We wrote about this landmark church in the Lower East Side back in 2008.  It's one of those manifestations of actual diversity within the human diaspora and the landscape of New York City that serve to foster a zeal for life itself.  We've learned recently that it has been put up for sale by the owner, the resident canon who is the nephew of the founder In the spirit of Jeremiah's Vanishing New York, these kinds of changes not only hollow out the landscape of the city but they scrape against our insides and leave abrasions on our soul.  San Isidoro y San Leandro Western Orthodox Catholic Church has served as a sanctuary and a home for the sacraments and the beautiful Mozarabic liturgy.  Sarah Bean Apmann sums it up succinctly in her article for the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, entitled Why Isn’t This Landmarked?: San Isidoro y San Leandro Western Orthodox Catholic Church of the Hispanic Mozarabic Rite

"Churches and synagogues such as these, located on single lot sites filling the space of what was once a single home, were once found throughout the East Village and Lower East Side. They were reflective of the incredibly modest resources but bold ambitions of the immigrant communities they served. Increasingly few such structures survive today. The East Village remains woefully under-landmarked and therefore valuable historic resources such as these churches and synagogues are vulnerable to insensitive alteration and demolition. The highly unusual church at 345 East 4th Street retains nearly all of its original Gothic Revival details while reflecting the imprint and religious traditions of various important immigrant and migrant communities which shaped the Lower East Side and New York – Central Europeans in the late nineteenth century, Eastern Europeans in the early twentieth century, and Puerto Ricans and Hispanics in the mid-to-late twentieth century."

The congregation was mostly Puerto Rican but included local residents from all sorts of backgrounds.  The real estate crowd in Manhattan needs to temper their zeal when they insist that "no regular congregation every attends the church".  To couch it this way is disingenuous.  To comment on the membership of any society or group after it has been announced that it is closing and the misery of the ending of something is allowed to draw the curtains, well these are not the sort of circumstances one leverages for taking a census.  The fact is that this church served as an epicenter of a community of people who were baptized, confirmed and married here.  Generations of congregations members had their first communion within the sacred walls of this small independent church.  

345 East 4th Street (photo credit:  https://www.villagepreservation.org/ )

Deacon ordained and new Bishop consecrated in the Ecclessia Apostolica Rosae Rubeae & Aureae Crucis

May 2015

The Most Rev. Dr Bertil Persson

Bertil Persson and Rev. Siodhachan Lyden (Tau Thomas) at St. Leo's in NYC

Sweden's Professor Bertil Persson is one of the Chaplains to the Swedish Royal family and has very close links with the Vatican.  He is an ordained minister of the Anglican Communion and has presided as Bishop over the Holy Eastern Catholic Church, Primate of the Apostolic Orthodox churches and as a Missionary Arch Bishop for the African Orthodox Church.  He has served as the Missionary General of Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church for Scandinavia and as Missionary General of the Philippine Independent Catholic Church for Scandinavia and all of Europe. In 2012 his book The Fight Against Sects was released, documenting his decades of work to achieve world peace and to educate authorities on the existence as well as the practices of cults and dangerous fundamentalist sects.  He's authored numerous titles on the various histories of independent Catholic and Orthodox churches as well as Independent Bishops: An International Directory with a preface by the well known encyclopedic authority of world religions, J. Gordon Melton.

With the assistance of Archbishop George Boyer and Bishop Leila Boyer, Bertil established the Caribbean Episcopal Church, originally as a church in the Apostolic Episcopal Church, whose Universal Primate he was at that time.  Later the Bishop of London of the Church of England took over the responsibility after the decease of its first Archbishop Eugene Lynch.
Dr. Persson has served for some 30 years as a pedagogue of dyslexia and Ambassador of Peace connected to UNESCO (International Association of Education and World Peace; University for Peace) and ECOSOC (Universal Peace Federation).  He's a talented hymnologist and academic historian of churches and ideas.  He travels around the world speaking at Universities on the subject of Aramaic and its importance to linguistics, religious studies and cultural anthropology as the language of Jesus. He has served as a consultant of Scandinavia for Near East Churches and is the author of several text books in religion.  

Professor Persson earned a Doctorate of Theology and has spent 40 years of research in Sweden and abroad.  Having served the Swedish Government and foreign organizations as an expert in international Jewish-Christian-Muslim dialogue, his works of humanitarian, pedagogical and religious-historical achievement and for his work as a scientific author he has been awarded a number of honorable doctorates and distinctions, including Top 100 Educators 2005, Top 100 Educators 2006 and Top 100 Educators 2008 awarded by Cambridge Biographical Centre, England. Nils Bertil Alexander Persson has traced the Rosicrucian movement back to a beginning in 1188 which predates the publishing of the Fama in 1614.  This research was enabled by his access to secret files in the Library of the Vatican and other private collections throughout Europe, especially the files of the Order of the Knights Templar in Germany. 

I spent some time with Arch Bishop Persson in Manhattan at St Leo's and ventured uptown to give a homily at the African Orthodox Church in Harlem. Afterwards, we had lunch on Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard and spoke at length regarding his research in the Vatican archives and some mutual acquaintances in the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.  He had this to say regarding the Boyers, the United Templar Rite and the Pre-Nicene Ekklesia as well as the Apostolic Church of the Golden and Rosy Cross: 

"Last time I met Beloved Leila was on the 9th of December in the House of Lords in London. I was invited to lecture and I had invited her. We had a longtime chat both before and after my lecture. We decided that when I'm back in London in the mid' of May we share a dinner together as so many times in the past. At that time she told me that she has problem with cancer but it was at the moment better. 

Bishop Leila has for many years been my assistant in my work for the Caribbean people. Archbishop George Boyer and I, assisted by Bishop Leila, established the Caribbean Episcopal Church, originally as a church in the Apostolic Episcopal Church, whose Universal Primate I was at that time. Later the Bishop of London of the Church of England took over the responsibility after the decease of its first Archbishop Eugene Lynch.  Once again I thank you ever so much for the message I've got through Archbishop Peter Paul Brennan, my successor as Universal Primate of Order of Corporate Reunion.

Both +George and +Leila were very active in OCR in the British Isles. Through me they were also installed as Knights of the Knights Templar Order by its Spiritual Protector Archbishop Lutfi Laham of the Holy Land, Patriarch of the Melchite-Greek Catholic Church.  Richard Duke de Palatine founded the Pre Nicene Ekklesia and later passed on the role of Primate to Arch Bishop George Boyer.   Bishop  Boyer in his own right already held lines from Churches recognized by the Anglican Church and World Council of Churches.  These lines were passed onto ++Michael Norman Buckley OCR in 2003, giving rise to the Ecclessia Apostolica Rosae Rubeae & Aureae Crucis, a legitimate church founded in Sussex, England."

A True Christian

"A (true) Christian is of no sect: He can dwell in the midst of sects, and appear in their services, without being attached or bound to any.  He has but one knowledge, and that is, Christ in him.  He seeks but one Way, which is the desire always to do and teach that which is right; and he puts all his knowing and willing into the Life of Christ" – Jacob Boehme.

Passing of the Primate of the OCR, Archbishop ++Peter Paul Patrick, John Jude, Hugh Francis, Brennan

Earlier this morning, I received notice that the Primate of the Order of Corporate Reunion was declining in health and that Archbishop Michael Kline was taking on temporary powers of Primate.  We have since received notice of his passing.  May He Rest In Peace.  The Requiem Mass for Archbishop Brennan will be celebrated at the altars of priests around the World.  Archbishop Michael Kine is now the Primate of the Order of Corporate Reunion.  May the Holy Spirit guide him and strengthen him.

Archbishop Brennan worked tirelessly to bring about ecumenical cooperation amongst Christian clergy world wide.  He also had the distinction of having been made a knight in the United Templar Rite in Jerusalem by the Primate of the Greek Melchite Catholic Church.  For a detailed summary of Archbishop Peter Paul Brennan's contributions to Christian Unity and bridge building with the Metropolitans and heads of Eastern and Western Rite Catholics, Orthodox, Anglican and Independent churches, please visit the Apostolic Episcopal Church's well written account here.

Sovereign Lord, as you promised, dismiss now Your servant in peace. For my eyes have

seen Your Salvation which You have prepared in the sight of all people, a Light for

Revelation to the gentiles and for Glory to Your people Israel... (Luke, ii, 29-32)

The late Archbishop Peter Paul Brennan (1941 - 2016) center at the Consecration of + D. S. Hunter Lindez (Lyden) of the
Ecclessia Rosae Rubae et Aurae Crucis Apostolica in Montclair, NJ May 2015. 

Bishop Leila BOYER, the living of a life

Our thoughts and prayers have been focused on the beloved Arch Bishop Leila BOYER, OCR (Pre-Nicene Ekklesia, Member of the Council of Three and Grand Master of the Healing, Teaching and Chivalric Order of St. Michael and St. Raphael), who was on the verge of entering into the planes of Spiritual Life, the Communion of the Mortal with the Spiritual and the Life of the World to Come, after having been diagnosed with terminal Cancer and recently admitted to Charing Cross Hospital in the United Kingdom.  Leila was transferred to St Raphael's Hospice in Cheam last Monday, which was one of her wishes.  She lapsed into unconsciousness on Tuesday and did not recover.  In the early hours of yesterday morning (Thursday, February 19) she passed away.  Her family informs that she was not in any pain and was peaceful.

While we mourn her passing, I'm reminded of the words of the Right Rev. J. I. Wedgewood who wrote in 1932 that:

"It is not death, or the manner in which the death is brought about, that weighs most;  it is the living of a life. For a deeply sensitive man of our own class and standing, life is often made difficult by the commonness, the coarseness, the vulgarity of much that confronts us.  A sensitive man suffers under unpleasant influences playing upon him.  But a great love for humanity, the keeping aflame within ourselves of great compassion for the suffering of others, and a strong determination to help and be an example of strength and radiant joy, all that tends to lessen difficulties caused by sensitivity and great refinement of body and temperament.  It is not that aspect of suffering that we need to stress in connection with our Blessed Lord.  Sacrifice when rightly understood is a joyous process.  When one cn put aside all the claims of the lower separated self the inflow of the Divine Life that then takes place bears with it the most exquisite joy and happiness."

Reverend +Leila lived a selfless life of sacrifice for others.  Her generosity and overall contributions to historical scholarship, peace, to the Christian church and betterment of mankind, to spirituality, to the unity of all sects and divisions of Christianity and to the healing of the sick are immeasurable.

People around the globe had been sending prayers up asking that her hour of departure be one of comfort and grace owed to Divine intercession by the Holy Paraclete upon the Wings of Jehovah.  Just yesterday, we offered up a Mass of the Holy Ghost.  And thus, placed in the ranks of the Blissful, may she obtain the joy of contemplating God throughout all Eternity. May her soul be allowed eternal rest, and may the Ever-Shining Light shine on it, through Jesus Christ Our Lord and Master, and through Saint John His servant.  Amen. +

Apostolic Church of the Golden and Rosy Cross

The origins of the “Apostolic Church of the Golden and Rosy Cross”  (a non-dogmatic, tolerant, independent ecclesia formed from valid lines and pure intent with a focus on healing & the Disciplina Arcani, centered by the axis of Christian Worship: distribution of the sacraments) go back to the Pre-Nicene Ekklesia. This Church was brought into existence by  Richard Duc de Palatine. Monsignor Richardus (The Right Reverend  John Palatine) who was consecrated on the 25^th September 1953 by His Sacred  Beatitude Mar Georgius I Patriarch of Glastonbury and  Prince Catholicos of the Catholicate of the West which was incorporated  in India  under  Act XX1  of 1860. On the retirement of Monsignor Richardus as the Presiding Bishop of the Pre  Nicene Ekklesia, who decided to  immigrate to America,  Bishop George Boyer was  appointed  his successor as the Presiding Bishop of the Pre Nicene  Ekklesia, and remained in that office until his death. Bishop George Boyer was an internationally well known and respected Independent Bishop. 

Tau Raphael ordaining a woman priest in the ACGRC

The Rt. Reverend Bishop Michael  Norman Buckley, Tau Marcus  was raised to the  Holy Order of the Episcopate by the Most Rev. George Boyer (1921-2008) the presiding Bishop of the Pre-Nicene Ekklesia on the 3^rd of March 2002, as Bishop for this  Ekklesia in the City of Brighton, in the County  of  East Sussex, England. A Charter was granted  for the Establishment of the Ecclesia  Gnostica  Roseae et Aureae  Crucis by  The Most Reverend George Boyer, (former Secretary General of C.I.R.E.M. and Grand Master and Lord Abbot of the Healing, Teaching and Chivalric Order of St Michael and St Raphael) Presiding Bishop of the Pre-Nicene Ekklesia to The Right Reverend  Michael Norman Buckley on the 3^rd March 2002, for those within his care and spiritual protection.  The Right Reverend Michael Norman Buckley (Tau Marcus) being the Grand Master numerous esoteric orders of spiritual chivalry. 

Due to the public misunderstanding and confusion surrounding the perception of the term 'Gnostic' in the title of  the “Ecclesia Gnostica Roseae et Aureae Crucis”  and also it's unfortunate association with certain rites deemed to be antithetical to primitive Christianity, it was decided by the Most Reverend Michael Norman Buckley, Tau Marcus, Presiding Bishop to change the name  of the Church to that of the “Apostolic Church of the Golden and Rosy Cross” on the 6^th Day of January 2009 at Brighton, in the County of East Sussex, England with the approval of Arch Bishop +Leila BOYER of the Pre-Nicene Ekklesia. 

The Church operates in the U.K., U.S.A., the Republic of Ireland & Nigeria.  The ACGRC believes in and supports the married priesthood, the ordination and consecration of women into the priesthood and the most Christ like empathy and embrace of all of humanity.  Our doors are open to all, In His Name.  Amen. +++

I reserve the right to be critical of a church whom I both love and defend

The Roman church needs to reinstate the married priesthood.  They need to re-consecrate their empty cathedrals that they still possess and are not in the process of losing or selling.  The Holy Ghost has long since vacated most of them in America.  The lifeless, watered down ritual performed without Faith by so many deviants devoid of Power...blending the worship with imported elements of evangelical sub sects like banjos and drum sets.  When the high Latin mass is restored, the picnic table is folded up and moved aside, when the incense is lit and the perverts taken out of the pulpits and when the culture of the seminaries is purified and the mysteries are brought back, there will be a reversal in the current membership churn and loss of power and influence.  Too many Atheists have been created by the abuses doled out by figures of authority in Catholic schools.  Now these institutions are closing by the dozen.  Many are watching and waiting, hoping that with a Jesuit in Peter's Throne, that the Order might be restored.  It's time to endorse the Rose Croix of the Catholique.  It's time to unite the diaspora of the Apostolic community.

I.X.N.

The soul is a universal substance that the spirit borrows for its expression on Matter. The soul is the lever of the spirit and at the same time it is the spirit’s luminous guide in Matter. The soul (psyche) is a heavenly and divine gift. It is derived from the center of all centers and is diffused and poured throughout the universe. It is through the psyche that Man communes with God, and it is through the psyche that God is always present everywhere and fills everything.

The American Diocese of the Greek Orthodox Church has chosen wisely in the design of their seal. I.X.N. or Jesus Christ Conquers is a powerful phrase that is infused with the Power of our Lord. The Chi-Rho can be said to esoterically represent the Center of all centers. It is the ultimate point of divination in the calling down of the Holy Paraklete. The Chi-Ro of the Emperor Constantine's dream appears on the shields of Knights of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher, and as the imperial standard of Byzantine, it is known as the labarum.

The letters IC XC NIKA mean: Jesus Christ conquers, as the sky in Constantine’s vision, held an illuminated cross inscribed with the words: EN TOYTW NIKA—by this (sign), conquer. I+H+S+

Miserere Mei Deus

The Inner Ecclesia: The Seven Churches of Asia

The seven churches of Assiah, the World of Action, is a Johannine reference to the Earthly and primordial transmission that is entrusted to the custodial care of Orthodox succession and inner practice. In his classic work Ecce Homo, Louis Claude de St. Martin wrote that the early Christian priests had four powers: to make the Lord's Supper, to forgive sins, to heal diseases and to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. The Marquis St Martin taught that priests in modern times have retained only the first two. Ordinary priests were likened unto officers in the Lodge of Saint John who had essentially "lost the password", as they say.

In A.E. Waite's Hidden Church of the Holy Grail,the fourth chapter is entitled, "The Victory of the Latin Rite." As the tradition of the Holy Graal and the Celtic Church are both in alignment with the mysticism of the Orthodox church and the unrestricted and organic fluidity of the Pre-Nicean church, Waite's writing is particularly relevant to the Apostolicism seen in the esoteric Christian community's Orders of Ormus, the Priory of Sion, the Scottish Rectified Regime, the Asiatic Brethren, the Golden Rosicrucians and the Fratres Lucis. Allow me to quote a passage for your consideration and nourishment,

"I have now put forward the hypothesis of the Celtic Church as it has never been expressed previously; I have diminished nothing, and any contrary inferences have been proposed so far temperately; but the issues are not entirely those of the Graal legend, and in view of all that comes after a few words in conclusion of this part may perhaps be said more expressly. It should be on record, for those who have ears, that the Welsh Church, with its phantom and figurehead bishops, its hereditary priesthood, its fighting and sanguinary prelates, and its profession of sanctity as others profess trades, seems a very good case for those who insist that the first Christianity of Britain was independent of St. Augustine, which it was, and very much indeed, but on the whole we may prefer Rome. When we have considered all the crazes and heresies, all the pure, primitive and unadulterated Christianities, being only human and therefore disposed to gratitude, it is difficult not to thank God for Popery. But it would also be difficult to be so thankful, that is to say, with the same measure of sincerity, if we were still in the school courses and belonged officially thereto.

I mean to say, although under all reserves, that there is always some disposition to hold a fluidic brief for Rome in the presence of the other assemblies. William Howitt, the historian of priestcraft à rebours, once said: "Thanks be to God for the mountains!" It is well to quote from our enemies, but not in the sense of our enemies, and hence I read by substitution the seven hills and the city built thereon. Let therefore those who will strive with those who can over the dismembered relics of apostolical Christianity; but so far as we are concerned the dead can bury their dead. We have left the Celtic Church as we have left carved gods. A Pan-Britannic Church might have been the dream of one period, and were that so, seeing that it never came to fulfilment, we could understand why it is that in several respects the Graal literature has now the aspect of a legend of loss and now of a legend of to-morrow. The Anglican Church seems in this sense to recall for a moment that perverse generation which asked for a sign and was given the sign of Jonah. It has demanded apostolical evidences to enforce its own claim and it has been given the Celtic Church. Let us therefore surrender thereto the full fruition thereof. There may be insufficiencies and imperfect warrants in the great orthodox assemblies, but in the Celtic Church there is nothing which we can regret. Gildas and St. Bernard are eloquent witnesses concerning it. The Latin rite prevailed because it was bound to prevail, because the greater absorbs the lesser. On the other hand, and now only in respect of the legends, let us say lastly that the ascension of Galahad is, symbolically speaking, without prejudice to the second coming of Cadwaladr. It does not signify for our purpose whether Arthur ever lived, and if so whether he was merely a petty British prince. The Graal is still the Graal, and the mystery of the Round Table is still the sweet and secret spirit of universal knighthood."

Such things are the concerns of the Abbey of St Sulpice, the Order of St Leo & the Knights of the Holy Ghost. Amen. +

Our recent celebration of the Great Sacrifice that necessitates a priest of valid Apostolic authority

St.Basil's appeal to the "unwritten tradition" in de Spiritu Sancto: "Of the dogmata and kerygmata, which are kept in the Church, we have some from the written teaching (εκ της εγγραφου διδασκαλιας), and some we derive from the Apostolic tradition, which had been handed down en mistirio (εν μυστηριω). And both have the same strength (την αυτην ισχυν) in the matters of piety. [...] They come from the silent and mystical tradition, from the unpublic and ineffable teaching"

Those believers in Christ whose only exposure to the church is limited to sub-sect cults of Protestantism that grew like mold in the grounds of ignorance and poverty across the Ozarks and Appalachians might find the proper display of Christian liturgical tradition to be quite bizarre when contrasted with what passes for Christianity in mainstream America these days. With the Tenebrae, only done during Holy Week, you'll see a ceremony of extinguishing the candles identical to that Jesuit Masonic mechanical of the Rose Croix. Amidst all the bells and smells, this year saw the completion of a memorable milestone in our small but tightly knit congregation with the observation of the high holy days of the Triduum. We commenced with the liturgy of Maundy Thursday followed faithfully and leading into Good Friday, where the cathedral was stripped bare and the lights were extinguished, a black banner hung from a large wooden cross, and a side altar was arranged with flowers in memory of the Garden of Gethsemane. There was silence. I officiated in a black tau robe after fasting and meditation and proceeded with the veneration of the True Cross. This was a case for double genuflexion.

On Easter Saturday evening the congregation gathered in the garden outside the church, and lit the sacred fire of the brazier (consecrated with the prayers of St Michael and the tradition of the Elect Priests), which was then used to light the Paschal Candle. The candle (displayed prominently upfront, lit and surrounded by flowers) was ritually pricked with a consecrated needle. I traced the Alpha and Omega on it, and inserted bits of incense in commemoration of the sacrificial wounds of Christ, ensuring the continued preservation of the arcana from the primitive church with both practice and witness. The candle's sacred fire having been lit was then carried into the church, to the intonation 'The Light of Christ'. The Shekinah Glory was invoked, and the lights were raised in as dramatic of a motion as possible within the humble sanctuary we use for our service. Sadly, there is no organ present, but we made plenty use of a well queued CD attended by the Director of Music. Christ's resurrection was revisited in much the way Steiner instructed his students to visualize it. In His Name + The Great & Unmatched Power of I.H.S.V.H., The Right Rev. Frater Sanare et Ignoscere, †‡, KOJ, KGC

The first PUBLIC Anglican Eucharist celebrated in Dent County since 1932

The Most Rev.+Christian M. von Jessen, OSB hosted what has been described by some present as the first PUBLIC Anglican Eucharist celebrated in Dent County since 1932 when the Episcopal Church was de-consecrated and given to the Public LIbrary! Missa Cantata with incense - Most Rev. Jessen began with Asperges and procession - "we had to leave the chapel and process AROUND the outside - with the thurifer doing the Queen Annes at the windows and then again at the door before we came back in - rather unique - but in a building that is only 12 by 16...", says the Most Rev Christian M. von Jessen, OSB. As a note of interest, Bishop Jessen's (Metropolitan Arch Bishop of Missouri for the BYZANTINE CATHOLIC CHURCH) lines of succession came from the Old Catholic line (+Pruter) as well as the Russian Orthodox line (+Zrwestsky).

The Chancel - hard to photograph due to the small space - is before the installation of the wainscot to better show the "legs" of the Reproduction Elizabethan Communion Table (Copied from one in Hailes, England) by Mr. Antony Burek in Vermont - the top is Cherry from a felled cherry tree at The Hill Farm in Dent County. The Rood Screen obscures it slightly.

Inner Church

As Christians pass from intellectual understanding into the realm of the experiential, they begin to feel, see and know (i.e.~ gnosis) what it is that GOD has in store for those who would surrender in devotion to His Will. With Christian Churches fragmented, divorced and many variously diluted in practice, some lacking apostolic succession and authority entirely, the persevering congregation of the faithful, must look to the path which opens the Sanctuary of the Interior. Here it is that the resurrection of the Lord YHSVH is declared on the altar of the heart. Is it any wonder that so many of our Elect Priests, have practiced the way of the Heart?

Ethiopian Orthodox Coptic Church

I've just left Most Rev. Arch Bishop Paget Mack of the African Orthodox Church in Harlem, at the Coptic Museum of the Ethiopian Orthodox Coptic Church. So, I found this video to be rather relevant.

Orthodox recognition of the Old Roman Catholic Church

The Christian community continues to come together. Take a look at the videos and read this blog entry from the Archbishop of the Old Roman Catholic Church of Flanders (Emeritus).

After taking this in, watch Mass in Aramaic in Jerusalem+

Ecclessia Apostolica Rosae Rubeae & Aureae Crucis

I have the distinct pleasure of announcing the website of the Apostolic Church of the Golden & Rosy Cross under Metropolitan Primate Tau Marcus, H.E. Michael Norman Buckley, O.C.R. in Sussex, England.

This Apostolic Church holds the lines of recognized Orthodox(Syrian, Ethiopian, African, Coptic, Romanian, Russian), Armenian, Reformed Anglican, Universal Episcopal, Independent Protestant, Moravian and Catholic Churches and many others , through not only Mar Georgius and the Syrian Orthodox Church but also through the world renowned expert and scholar on Independent Churches ++Bertil Perssons who amongst his other duties is one of the Chaplains to the Swedish Royal family and has consecrated numerous cathedrals and maintains a vigilant missionary effort of relief and charity in Africa, the Philippines, the UK and the USA.

Tau Raphael's consecration

Note the matching set of Maniples (worn on the left arm of the Priest Deacon and Sub-deacon)

Bishop +Stephan Hoeller in Chasuble alongside Rev. Donna Owen+ & Rev. Laurel+ in matching dalmatics celebrating a Christian Pre-Nicean Mass in California.

Triduum & the Roman Catholic use of incense in the USA post Vatican II

I was very happy to catch a local mainstream Roman Catholic group of Christian clergy in white albs using incense outside before the procession of the Paschal Candle (which was properly consecrated with five pins and incense) into the cathedral. I point this out only because of the low church tendencies of the Roman church in New Jersey.

OCR

Reverends. +Persson, +Brennan and +Kline
OCR July 20, 2008 @ St. Lucy Old Catholic Cathedral, Brooklyn, NY

The Order of Corporate Reunion was established in 1874 to promote the restoration of the Church of England to apostolic unity with the universal Church. The Roman Catholic authority for its founding was the Patriarch of Venice, Joseph Aloysius Cardinal Trevisanato. The actual consecrations of the three Order of Corporate Reunion Bishops were authorized in May 1877 by Pope Pius IX, Bishop of Rome.

Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Alexy II Dies

By JIM HEINTZ
Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW -- Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II, who presided over a vast post-Soviet revival of faith but struggled against the influence of other churches, died Friday at age 79, the church headquarters said.
The Moscow Patriarchate said he died at his residence outside Moscow, but did not give a cause of death. Alexy had long suffered from a heart ailment.

Alexy became leader of the church in 1990, as the officially atheist Soviet Union was loosening its restrictions on religion. After the Soviet Union collapsed the following year, the church's popularity surged. Church domes that had been stripped of their gold under the Soviets were regilded, churches that had been converted into warehouses or left to rot in neglect were painstakingly restored and hours-long services on major religious holidays were broadcast live on national television.

By the time of Alexy's death, the church's flock was estimated to include about two-thirds of Russia's 142 million people, making it the world's largest Orthodox church.

But Alexy often complained that Russia's new religious freedom put the church under severe pressure and he bitterly resented what he said were attempts by other Christian churches to poach adherents among people who he said should have belonged to the Orthodox church.

These complaints focused on the Roman Catholic Church, and Alexy refused to agree to a papal visit to Russia unless the proselytization issue was resolved.

Nonetheless, the Vatican praised his efforts to discuss the problems.

"His personal commitment to improving relations with the Catholic Church in spite of the difficulties and tensions which from time to time have emerged has never been in doubt," said Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

Alexy lived long enough to see another major religious dispute resolved. In 2007, he signed a pact with Metropolitan Laurus, the leader of the breakaway Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, to bring the churches closer together. The U.S.-based Church Outside Russia had split off in 1927, after the Moscow church's leader declared loyalty to the Communist government.

Alexy successfully lobbied for the 1997 passage of a religion law that places restrictions on the activities of religions other than Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism. Under his leadership, the church also vehemently opposed schismatic Orthodox churches in neighboring Ukraine, claiming the Ukrainian church should remain under Moscow's control.

A top representative of Russia's Muslims praised Alexy's efforts to restore religion's prominence in post-Soviet Russia.

"All the activities of this man were devoted to unifying our country, developing state-religion relations and the dialogue of Russia's traditional faiths," said Albir Krangov, a deputy chairman of the Muslim Central Spiritual Administration, according to the RIA-Novosti news agency.

In a demonstration of the close relations between church and state, President Dmitry Medvedev canceled plans to travel from India to Italy, so he can return for the funeral, whose date has not been announced. "He was a great citizen of Russia. A man in whose destiny the whole difficult experience of our country's changes in the 20th century are reflected," Medvedev said.

Under Alexy, the church's influence grew strong enough that some public schools instituted mandatory religion courses -- a move that human rights advocates criticized as likely to increase xenophobia.

"The church strengthened nationalism, without a doubt," said Alexander Verkhovsky of the Moscow human rights group SOVA. But he also gave the church under Alexy credit for speaking out against violent, radical nationalists.

The patriarch was born Alexei Mikhailovich Ridiger on Feb. 23, 1929 in Tallinn, Estonia. The son of a priest, Alexy often accompanied his parents on pilgrimages to churches and monasteries, and he helped his father minister to prisoners in Nazi concentration camps in Estonia. It was during those visits that Alexy decided to pursue a religious life.

Under Soviet rule, this was not an easy choice. Lenin and Stalin suppressed religion and thousands of churches were destroyed or converted to other uses, such as museums devoted to atheism or, in some cases, stables. Many priests and parishioners were persecuted for their beliefs.

The persecution eased somewhat during World War II, when Stalin discovered that the church could be used as a propaganda tool in the fight against the Nazis. But the Soviet authorities never fully loosened their grip, penetrating the church at the highest levels.

Alexy was ordained in 1950, progressed through the Orthodox hierarchy, and was consecrated Bishop of Tallinn and Estonia in 1961.

The British-based Keston Institute, which monitors religious freedom in former Communist countries, has cited research suggesting that Alexy's career may have been aided by assistance he gave the KGB while a young priest in Tallinn. Orthodox Church officials vehemently denied the allegations.

The complete list of the Primates of OCR:

03-04.07.1877- 22.01.1902 Frederick George Lee
22.01.1902-03- 01.1911 Arthur Henry Stanton
03.01.1911-20. 12.1919 Arnold Harris Mathew
21.12.1919-08. 08.1933 Arthur William Howarth
08.08.1933-03. 10.1958 George Kennedy Allen Bell
03.10.1958-28. 04.1967 Friedrich Johann Heiler
28.04.1967-07. 07.1998 Diederik D J Quatannens
07.07.1998-01. 07.2005 Bertil Persson
01.07.2005- Peter Paul Brennan

Archbishop for Great Britain of the Apostolic Episcopal Church

On Sunday November 23rd in London, UK, Archbishops Bertil Persson from Sweden, Philip Lewis and Paget Mack (representing Abp. Francis Spataro) from the USA, will gather for a service in which John Mar Joannes III (The Most. Revd. Professor John Kersey)GCSC, KCStG, KGStJ, DD, MMusRCM, LThMin, FRSA, FRGS, FSA ScotMetropolitan Primate and Titular Archbishop of Karim, The Liberal Catholic Apostolic Church) will be enthroned as Archbishop for Great Britain of the Apostolic Episcopal Church, an office which he will hold in addition to responsibilities he holds within the LCAC.

During the service, a number of bishops present will exchange consecrations sub conditione as a gesture of ecumenical support and unity. The following list of bishops have indicated that they intend to be present and that they wish to participate in this element of the service: +Bertil Persson- +Philip Lewis- +Paget Mack- +John Kersey- +Andrew Linley- +Alistair Bate- +Charles Mugleston

The Most Rev. Michael N. Buckley, OCR is the Primate of the Ecclesia Rosae Rubeae & Aureae Crucis in Sussex, England & will be in attendance for this Holy occasion.

Roman Catholic Church receives 2nd visit from Armenian Apostolic Church this year

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Vatican City, November 21 (CNA).-Ecumenical relations between the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Catholic Church are continuing to progress as the Vatican announced today that a high-level leader from the Armenian Church will visit the Pope.

His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of Cilicia of the Armenians, whose See is located in the Lebanese town of Antelias, is scheduled to make an official visit to the Pope and the Church of Rome from November 23-27.

As Catholicos of Cilicia, Aram I presides over a large sector of the Armenian Apostolic Church which includes Syria, Cyprus, Iran, Greece and Lebanon. The term "Catholicos" is used in the Armenian Apostolic Church to refer to the chief bishop of a region.

In May of this year, Pope Benedict XVI received Karekin II, the head of the whole Armenian Apostolic Church and held discussions about the necessity of prayer for increasing unity amongst Christians.

The upcoming visit by Catholicos Aram I will begin with a visit to St. Peter's Basilica and the tomb of Pope John Paul II on the morning of Monday, November 24.

Following his visit to the late Pope's tomb, Aram I will visit the Patio of St. Gregory the Illuminator to pay homage to the saint considered to be the apostle of the Armenian Apostolic Church. He will subsequently be received in audience by Benedict XVI.

On November 26, the Catholicos, his entourage, and a group of around 50 Armenian lay people who have come to Rome for the visit will attend the weekly general audience that Pope Benedict XVI holds each Wednesday.

The Catholicos also has other important events on his schedule including attending a liturgy on Monday at the basilica of St. Paul's Outside-the- Walls, which will be led by Cardinal Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, archpriest of the basilica.

On Tuesday, he will attend Vespers in the basilica of St. Bartholomew on the Isola Tiberina in Rome, where he will offer a relic of Armenian martyrs. Later the same day he will participate in a prayer meeting at the basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere, a communiqué from the Vatican press office says.

Aram I will also participate in an academic ceremony to be held in his honor at the Pontifical Urban University, and meet with Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and other officials of that dicastery.

Western Orthodox Cathedral in L.E.S.

For the average person, the mention of Orthodox Christianity conjures references of Eastern Orthodox churches of Romania, Greek or Russian origin.  Most are unfamiliar with what would constitute someone or something being 'Western Orthodox',  but at San Isidoro y San Leandro at 345 East 4th Street near Avenue D in the Lower East Side of Manhattan there exists an old Western Orthodox church which works the Mozarabic liturgy in Spanish.  For those with whom the traditional, mystical orthodox approach to worship resonates, this place should hold some interest, providing one is not entrapped within political boundaries of feuds for legitimacy that constrict some members of the Orthodox Community.