Over a ten-year period between 1944 and 1955, there were nine (or ten[3]: 451–2 ) ceremonies in each of which Newman and another bishop would reconsecrate each other to give each the other's lines of apostolic succession.

In April 1925, McFall became the "nominal head" of a splinter group from the ORCGB, which called itself the Old Catholic Orthodox Church and was composed of only laypeople.

[4]: 340–2 On 23 October 1938, at the age of 33, Newman received from Bishop James Columba McFall, who had come from Belfast to perform the following sacraments: baptism under condition, confirmation, the four minor orders, the subdiaconate and the diaconate, and the priesthood.

[6][7] Newman's jurisdiction was limited to the 5 miles of St. Albans, but in cases of members of the OCR it extended over the whole Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

[3]: 446–7 [5]: 509 Then, Newman and his wife left Northampton to move to Enfield Lock, in Middlesex, "where the curia of the Old Catholic Orthodox Church was set up".

[3]: 447 On 8 October 1943, a synod of clergy and laity of the Old Catholic Orthodox Church in Europe elected Newman to the episcopate as archbishop and metropolitan of Glastonbury.

Newman was consecrated under the name and title: Mar Georgius, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Holy Metropolis of Glastonbury, the Occidental Jerusalem, and Catholicos of the West.

Those "puzzling manoeuvres" were made to put an end to the system of "autocephalous tropoi"[b] of the Catholicate, something which "could be done legally only by dissolving the corporation and starting de novo".

[3]: 491 Hugh George de Willmott Newman, "patriarch of Glastonbury [...], commonly known as Mar Georgius"[10] died on 28 February 1979.

[11]: 294  He was succeeded as the head of the Apostolic Episcopal Church by William Henry Hugo Newman-Norton (Mar Seraphim) "who served as patriarch of Glastonbury from 1979 to 1994.

[citation needed] After his consecration as bishop and patriarch in 1944, Newman "was convinced that his first duty was to establish and secure a legitimate and validly ordained ministry in the full Catholic sense".

At his consecration, Jeffrey took the name of Mar Johannes; he also took the titles of Titular Bishop of St Marylebone, Auxiliary of the Patriarchal Throne of Glastonbury, and General Moderator of the Evangelical Catholic Communion.

Hurgon was given at his consecration the name and title: Mar Begnignus, titular Bishop of Mere, Auxiliary of the Patriarchal Throne of Glastonbury.

[3]: 454 Between 1944 and 1946 included, Newman, stating it was in the goal of "establishing the Oecumenical Succession in the interests of Christian Unity", re-consecrated 13 bishops.