Jade Goody, Archbishop Blake and the strange phenomenon of 'wandering bishops'

Jade Goody's marriage to Jack Tweed today will be blessed by the Archbishop of London. What do you mean, you've didn't know there was an Archbishop of London? There is indeed. He is the Most Rev Jonathan Blake, Primus of the Open Episcopal Church in Great Britain.

Let's get one thing straight. Archbishop Blake is not a "self-styled bishop": he once successfully sued a newspaper that used this dismissive term. You may have heard of him the other day, when he was in trouble for photographing his sons as they sat on the chimney of his modest archiepiscopal residence. He is the British head of one of hundreds of tiny denominations which have broken away from the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox Churches, but - because the line of consecration from one bishop to the next is unbroken - claim to possess valid orers. Read more
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