Hugh George de Willmott Newman

Hugh George de Willmott Newman was born at Forest Gate, London, on 17 January 1905. He was baptized in the Catholic Apostolic Church in Hackney. His father and grandfather both had served as deacons in the Catholic Apostolic Church. From 7 to 30, Newman was an acolyte in the Catholic Apostolic Church.[3]^: 444

In 1937 he married Lola Ina del Carpio Barnardo, great-niece of Thomas Barnardo, at the Catholic Apostolic Church in Maida Hill. Thereafter, he became general manager of the National Association of Cycle Traders and Repairers, a trade association of employers. He also edited the association's magazine, The National Journal.[3]^{: 444, 456}

By 1938, Newman was "convinced of a clear call to the priesthood". He could not be ordained priest in the Catholic Apostolic Church, as the last of its twelve apostles, Henry Woodhouse, had died in 1901. In the summer of 1938, Newman wrote to propose himself to be ordained priest to Bishop James McFall, who styled himself as Regionary Old Catholic Bishop for Ireland. McFall accepted Newman's request.[3]^{: 444, 456} McFall had been priest of the Old Roman Catholic Church in Great Britain (ORCGB) since 1910, and had been consecrated bishop there in 1916. Shortly after his consecration, Arnold Mathew excommunicated him. In April 1925, McFall became the "nominal head" of a splinter group from the ORCGB, which called itself the Old Catholic Orthodox Church and was composed of only laypeople. McFall died in 1960.[4]^: 340–2

On 23 October 1938, at the age of 33, Newman received from Bishop James Columba McFall, who had come from Belfast to perform the following sacraments: baptism under condition, confirmation, the four minor orders, the subdiaconate and the diaconate, and the priesthood.[3]^{: 444, 456} "No sooner had [McFall] returned to Belfast than [sic] he released the newly ordained priest from his jurisdiction, and forgot all about him".[4]^: 342

In early 1939, Newman was adopted as priest by the Old Catholic Orthodox Church, which could find no priest and whose groups were in Hounslow and South Harrow.[3]^: 445 He then tried to find a bishop for him and his flock. Newman asked "almost every free-lance prelate in Britain and Ireland" with no success. He then got in contact with Mar John Emmanuel (Arthur Wolfort Brooks), head of the Apostolic Episcopal Church (Holy Eastern Catholic and Apostolic Church),[lower-alpha 1] headquartered in New York, who accepted Newman's request and put Newman under his jurisdiction. John Emmanuel became the Presiding Bishop of the Old Orthodox Catholic Church in England.[3]^: 445-6

By a document dated 26 October 1941, Newman was named abbot nullius of St Albans, in the Order of Corporate Reunion (OCR);[3]^: 446[5]^: 509 the OCR had become a part of the Apostolic Episcopal Church in 1933.[6][7] Newman's jurisdiction was limited to the 5 miles of St. Albans, but in cases of members of the OCR it extended over the whole Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Four days later, Newman was also appointed archpriest and Vicar-General of the Old Catholic Orthodox Church in Europe, with an unlimited jurisdiction. Anson notes that "[s]o far as is known, this was the first occasion that a lawfully married priest in England had ever been raised to the status of Abbot-Nullius".[3]^: 446–7[5]^: 509

Then, Newman and his wife left Northampton to move to Enfield Lock, in Middlesex, "where the curia of the Old Catholic Orthodox Church was set up".[3]^: 447

During the spring of 1943, Newman also became secretary and registrar of the Incorporated Institute of Cycle Traders and Repairers.[3]^: 447

On 8 October 1943, a synod of clergy and laity of the Old Catholic Orthodox Church in Europe elected Newman to the episcopate as archbishop and metropolitan of Glastonbury. On 20 December of the same year, this decision was approved by the authorities of the Apostolic Episcopal Church. Mar John Emmanuel allowed bishop William Bernard Crow (named Mar Abdullah III) to perform Newman's episcopal consecration, because Emmanuel could not travel from the United States to England due to the Second World War. During the three months the letter of authorization took to reach the UK from the US, Newman became convinced the Old Catholic Orthodox Church was schismatic and redundant because the Ancient British Church was the real indigenous Church of England; Newman believed the Old Catholic Orthodox Church should be absorbed into the Ancient British Church, which was done on 23 March 1943.[3]^: 448

On 10 April 1944, Newman was consecrated bishop by William Bernard Crow to be the head of the Catholicate of the West. The consecration took place at St Andrew's Collegiate Church in South Tottenham, London; at the time, this church was a Free Protestant Episcopal church and its use had been granted to Newman and Crow for the occasion. Newman was consecrated under the name and title: Mar Georgius, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Holy Metropolis of Glastonbury, the Occidental Jerusalem, and Catholicos of the West. Thereafter, Mar Jacobus II stepped down from his office of fifth Patriarch of the Ancient British Church, passing his rank of Patriarch to Willmott Newman; thus Willmott Newman was both Catholicos of the West and the sixth Patriarch of the Ancient British Church.[8]^: 243[3]^: 449–50

On 14 July 1945, Patriarch Abdullah III and Newman mutually agreed that the Catholicate of the West and its head were to be completely independent, that the Catholicate would not be under the jurisdiction of Abdullah III and would only be under the jurisdiction of the Catholicos. "It was decreed that the Catholicate was an autocephalous and autonomous Church or Rite, under its own Catholicos and subject to no other jurisdiction".[3]^: 455

Mar John Emmanuel, head of the Apostolic Episcopal Church, died in 1948; he was succeeded as head of the Apostolic Episcopal Church by Wallace David de Ortega Maxey, who resigned in 1951. "His successor, Lowell Paul Wadle, served for two years and, following his resignation, was succeeded by Metropolitian Abp. Hugh George de Willmott Newman (1905-1979), the patriarch of Glastonbury".[9]

In 1953, Newman held a synod at Glastonbury; the synod decided to dissolve the Catholicate of the West. The dissolution was done in order for the Indian law to accept the dissolution of the Indian Orthodox Church that had been under the Catholicos from 1950 until 1951–3. To replace the Catholicate of the West, an organisation was created called the United Orthodox Catholicate, still headed by Newman.[3]^{: 472, 491} The United Orthodox Catholic Church took the title of Catholicate of the West from 1959 and onward. Those "puzzling manoeuvres" were made to put an end to the system of "autocephalous tropoi"[lower-alpha 2] of the Catholicate, something which "could be done legally only by dissolving the corporation and starting de novo".[3]^: 491

Hugh George de Willmott Newman, "patriarch of Glastonbury [...], commonly known as Mar Georgius"[10] died on 28 February 1979.[11]^: 294 He was succeeded as the head of the Apostolic Episcopal Church by William Henry Hugo Newman-Norton (Mar Seraphim) "who served as patriarch of Glastonbury from 1979 to 1994. In 1994 he was consecrated as a bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church and resigned all affiliation with the Apostolic Episcopal Church".[10] At the time of Mar Seraphim and the Catholicate of the West joining the Coptic Orthodox Church to form the British Orthodox Church, some congregants did not follow him and formed part of the Celtic Orthodox Church.