St Francis of Assisi

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May God's peace and joy which St Francis of Assisi came to represent so well, as an example to us all, enter your hearts on this his feast day. Our special prayers and love are with you all on this joyous day!

Quotes of St Francis of Assisi:

"I have been all things unholy. If God can work through me, he can work through anyone."

"It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching."

"If we endure things patiently and with gladness thinking on the sufferings of our blessed Lord, and bearing all for the love of Him: herein is perfect joy."

"Lord, grant that I might not so much seek to be loved as to love."

Francis of Assisi was a poor little man who astounded and inspired the Church by taking the gospel literally — not in a narrow fundamentalist sense, but by actually following all that Jesus said and did, joyfully, without limit and without a sense of self-importance.

Serious illness brought the young Francis to see the emptiness of his frolicking life as leader of Assisi's youth. Prayer — lengthy and difficult — led him to a self-emptying like that of Christ, climaxed by embracing a leper he met on the road. It symbolised his complete obedience to what he had heard in prayer: "Francis! Everything you have loved and desired in the flesh it is your duty to despise and hate, if you wish to know My will. And when you have begun this, all that now seems sweet and lovely to you will become intolerable and bitter, but all that you used to avoid will turn itself to great sweetness and exceeding joy."
From the cross in the neglected field-chapel of San Damiano, Christ told him, "Francis, go out and build up My house, for it is nearly falling down." Francis became the totally poor and humble workman.

He must have suspected a deeper meaning to "build up My house." But he would have been content to be for the rest of his life the poor "nothing" man actually putting brick on brick in abandoned chapels. He gave up all his possessions, piling even his clothes before his earthly father (who was demanding restitution for Francis' "gifts" to the poor) so that he would be totally free to say, "Our Father in heaven." He was, for a time, considered to be a religious fanatic, begging from door to door when he could not get money for his work, evokng sadness or disgust to the hearts of his former friends, ridicule from the unthinking..

But genuineness will tell. A few people began to realise that this man was actually trying to be Christian. He really believed what Jesus said: "Announce the kingdom! Possess no gold or silver or copper in your purses, no traveling bag, no sandals, no staff" (Luke 9: 1-3).

Francis' first rule for his followers was a collection of texts from the Gospels. He had no idea of founding an order, but once it began he protected it and accepted all the legal structures needed to support it. His devotion and loyalty to the Church were absolute and highly exemplary at a time when various movements of reform tended to break the Church's unity.
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He was torn between a life devoted entirely to prayer and a life of active preaching of the Good News. He decided in favor of the latter, but always returned to solitude when he could. He wanted to be a missionary in Syria or in Africa, but was prevented by shipwreck and illness in both cases. He did try to convert the sultan of Egypt during the Fifth Crusade.
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During the last years of his relatively short life (he died at the age of forty-four), he was half blind and seriously ill. Two years before his death, he received the stigmata, the real and painful wounds of Christ in his hands, feet and side.
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On his deathbed, he said over and over again the last addition to his Canticle of the Sun, "Be praised, O Lord, for our Sister Death." He sang Psalm 141, and at the end asked his superior to have his clothes removed when the last hour came and for permission to expire lying naked on the earth, in imitation of his Lord.

Entering holy orders was a pivotal moment for me, which led to my eventually accepting the precious mitre on the feast of St Francis of Assisi eighteen years ago and thus being elevated to the episcopate. Yet there is never a day when I fail to contemplate the humility, devotion and spirituality of St Francis. When I came to attempt a depiction of this saint in portraiture (oil on canvas) it would be St Francis as I envisage him close to the end of his life.

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Numerology

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Dear Bishop Manchester, is numerology an occult subject or can it be studied in regards to God's Word ? What is your opinion of all the "bible code" information available now? - Carol

Taking your last query first, the Bible code (also known as the Torah code) is a series of messages alleged to be found within biblical text that when decoded form words and phrases supposedly demonstrating prophecy. I do not feel the results actually make predictions. I think they reveal probabilities. The unravelling of the codes found in the first five Books of the Bible are nevertheless uncanny in their accuracy.

The two most commonly used numbers in the Bible are the numbers 7 and 40.

The number 7 is seen as being representative of perfection or completion. This number is often referred to as God’s number due to the fact that He is considered the only one to be perfect and complete.

The number 3 is also considered to be representative of divine perfection as well due to the fact that the Trinity is comprised of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The number 40 is considered to be a number that is associated with trial or difficulties. For example, in the Bible, the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years and Moses was on the mount for 40 days. Also, Jesus was tempted for 40 days and there were 40 days between the resurrection of Jesus and his ascension.

There are also other numbers that are repeated in the Bible as well, such as the number 4. This number is considered to be the number of creation; such as the four seasons. The number 6 is considered to be the number of man because man was created on the 6th day and man is meant to labor only for 6 days. There are also other examples of how numbers are used in a significant manner in the Bible, such as the way the number 666 is used to represent the Antichrist in Revelation.

Hebrew numerology is sometimes referred to as Gematria. In this system each letter is represented by a numerical value. Gematria uses the calculation of the numerical equivalence of words, letters and phrases in order to gain insight into a variety of concepts as well as to explore how words and ideas are interrelated.

The basic idea behind this method is that numerical equivalence is not merely a matter of coincidence. This system is based on the idea that since the world was created as a result of God’s speech then each letter is represented by a different creative force. As a result, the numerical equivalence of two words would reveal an internal connection between the potential of each word.

There are four different ways in which the equivalence of individual letters can be calculated.

They are:

- Absolute value

- Ordinal value

- Reduced value

- Integral reduced value

Notice the following simple facts about the Hebrew sentence:

1. It contains 7 words.

2. The total number of letters is 28, or 7 x 4

3. The sentence divides into two equal parts: the first three words, 'In-the-beginning God created,' contain 14 letters, and the remaining four words contain 14 letters.

4. The second half of the sentence divides again into two equal parts: The two words for 'the heavens' contain 7 letters, and the two words for 'and-the earth' contain 7 letters.

5.The three nouns, God, heavens and earth have together 14 letters.

6. The numeric value of these three nouns is 777, or 7 x 111.

7. The numeric value of the verb, created, is 203, or 7 X 29.

8. The middle word (2 letters) and the one before it (5 letters) have together 7 letters.

9. The middle word and the one after it have together 7 letters.

Even more remarkable are the numerics which fix the individual letters so that they cannot be changed. Hebrew is what is called a synthetic language, that is, the meaning to be expressed is indicated largely by the use of prefixes and suffixes. In some instances the changing of a prefix might completely reverse the meaning of the whole sentence. It is therefore most important that the first and last letters of the words should be protected against alteration. Now see how the numeric structure accomplishes this:

10. We saw just now that the sentence could be divided into equal parts having fourteen letters in each half. The numeric value of the first and last letters of the first half is 42, or 7 x 6.

11. The numeric value of the first and last letters of the second half is 91, or 7 x 13.

12. If the first and last letters of all the words are taken together, their numeric value is 1,292, or 7 x 199.

13. The numeric value of the first and last letters of the first and last words only is 497, or 7 x 71.

14. This number is so divided that if only the first letters are taken of the first and last words, these two letters have together a numeric value of 7. Similarly, the last letters of these two words have together a numeric value of 490, or 7 x 7 x 10.

15. Taking the first and last letters of the first word but one, and the last word but one, then their numeric values add up to 896, or 7 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2

16. This number is peculiar in that it is seven multiplied by two seven times, and furthermore the sum of its factors is 21

It is clear from these extraordinary phenomena that the prefixes and suffixes in this sentence could not possibly be altered without throwing the whole design into confusion. Not only this, but it is impossible to construct another sentence which incorporates such an amazing set of numerics. I would never have believed that such a sentence could exist if it were not for the fact that it is there.

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Vampiric Entity or Shadow Being?

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Hello Bishop Manchester. When I was a child I use to see a black figure moving across my window. It moved at a very fast speed. It looked like it was wearing a cloak, no facial or body features, that's the best way I can desribe it. I always though I was seeing things until one day when I was twelve, I was outside playing with my dog when I seen it moving across the back of my house, I know I saw something because my dog growled at it! I didn't see it for many years after that, but about two years ago, I woke up during the middle of the night, and lifted my head to see what time it was, when I did so I THINK saw the same black figure standing at the foot of my bed. I quickly gasped for air and put my head back down, about two seconds later I lifted my head back up and their was nothing there. Maybe I was tired and my eyes were playing tricks on me. What do you think these shadow beings are? - Ruben

While a number of witnesses believe that shadow beings act as benevolent guardians watching over us, just as many witnesses have no doubt they are demonic. Some believe shadow beings to be ghosts, but the many stories received and compiled convince others that these beings are a type of inter-dimensional phenomenon from which apparition is only one sub-category. Serious research into this paranormal (and possibly psychological) genre will paint a clearer understanding of the nature and make-up of these dark mysterious beings. One thing you can be sure of is that your experience is by no means unique.

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Shadow-like creatures of modern folklore are attested by many witnesses who claim dark forms, seen mostly in peripheral vision, appear like flitting phantoms in cloaks, hoods and sometimes hats. Reports of shadow beings are not dissimilar in many ways to ghost sightings.

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Shadow beings are typically described as black humanoid silhouettes with no discernible mouths, noses or facial expressions, child-sized humanoids, or shapeless masses that sometimes change to human like form and featuring eyes that are either glowing or not apparent. Movement is said to be quick and disjointed, and some stories describe the visible outline of a cloak, and sometimes a wide-brimmed hat.

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Images seen in peripheral areas of vision can be caused by pareidolia, a condition in which the brain incorrectly interprets random patterns of light/shadow or texture as being familiar patterns such as faces and human forms. The same condition can also be observed in macular vision in low light conditions, or when viewing a complex but random image. A common example would be perceiving a shadow, thrown by an item of furniture in a darkened room, as being a person. Hypnagogia, also known as "waking-sleep," a physiological condition in which a person is part-way between sleeping and waking, can also account for such perceptions. During hypnagogia, a person can be conscious and aware of their environment, but also in a dream-like state where they can perceive images from their subconscious. People experiencing waking-sleep commonly report the sensation of lights or shadows moving around them, as well as other visual hallucinations. A feeling of dread is also a sensation that occurs when experiencing hypnagogia. Hypnagogia is sometimes known as faces in the dark phenomenon because those who experience this state commonly report seeing faces while experiencing waking-sleep. Similar hypotheses have been put forward linking this condition to a number of other apparent paranormal experiences, including alien abductions, paranormal nocturnal visitations, and religious experiences such as contact with angels or demons.

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My own view is that your experience could be any of the above. I am always struck how the aliens in popular culture, sometimes called "greys," frequently resemble depictions of demons in past ages; especially medieval paintings. I do not believe in alien abductions or aliens walking among us. I do, on the other hand, know that demons sometimes invade our environment and sometimes attempt to interfere in our lives and even possess us.

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Bishop Manchester. For personal reasons I don't want to disclose my identity. But what you have said in regards to the existence of vampires and their nature I believe to be true. I previously lived in a small town in the Plains States of the US. Approximately one year ago I encountered what I believe to have been a vampire while living in this small town. The day it occured I had checked out a copy of Bram Stocker's Dracula. I also checked out a book dealing with some folklore surrounding vampires. Oddly, in this very small rural town I also came across a copy of fictional vampires/occult stories from Russia. Anyway. Later that night I went to bed, having read only a small portion of the books. I knew very little about real vampire folklore at the time. I awoke in the middle of the night and discovered I had left a light on in my bathroom. I was about to get up to turn it off. For some reason I decided not to and went back to bed. I later woke again and then chose to turn off the light. Finally, just prior to dawn I was startled awake by the growling and barking of my dog (a pit bull) in my room (I used to sleep in my living room). I could barely see him, since it was still very dark and only a limited amount of diffused dawn light was available through a window across from me in the kitchen. I told him to "shut up" thinking he was barking at some one walking near my house. He obeyed, and slowly returned to his bed/box not too far from my bed. Just then as I was laying down again, I saw the black figure of a very tall/gaunt man move out of the living room and into the kitchen. I saw him as he passed the kitchen window I mentioned earlier. I sensed that he exited via my back door located in the kitchen. He moved at an incredible speed. Again there was very little dawn light. I was shocked, got up and turned on the lights. Later I began to read the books I checked out and did some internet research thinking that perhaps my interest in the topic drew such a being towards me. What I discovered is that (1) in Eastern European folklore a vampire can be disuaded if a candle is lit near the sleeper and (2) vampires can take on the shape of a slender tall mist like form. On another occasion I had a dream about a blond man with crystal blues and very pale skin with blue blood vessels on his face. He began to try to hypnotize me with his eyes. I felt totally overpowered in the dream. As if a force was pushing against me and into my mind. I then turned my head down to the ground and began praying to God. Immediately the dream ended. I also prayed after the incident mentioned above and haven't experienced anything further. I think my interest in the occult may have drawn this to me, though I am only interested in fighting such entities - not dabbling in the occult. It should be noted that I later discovered that (1) there was at least one young woman in town attempting to be a witch and (2) she was friends with a couple who claimed to be practicing Satanists; also living in this same town. I admire persons who fight against these beings and believe what you have said about Highgate. Again please forgive me and I apologize for not leaving my whole/Christian name. I will however use my middle name which is Bradley.

I suspect you might be right when you attribute the possibility of this interference being your own fascination with things occult and having diabolists active nearby. There is also the possibility of it being yet another shadow being with a psychological explanation. Having said that, the demonic aspect cannot be discounted, and I would put more store in the protection afforded by a silver crucifix, holy water and other religious items blessed by your priest rather than a candle flickering throughout the night; though I can understand why you would want to bring light into your immediate dark environment at such a time. Prayer is also extremely beneficial when something seemingly unearthly has occurred, or is still occurring, but do not attempt exorcism unless you absolutely know what you are doing and, even then, make certain it is the appropriate formula intended for use by laity.

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Prophecy, Ecumenicalism and Antichrist

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What do you believe about prophecy, dear Bishop Manchester, in respect to ecumenicalism, the unity of the churches and the coming of the antichrist in the last days. I would be very grateful for your comments and discerment, thank you and God bless you, Wayne.

Polycarp was a disciple of the apostle John and was taught directly by a number of other apostles. Irenaeus, therefore, was one of the last to be taught all aspects of the faith by those who learned at the feet of the twelve apostles of Jesus. In his treatise, Against Heresies, Irenaeus wrote that the teaching of the apostles was that the exact name of the antichrist is a secret kept by God until the man of sin arrives on the earth. Also taught was the statement that the antichrist is not worthy to be heralded ahead of time, but only when we must know it. The conclusion is that God will reveal the name and person of the antichrist to the Church through corroborated prophecy, dreams, and visions, only when the antichrist is about to appear to the world for the last struggle in the battle between good and evil.

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We speak "ecumenical language" when we proclaim: "I believe in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church." "Catholic" has the same meaning as "ecumenical." The "ecumene" means "the entire inhabited world"; therefore "ecumenical" means "pertaining to the entire cultural world" or "concerning all of mankind."

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My understanding of Christian unity is unity in the Father’s love for all who believe in Jesus Christ for every denomination and group who profess and have faith in Him, hold fast to His teachings, and accept Christian doctrine as enshrined within Holy Scripure.

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I talk about such matters as prophecy, the antichrist and, indeed, ecumenicalism in The Grail Church, but I do not dwell on these matters and neither should you.

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Remembrance of my Mother

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Today is the feast of the Holy Guardian Angels. It is also the day, seventeen years ago, on which the kindest and most gentle person in my life passed away.

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Frédéric Chopin ― mine and my mother’s favourite composer ― became the source of my own inspiration to learn to play the piano. I only recollect my mother playing his works, a composer who never performed his music the same way twice. Each recital reflected Chopin’s mood in that precise moment. His compositions lend themselves to a degree of freedom and self-expression rarely found in classical music prior to the century in which my mother was born. Despite the transparent naîvety that never left her, my mother always led the way and made things happen for us. Being an only child, I realised early one that you have to make things happen in this life and she certainly helped to make things happen. 

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I felt exceptionally close to my mother who I tried to visit at least once a week throughout my life until she passed from this world on the feast of the Holy Guardian Angels. If she could have possibly contacted me from beyond the veil, she would have certainly done so. I did experience an angelic presence soon after her death, which I discussed on a television programme (Up Front, Granada, 30 October 1992) at the time, but my mother was at peace and did not communicate in the way some would have us believe happens. Matters such as life after death held a real fascination for her, and her familiarity with the lives of her favourite saints ― St Teresa of Avila and St Thérèse of Liseux ― made for some extremely interesting conversations. Fortuitously, the feast of St Thérèse of Liseux fell on the day before my mother died, and the feast of St Teresa of Avila was the day of her funeral.

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When I saw her in the little gothic chapel, isolated from the funeral director’s office, in a place where the flowers for wreaths are grown, to place items of devotion in her coffin, I was struck each occasion on how she remained so completely without any trace of corruption. There was something saintly about her as she lay motionless in her coffin, fresh and absent of death’s all too familiar hand. It was difficult to believe she had really gone as I returned in the evenings to lift the lid and view her. My father could not bring himself to see her in such sombre surroundings. I nonetheless drew comfort from these evening visits to the chapel. There seemed to be a smile of such peace on her face. She looked radiant.

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The final photograph of my mother was taken on the feast of St Francis of Assisi in 1991 as she received the Host from my hand at the Mass concelebrated during my episcopal consecration. It is reproduced in the book I dedicate to her memory, The Grail Church. Twelve months after that picture, almost to the day, she died.

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My mother’s death on the day following the feast of St Thérèse of Lisieux was the most difficult moment of my life. Her last breath came at twenty minutes past five o’clock on that fateful Friday of 2 October 1992. All I can remember is my father’s distant voice proclaiming: “She’s gone.” Two little words that were of themselves devastating ― yet I knew in my heart she had not gone at all, but had passed into the Lord’s safekeeping where she would be for eternity. Emotionally, however, I would never recover from the loss. Folk found her special and unique. She was much loved by virtually everyone who met her. 

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Like her favourite saints, my mother remained somehow fragrant in death, resisting decomposition until the last, even when I replaced the lid on her coffin in the stone chapel for the very last time. She became the “first person I would anoint and on whose behalf I would recite the prayers for the newly dead, since receiving the mitre.” [The Grail Church, page 102.]
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My mother’s funeral was also the first I would conduct in my new office as bishop. Sadly, it would not be my last where family and friends are concerned. The funeral was held at Islington and St Pancras Cemetery on the feast day of St Teresa of Avila.

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British Israelism

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Dear Bishop Manchester, Concerning the Glastonbury traditions, what do you think of British Israelism? Yours faithfully in Christ, Wayne.

British Israelism, also known as Anglo-Israelism, is the belief that the lost ten tribes of Israel migrated to Europe and then to England and became the primary ancestors of the British people, and thereby, the United States. It is often accompanied by the belief that the British Royal Family is directly descended from the line of King David.

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The main body of evidence cited by believers in British Israelism consists of what they consider to be Biblical identification marks and the birthright blessings given to Joseph (Genesis 49: 22; I Chronicles 5: 1-2) and to his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh (Genesis 48: 14-20), which they believe apply to Britain and America. Adherents believe that biblical prophecies reveal that Israel will lose all trace of her lineage (Isaiah 42: 19, Hosea 1: 9), will become a great and mighty nation (Genesis 12: 2, 18: 18, Deuteronomy 4: 7-8), be named "Great," ie Great Britain (Genesis 12: 2), will be a blessing to other nations (Genesis 12: 2-3), that they will become many nations (Genesis 17: 4), that their descendants will be Kings and rulers (Genesis 35: 11), that they will keep the Sabbath (Exodus 31: 13), that they will be a missionary nation (Isaiah 49: 6, 66: 19), will rule over others (Genesis 27: 29, Deuteronomy 15: 6), become envied and feared (Deuteronomy 2: 25, 4: 8, 28: 10), that they will lend to other nations (Deuteronomy 15: 6), that Israel will inhabit the "isles" of the sea (Isaiah 24: 15), that Israel's new home will be northwest of Eretz Israel (Isaiah 49: 12), and that it will spread abroad (Genesis 49: 22).

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Is British Israelism true and biblical? In order to determine this, we need to examine the two primary claims, namely that the ten tribes were lost, and that the ten tribes migrated to England.

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2 Kings 17: 18 states that Israel was deported to Assyria in 722 BC. After this time, mention of the ten northern tribes (Israel) is rare in scripture. However, other scriptures (and historical records) indicate that some of the people of the northern ten tribes remained in the land. Second Chronicles 35: 18 records Israel celebrating the Passover with Judah approximately ninety years after the Assyrian deportation. It is likely that many people of the northern ten tribes fled to Judah to escape the Assyrians, and even more fled to the safety of Judah after the Assyrians had ransacked Israel. Second Chronicles 15: 9 records people from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon settling in Judah long before the Assyrian invasion. In the New Testament, the prophetess Anna is said to be from the tribe of Asher (Luke 2: 36), one of the supposed ten lost tribes. Many people from the northern ten tribes were deported to Assyria, however, never to be mentioned again. At the same time, there is sufficient evidence in scripture to prove that the ten tribes were not entirely lost, but rather to some degree rejoined with Judah in the south. It is likely that when Judah was deported by the Babylonians, the people would have sought out the Israelites in Assyria, which is very near Babylon, and rejoined with them. In the returns to Israel recorded in Ezra and Nehemiah, the scriptures nowhere limit the returnees as being entirely from the tribe of Judah.

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It is possible that some of the deported Israelites emigrated to Europe and England? A journey from Assyria to England would have nevertheless been exceedingly difficult in ancient times for a large number of people. While it is possible that some Israelites migrated to Europe and indeed England, it is highly unlikely that this occurred to any significant degree.

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The primary goal behind British Israelism is to claim that England and the United States have inherited the covenant promises God made to Israel. This is clearly not evident according to the terms and on the scale expressed by proponents of this theory.

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The Grail Church

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Dear Bishop Manchester, I recently heard your talk on TalkSport Radio and so looked up your website concerning the Grail Church. How does one become part of the Grail Church I wonder? I would be very interested in finding out more about the Grail Church and wonder if it may be possible to meet you at your retreat sometime? Yours faithfully in Christ, Wayne.

The Church of Christ is never a place, but always a people; never a fold, but always a flock; never a sacred building, but always where believers gather in His name. The Church is you who pray, not where you pray. A structure of brick and marble can no more be a Church than your clothes of serge or satin can be you. There is nothing more sacred than you — for your soul is the sanctuary of God.

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Christianity came to Britain in the first century. Tertullian of Carthage (circa 208) said that the Christian Church of his day "extended to all the boundaries of Gaul, and parts of Britain inaccessible to the Romans but subject to Christ." Eusebius of Cæsaria (circa 260-340) in his Demonstratio Evangelica said: "The Apostles passed beyond the ocean to the Isles called the Brittanic Isles." Sabellius (circa 250) revealed: "Christianity was privately confessed elsewhere, but the first nation that proclaimed it as their religion and called it Christian, after the name of Christ, was Britain." Polydore Vergil, court antiquary to Henry VIII and a foremost scholar of his day, wrote: "Britain partly through Joseph of Arimathea, partly through Fugatus and Damianus, was of all kingdoms first to receive the Gospel."

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Gildas, the British historian, in the sixth century, wrote: "We certainly know that Christ, the True Son, afforded His Light, the knowledge of His precepts to our Island in the last year of Tiberius Cæsar." Elsewhere he affirmed that "Joseph introduced Christianity into Britain in the last year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar." Tiberius died on 16 March AD 37, which supports the traditional date for St Joseph of Arimathea mission to Britain of AD 36. Britain was outside the Roman Empire, as the Claudian invasion did not occur until AD 43.
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Martin of Louvain, in his Disputoilis Super Dignitatem Anglis it [sic] Gallioe in Councilio Constantiano (1517), recorded: "Three times the antiquity of the British Church was affirmed in Ecclesiatical Councilia. (1) The Council of Pisa, AD 1417. (2) The Council of Constance, AD 1419. (3) Council of Siena, AD 1423. It was stated that the British Church took precedence over all other churches, being founded by Joseph of Arimathea, immediately after the Passion of Christ."
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On page 87 of The Grail Church, I wrote: "To the native Celts the Grail Church became known as the British Church; so as to distinguish it from the Anglo-Saxon English Church. When the Anglo-Saxons adopted Roman Christianity the British Church receded until it eventually vanished. Yet the memory of the Holy Grail could not be eradicated; indeed, its symbolic potency only grew with the passing of time."
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The Holy Grail was considered to be a relic of inestimable value as the Cup of the Last Supper that was later used by St Joseph of Arimathea to collect a few drops of the Saviour's blood. Apocryphal writings credit St Joseph with possession of the Cup.
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"Cardinal Baronius, curator of the Vatican Library and certainly the most outstanding historian of the Roman Catholic Church, writes in his Ecclesiastical Annals in reference to the exodus of AD 36: 'In that year the party mentioned was exposed to the sea in a vessel without sails or oars. The vessel drifted finally to Marseilles and they were saved. From Marseilles [St] Joseph [of Arimathea] and his company passed into Britain and after preaching the Gospel there, died'." [The Grail Church, Holy Grail, 1995, page 30.] 
 

Thus the Holy Grail came to the British Isles where, six centuries later, it went missing. In later legends, as a result of the Holy Grail being lost, the country was strangely afflicted with large areas becoming an uninhabitable wasteland. Those who ventured there died. And a sixth century monk named Gildas wrote a history [Gildæ sapientis de excidio et conquestu Britanniæ] which spoke of a great famine and disease that rendered the island of Britain virtually uninhabitable, resulting in mass migration to the Continent. He attributes the catastrophe to the Britons' loss of faith. There are parallels with then and now. A steep decline in moral attitudes and social behaviour, plus, more significantly, the distortion and loss of faith, makes us ripe for a coming wasteland. There is a difference, however, because this time it might be on a global scale.
 

On Good Friday 1973 twelve people founded Ordo Sancti Graal on the summit of Parliament Hill at London’s Hampstead Heath. Following three months of spontaneous occurrences, they developed into a dispersed Order of disciples with both radical and traditional approach. By this point the principal founder, namely myself, was in minor orders within an autocephalous branch of the Catholic Church in Great Britain. Seventeen years after the founding of Ordo Sancti Graal, I took Holy Orders and was later episcopally consecrated by three independent Catholic bishops.
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I contributed to a Channel Four British television programme about the Holy Grail in February 1997, and a documentary film for America’s NBC channel in early 1998 which was filmed at Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset. These transmissions included the Nanteos Cup, the remnant of a wooden bowl thought by some to be the Holy Grail. The Cup’s location remains undisclosed.
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Christianity came to Britain in the first century and is the essence of our civilisation. Lose it and we lose everything. The consequence of that loss is already apparent. On page 87 of The Grail Church is written: “To the native Celts the Grail Church became known as the British Church; so as to distinguish it from the Anglo-Saxon English Church. When the Anglo-Saxons adopted Roman Christianity the British Church receded until it eventually vanished. Yet the memory of the Holy Grail could not be eradicated; indeed, its symbolic potency only grew with the passing of time.”

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Traditional Christianity is disappearing as atheism, relativism and heresy spread on a scale hitherto unseen. The primary purpose of the work begun at Easter 1973 is to provide spiritual sanctuary in a land awash with soul-killing materialism and moral bankruptcy by actively seeking to reclaim Britain for Christ.
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A table for twelve is always set at the Order's private retreat and chapel in England. This number represents those who joined at the founding of the Order inaugurated on Good Friday 1973 at the summit of Parliament Hill, Hampstead Heath, London. The Order belongs to the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church which autocepahlous jurisdiction under our primacy is universally known as Ecclesia Apostolica Jesu Christi.
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Novi et æterni testamenti — it is the priest who recites these words at the consecration of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord — Hic est enim calix Sanguinis mei: novi et æterni testamenti. We stand for this inheritance which Jesus Christ gave to us. It is His Sacrifice, it is His Blood, it is His Cross, the ferment of all Christian civilisation and of all that is necessary for salvation. The Order exists for the glory of the Most Blessed Trinity, for the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ, for the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, for the love of the Church, for the love of bishops, of priests, of all the faithful, for the salvation of the world, and for the salvation of souls. By keeping the Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by keeping His Sacrifice, by keeping the Eucharist — the Eucharist which has been bequeathed to us by our predecessors, the Eucharist which has been transmitted from the time of the Apostles unto this day — we shall hold fast to what is true.
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When the precious mitre was placed upon my head on the feast of St Francis of Assisi in 1991, I already understood that a crown of thorns was contained within. I said as much in a radio interview soon afterwards in the United Kingdom. And for those who make the choice to take up their cross and follow Him, there begins a journey where space and time is transcended — a journey that will never taste death.
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This life is a dream from which death is merely an awakening.

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