George Lancaster

George Lancaster, 1896-1983

George Lancaster made his ascension on February 8, 1984, 7 p.m. Mountain Time, from the Royal Teton Retreat, having balanced 65 percent of his karma. A faithful friend, an honest heart, a devoted chela of the ascended masters, a very special friend, pal to the messengers and their family, and a true brother to every member of our community. Uncle George was loved by everyone who knew him.

Early life

George’s soul spanned the nation and the century in its experiences both very human and sublime. He was born in Creighton, New York, on May 7, 1896, and made his transition on November 5, 1983, in Anaheim, California. His father, Joseph Henry Lancaster, worked in law enforcement and his mother, Alice Patchin, was a homemaker. After attending elementary school in Brooklyn, New York, George moved with his parents and brothers and sisters to the state of Washington, where he began doing surveying work at an early age, most likely not completing high school.

He became a fruit buyer and worked in packinghouses around the country, arriving in California in 1915. There he met his wife, Beth, whom he married in 1917 in San Bernardino. They settled in Washington state for a few years and then moved to Long Beach where George went into the battery business and later worked for the Navy housing authority, while his wife, a very capable businesswoman, dealt in furs and orange groves.

Finding The Summit Lighthouse

George had the quality most cherished by El Morya—constancy. Once he found the Great White Brotherhood in 1961, he attended every conference thereafter and accompanied the messengers on their trips to India, the Middle East, and South America. He would rise every morning between two and three o’clock, greet the masters, and decree until six, when he would go about his duties at the Cherokee Mobile Home Park in Anaheim, which he ran with his wife, Beth. The park was a model of beauty and efficiency in which they both took pride; and in later years, George especially enjoyed tending the garden which provided his famous tomatoes and a wide assortment of vegetables to all his neighbors and friends.

Saint Germain, the Knight Commander, bestowed upon George the title of Sir Grand-pere as he knighted him in a ceremony honoring sons and daughters of the flame who over the years had demonstrated a certain attainment and striving on the Path. And George was the grandfather of the organization. He arrived on the scene in Washington just about the time Mark met Elizabeth, offering unfailing support and love through the ups and downs, the thick and thin of every trial and circumstance. His presence always there, his sweet smile, the twinkle in his eye, his laughter, simplicity, genuineness, and reality have been a powerful force in our movement for twenty-two years.

The quality of heart

You could look at George and feel his heart and know that it was to souls like him that the LORD was speaking when he said: “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God. And I will write upon him my new name.”

Yes, George had a listening ear and an open heart. He listened to every word of the dictations and the lectures, carried out every assignment, made every call and gave every decree ever requested from the platform—even if, all told, it would take him four hours a day! And then, every great once in a while, he would ask if a certain decree he had been giving for four or five years was still on the “required list”!

The key driving force in his life, from the moment he found The Summit Lighthouse, was his determination to make his ascension. Each time he had a moment for a chat with the messengers, he would ask about his progress: “How much karma am I balancing? Am I getting anywhere, am I going to make it?” His favorite masters were Serapis Bey, Lanello, and El Morya, and he loved to read the Dossier on the Ascension over and over again.

George took seriously the dictation of Archangel Gabriel given in San Francisco on August 12, 1979, in which he admonished: “If you would ascend, you must confess your sin, repent of your sin, then cease sinning.... And do not withhold from God or from the messenger any compromise of the Law or of the Path.” One day George called Elizabeth and said, “I’ve got to come to Camelot so you can hear my confession of all the things I have done in this life so that my conscience and my record will be clear, and you can make calls for me for the clearance of these things.”

Quite certain that George was already a saint, Elizabeth nevertheless happily conceded to hear his confession. Though George himself was the humble penitent with heartfelt regret for the wrongs he felt he had committed against his wife or family members or friends, Elizabeth could see only the light and the glory of God and the holy angels who kept the vigil with him. She made the calls, as he requested, for the violet flame and the law of forgiveness and saw the records of these events so burdensome to George slip into the all-consuming fire of God’s love.

One of the earliest memories we have of Uncle George after he joined the Summit took place at Holy Tree House in Virginia and earned him the nickname of “Fire Chief” forever! On a windy day just before a conference, George was burning paper trash in the backyard when all at once the grasses caught fire, moving in the direction of the woods. For about forty-five minutes, all hands were on deck with every available hose to douse the flames. We would never forget it and he never lived it down, but now it seems prophetic of the moment when his soul, ablaze with the living flame of Love, is about to ignite a world.

Sources

El Morya, Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 40, no. 43, October 26, 1997.

Keepers of the Flame Lesson 30