Hugh George de Willmott Newman


Hugh de Willmott Newman was a bishop in the independent Catholic movement and later an Archbishop for 'Western' British Orthodox churches. He was known religiously as Mar Georgius I and by the titles Patriarch of Glastonbury, Catholicos of the West, and Sixth British Patriarch.
Newman was first made a bishop in 1944. He is most notable for having subsequently undergone numerous ceremonies of conditional consecration, thereby laying claim to numerous different lines or streams of historic apostolic succession, and also for having shared his own lines or streams of apostolic succession with numerous other bishops by conditionally consecrating them. Over a ten-year period between 1945 and 1955, there were a number of ceremonies in each of which Newman and another bishop would conditionally consecrate each other to give each the other's lines or streams of succession, a practice that is sometimes described as "cross-consecration".
Newman consecrated, or shared cross-consecration with, at least 32 bishops. Today, there are hundreds of bishops around the world, perhaps thousands, with a lines of succession deriving through Newman.

Early life

Hugh George Newman was born on 17 January 1905 in Forest Gate, London, England. His family background was in the Catholic Apostolic Church. His father was a deacon in that church, and his father a sub-deacon. Hugh George was baptised at the Catholic Apostolic Church at Mare Street, Hackney, London, England. He was educated at Crawford School, Camberwell, London, and later by private tuition. As a young man, he changed his name by deed poll to "De Willmott Newman", thus reflecting his mother's maiden name. Newman worked as a clerk in solicitors' offices until 1929.
He also continued to educate himself. He took a post with the Christian Herald and he became a commercial consultant and, in due course, a fellow of the Institute of Commerce. He engaged in charitable work with London's poor and needy, championing the cause of the underdog.

Political activity

Newman participated in attempts to restore Archduke Otto von Habsburg to the position of emperor of Austria and Bohemia. In recognition of his efforts he was granted the honour "prince of the Holy Roman Empire" by the Archduke's mother the Empress Zita, and also the title "Baron Willmott" of Hungary, and "Duke of Saxe-Noricum".
In 1929, Newman co-founded the Royalist International with Herbert Vivian. The aims of the Royalist International were notionally to campaign against bolshevism and restore monarchy in all nations; however, it was actually a fascist organisation.
In 1936, Newman resigned his membership of the Conservative Party, owing to his views about the abdication of King Edward VIII. He regarded encouraging or supporting the abdication of the King as an act of high treason.

Calling to Christian ministry

At the age of seven years, Newman was an acolyte in the Catholic Apostolic Church; in his teens, he sensed a call to ordained Christian ministry and became an under-deacon in the Catholic Apostolic Church at age 19.
The route to full clergy status in the Catholic Apostolic Church was closed, in that this was "the time of silence". No new clergy had been ordained since 1901.
During the 1920s and 1930s Newman corresponded with bishops of autocephalous churches of Old Catholic, Eastern and Oriental traditions.
On October 23, 1938, at the age of 33 years, Newman was ordained priest by Bishop James Columba McFall. McFall was a bishop of a group called the "Old Roman Catholic Church of Great Britain".
In 1939, Newman was adopted as priest by a congregation, calling itself The Old Catholic Orthodox Church, in Hounslow, England that in 1925 had split from the Old Roman Catholic Church of Great Britain.
Newman approached Arthur Wolfort Brooks of the Apostolic Episcopal Church in USA. When Brooks, a resident in America, accepted a position as a presiding bishop of a group of churches in England, he appointed Newman as his vicar-general.

Personal life

In 1937, Newman married Lola Ima del Carpio Barnardo, a great-granddaughter of Thomas Barnardo.
In the mid-1930s, he was general manager of the National Association of Cycle Traders and Repairers. From 1943 to 1945, he was secretary and registrar of the Incorporated Institute of Cycle Traders and Repairers.

Council of London, 1943

Newman represented Brooks at the Council of London, which was headed by Archbishop Herbert James Monzani-Heard .
The background to the council was that, in December 1938, the office of Mar Ignatius Ephrem I had issued a statement warning the public in the West against bodies claiming to derive their origin and apostolic succession from some ancient Church of the East. Groups claiming apostolic succession through Rene Vilatte were explicitly condemned in the statement.
The council comprised representatives from a number of bodies claiming to derive their succession from the Eastern churches. All were bodies with a very small following. They were: Ancient British Church, British Orthodox Catholic Church, Apostolic Episcopal Church, Old Catholic Orthodox Church, Order of Holy Wisdom, and Order of Antioch.
The council boldy declared the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch to be in schism, and that it was they who represented the genuine church, which, for the avoidance of doubt, they renamed as the "Western Orthodox Catholic Church".

Appointment as a bishop

Arthur Wolfort Brooks, founder and leader of the Apostolic Episcopal Church had suggested Newman as a candidate for appointment as a bishop.
Newman was chosen by a pro-synod of the Old Catholic Orthodox Church in Europe as archbishop and metropolitan of Glastonbury, just a few days before the Council of London. Brooks signed the consecration mandate and he authorized Bishop William Bernard Crow to perform the ceremony which took place on 10 April 1944.

Catholicate of the West

Newman sought the convergence of churches into a unity. He was a founder of the "Catholicate of the West".
On 23 March 1944, a Deed of Declaration united the Ancient British Church, the Old Catholic Orthodox Church, the British Orthodox Catholic Church and the Independent Catholic Church into a single organization, to be called the "Catholicate of the West".
On 28 March 1944, a synod of the new Catholicate elected Newman as "Catholicos of the West".
At Christmas 1944, it was resolved that the Catholicate would bring its ministry, organization, usages and worship into general conformity with the pattern and model of the Catholic Apostolic Church. The name "Catholic Apostolic Church " was adopted, with a sub-title "Western Orthodox Catholic Church", and the Catholic Apostolic Church's liturgy was adopted with a Supplement.
Under Newman's leadership, the Catholicate was dissolved on 29 November 1953.
However, some members considered that the 1953 decision to dissolve the Catholicate had not been validly made, and they sought to continue the Catholicate under the name Catholic Apostolic Church with Mar Petros as Catholicos until his death in 1956. Mar Paulos then led this manifestation of the Catholicate from 1956 until his death on 29 April 1965. Mar Paulos was succeeded by Mar David I , Mar David II, Mar Timotheos III and Mar Johannes Edmundos . From 6 August 1977 onwards the headship of the continuing Catholicate has been formally united with the headship of the Apostolic Episcopal Church.
On 10 May 1959, Newman revived the purportedly-dissolved Catholicate, but dissolved it once again on 1 January 1968. Thus, from 1959 to 1968, there were, in effect, two distinct Catholicates.

Patriarch of Celtic Orthodox Church

On 29 January 1945, Monzani-Heard handed-over to Newman the role of British patriarch. Newman is generally recognised as the sixth patriarch.

Ecumenical apostolic succession

Newman's desire for the convergence of different historic lines or streams of apostolic succession was an aspect or outworking or his quest a unity of churches. He did not believe that being consecrated by a bishop from a different line or stream of succession adds anything to the charism received. His reason for advocating commissioning by bishops from different lines or streams of succession was solely that the episcopal status of those so commissioned might be more widely accepted. His aspiration was that an ecumenical succession would be created which all churches/jurisdictions would accept.
The ecumenical mission or vision that gave rise to the birth of the Catholicate of the West and to the notion of restoring an ecumenical apostolic succession partially derives from the theology and aspirations of the Catholic Apostolic Church. In the 1930s, there was a somewhat parallel situation in the Church of England in that the Church of England had started to incorporate "Old Catholic" successions within its consecrations of bishops. In the case of the Church of England, the objective was that Anglican orders would meet the criteria declared by the Roman Catholic Church.

Progress of the cause

In 1946, Newsweek published a claim the movement led by Newman had 140,000 followers worldwide.
In later years, there were many changes and re-organisations, and a long period of general decline. Specifically, in 1952, Newman issued a statement of belief which he called the "Glastonbury Confession". However, most of his clergy declined to subscribe to it, and in 1953 he released them from his jurisdiction.
There were further changes in the late 1960s. In 1967, Newman repealed the 1960 Constitution and governed by decree. A revised liturgy was introduced in 1968. In 1968, the Catholicate of the West was dissolved.
As result of these changes and loss of adherents, when Newman died on 28 February 1979, the movement he had led was virtually unrecognisable, as compared with the movement as it had existed twelve years earlier.
Newman's cousin, William Henry Hugo Newman-Norton succeeded him as primate of the British Orthodox Church, which became canonically part of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria in 1994. Some congregants at that time separated from the British Orthodox Church and formed part of the Celtic Orthodox Church.

Lists of consecrations

Consecrations of Newman

Further consecrations :
This list includes conditional consecrations and cross-consecrations.
Abbinga, FD Bacon, Bartlett, Bateman, Berger, Boltwood, DH Brook, Chamberlain, Corbin, de Ortega Maxey, Palatine, Frippiat, Glenn, Herbert, Hurgon, Jeffrey, Keller, Laigle, Langhelt, Lutgen, Marchese, Needham, Newman-Norton, HP Nicholson, Pillai, Ryswyk, Saul, Singer, Smethurst, Stumpfl, Summers, JSM Ward, Maurice Cantor.

List of apostolic successions received by Newman