The legends of the Holy Grail center around Medieval heroes on a quest to recover the lost relic of the Cup of the Last Supper. Believing that its recovery will bring a supernatural healing to a stricken land, the Grail heroes hazard their lives and overcome sundry foes preventing them from success in their quest. Their adventures make for interesting reading, and the reader is often tempted to become so engrossed in the story that one loses sight of their goal. But there are guardians along the way, usually feminine, who encourage the Grail heroes and keep them focused on their mission.

During this Christmas season, it is good to remember the Magi from the East who followed the Star of Bethlehem. They were on their own "Grail quest". They sought for the King of the Jews. They knew this king would be the Savior of the world. King Herod took offense. Was he not the "King of the Jews"? Was not Caesar "the Savior of the world", according to the laudations of his pagan subjects? The Wise Men did not follow conventional wisdom or establishment propaganda. They followed "the Star" and the Star led them to a manger.

In the eyes of the Medieval Church, the idea of a Holy Grail seemed ludicrous. Eventually, the Medieval world became an age of holy relics and supernatural powers derived therefrom, but only after the Church understood the profits that could be made from exploiting such superstitions. At the first, however, the relics and their legends competed with the Church's claims about itself.

Why would any one want to find the Holy Grail, the Cup of the First Communion? Did not every worshipper have access to the Holy Grail in the blessed Cup of the Mass? At every Mass, the believer had the opportunity to partake of the very blood and body of his Lord, why should he feel a need to find this "Holy Grail"?

The Grail romances were a cleverly devised attack on the validity of the Catholic Eucharist. Christendom centered its life and worship around the altar, not the Scriptures. And at the center of the altar was the Host and the Cup where the Atonement was recapitulated, somewhere, at every hour of every day. It was founded upon the belief that the priest had the power to transform ordinary bread and wine into the very blood and body of Jesus Christ. The Grail romances implicitly denied that belief.

To attack the Catholic Eucharist was to attack its Apostolic succession. The idea that Christian civilization had exhausted itself and needed to return to its roots suggested the failure of that succession. The Grail romances, thus, became the literary wedge which pried away the death-grip which the established Church had upon the Medieval mind. It suggested that a new Church could be founded upon the archaeological recovery of the original "Cup of the Covenant".

During the late Medieval period, circulation of the Grail stories reached its peak in Europe. It was followed by the Renaissance and then the Protestant Reformation. Renaissance thinkers found their Holy Grail in Science, hence alchemy. The Reformers, on the other hand, found it in the Scriptures. That is why Protestant churches have preachers and not priests. The Holy Communion was demoted to a mere symbol, and the Bible, translated into the common language, was promoted as the cornucopia of life.

In the Original Manuscripts

Most Protestant denominations have historically taught that the Bible - the Canon of Scripture - is the inspired Word of God. Most have at some time taught that the Word of God is infallible, the only source of Divine and inerrant truth on Earth. In recent years most denominations have backed away from that dogma, finding their new position somewhere in the fuzzy notion that the Bible "contains the Word of God", but that not every word is Divinely inspired (which words are inspired and which ones are not becomes anyone's guess).

Conservative denominations still hold to the doctrine of inerrancy, but their leaders have hedged the point in a different way. You will hear them claim Biblical inerrancy, but only in the original manuscripts. They will no longer claim that any translation or version of the Bible is infallible.

It may not at first seem obvious, but if you stop to consider, the Protestant world is in the same position that the Medieval Church was in when the Grail stories first took the Continent by storm. The priesthood of the Catholic Church was admitted to be corrupted. Like the proverbial corruption of the carbon copy of a carbon copy of a carbon copy, Apostolic succession had become diminished and powerless in the eyes of thinking Christians. There was an intense desire to return to the "original" sources to revive the faith. This spiritual yearning led to experiments with heretical rituals, mysticism, the Crusades, and the quest for relics.

In modern Protestantism, the quest has been turned in a different direction: the search for older and better manuscripts of the Scriptures. The hope is ever out there that someday the archaeologist's spade will turn up the originals - but until then, let it not be forgotten, the Protestant churches do not have the very, inspired, and inerrant Word of God. By their own admission, since they cannot produce the Bible in its original manuscripts, they have corrupted copies of the Word of God, not the very Word of God itself. And by so doing, they have denied to themselves a basis of authority to speak prophetically to any issue.

It is not enough to claim to have the "virtual Word of God". What does that mean? Anyone who knows the difference between "virtual" sex and real sex should be able to figure-out that the Protestant claim to "virtual" inerrancy is the same delusion as the Catholic claim to Apostolic succession. Just like the Grail threat to the Catholic Church to produce a priesthood which possessed the "original" Cup and Blood of Christ, how are we to know that the discovery of an older manuscript will not differ from our current texts enough to change Protestant doctrine? The turmoil surrounding the Dead Sea Scrolls is only a sign of things to come.

What makes the Holy Bible holy?

The Grail romances claim that there exists in the world an alternative priesthood based upon a sacred lineage. The "Fisher King" or the "Grail King", as it is in some versions, is depicted as a royal personage, yet a king to be distinguished from the current ruler of the realm. The romances are generally set in the time of King Arthur. He is the ruler of the realm; yet the Fisher King is also a ruler in distinction from Arthur. In some sense, Arthur's authority is dependent upon the Fisher King; for it is the Fisher King who is in possession of the Holy Grail.

The Grail castle is an ethereal, mysterious place, which can disappear from ordinary human vision. In this we find the Celtic belief of parallel worlds or dimensions which are connected with each other in some fundamental way: either through ritual unification or angelic-type emissaries. Thus, we might find that the Grail Castle can be interpreted as a spiritual counterpart of Camelot and the Fisher King of Arthur.

The Fisher King is wounded in the private parts. He cannot be healed by the Church's Eucharist. The Eucharist sustains him, but it does not heal him. He cannot be healed until someone else who shares his lineage is worthy to become his successor and possess the Holy Grail.

In this we can sense Arthur's dilemma. His was a crisis of succession. But it was more than a crisis of kingship. It was a crisis of federal headship. In the Grail romances the ancient view of the king as priest and sacrifice still lingers. This priesthood is one patterned after the Melchisedecal priesthood of the Davidic Covenant which was confirmed in Jesus Christ. Melchisdec was a father to his people and became a father to Abraham (Genesis 14; Psalm 110:4; Hebrews 7). This spiritual connection is why in the Grail stories the realm is afflicted with its king and why the land is turning into a haunt of ruin, unless the king can find a worthy successor. The weal of the realm depends upon the integrity of its king-priest.

In Grail theology the priest of the established Church can never be a federal head of the people, because he is not organically connected to the people. Nor does he share in a sacred lineage, a lineage which organically connects him to the Davidic Covenant (2 Samuel 7). He claims an Apostolic succession, which is valid in terms of ministry, but not headship. He cannot represent the people because he is not one with the people.

King David was a federal head. He had standing to represent the people in a priestly way. He bore their sins and they bore the consequences of his sins (2 Samuel 24). It was so with his heirs. So it was with Jesus Christ.

Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.

- Hebrews 2:17-18

The Atonement of Jesus Christ resolved the issue of sin once and for all (Hebrews 7:24-25). He is the Savior of the world. Rulers do not bear the kind of burdens they once bore. They are vicegerents of Christ's kingdom.

Yet, the Covenant continues and so does the Covenant line in the Desposyni. The Messianic kingdom is mediated through them, like it was through the Fisher King. Rulers who are not in communion with the Desposyni risk Divine displeasure. Without the Desposyni, there is no Holy Grail, there is no true Eucharist, and there is no healing for the land. When fellowship is restored, then the land flourishes.

The Bible is holy, not because it was written by holy men. Holy men have written many things not found in the Bible. Nor is it holy because its message is holy. There are many holy things Jesus taught which are not found in the Bible, either (John 21:25). It is holy because it is the Book of the Covenant. And every translation thereof is holy, as well.

The King James Version, also called "The Authorized Version", is a Holy Bible. It contains many flaws. It is not a perfect text. Accuracy is not what gives it its authority.

The authority of the King James Bible does not rest upon whether King James I was a good king. There are some who argue that he was a bad king.

The authority of the "The Authorized Bible" rests upon two pillars:

First, it was a Bible "authorized", not by a committee, not by a rogue priesthood, but by a Grail King. King James I was a Stuart which finds a lineage with sacred roots.

Second, it was a Bible of the Covenant. During the time of the Stuart dynasty, the peoples of the British Isles publicly covenanted together to become a Christian people and to be ruled by Christian laws.

Thus, the King James Bible, unlike the Geneva Bible, the Vulgate Bible or any other Bible at that time, was a Covenant Bible vouchsafed by a representative of the Grail family. For that reason, it was the most blest Bible in Christian history.

Our modern Bibles are created by committees that carve the text like a cadaver in a laboratory. There is no life in them. Research justifies the study of ancient texts for clarification. The Septuagint was the Bible of the Early Church. So was the Peshitta, translated in recent years into English by George Lamsa (and called "The Lamsa Bible"). These are examples of "Received Texts". The King James Bible is more than a Received Test. It is the Bible of the Covenant - at least for those nations once ruled by the British Crown - and until the Desposyni sanction a new Bible, it remains the only Bible for the government of the Church.

The Cambrian Episcopal Church & the Desposyni

The Cambrian Episcopal Church is in fellowship with a cadet branch of the Desposyni. "Cadet" is a term used to identify lineages which are not considered "legally" direct through the laws of primogeniture. We will not identify this branch publicly, not because we are secretive, but only because this branch is a "tender twig" and is vulnerable to persecution from apostate and more powerful branches of the Desposyni: those who "are of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie" (Revelation 3:9). We pray that these branches will repent and return to their sacred calling. But if they do not, we are making every effort to raise-up this new branch to serve as leaders to the churches. This is a multi-generational vision. We have a long-term perspective and invite you to join us in this endeavor.

A Servant of Jesus,

James

Collect for the Day:

Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in thy well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.