European-American University™

The Glastonbury Bulletin no. 80, July 1991 

+Morris Frank Saville

Morris Frank SAVILLE, Archbishop of the Holy Celtic Church, died at Bristol on 10th May 1991 aged sixty years.

Morris Saville (he changed his name from Seavill in 1973) came under the. influence of the late Fr. Dennis Green as a young man. He was to remain faithful to him and his memory over almost three decades. Sadly this misplaced loyalty led him to assume a ministry far beyond his capacities, but in his own transparent goodness and integrity he in turn brought others to faith and a deeper spiritual commitment.

In August 1962 Morris Saville was baptised at the Church of the Epiphany and the Three Magi at Ashley Hill, Bristol by Fr. Dennis and the following October he was chrismated by Mar Georgius. He soon became an ardent supporter of the Bristol congregation and in November 1964 was admitted to the Clerical Tonsure and Minor Orders and ordained Underdeacon on 2nd January 1966. The day before he had been admitted a member of the revived Gilbertine Order as Brother Francis, over which Fr. Dennis presided as Prior of the Wessex Priory. These two events symbolised the future dichotomy between loyalty to the Church and its ministry and loyalty to Fr. Dennis and his order.

Later in 1966 the tensions existing in the Bristol congregation as a result of Fr. Dennis’ decline into heterodoxy came to a head as his faith and teachings were called into question by Mar Georgius and various emissaries he despatched to resolve the problem. A mutual respect had grown up between Mar Georgius and Morris Saville and it was out of a desire to find a solution to the crisis that they met together at Didcot in February 1967. Saville felt that his first loyalty was to Fr. Dennis, but as he was not as infected with the latter's syncretism and heterodoxy to the same extent as some of the other clergy, on 1st March 1967 Mar Georgius granted him a canonical release, whilst the others were pronounced excommunicate.

Having no papers for his ordinations at the hands of Mar Georgius, he submitted to ordination (sub conditione) to the Minor Orders on 24th August 1967 at the hands of Fr. Dennis, and received ordination as Underdeacon (sub conditione), Deacon and Priest all on the same day (10th September 1967) at the hands of the late Mar Philippus (Singer), a former bishop of the Patriarchate. On 8th October 1967 Fr. Dennis was raised to the episcopate at the hands of Mar Philippus and Bishop R.K. Hurgon, another excommunicated bishop of the Patriarchate.

By this time Dennis Green had removed his work to Severn Beach, Pilning, a lonely spot outside Bristol, where he had bought a derelict property. Over the years the little community, which had dwindled still further after its removal from the centre of Bristol, worked sacrificially to renovate the Priory and although Morris Saville did not reside there he was generous in his support, both practical and financial. His flat in Bristol soon became the centre of a daughter community. In September 1970 Dennis Green died after a long illness and the work of the church was left in the hands of Gerard Daleth and Morris Saville, his two remaining priests. Deprived of any episcopal oversight they placed themselves under Bishop James Burton as 'an affiliated community of the Liberal Catholic Church’. Differences between Daleth and Saville led them to concentrate on different spheres of activity, though the latter had more success in attracting a small, but committed following. In February 1975 Saville resigned from the Liberal Catholic Church.

In April 1974 Saville entered into a very successful marriage. Christine Saville (Sister Claudia) had been an active member of their community for a couple of years and was happy to offer her husband every support in his ministry.

In March 1975 he reopened correspondence with Mar Georgius and travelled to Blackheath to attend a Liturgy and discuss a possible reconciliation. He asked to be restored to the order of Underdeacon and promised submission to the Orthodox faith and tradition. Mar Georgius did not distrust Saville's protestations but he feared that so many years of Green's unorthodox teachings needed more than a mere declaration of intent to ensure that history would not repeat itself. The approach foundered as Mar Georgius felt unable to give any definite assurance of future ordination, which Saville required.

In September 1982 Saville suddenly announced his episcopal consecration at the hands of Ray Clements, then serving as Liberal Catholic priest in Birmingham. This folie, which ended in fiasco, demonstrates both Saville's naivety and his essential honesty. Although not always on the best of terms with Daleth, they had once promised each other that whoever should first obtain the episcopate would raise the other to the same position. This Saville now proceeded to do in fulfilment of his undertaking, although the strains in their relationship were to increase markedly and the new bishop was soon to leave the recently constituted Celtic Catholic Church. Doubts were now expressed about the source of their orders and exhaustive enquiries soon uncovered the fact that Clements had merely received his episcopal appointment by post from a certain Italian prelate rather than the more usual form of episcopal consecration. Saville was horrified to imagine that he had been 'sailing under false colours' all these months and made no attempt to conceal the fact that he had been the victim of another's mendacity and his own artlessness. Help was at hand, however, and the ever-obliging Illtyd Thomas of Muswell Hill not only imposed hands but also provided the necessary documentation in October 1983.

Following objections by Mar Seraphim in 1982, Saville not only changed the name of his Church to Holy Celtic Church (as Celtic Catholic was a reserved title of the Church in Brittany) but also abandoned the Order of St. Gilbert in favour of a new Order of Dionysis & Paul. His long-standing affection for the 1950 edition of the Glastonbury Rite led to its adoption as their official liturgy, whilst the new edition of the Glastonbury Confession was officially prescribed and copies ordered for all clergy and ordinands.

In later years he adopted a markedly more traditional Catholic position, from which he was highly critical of the activities of other independent episcopal churches in and around Bristol, but his grasp of theology was essentially superficial. When he wrote to Mar Seraphim to explain that "the gulf between us is the age-old division between the theologian and the philosopher" it might well have been Dennis Green speaking.

Saville's later ministry was troubled by his own health problems, especially the discovery that he was suffering from a rare hereditary blood disease, Haemmoragic Telangiectasia, in which the capillaries tumour with increasing severity, necessitating regular blood transfusions. Increasing disability, recurring hospitalisation and sheer physical exhaustion made him depend on others to manage the day to day administration of the church though his interest remained lively to the end. In the face of such personal trials he showed a fortitude and trust in God which earned him much respect.

He was a good, kind man who loved and served his God outside the bounds of orthodox Christianity. It has to be confessed that his churchmanship left much to be desired: 'Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart’ (1 Samuel XVI: 7).

Additional notes by +John Kersey
1. The strong opinions expressed in this anonymous obituary are typical of the tone adopted by the British Orthodox Church when speaking of independent communities and clergy outside its purview. It should not be considered that these opinions, while doubtless sincerely held, are necessarily universally accepted by sources outside the BOC.
2. Although his middle name is here (doubtless correctly) given as Frank, Saville used the name Francis in religion, and was known to his community as Mar Francis.
3. Mar Philippus Singer was Patriarch of the Western Orthodox Church. Mar Dominic-Benignus (Richard) Hurgon was Patriarch of the Reformed Catholic Church.
4. Gerard Daleth is now known as Gerard Deceico.
5. According to the Wexford Jurisdiction and other sources, the Italian prelate who was alleged to have consecrated Fr. Ray Clements was Archbishop Victor Busa (Belorussian Orthodox Church in Exile).
6. Archbishop Thomas consecrated Saville on 9 October 1983 and again on 22 May 1988, the second time so that Saville might receive the additional Apostolic lines that had been given to Thomas through his two intervening consecrations by Bertil Persson.
7. The account given here of the names used by Saville's community should be read in the light of the history at www.thedegree.org/celtic.html. It should be pointed out that at all times from 1982 up to the present day there has been a British denomination called the Celtic Catholic Church. The parent community was the Holy Celtic Church led by Archbishop Walter Williams until his resignation in January 1980. From later in 1980 until 1982 the community under his successor Archbishop Illtyd Thomas was designated the Celtic Church in Great Britain. Saville's community was independently designated the Celtic Catholic Church at the point of his initial "consecration" in 1982. Later in 1982, an exchange of names was adopted, with Saville's community taking on the name of the Holy Celtic Church that had been used by Williams, and Thomas's community adopting the name Celtic Catholic Church, by which it has been continuously known ever since. There have been no apparent objections from Brittany, possibly because of the language barrier.