According to legend, Afalon is the place where the first church of Christ was built. The only diference between Afalon and Avalon is the spelling, 'F' in Welsh being pronounced as 'V' in English. Consequently, spelling simply depends on the preferance of the writer or translator, or the language context.

Many people believe that Glastonbury was Afalon, as the first church was supposedly built there by Joseph of Arimathaea shortly after the ascension of Jesus, and is connected to Blake's Prophecy. Others believe that the Isle of Lundy must have been Afalon because it is a true island, is the site of an ancient church and possesses the remains of prehistoric stone works.

However, neither Glastonbury nor Lundy fit the earliest recorded description of the isle of Afalon, made by St Augustin in a letter to Pope Gregory in AD597. In the letter he describes a royal island in the Western extremes of Britain, surrounded by water and abounding in all the beauties of nature and necessities of life. Here, according to St Augustin, the first Christian church was to be found having been created by divine means by the hand of Christ himself.

This letter is particularly interesting as it confirms that, before Roman Catholicism replaced Celtic Christianity in Britain, the generally held belief was that Jesus himself brought his teachings to Britain.

Glastonbury is not in the Western extremes and is certainly not surrounded by water, although Lundy Island is. Another ancient description of Afalon, made by Didorus Siculus, (date currently undetermined) reads:

Joseph and his company, including Lazarus, Mary, Martha, Marcella and Maximin, came at the invitation of certain Druids of high rank from Marseilles into Britain, circa AD 38-39; were located at Ynys Afalon, the seat of a Druidic cor, which was subsequently made over to them in free gift by Arviragus. Here they built the first church, which became the centre and mother of Christianity in Britain.

This translation also suggests that Glastonbury was not the site of the first church, as Ynys Afalon means Avalon Island in the Welsh language. If, as the name suggests, Ynys Afalon was an island in Wales, it would have to be in the Southern extreme to have been gifted by Arviragus, who was Prince or possibly King of Cornwall at the time (37AD). Not only is Glastonbury not an island, but it would not have fallen under the Jurisdiction of Arviragus until his elder brother Guiderius, King of Southern England, was killed in battle by the Romans in AD 43, six years after the first church had been built.

It still remains a mystery how the earliest descriptions of Afalon fail hopelessly to fit Glastonbury, but Glastonbury has become the generally accepted location for the church of Joseph and Mary.

It is possible that the first church of Joseph was built on a Welsh island called Afalon, and later moved to Glastonbury to befit its central importance, although if this is the case, no records of the move seem to have survived.

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