British Orthodox Church

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The British Orthodox Church in the Coptic-Orthoxode Patriarchate is the name of a small church in Great Britain that belonged to the Coptic Patriarchate of Alexandria from 1996 to 2015 . Although it is oriental-Orthodox in terms of doctrine and religious practice , it tries to take into account the cultural peculiarities of the British. It sees itself as the bearer of the Orthodox faith in the British Isles and also tries to promote cooperation between Byzantine Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches.

history

Today's British Orthodox Church traces its existence back to the work of the French Jules Ferrette (1828-1904) and the Welsh Richard Williams Morgan . Ferette first joined the Dominicans in Flavigny-sur-Ozerain and was ordained a priest on June 2, 1855 in the Lateran Basilica . A year later, however, he resigned from the order and distanced himself from Catholicism. He emigrated to Damascus and is said to have made friends with the Bishop of Emesa , Mar Bedros. In 1866 he appeared in England and claimed to have been ordained Bishop of Iona by Mar Bedros.

Richard Williams Morgan was ordained an Anglican priest in 1842. He was an advocate of a Christianity that should go back to pre-missionary Augustine of Canterbury origins . He came into contact with Ferrette and he is said to have consecrated him bishop with the title Pelagius I, Hierarch of Carleon-on-Usk, Patriarch of the "Ancient British Church". Morgan continued the line of succession , he ordained Charles Isaac Stevens bishop in 1879, who in turn passed the ordination on to the Armenian Leon Chechemain. However, these bishops did not care for a noteworthy congregation.

In 1938 the Syrian Patriarchate of Antioch distanced itself from claims that Ferrette's line of consecration came from her succession. On October 17, 1943, various bishops of the Ferrettes line of ordination and other ordinances met for a "Council of London", where the representatives of these churches, some of which only exist on paper (Pearson names the Ancient British Church, the British Orthodox Catholic Church, the Apostolic Episcopal Church, the Old Catholic Orthodox Church, the Order of the Holy Wisdom and the Order of Antioch) condemned the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch as schismatic and, in turn, condemned a Patriarch of Antioch, namely the theosophist and bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church William Bernard Crow , who named His Holiness Mohoran Mar Basilius Abdullah III. accepted, chose. A few months later, the Ancient British Church, British Orthodox Catholic Church and Old Catholic Orthodox Church merged to form the Western Orthodox Catholic Church, which claimed autocephaly and autonomy as well as territorial jurisdiction in Great Britain and Western Europe.

Both the Anglican and the Orthodox churches expressly distanced themselves from this church foundation. Crow in turn ordained Hugh George de Willmott Newman bishop on April 10, 1944 with the title Mar Georgius, Archbishop and Metropolitan of Glastonbury and Catholicos of the West . De Willmott Newman carried out numerous episcopal ordinations, among others he consecrated the French Paul-Edouard de Fournier de Brescia , who revived a monastery founded by an episcopus vagans in Brittany, and in 1977 his nephew William Henry Hugo Newman-Norton, who under the name Mar Seraphim started negotiations with the Coptic Church and was ordained Metropolitan for Glastonbury in 1994 and as such is also a member of the Coptic Synod . Since then, his church has operated under the name of the British Orthodox Church in the Coptic-Orthoxode Patriarchate (previously the most recently Orthodox Church in the British Isles). The Breton branch did not take this step and operates under the name of the Celtic Orthodox Church .

structure

The current head of the British Orthodox Church is Father Seraphim of Glastonbury ; real name William Henry Hugo Newman-Norton (born February 27, 1948). Through him, the British Orthodox Church was a full member of the Holy Synod of the Coptic Patriarchate of Alexandria from 1996 to 2015 .

The British Orthodox Church is very small in number and has 12 parishes and branches in Great Britain. Their liturgy is celebrated in English; the English saints are venerated as well as the Orthodox Oriental saints. Usually the liturgy of St. James is celebrated, which is not in use in the Coptic Church. In addition, the usual liturgical celebrations of the Coptic Church are celebrated. The official organ of the British Orthodox Churches is the Glastonbury Review .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Hage: Das oriental Christianentum (= The religions of mankind , vol. 29 part 2), Stuttgart 2007, p. 213.
  2. ^ Joanne Pearson: Wicca and the Christian heritage. Ritual, sex and magic , London 2007, pp. 34-36.
  3. ^ Joanne Pearson: Wicca and the Christian heritage. Ritual, sex and magic , London 2007, pp. 37-38.
  4. ↑ David N. Bell: Orthodoxy. Evolving tradition , Cistercian Publications, Collegeville (Minnesota, USA) 2008, p. 206.
  5. ^ Joanne Pearson: Wicca and the Christian heritage. Ritual, sex and magic , London 2007, p. 53.