INTRODUCING
THE CHURCH OF THE GRAIL
I want to introduce you to a Church which has existed since before the time of Christ . In our day it is called The Church of the Grail. You probably have never heard of this obscure religion. Through the centuries, it has been a "Church within the Church, a Synagogue within the Synagogue."
The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Library in Egypt has helped us a lot in understanding what this religion was and is. These are ancient writings which were preserved in caves and discovered only within the last 50 years. They tell us of the religious movement that Jesus and His brothers belonged to before He began His Messianic career.
Some scholars used to tell us that this group was called the Essenes. But recent scholarship, aided by the public release of the Scrolls in the 1990's, differ from that description. Not only has our understanding of the Essenes been defective (for instance, some Essenes were married, contrary to past assertions), but the Essenes themselves were a sub-group of yet a more basic movement: the Nazoraeans. Jesus was known as a Nazarene because His family and His village belonged to this religious group. What was this group?
Basically, the Nazoreans were a Branch of the House of David. When the Romans took over Palestine, Jewish collaborators, like King Herod, gradually removed the spiritual and governmental leadership of Israel. The old aristocracy, who were descendants of Israel's royal and priestly families, were marginalized. They survived on the frontiers of society, either in the caves of the desert or in small villages as tradesmen and small farmers. If any of them started a populist movement, they were carefully scrutinized by the authorities. If they were perceived as a threat to the established order, as Jesus certainly was, they were dealt with severely.
Jesus' family and village did not, at first, believe He was the Messiah. His brother, James, had his own aspirations which were widely supported. Jesus was perceived as an unwanted maverick.
But after Jesus began His ministry, and especially after it became generally known that John the Baptist (a Nazoraean) had endorsed His messianic claims, James and the rest of Jesus' family slowly accepted the fact that He was the Chosen One.
The Nazoraeans were trying to get back to the primordial religion of the ancient Patriarchs, like Enoch, Noah, and Abraham. They were loyal to the Mosaic law, but they felt that its symbolism and laws had been grossly misunderstood by subsequent generations of Israelites. So corrupted had it become that Jesus condemned the Judaism of His day as religious fanaticism and hypocrisy. Jesus taught that God's laws were meant to bring happiness and fulfillment to humanity, not bondage and mental anguish.
After Jesus went to Heaven, the leadership among His disciples was passed to His brother, James. James became both the first bishop of the Jerusalem Church and leader of the Nazoraeans. In later years the Gentile converts to "the Way" would be known as "Christians". They were meant to be incorporated into the Nazoraean movement and led by the relatives of Jesus who were known as the Desposyni (despo-seen-ee). But something happened. During the middle of the Second Century, there occurred what was called the "Bar Kochba rebellion". Bar Kochba means "Son of the Star". Kochba was a village that worked together with Nazareth as a headquarters for the Desposyni. It is almost certain that the Desposyni led in this revolt.
The war was started when the Romans decided to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem and use it for the worship of the god, Jupiter. This was an intolerable situation. Messianic Jews were forced to revolt. The Gentile churches were expected to help, but they feared Roman reprisals. That was unfortunate, because at that time, the Roman Empire was very unstable. The Romans had lost some major battles with the Parthian Empire, and there had been a rapid succession of several Emperors. Rome could have been defeated and eventually destroyed. How different history would have been had Jesus' version of the religion of Abraham been allowed to flourish in Palestine! Instead, the revolt narrowly failed and a massive wave of genocide was perpetrated by the Romans.
The Jamesian Church fled Palestine. Some took sanctuary in Parthia (modern-day Iraq) and others fled to the Celtic Church: either in the Pyrenean region of southern France and northern Spain or to the British Isles. Even though portions of Britain were nominally under Roman control, the Celtic Britons were allowed local autonomy by treaty, and consequently, were in a position to provide refuge.
Western Christianity knows the Jamesian tradition through the Celtic Church, especially the Cambrian Church of what is now Wales. When the Roman Catholic institution became dominant in the Middle Ages, the message of the Celtic Church went underground and was preserved through the legends of King Arthur and the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail refers to the Cup of the Covenant which Jesus gave to His disciples at the Last Supper. Tradition says that Joseph of Arimathea brought the Cup to Celtic Britain. It is reputed to have had mystical powers. But Celtic scholars generally regard these legends as myths or allegories with hidden messages.
The Grail Religion is also responsible for the creation of Tarot Cards. Unlike their corrupted modern usage, these cards were used by the Albigensians to secretly convey what traditions of the Jamesian Church they knew. The Knights Templar and early Freemasonry were influenced by these traditions, as were America's Founding Fathers, many of whom were Masons. Because America has a heritage of religious freedom, other groups have emerged to teach some of these truths. But they are not within mainline denominations and they are often persecuted as cults. The Mormons are an example.
One of the early branches of the Jamesian Church was that of the Ebionites. Although doctrinally deficient, it still was an authentically Christian movement. Thomas Jefferson was an Ebionite Christian. Some of the teachings of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young came from the Ebionites.
The Church of the Grail quietly operates within many religious groups, like leaven in bread. In recent years, Desposynic leaders have tried to promote a new Reformation, and have become more public about their existence. We are a part of that effort.
THE CAMBRIAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF THE GRAIL