs' of the nations mainly responsible for their development". Those eparchies were each to be led by an apostolic primate; only three of the 12 eparchies had an apostolic primate. The 12 eparchies were the eparchies: • of all Britons (British Isles and British overseas possessions outside of America), headed by the Patriarchate of Glastonbury • of all the Iberians (Spain, Portugal, Portuguese overseas possessions, Andorra and the Americas), headed by the Patriarchate of Malaga • of all the Frisians (Netherlands and Indonesia), headed by the Patriarchate of Amersfoort • of all the Helvetians (Switzerland and the Principality of Lichtenchtein) • of all the Latins (Italy, Italian overseas possessions, Vatican City, San Marino) • of all the Franks (France, French overseas possessions, Belgium and its overseas possessions, and the Principality of Monaco) • of all the Teutons (Germany, and the Free City of Danzig) • of all the Pannonians (Austria and Czechoslovakia) • of all the Slavs (Russia, Poland, and the Baltic States) • of all the Turanians (Hungary, Finland, and Turkey) • of all the Scandinavians (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, and Greenland) • of all the Levantines (Greece, Albania, the Balkan States, Asia Minor, and Egypt) Five church courts of the catholicate were set up near Kew Gardens: the Diocesan Tribunal, the Provincial Tribunal, the Exarchal Tribunal, the Patriarchal Tribunal, and the Supreme Ecclesiastical Tribunal. == Doctrine ==

The Catholicate of the West considered itself to be one of the churches along with all churches with a valid apostolic succession to compose the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. 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. In 1955, the catholicate adopted its Chapter and Organic Constitution. The Chapters article VI states: In 1961, an official publication of the denomination, Maranatha (see Maranatha), stated the church "has no connections whatsoever with Old Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, or with any psychic cult, in any shape of form, but it is in all respects Catholic, Apostolic, and Orthodox, having valid Orders, Mission and Jurisdiction as an Autocephalous Rite within THE ONE HOLY CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH". == See also ==