Jules Ferrette, also spelled Julius Ferrette (22 April 1828 – 10 October 1904 or in 1903), was allegedly bishop of Iona; he is allegedly the founder of the Ancient British Church.

Biography

Ferrette was born in Épinal, France, possibly of Protestant parents. Ferret joined the Catholic Church during his youth, then joined the Flavigny province of the Dominican Order in 1851, where he was given the religious name Raymond. He thereafter studied philosophy and theology at Grenoble and Paris, and was ordained a priest on 2 June 1855. He was a Dominican missionary in Mesopotamia and Kurdistan from September to June 1856, but then apostasized from the Catholic Church. Ferrette became a Presbyterian minister and missionary. He worked with the Irish Presbyterian Mission in Damascus from 1858 to 1865, and assisted Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood's Mission to the poor Christians of Mount Lebanon from 1860 to 1862. Ferrette claims he was consecrated as the Bishop of Iona and its dependencies by Mutran Boutros (later the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch) at Homs (Emesa) on 2 June 1866 who was allegedly acting solus and would have given Ferrette a mission to introduce Oriental Orthodoxy to the West. No original document of this alleged consecration is known to exist; Ferrette published what he claimed was an English translation of his Syrian consecration document after he arrived in London. Allegedly, in Oxfordshire in 1858, Richard Williams Morgan, an Anglican priest, was conditionally "baptised, confirmed, ordained and consecrated" Patriarch of the Ancient British Church by Ferrette, and given by Ferrette the following name and full title: Mar Pelagius I, Hierarch of Caerleon-on-Usk. Ferrette died in Geneva in 1904 or in 1903.

Apostolic succession claims

The following churches and bishops are the main ones which claim, have claimed or are believed to be descending from Ferrette's apostolic succession through alleged episcopal consecrations received from Ferrette or from bishops who claim their consecration line goes back to Ferrette: