The Wandering Bishops: Apostles of a New Spirituality - Home Temple

WANDERING BISHOPS 16
Gnostic-Kabbalistic doctrine that the Alexandrian catechetical schools taught, and that may be
original with the Master Jesus--that humanity is an emanation of Godhead, as the Prologue to
John's Gospel implies, and all people (Pharisees or Publicans) have the spark of Divine nature,
or what modern Buddhists call the "Buddha Nature." He also probably said that the Master
Jesus was fully human and shared the same nature as all humanity. These have today become
somewhat accepted ideas in Christian mysticism. But to the ancient theologians he was known
as the founder of that hideous "wrong opinion" that Christ has a single nature.
Many contemporary Independent Bishops are Gnostic or Kabbalistic or Monophysitic in
orientation. As opposed to Catholic Priesthood, which does the Blessing with two fingers
extended to signify the dual nature of Christ, many of the independent Priesthoods consciously
do the Blessing with only the index finger extended, signifying the unity of human and divine.
The same is true for modern descendents of the Nestorian and other Monophysite traditions.
Like any other saint, Bishop Baradaeus started a whole revival of Christian religion from the Nile
to the Euphrates. He transmitted the Apostolic ministry to those who were worthy, and the
Jacobite or Monophysite churches were established as a perpetual bone in the craw of Western
orthodoxy. They have survived the Moslem invasions of Egypt, and the later attempts of the
medieval Roman church to take over its jurisdiction in Syria. The Patriarch of Antioch still
maintains his authority, and the Liturgy of Saint James (Jacob) is still used. As a symbol of
Christ's unity, but perhaps more as a fraternal badge of courage in resisting imperialistic
orthodoxy, the Jacobite Christians still make the sign of the Cross with one finger, not two.
Another line of succession was brought into the Syrian church in 1783, when a Roman Catholic
Bishop, Mar Michael Garweh, was appointed to the See of Aleppo. There has undoubtedly been
a co-mingling of Roman and Jacobite lines of succession since the same jurisdiction has been
claimed by two churches for many centuries. In addition, Syrian-Antiochene Bishops have
established ecumenical relations with other Third-World churches, such as the Malabar
Christians of India, and co-Consecration has strengthened both successions.
Original Indian and Nestorian Apostolic Succession
The Syrian-Malabar succession traditionally descends from the missionary preaching of the
Apostles Thomas and Bartholomew in India. Although the historical accuracy of this claim
cannot be fully verified, recent evidence points to an ancient community of Indian Christians
previous to the second missionary sweep of the Nestorians. Cosmas Indicopleustes, an
Alexandrian merchant of the sixth century who had no particular axe to grind, says that he found
Christians in India about A.D. 550. This is too early for a settled community of Nestorians.
On the tomb of St. Thomas in India is found an ancient cross with inscriptions. The inscriptions
are made in a form of the Hindu dialect that stopped being used after the second century. It
seems likely that the St. Thomas Christians of India preserve the authentic Successions of the
Apostles Thomas and Bartholomew.
The persecution of Bishop Nestorius and his followers led to another religious revival along
Monophysite lines which produced monasteries and missionaries. In the sixth and seventh
centuries Nestorian Christians began to flourish in Egypt, Persia (supplanting Zoroastrianism),
and finally into China. Coming by way of the sea, Nestorians landed in Madras and joined
existing Christian communities of South India. In A.D. 1490 they received new Bishops from the
Patriarch of Bagdad, and a continuous contact with Syrian Christianity was maintained from the
advent of Nestorianism. However, during the later period the orthodox-leaning Nestorians were
assimilated into the Malankarese Uniat Church, while still using the Liturgy of Addai and Mari.
The Jacobites survived, and have developed a rapprochement with the Church of England, due
to 19th-century colonial expediency.