William Bernard Crow

Born: 11 September 1895.

Died: 26 June 1976.

The new Patriarch of Antioch in the Ancient Orthodox Catholic Church, Mar Basilius Abdullah III, was a distinguished biologist and published a large number of books and research papers in that field; his work in the classification of algae is still referenced today. As Dr. William Bernard Crow he had graduated Associate of Arts (University of Oxford), Master of Science (University of Wales), Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of Science (University of London), this last a rare academic distinction awarded in 1928 for a thesis entitled “Contributions to the Principles of Morphology”. His grandfather, Thomas Crow (1825-86), having once been a Baptist minister, founded and built the Aletheian Church at Park Lane Avenue, Stratford, east London, which carried out a ministry of a Protestant and free-thinking nature. His father, also named William, maintained the church (where the youthful Dr. Crow was for a time an unwilling Sunday school teacher) until after the First World War, when it was sold to the Anglicans and then demolished. Dr. Crow was educated at the Cooper’s Company School, which he disliked, and then went on to East London (later Queen Mary) College in the University of London, where he graduated in biology in 1915. Thereafter he saw war service in the Ministry of Munitions and undertook top secret research on H.M.S. President III into germ warfare. In peacetime he became an assistant lecturer in botany at University College, Cardiff (1919-23) and lecturer there from 1923-28. In 1923 and 1925 respectively he attended C.G. Jung’s summer schools at Polzeath and Swanage, and published his notes on these privately. Between 1928-38 he was Head of Biology at Huddersfield Technical College and from 1938 onwards he was Senior Lecturer in Biology at the South West Essex Technical College, Walthamstow. After a year of lecturing for the wartime authorities he took up the position of Senior Lecturer in Biology at Leicester College of Technology, which he held from 1945-60. Returning to London on his retirement in the latter year he nevertheless wished to continue working and served as Head of Biology at Davies, Laing and Dick Tutorial College between 1960-69. Dr. Crow was sometime Vice-President of the National Association of Masso-Therapists and was a member of the International Phrenological and Psychological Institute. In 1968, Dr. Crow published his book A History of Magic, Witchcraft and Occultism which remains a highly readable and comprehensive survey of all the main branches of these subjects. This was followed by Precious Stones: Their Occult Power and Hidden Significance (1968), The Occult Properties of Herbs (1969) and “The Arcana of Symbolism” (1970). Two journals were also established by Dr. Crow: Proteus: A Journal of the Science, Philosophy and Therapy of Nature (founded 1931; the sixth edition marked the centenary of the death of Goethe) and IAO: A Journal of the Mysteries (founded 1953). Dr. Crow was married in November 1934 to Alice Maud (nee Whalley), widow of Captain Peter Welsh, and by her had a daughter. Between 1930 and 1944 his biography was included in Who’s Who.

During the early 1930s, Dr. Crow had met Fr. Alban Willy Cockerham (1888-1975), a priest in the Liberal Catholic Church. Both men had a great interest in the study of non-Christian religions and associated beliefs, including Theosophy, but neither accepted these beliefs as matters of faith, remaining personally orthodox. Dr. Crow himself was ordained priest in the Liberal Catholic Church in 1935. It has been asserted that on 29 December 1936 Dr. Crow was secretly consecrated bishop in the Order of Corporate Reunion by Richard Jackson (1851-1937), who was the model for Walter Pater’s Marius the Epicurean. By the late 1930s Dr. Crow had become friendly with Mar Frederic (Harrington) (1879-1942), Primate of the Orthodox Keltic Church, who on Easter Day, 9 April 1939, granted Dr. Crow a charter for the Sublime Order of Holy Wisdom (Ekklesia Agiae Sophiae) that he had previously founded, and whose nature is discussed below. While Dr. Crow hoped that Mar Frederic would consecrate him to the episcopate, his death in 1942 prevented this. In that year, Dr. Crow happened to notice a letterhead at his printers that belonged to Abbot Hugh George de Willmott Newman (1905-79) of the Order of Corporate Reunion and Old Catholic Orthodox Church, and thus began an exchange of letters. Later that year, Dr. Crow introduced Abbot de Willmott Newman to Mar Frederic’s friend Mar Jacobus II (Heard) (1866-1947), Patriarch of the Ancient British Church, who in due course performed the episcopal consecration of Dr. Crow on 13 June 1943, designating him as Mar Bernard, Bishop of Santa Sophia. Dr. Crow had obtained a release from the ministry of the Liberal Catholic Church in the same month. After the Council of London, Dr. Crow’s episcopal designation was changed to that of Mar Basilius Abdullah III, Patriarch of Antioch in the Ancient Orthodox Catholic Church.

Following the Council of London, Mar John Emmanuel (Arthur Wolfort Brooks (1889-1948), Presiding Bishop of the Apostolic Episcopal Church and the Old Catholic Orthodox Church), who was Abbot de Willmott Newman’s Ordinary, suggested that Abbot de Willmott Newman should seek election to the episcopate as Archbishop and Metropolitan of Glastonbury. The Abbot was duly elected at a Pro-Synod of the OCOC on 8 October 1943 and a mandate signed by Mar John Emmanuel on 20 December was then sent to Mar Basilius Abdullah III authorising him to perform the consecration. On 23 March 1944, the agreement of Mar John Emmanuel having previously been obtained, a Deed of Declaration under Mar Jacobus II united the bodies known as the Ancient British Church, the Old Catholic Orthodox Church, the British Orthodox Catholic Church and the Independent Catholic Church into a single organisation, to be called The Western Orthodox Catholic Church, which was then erected into the Catholicate of the West by Mar Basilius Abdullah III. These constituent bodies were churches that had a continued legal existence from their historic foundations, but at that point very few clergy and no significant lay membership. At a meeting of the Governing Synod of the new church on 28 March, under the presidency of Mar Jacobus II, de Willmott Newman was elected Catholicos of the West; he had also been separately elected to the episcopate by the Pro-Synod of the Old Catholic Orthodox Church. He was consecrated and enthroned as Mar Georgius by Mar Basilius Abdullah III on 10 April 1944, in the Cathedral Church of St Andrew, Stonebridge Road, Tottenham.

The Holy Patriarchal Synod of the Patriarchate of Antioch met near Huddersfield between August and September 1944, and at this time agreed to the division of the Patriarchate into three Catholicates: that of the West (comprising Europe and America), under Mar Georgius; that of the East (comprising Asia), under Mar Basilius Abdullah III, and that of the South (comprising Africa) to which no appointment had yet been made. The Catholicates would in turn be divided into Exarchates; it was stated that “both the Patriarch and the Catholicoi will not interfere in the internal affairs of their respective subordinate jurisdictions, as it is desired to allow the fullest local autonomy and not to imitate the highly centralized Roman system. This principle of local autonomy is of course one of the outstanding features of Orthodoxy.” On 29 January 1945, Mar Jacobus II resigned the office of British Patriarch (which originated in the lineage of Mar Julius of Iona (Ferrette)) in favour of Mar Georgius, who thus became the sixth head of the “oldest of all non-Ultramontane Catholic movements, for it was erected as long ago as 1866″. On 4 February 1945 the name Western Orthodox Catholic Church was relegated to an unofficial sub-title and the new name Catholic Apostolic Church (Catholicate of the West) was adopted for the body under Mar Georgius. As has been previously established, both the Ancient Orthodox Catholic Church and the British Patriarchate held a common position on faith, accepting the seven ecumenical councils. This was also the position of the Catholicate of the West, which further accepted the Declaration of Utrecht of 1889. The Ancient Orthodox Catholic Church and the Catholicate of the West both rejected Monophysitism as heresy and, as Orthodox bodies, rejected the filioque.

Formal relations between the AEC and the Catholicate of the West were cemented when on 29 June 1944 the Catholicate made Mar John Emmanuel “a member with life seat in the Synod and named Titular Archbishop of Ebbsfleet, Kent,” also constituting him as Exarch of the Catholicate in the United States of America. In turn, the AEC on 22 February 1945 appointed Mar Georgius as an Episcopal Member of the Synod, constituted a deputy, and empowered to represent the AEC in the British Isles. Mar John Emmanuel referred to this position as “the British-American Union of Christians of Orthodox Faith and Order” and had in 1944 submitted an explanatory memorandum concerning the Catholicate of the West both to President Roosevelt and to the Greek Orthodox Archbishop Athenagoras. Also in 1944, Mar Basilius Abdullah III had conferred upon Mar John Emmanuel the degree of Doctor of Sacred Scripture honoris causa of the Apostolic Academy of St Peter at Antioch, and appointed him a Legate to the Patriarchal Throne of Antioch.

However, on 14 July 1945, Mar Georgius by agreement with Mar Basilius Abdullah III ended the ecclesiastical relationship that had existed between the Catholicate of the West and the Ancient Orthodox Catholic Church and placed the Catholicate of the West in a position of full autonomy. This termination of intercommunion did not involve a repudiation of those authorities previously bestowed on Mar Georgius, but it did mark the severance of ecclesiastical relations between the two jurisdictions. The subsequent vicissitudes of the Catholicate of the West have been discussed elsewhere. The cause for this action was cited as being divergent theological positions. However, this was not to prevent the two prelates from continuing a personal friendship, and for some years Mar Georgius served as Grand Scribe of the Order of the Holy Wisdom.

The actions of Mar Georgius did not affect the position of the Order of Antioch, which after 1945 was the only extant body to have been represented at the Council of London that was not subsequently absorbed into the Catholicate of the West. Although Mar Georgius served as Exarch of Britain for the Order from 1946, following the headship of Fr. Alfred Kaufmann, the Order maintained its own government from the United States under Mar Timotheus II (Timothy Howard Ellsworth Mather (1896-1964)) and, from January 1964 onwards, under his successor Prince-Abbot Edmond II of San Luigi (George Arvid Edmond Lyman (1938-98)). The Order remained in communion with both the Ancient Catholic Orthodox Church and the Catholicate of the West, and in view of the resolutions of the Council of London electing him Patriarch of Antioch for the Western missions, Mar Basilius Abdullah III occupied a position of great significance for those of the Vilatte succession.

The Ancient Orthodox Catholic Church was defined as the religious section of the Order of the Holy Wisdom. The other two sections of the Order were the Universal Spiritual Kingdom, concerned with the noblesse and with chivalric activities, and the Ancient Universal Rite of Cosmic Architecture, which maintained a planetary and zodiacal temple of the universal religion, and conferred initiation upon suitable candidates. This last section incorporated the Institute of Cosmic Studies, founded by Dr. Crow and Major E.J. Langford-Garstin, MC, in 1934. The Order of Holy Wisdom was “not a Church, but an organisation within the Universal Church, which seeks to reproduce, as fully as possible within its own sphere, for the benefit of its members and humanity in general, the deep spiritual experience enshrined in ritual and symbols. It is particularly concerned with cosmic symbolism. It endeavours to teach the doctrines and practices of the Ancient Wisdom Religion, and to preserve such knowledge of value which has largely disappeared in the historical development of outer institutions. Being absolutely universal (that is truly Orthodox and Catholic) it has access to the divine wisdom of Theosophy, embodied in the symbols of all nations. It utilizes the knowledge passed on in the great streams of sacred tradition, not excluding those of the Far East, the Brahminic-Yogic, the Ancient Egyptian, Zoroastrian-Magian, Kabalistic, Gnostic-Masonic, Gothic-Rosicrucian, Druidic-Bacchic, Chaldean, Buddhist-Lamaistic, and Islamic-Sufic. It has, however, no connection with any existing Masonic or Rosicrucian fraternity”.

Writing in 1966, Dr. Crow defined its objectives further as “to preserve and maintain the symbolism of all the great religions of the world, including those, like the Ancient Egyptian, which are no longer practised. To maintain and promote the titles, rights and just privileges of nobility and chivalry. To cultivate the arts and especially to encourage the crafts in relation to religious symbolism. To study and develop the natural methods of healing. To study heraldry, genealogy, and the arcane sciences. To oppose, by all legal methods, materialism, rationalism, modernism and the mechanisation of human life.” Dr. Crow developed his own Mass of the Planets, based upon the Liberal Catholic rite, and relating both planetary and elemental symbols to the Church’s liturgy. The Ancient Orthodox Catholic Church was steadfast in its rejection of Monophysitism, which had formed a key pillar of the Council of London, and of its rejection of anti-papal and Jansenist sentiment such as was found in certain Old Catholic groups. The decentralization seemingly heralded by the Second Vatican Council was welcomed, while its modernism was condemned. A page of “Aletheia” is devoted to a rejection of Gnostic heresies, while making clear that, by contrast, St Clement of Alexandria and St Hippolytus were “perfectly orthodox gnostics in the sense that they expounded the real meanings of difficult passages in scripture.” A similar rejection of various Rosicrucian heresies occupies a later edition. Of the clergy, deacons and priests were permitted to marry, but only before ordination.

During his years of retirement in the 1960s, Dr. Crow was able to devote himself more fully to the Order and to his interests, and established the Naos of the Holy Wisdom at his home in Woodford Green. In 1966 he founded the periodical “Aletheia” which acted as an outlet for news and views of the Order. His writing for “Aletheia” is trenchant and expressed with the clarity of the scientific thinker, holding no difficulty in reconciling science and religion. Dr. Crow was possessed of an intellectual ability that was far removed from the narrowness of a number of churchmen of his time, and that enabled him to deal in a subtle and nuanced way with diverse beliefs and matters of doctrine that in lesser hands would have become confused and contradictory. He was capable of understanding ideas on their own terms and assessing them in an objective and fair manner, rather than being unduly influenced by intellectual fads or establishment notions of respectability. Not unsurprisingly, his outlook was not always appreciated by those who did not share his breadth of vision, and his enjoyment of administering shocks to the spiritually complacent was not always received in the intellectually playful spirit in which it was meant. We might note the comment with which he introduced a tersely-argued piece, “It is reported that giving honour to certain saints has been abandoned on the grounds they never existed. This is a very narrow-minded attitude.” The pages of “Aletheia” also reveal some notably Traditionalist views; Oswald Spengler is referenced approvingly and in referring to various notices received of events and conferences, Dr. Crow says, “Favourite themes are “democracy”, “peace”, “metaphysics”, “planning”, “progress”, “integration”, “unity”, etc. These are all symptoms of intense mental disturbance. The problems which these unfortunates are trying to solve have all been mastered by the theologians and philosophers of the Middle Ages and the early Christian days, not to mention in the profound wisdom of the Orientals.”

Dr. Crow’s associates at this time included the jurist Dr. Vincent Powell-Smith (1934-97) and Dr. David W.T.C. Vessey. As of the mid-1960s Dr. Vessey was completing his PhD at Cambridge. With their assistance and encouragement, Dr. Crow engaged in widespread support for monarchist causes, including contact with a number of descendants of formerly reigning Royal Houses. Through this work, the Order of Holy Wisdom was recognized by H.I.H. Prince Guillermo III de Grau-Moctezuma, pretender to the Mexican imperial throne, as well as the pretender to the throne of Cappadocia-Armenia. A particularly valued alliance was with H.I.M. Marziano II Lavarello of Constantinople, pretender to the Byzantine and Serbian thrones, who was described as “one of our most distinguished honorary members”. In 1968 came a Treaty of Friendship with the House of Paterno, pretenders to the throne of Aragon.

Ecumenical links were also established, and as well as recognition by the Catholicate of the West, the Order maintained relations with the Primitive Apostolic Orthodox Church of the Syro-Byzantine Tradition under Patriarch Mar Joannes Maria (Jan Frederik Nico Blom van Assendelft-Altland) (1923-2008). It was Mar Joannes Maria who had presided over the coronation of H.I.M. Marziano II Lavarello in Rome in 1956, with Mar Basilius Abdullah and Mar Georgius among the signatories to the ecclesiastical protocols and all documents authenticated by the International College of Arms of the Noblesse. There were also connexions with the Indian Orthodox Church (under Bishop Joseph K. Chengalvaroyan Pillai (1901-70), who was in relations with the Catholicate of the West until 1947), the Hungarian Old Catholic Church (through its British Vicar-General, Bishop Rupert Pitt-Kethley (1907-75)) and the Orthodox Old Catholic Church. Bishop Pitt-Kethley was in 1967 appointed by Dr. Crow as Hierarch of the Cilician Patriarchate of the Order and a Vartabed of the First Class. In 1972, as a result of an introduction by H.I.M. Marciano II, mutual recognition was established with the Byelorussian Patriarchate of St Andrew the First-Called Apostle under its Ecclesiast, the Most Revd. Prince Kermit W. Poling and the Holy Church of Serbia under Patriarch Peter I (Pierre Pasleau).

However, these links were at all times undertaken within the spirit and mission of the Order. Dr. Crow wrote, “On several occasions, our Grand Master, as Patriarch of the Ancient Orthodox Catholic Church, has been asked to take over the headship of so-called autocephalous rites of what are claimed to be branches of the Catholic Church. He has not accepted these offers for the following reasons: (i) because the Catholic Church is already represented by the Roman Church and various branches of the Eastern Orthodox; (ii) because it is impossible with the small organization which we possess, to deal with the vast problem of control over such bodies, which are best dealt with under the aforesaid branches; (iii) because it would be a waste of time and energy trying to compete with the aforesaid bodies; (iv) because the work of our Order has the very special character of discovering the truth about the Church through the study of sacred tradition, and this can only be done by small groups of dedicated persons who are in a position to devote themselves to this object, without thought of reward in this life.” There were regular appeals for assistance with the work of the Order from those interested in it, but it was emphasised throughout that its mission was entirely non-material and that donations of money were not welcome.

The Order itself grew through the appointment of chaplains to the Ancient Orthodox Catholic Church and honorary bishops, generally based overseas. John Trollnas, Exarch of Scandinavia of the the Primitive Apostolic Orthodox Church of the Syro-Byzantine Tradition, was appointed an honorary prelate of the Ancient Orthodox Catholic Church in 1968. He was granted a charter by Dr. Crow for the Northern Pontifical Academy, a degree granting organisation, in the same year. Within England, there were four oratories attached to the Order in operation by 1969, although the provision of public worship was never a key aim of the Order.

The work and membership of the Order, unlike that of the Ancient Orthodox Catholic Church, was not restricted to orthodox Christians. A close collaboration was secured with the Druid Order under Dr. Thomas L. Maughan (1901-76) and Dr. Crow lectured on a number of occasions for the Druids. Between 1944 and 1947, Dr. Crow corresponded with the occultist Aleister Crowley (1875-1947), later stating that, according to what Crowley had told him, Crowley’s Gnostic Mass was written “under the influence of the Liturgy of St. Basil of the Russian Church.” In August 1944, Crowley issued a document to Dr. Crow making him a Sovereign Patriarch of the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica and Vicar of Salomon “with full right, power and authority to administer the said Church and to consecrate, ordein, appoint hyrarchs, priests, priestesses, deacons and other necessary Officers therein, to work the Gnostic Catholic Mass, and to take charge of all ceremonials, organisational, and financial affairs in connection therewith.” In the same year, Dr. Crow issued a Manifesto for Crowley’s E.G.C. inviting any who were interested to contact him for further information. Crowley wrote to Dr. Crow “You might of course start afresh; begin by open-air preachings of Liber OZ; you might find supporters in unexpected quarters, the work and opportunity would grow; in a year you might be standing for Parliament.” In a letter of 30 May 1947 Crowley advised Dr. Crow (who had in 1945 moved from London to Leicester) to refer his followers in the London district who were ready for initiation in the O.T.O. to the London-based Gerald Gardner, who was to receive his O.T.O. authority from Crowley on 14 June. Writing some years later, Dr. Crow would say that Crowley held that his principle “Do what thou wilt’ did not mean ‘do as you please’. He was, he said, trying to teach people to find their true will. In other words he was trying to do what many practitioners of depth psychology are aiming at.”

On 16 August 1948, Dr. Crow was enthroned as head of the (Masonic) Orders of Memphis and Misraim and of the Ordo Templi Orientis (Order of Oriental Templars). This followed correspondence with Crowley during 1944-46 in which Dr. Crow and Mar Georgius, together with Bishop George H. Brook (1912-88) (who as Mar Adrianus was a bishop of the Catholicate of the West until his resignation in 1948 and would remain an associate of Dr. Crow for many years) unsuccessfully requested that Crowley should charter them to confer the Rites of Memphis and Misraim.

The Order had a series of Guilds attached as a means of organizing its work. The Guild of St Pegasius was devoted to providing transport for members to attend meetings and for the transport of objects required for ceremonies or studies. The Guild of St Veronica was open to those working in painting, needlework, embroidery, carving, metalwork, sculpture and architecture. The Guild of St Agatha was devoted to music, while the Guild of St Mercurius formed the Secretariat, concerned with registration and the obtaining of rare books from libraries. Dr. Frank Wooldridge served as Secretary-General whilst Dr. David Vessey and Ludovic Haber were among those who served in the office of Assistant Secretary.

Chivalric and heraldic work took several forms, emphasising strongly their roots in the traditions of the Church. The Order of Montsalvat of the Holy Grail was a revival of the cult of the Grail limited to twelve members, and part of the Keriat section of Grail-related activities. The Order of the Keltic Cross was also awarded by Dr. Crow. The Sacred Antiochene Order of Saints Peter and Paul was otherwise the principal chivalric order associated with Dr. Crow’s Patriarchate and he bestowed this on valued associates both at home and abroad. In 1967 it was announced that “the Chevalier William H. Newman-Norton has been appointed Phoenix Herald and Genealogist of our Antiochean Patriarchate”. Another herald was Bruce Senior, former President of the Yorkshire Numismatist Society, who died in 1968. An invitation was sent to members who had not recorded their coats of arms and genealogies to send these in, since “we believe in the variety of individuals and wish to encourage anything that tends to prevent them from being brought to a common denominator.”

In 1969, marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of his accession as Patriarch, Dr. Crow revised the structure of the Order, whereby it was maintained as an independent organisation belonging to the Ancient Orthodox Catholic Church, and the whole of his organization was now referred to under the title Apostolate of the Holy Wisdom. This was comprised of three sections: (1) Hierurgic, consisting of the Order of the Holy Wisdom; (2) Arcane, existing for the study of myth, legend and symbolism, and the practice of initiation; and (3) Temporal, “this aims at preserving civilising influences of ancient and medieval times, maintaining titles and usages of nobility and chivalry, studying and recording heraldic devices and modes of natural therapy.” To mark the anniversary, a number of prelates were appointed to various offices serving the different divisions of the organization, which included at that time a Catholic Rosy Cross and a Divan of Justice. Some of Dr. Crow’s Rosicrucian links were via the Most Revd. the Prince Dupont-de Gols, who was the successor of Sar Peladan who had formed the Catholic Rosy Cross in 1894. The Prince had been admitted to what was now the Apostolate in 1965. In addition, Dr. Crow had issued a charter for the Order of Stella Matutina to the Societas Rosicruciana in America in 1951.

The Apostolate offered classes in-person to the public under the Institute of Cosmic Studies (the material world), the Institute of Natural Therapy (healing methods of various kinds) and the Institute of Arcane Studies (occult studies). Tuition was free of charge but candidates were asked to cover the costs of providing the talks. In 1973 the three Institutes were consolidated into the Institute of Cosmic Studies.

Dr. Crow’s many accomplishments might have made a lesser man insufferably pompous, but by contrast he was modest and unassuming in manner. As age approached he became more frail. Following a fall and some months of illness he died at 1.30 am on 28 June 1976, half an hour after the death of his friend Dr. Thomas Maughan of the Druid Order.

Legacy:

Dr. Crow’s will was made on 10 April 1963 and left his entire estate to his widow. He had received the Last Rites from a Roman Catholic Priest and directed that he should be buried according to the rites of the Catholic Church, “preferably under the auspices of the Order of Holy Wisdom”. An important provision of the will was his direction that “all my certificates and diplomas shall be burned, or returned to the owners thereof if not my property.” There were in addition some extraordinary instructions directing that his body should lay undisturbed for three days, and then that two surgeons should independently certify him to be dead. Having done this, the surgeons were directed to perform such actions as would ensure life to become extinct even if he were not already dead. Perhaps in the course of his ritual work, Dr. Crow had encountered something that caused him to believe that these provisions were necessary.

After Dr. Crow’s death, it was reported by the then-Fr. Seraphim Newman-Norton that on 11 September 1975 Dr. Crow had surrendered all his ecclesiastical offices to Mar Georgius, receiving in return the honorary See of S. Sophia in the British Patriarchate with the title of Patriarch ad personam. To Fr. Newman-Norton he passed his secular offices, including the Grand Mastership of the Order of the Holy Wisdom “confident that I would keep them alive in honour of his memory.”

The context of this transmission of authorities was not entirely straightforward. In 1967, Mar Georgius had suffered the defection of a number of his clergy, who formed their own communion for a time, and those clergy who remained loyal to him “urged upon me…that our Church would have no future unless it secured communion with and recognition by what they described as a ‘canonical Orthodox church’, and that, to achieve this, certain further reforms were necessary, including the abolition of the [British] Patriarchate and of ‘open communion’” Mar Georgius writes that “my advisers sincerely held the opinion that unless I acceded to them, their lack of confidence in our Church’s future would cause them eventually, if not immediately, to secede to one or other of the ‘canonical Orthodox churches’ represented in this country. My first inclination was to reject the proposals, and, if necessary, to ‘go it alone’, awaiting further intimation from the Lord as to His will. But…I did not feel that our Church as a whole could survive another split so soon after the [1967] schism. I saw no way of bringing my advisers round to my way of thinking, for my past experience had taught me that when an old man gives an opinion based on years of experience, young enthusiasts will inevitably feel in the zeal of youth that he is merely being obstructive and obstinate. Accordingly, I decided to let them have their way, agreed to the abolition of the Patriarchate, and other items, and to make an approach to Bishop Jean Kovalevsky, Primate of the Catholic Orthodox Church in France.” Writing in 1970, Mar Georgius spoke of the desire of “arriving at terms of organic unity with the Holy Orthodox Churches of the East, with whom we have always been in full dogmatic agreement. To remove all which might be a cause of offence to our Eastern brethren in the Faith, or an obstacle to our apert unity with them, has necessitated certain drastic actions, as a result of which an entirely new vision of our Church has been erected.” This of course was a departure of the most comprehensive kind from the Western Orthodoxy which had been upheld through the Ancient British Church and its sister organizations during more than a century. Although it did not at this stage involve any suggestion of heresy, it was nevertheless a forsaking of the roots of Mar Georgius’s mission that would make that possibility more likely in the future. At the suggestion of Bishop Kovalevsky, the title “Western Orthodox” was abandoned and that of “The Orthodox Church of the British Isles” substituted. As of 3 February 1970 a new Trust Deed for the OCBI was drawn up and submitted for registration.

We shall leave for discussion elsewhere the issue of the continuity of the Catholicate of the West and whether the jurisdiction that was under Mar Georgius until 1969 was the same entity as that to which he had been elected in 1944–our conclusion is that it was not, and that the jurisdiction of 1944 had since 1953 been vested in other clergy. But his Personal Statement leaves no doubt as to the context in which the decisions as to the direction of the last decade of his pontificate were made and it makes explicit that those decisions certainly did not originate with him and were contrary to his own views. Indeed, it is difficult to escape the impression that those younger clergy who were advising Mar Georgius were in fact entirely opposed to the Catholicate of the West and much that Mar Georgius had stood for through the preceding decades. There could certainly be no doubt as to the canonicity of Mar Georgius’s jurisdiction of 1944, and if other Orthodox jurisdictions chose not to recognize it as canonical then that must be accounted as an act of injustice.

Against this background, on 25 February 1967, Mar Georgius had initiated a “General Council of the Catholicate of the West, to be called the Second Council of London”. This assembly in the event did not complete its work until 1975, and its decrees were not ratified and confirmed by Mar Georgius until 30 December 1978. Moreover, we are told that “out of respect for [Dr. Crow], its decisions were not made public at the time.” This is significant, for those decisions included the wholesale rejection of the decrees of the 1943 Council of London which had formed the entire basis for Dr. Crow’s work as well as that of the Catholicate of the West. We are told that the “Second Council of London” concluded that the 1943 Council of London had “in its enthusiasm” acted “uncanonically” and “clearly exceeded its authority” in deposing the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch for schism and electing Dr. Crow to the vacant Patriarchate. The assembly held that he should “correctly” have been merely “Patriarch over the western extensions of the Antiochene Patriarchate”.

From our perspective, these conclusions are not merely to be regretted but should be rejected in a definitive manner. This is not to say that Mar Georgius and his clergy did not have every right to decide for themselves that they wished to repudiate the 1943 Council of London, however belated and even unprincipled such an act would inevitably appear. They could not, however, at once repudiate the Council’s key decisions and yet still claim the jurisdictional authority which the Council had previously bestowed upon their clergy and mission until the termination of intercommunion in 1945, since the latter was entirely dependent upon the former. Moreover, their actions could not bind the Order of Antioch, which was the only body officially represented at the 1943 Council of London that was not subsequently absorbed into the Catholicate of the West. Neither the Order of Antioch, nor, it would appear, Dr. Crow and the Order of the Holy Wisdom, were officially represented at the 1967 assembly.

So far as the basis for Dr. Crow’s acts during his Patriarchate is concerned there seems no room for doubt; the authority cited on his official documentation is “the powers vested in Us by the Council of London 1943, by our Charter, Constitution and Official Acts and of all other powers Us hereunto enabling.” None of the available evidence suggests that his position on these matters changed at any point, although in his last years, we are told that he had become “less cogent, forgetful and repetitive”. It is therefore in the light of all the foregoing factors that we should consider his reported decisions of 11 September 1975.