Editing Ancient British Church (section)

== Dissolution ==
By a declaration dated 23 March 1944, the Ancient British Church, the British Orthodox Catholic Church, and the Old Catholic Orthodox Church merged; the official name of the new church was: "The Western Orthodox Catholic Church". This church was made the [[Catholicate of the West]] by its Patriarch Abdullah III ([[William Bernard Crow]]). No church of the East gave its recognition to the Catholicate.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Anson|first=Peter F.|title=Bishops at Large|publisher=Apocryphile press|year=2006|isbn=0-9771461-8-9|series=Independent Catholic Heritage|pages=242–3, 448|chapter=|orig-year=1964}}</ref>

The first [[Catholicos]] of the West, head of the Catholicate of the West, was [[Hugh George de Willmott Newman]]. He was consecrated as this status by Abdullah III on 10 April 1944 under the name and title: Mar Georgius, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Holy [[Metropolis (religious jurisdiction)|Metropolis]] of Glastonbury, the Occidental [[Jerusalem]], and [[Catholicos]] of the West. Thereafter, Mar Jacobus II stepped down from his office of fifth Patriarch of the Ancient British Church, passing his rank of Patriarch to Willmott Newman; thus Willmott Newman was both Catholicos of the West and the sixth Patriarch of the Ancient British Church. Mar Jacobus II died in 1947.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Anson|first=Peter F.|title=Bishops at Large|publisher=Apocryphile press|year=2006|isbn=0-9771461-8-9|series=Independent Catholic Heritage|pages=243, 449–50|chapter=|orig-year=1964}}</ref>