Cult in Festus? Some people ring alarms about new church

Former members of a church that is getting ready to open in Festus say it’s a cult and warn people to stay away.

They claim the group’s leader, Anthony Merseal, misrepresents his credentials; teaches a mix of Christianity and the occult; holds strange rituals; and condones polygamy.

Merseal, who was born in 1985 and now calls himself Anthony Benjamin, has a criminal record and served probation for a felony assault charge tied to a 2008 incident in Bonne Terre.

He has led a number of groups he called churches over the past decade or more and bought an old church building at 410 Moore St. in Festus in August 2023, according to records from the Jefferson County Assessor’s Office.

One of Merseal’s groups is called St. Sophia’s Antecedent Orthodox Church, which has begun holding some activities in the Festus building for its small group of members. So far, no service open to the general public has been held there, but Merseal recently announced plans to hold St. Sophia’s first public service on Sunday, May 5.

Several attempts were made to reach Merseal, but he did not respond to a message for comment sent to the email address listed on his business card, which says he works for a company called Archway Technology. He also did not return phone calls to the number listed on that business card.

No one answered calls to a number listed for St. Sophia’s, and no voicemail was set up as of Monday.

A man who identified himself as Richard Lozano, a St. Louis criminal defense attorney, called the Leader on its deadline late Monday afternoon and said he represents Merseal. However, the man could not provide any information about Merseal’s credentials or background at that time.

Festus Police Chief Doug Wendel said he has heard rumors about the group operating out of the old church building, but as of April 12, he had received no complaints from neighbors or others about any goings-on there.

Merseal also leads a group called the Order of the White Road that was formed after St. Sophia’s was registered as a nonprofit with the state, and Merseal didn’t respond to phone calls to a number associated with that group.

He is listed as the owner or registered agent for St. Sophia’s and the Order of the White Road, and the two organizations are connected, according to records from the Missouri Secretary of State Office.

The order was still operating last week, but its website and social media accounts have since been shut down.

The website described the order as an “esoteric mystery school” and said those who took the courses would “learn like the Ancients.”

Former members speak out

Aaron Jerashen of O’Fallon, Ill., a former member of Merseal’s groups, said he came across the order’s website in 2020, during the height of the pandemic, and began taking the courses Merseal offered via the Zoom teleconferencing app.

Jerashen said a fee was charged to take the courses, starting off at $25 a month.

“I was interested in esoteric and eclectic groups and was looking for something here in the St. Louis area. I found a website for an Order of the White Road ... I had been a member (of the order) since then, officially, until about a week ago,” he said on April 3.

Jerashen said membership in the group was interesting and entertaining at first, but he started becoming more and more indoctrinated. Eventually, he said he became disillusioned with Merseal and his teachings, though, and decided to leave.

He said Merseal draws on the occult for some of his teachings, adding that Merseal claims to sometimes “channel” someone else, which allows him to read members’ future and instruct them how to better reach their goals in the order.

Jerashen said during one of those readings, Merseal encouraged him to break up with his girlfriend, which was one of the final straws that led Jerashen to leave.

He said polygamy is practiced in the order, and Merseal teaches that when a man has sex with a woman, the two are considered married, and male members of the group are allowed to have two or three wives.


Jerashen said another last straw was when he heard about a ritual Merseal planned for another member that involved something sexual. Jerashen said he thought the ritual would harm that member and confronted Merseal, who told Jerashen he had nothing to worry about because the member had signed a consent form that prohibited her from suing over the ritual.

“He thought I was worried about the church being sued (not about the member’s well-being),” Jerashen added.

After that, Jerashen said he had had enough and left the group.

He said it’s not necessarily easy to gain acceptance into the order. A prospective member must apply and be voted in. The person also must pay a fee and sign a non-disclosure agreement that instructs the member against divulging information about the group and its practices.

Despite the NDA Jerashen signed, he said he felt compelled to come forward with his warnings about Merseal in an effort to help those who are still under his sway and to keep others from joining his groups.

“I want to prevent this from spreading,” Jerashen said. “People are still in, people I love. They’re absolutely sucked in. The things they do are insane.”

Other former members want to come forward, too, Jerashen said, but they’re afraid because of the NDAs and the possible legal ramifications associated with them.

Clarisse “Reese” Leech of St. Louis County said she was a member of the order and also signed an NDA.

Leech said she also was asked not to disclose to anyone outside the group the time, dates and places where meetings were held.

She said Jerashen introduced her to the group, but she was kicked out before the St. Sophia’s building was purchased.

Leech said she was expelled from the group because of her skepticism about Merseal’s teachings.

“It was occult and mysticism wrapped up in Christianity, just a mess, and anything I would question that the (order) was teaching, well, that didn’t sit well with Anthony,” she said. “There were so many red flags and creepy stuff ... He said he had a mentor back in Rome and said he knew all this ancient, secret stuff.”

Despite her misgivings, Leech said she became more and more involved in the group, adding that she essentially was “brainwashed.”

Leech said Merseal didn’t directly tell her to isolate herself from those outside the order, but she felt intense pressure to attend the group’s frequent meetings and gatherings and to devote herself to the group.

“He puts forward that swearing an oath to the order is the same thing as swearing an oath to God,” Jerashen said.

Despite all that pressure, Leech said she never could fully dismiss her doubts about Merseal’s teachings and the “mentor” the group assigned to her eventually pushed for her to be expelled from the group.

Now that she looks back on the experience, Leech said she realizes the emotional trauma she suffered while part of the group.

Jerashen said he, too, was traumatized by his membership in the group.

“There was so much pressure to always be there, and if you left early, it was like you got a demerit and you’d be left out after that,” he said. “You’d be ostracized and bullied.”

Jerashen said it also became more expensive to participate in the group as time went on.

The monthly fee rose to $30 and a $50 annual fee was charged, he said.

Jerashen said he also had to pay $42 a month to serve on a committee.

“He (Merseal) would tell us the money went to cover (computer) server maintenance and later to pay bills at the church.”

Ex-members say members are exploited

Both Jerashen and Leech said Merseal is good at reading people and recognizing their vulnerabilities, which he uses to draw them into his group.

“He’s taking these people who are deeply vulnerable and lonely and then using them so he can have money and have them do whatever he wants,” Leech said.

She said members of Merseal’s group are pressured into taking part in sexual activities.

“He’s used ritual and ‘magic’ to have people have sex with one another,” she said. “It’s about power and control.

“There are people you can take all the advantage in the world of, and it might be legal, but it’s not right. He has very carefully walked a line of just keeping on the side of legal.”

Merseal also is good at speaking and telling compelling stories, Leech and Jerashen said.

They said Merseal encouraged those who took the order’s classes to get together at each other’s homes and for weekend retreats at Airbnbs, where he met with members, sometimes one on one.

Both Jerashen and Leech said Merseal’s teachings focus on end-of-the-world ideas and secrets that only he and the order members are privy to.

Leech said she remembers once when Merseal said he had to perform an exorcism because someone had summoned something that could end the world.

As members move up in the group’s hierarchy, Leech and Jerashen said, they learn more and more about Merseal’s secretive practices and rituals.

“Things that are controversial you don’t encounter until you move up in the ranks,” Jerashen said.

For example, members who have been with the group for a while are encouraged to take part in rituals that involve nudity, he said.

Jerashen said Merseal encouraged members of the order from outside the St. Louis area to move here so they can regularly meet with him and other group members in person.

Jerashen said he believes Merseal uses the order to recruit St. Sophia’s members and bought the old church building in Festus in an effort to put a more legitimate face on the group.

“The order was his attempt to recruit members from the larger world, and the church was to get members to donate money,” he said. “One member donated a large amount of money, and he used it to buy the church (building).”

Leech agrees.

“He wants to be legitimized,” she said. “He wants authority and power and everything that brings.”

Merseal’s background
Leech said Merseal claims he is an ordained priest with a degree in theology, adding that he likes to wear a collar like a priest.

However, she doesn’t believe he has the credentials he brags about.

“He wildly misrepresents himself,” she said.

Prior to the formation of St. Sophia’s and the order, Merseal claimed to be the leader of a group called the Celestial Dragon Covenant, Jerashen said.

After that, Merseal formed a group called the Church of the Acolytes of the Seven Thunders, which was registered with the state as a nonprofit group before the filing was amended and the group was renamed St. Sophia’s Antecedent Orthodox Church, according to the Secretary of State office.

Those documents list an address on Louise Street in Bonne Terre for the owner or registered agent for St. Sophia’s and the order.

That is Merseal’s home address, at least until recently.

Jerashen and Leech said they believe Merseal and his wife, Kala, have moved in with a St. Sophia’s member who lives in Festus.

Jerashen said he saw bylaws from Merseal’s previous Acolytes of the Seven Thunders group that called for the use of corporal punishment against members who broke the group’s rules.

Jerashen said learning about Merseal’s criminal history was another reason he left the order.

In June 2009, Merseal pleaded guilty to felony second-degree assault for holding a knife against a man’s throat and threatening to kill him. The other man’s hand was cut in a struggle for the knife, according to news reports following the incident.

When Merseal was arrested, he reportedly told a police officer he was the leader of the Bonne Terre cult, authorities reported at the time.

After Merseal’s guilty plea, he was sentenced to seven years in prison, but the sentence was suspended and he was placed on probation, which he completed in August 2013.

“If the best thing that comes out of this is everyone knows about his (criminal past), then that’s enough,” Jerashen said about his decision to speak out about Merseal and the order.

There are people in that group who are being abused,” he said. “I want to do everything in my power to stop it. If I can’t convince them it’s wrong, maybe we can convince other people not to join and the church eventually will go broke,” he said.