March 2012

Greetings Sisters and Brothers, a shorter than usual newsletter this month as we have had a very busy month indeed. +Graham became an Abbot, Aasia+ and Adora+ became Priestesses within The Church of St Mary & St John who are also our Sisters of the Inner Order, Avalon and Anise, who have been raised to Amethyst and are now members of the Order of the Flaming Sword, and have become Baroness Seneschals of our Great Order.

Our Sister Jade of the Inner Order has now been initiated fully into the Order and has become an Azurite, a Lady Knight and a member of the Order of the Divine Chalice.

Congratulations to all.

-----

Many have asked why do some of us have Crosses before or after our names, so I decided in this months newsletter I will explain this.

On becoming a Priest/ess of The Church of St Mary & St John Clergy are given a + after their name. This is because Sub-Deacons and Deacons are also known as Reverend, so to show someone is a Priest/ess when writing their name they have a Cross put after it. This is a sign of respect for the Great Work they have done to get that far, and to show they are entitled to perform the Celtic Gnostic Mass, Marriages, Baptisms and various other Sacraments which are a real honour.

When someone becomes a Right Reverend, which is an Abbot/Abbess or Bishop, they get a Cross before their name, again to show how far they have come on their path. So for instance, when Graham became a Priest his name was Graham+ and then when he became an Abbot which is a Rt. Rev. he got the Cross before his name, like so +Graham.

If someone has two Crosses before their name, like myself. It means they are the Presiding Bishop. So my name can be written like so ++Tia. The only other time someone would have two Crosses would be if they were a Bishop and also the Bishop for the entire country they reside in. For instance, if someone from the USA was to become a Bishop within our Church, and we made them Bishop of the USA, they would also get two Crosses.

When someone has three Crosses it means they are an Archbishop. They are a Bishop, who is also a Presiding Bishop and has Consecrated at least one other Bishop. So after +Graham's consecration in May, I will become +++Tia.

The whole Crosses thing is just a way of spotting quickly who is who within the Church and their role. And as we are all primarily Brothers and Sisters this is just a polite way of showing different levels of attainment, without the need of fancy titles.

That is all for this month, I now hand over to +Graham, see I used the Cross ;), who will tell us a little about himself. Next month we will be learning more about Anastasia+.

This section is for members only.