Transsubstantiatio

.
Dear Bishop, have you painted anything of interest since your portrait of Pius XII last year? — Laura

I have been quite busy in the interim, but the picture recently completed that I would like to share is given the title Transsubstantiatio, which, when looking at the images, is self-explanatory. The medium, as most frequently used, is oil on canvas.

Pius XII was very much still alive when I was investigating Catholicism as an Anglican choir boy many years ago in the last days of the pre-Vatican II era, and I therefore have immense affection for him. That notwithstanding, I harboured some concern over how my portrait would be received when it was exhibited last year and shared online with other Christians. I need not have worried. It was overwhelmingly appreciated by most who saw it. The symbolism and hopefully transcendental quality with which I attempted to imbue this posthumous portrait appear to have been understood by almost everyone who viewed what is in effect a purposely primitive treatment on a large canvas. I am also very aware that sometimes symbolism can eclipse the more subtle aspects of a subject, but I hope and trust I have found the right balance with these two pictures.

.

Lord Byron

.

I have read that you are descended from the poet Lord Byron and have inherited his pistols. Is this true? — Tatiana Romanova

.

.

The claim that I am connected to the poet by blood is not mine alone — though I did mention it in passing in the first edition of The Highgate Vampire which was dedicated to the memory of Lord Byron — "my illustrious ancestor who abhored the vampire yet ironically has ever since been its literary archetype." The claim is that of my forebears, supported by Byron scholars, chief among whom is Professor Leslie A Marchand (see Acknowledgements in Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know). Their claim is my legacy. Quite obviously I have been unable to have DNA testing carried out because when last Lord Byron was exhumed for inspection I was not yet born, coupled with the fact that the seventh Lord Byron (George Anson Byron, successor to the title upon the death of the poet), while a cousin, is not the sixth Lord's progeny and George Anson Byron's successors, therefore, are not directly descended from the poet.

.

I am the current custodian of the pistols once owned by Lord Byron. They are displayed in a glass cabinet when not in their original wooden case. I should add that a great many artefacts of what one might describe as Byronia have come into my possession down the years. A few select items are on permanent display in appropriate rooms, chiefly the front drawing room and dining room. The latter contains many family portraits in their silver frames.

.
The pistols were made by Leopold Becher of Carlsbad, and were used in numerous duels until they became the property of the poet George Gordon Noel Byron, sixth Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824) who used the pistols for firing at empty brandy bottles. Whilst Byron accepted a challenge to a duel, it did not proceed as it was felt his death would be too great a loss. The flintlock mechanism was subsequently replaced with superior percussion hammers. I have come to inherit these very fine pistols which are on display at my retreat on the Dorsetshire coast.

.

Byron’s great uncle, the fifth Baron, had killed William Chaworth in a duel in 1765 and been fined. I would recommend as further reading to those with an interest in the poet and his contemporaries my book Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know which biography reveals much about Lord Byron, Lady Caroline Lamb and the Romantic Movement of which they were undoubtedly leading lights.

.

Enfield Poltergeist

.

Bishop Manchester, what are you thoughts on the famous Enfield Poltergeist case, only a few miles and a few years after the initial Highgate haunting? — Steve F.

 

 

The Enfield Poltergeist was active at 284 Green Street in Enfield, North London. The property was a council house rented to Peggy Hodgson, a single parent with four children: Margaret aged twelve, a younger sister Janet aged eleven, Johnny aged ten and Billy aged seven. Billy had a speech impediment. Johnny featured only marginally in the inexplicable events, at least twenty-six of which the investigators felt could not be accounted for by fraud. These included moving furniture, flying marbles, interference with bedclothes, cold breezes, pools of water on the floor, apparitions, physical assaults, graffiti, equipment malfunction and failure, disappearance and reappearance of objects, apparent levitations, and fires which spontaneously ignited and extinguished themselves.

The inexplicable occurrences took place between August 1977 and September 1978, with an additional outburst in August 1980. Furniture is claimed to have moved by itself, knockings on the walls were heard, and children's toys were allegedly seen to have been thrown around and to have been too hot to touch when picked up. A police officer signed an affidavit to affirm that she saw a chair move. Reports of the activity attracted various visitors including mediums and members of the press. One photographer reported being hit on the forehead with a Lego brick. Among other alleged phenomena they witnessed was one of the children, Janet, speaking using her false vocal folds for hours on end while she was apparently possessed by another entity. Speaking in this way is believed to be medically impossible. When speaking with the false cords Janet said she was "Bill" who had died in the house of a brain haemorrhage. The "Bill" persona habitually made jokes and exhibited a very nasty temper, using profanity etc. Peggy Hodgson remained in the house until her death in 2003. Though some of the phenomena was faked to catch the investigators in action, much of the activity appears not to have been manipulated and might possibly have a demonic origin.

 

Though not too far from the supernatural activity witnessed by many in the Highgate area up until the early 1970s, the Enfield Poltergeist was not related as far as I can discern to the contagion active at Highgate Cemetery.

What are my thoughts? I did not investigate the strange goings-on at Enfield and was not called upon to exorcise the house in Green Street, which, if I had, would have necessitated some investigating on my part. Despite the admissions of peripheral faking by Margaret (who also stated that "It is ridiculous to suggest that either my sister or I could have been responsible for the strange activity that went on in our house"), I am more inclined to believe something supernatural did occur than not. I retain an open mind. I have seen and experienced far stranger things than went on at Enfield in the late 1970s.

.

Spiritual Wilderness

.

Dear Bishop Manchester, I work with the most disengaged and hardest to reach young people who suffer from various addictions, and others presenting needs such as homelessness, unemployment and mental health issues. I recognise that much of this is a product of the spiritual wilderness of this century. How do you think we can start to fix this very broken society, as Christians and human beings? Thank you, Lizzie Norris

The Queen's Speech opening Parliament to set out the initial plans of the Government ended with the words: "I pray that the blessing of Almighty God may rest upon your counsels." The problem is that God does not seem to be taken into account in these counsels, and there is a failure to acknowledge that the problem with families, education and society at large is that "they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward" (Isaiah 1: 4). Indicators of our fundamental malaise include the facts that all the major "faiths" are commonly regarded as equally valid, "committed" civil partnerships are equated with marriage, family life is in total meltdown, Christians' freedom to express biblical truth and follow Christian practice is endangered, much education is secular and largely proceeds on humanistic presuppositions and greatly contributes to the godlessness of our generation, and the assumption underlying political agendas is that we have the solution to our problems entirely in our own hands.

"If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" ie "What hath the righteous done?" (Psalms 11: 3). These are searching and humbling questions. We all feel helpless in view of the national situation, but nothing is impossible with God. Many years ago I recognised that Great Britain, once the spiritual beacon of the world, had lost its way. In the interim it has continued to lose its way and has entered a spiritual wilderness from which we must first escape before our broken society can start to mend.

So, the answer, as found in the motto on my episcopal amorial bearings, is to restore that which is lost:

† Restituere id quod amissum est †

.

Official Statement from Isaac Ben Jacob and his wife:

.

Official Statement by Isaac Ben Jacob regarding David Farrant and the person variously calling herself "Della Maria Vallicrus," "Della Escarti" and "Della Farrant."

Me and my wife have discovered with a lot of surprise the existence of several blogs where we are notably being associated with David Farrant and his wife or girlfriend (I don't know if she is his wife or his girlfriend), whereas we have absolutely no contact with him, and we absolutely do not share his ideas.

I wish to underline that my wife met David Farrant once or twice during meetings, and that it was David Farrant who started to talk to her, whereas she didn't know anything about him or his past. We recently found out that the reason why David Farrant initially made contact with my wife was in order to manipulate us, and to make you believe she was Della. If you look closely at the pictures of Della [posted in blogs], you will notice that the Della shown on the photos is always hiding her face, and that she always takes a posture which does not allow anyone to determine exactly how tall she is.

I have attended a meeting myself three months ago, and I have seen Della and David Farrant together at this occasion. And when I tried to take a picture of them, Della immediately threw herself at me and my wife in order to force us to delete the photo from our camera.
.

We do not have any relation or contact with Della and David Farrant, and we don't want to be associated with these two persons in any way, shape or form, because they have a sulfurous past, they have a reputation of being Satanists, and they are acquainted with people like Jean-Paul Bourre, whom I don't want to hear about.

I know you have done research about me, and consequently you know I am an earnest academic researcher who uses scientific methods. Therefore you also know that I reject and condemn all magical practices, heretical deviancies, and obviously people such as David Farrant, who have practised Satanism.
.

I think that you and I have been manipulated in this case, and that you could help us reestablish the truth.

Yours sincerely,


Isaac Ben Jacob


15 April 2012
.