What is Independent Catholicism?
CHRISTIC
We are a limb of the one Christian church, the Mystical
Body of Christ. We acknowledge the Christ as our founder, living head, and
eternal high priest.
INDEPENDENT CATHOLIC
We are a Catholic church in the original, universal,
sense of that word as well as in our form of sacramental worship. We are
neither Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, nor Protestant, though our bishops
and priests trace their Holy Orders, or “apostolic succession” (the
tradition of bishops consecrating other bishops), through Roman Catholic and
Orthodox lines. In this way we trace our roots as far back any other Catholic
or Orthodox church. Our priests perform the liturgy and administer the seven
sacraments.
SACRAMENTAL
We are a sacramental church. We hold that the sacraments
are visible signs of a manifestation of divine grace, and are powerful aids to
spiritual growth.
Holy Eucharist (Communion), Reconciliation (Penance),
Holy Unction (healing of the sick), and Holy Matrimony and Holy Union
are made available to all who seek them. Baptism is the rite of formal
initiation into Christ's church. Confirmation seals the commitment to a
Christian way of life. Holy Orders is an initiation available to those who
wish to serve as clergy.
MODERN
We are a modern church. We maintain that eternal truth
cloaks itself in garb appropriate to the age, and that the outward form of
religion should keep pace with human development. We do not shrink from new
knowledge. Our form of Independent Catholicism embodies an ancient truth for a
new age. We provide an intelligent alternative — traditional worship with
the free exploration of new ideas and techniques. All seekers are encouraged
to explore every relevant resource for spiritual development.
FELLOWSHIP
Our church is a spiritual fellowship, a community
of followers of the Spirit. We give ourselves and others encouragement to live
the truth. To live the truth is to become ever more the Christ, the true Self
of all and the source of real happiness and abiding fellowship.
LOVE CENTERED
We are a church of love. We accept Saint John's testimony
that God is Love For us, Christ's ministry is the law of love: “Love the
Lord, thy God, with thy whole heart, thy whole mind and thy whole strength;
and love thy neighbor as thyself. This is the whole of the Law and the
prophets.” Saint Augustine epitomized Christian ethics in the precept, “Love
and do as you will.”
UNIVERSAL
We maintain that the Holy Spirit acts through pure
channels everywhere, regardless of age, sex, race, creed or culture. There is
only one true God, however this God is known or worshipped; hence, there is
eternally only one holy universal Church, regardless of the cultural form it
happens to assume in a given time and place. We revere the saints, sages, and
holy ones of all ages and places.
MYSTICAL
We are a mystical church, keeping in mind the Old
Testament words, “Be still and know I AM - God.” We give a primary place
to Christ's saying, “The kingdom of heaven lies within you.” and
acknowledge that the greatest advancement in spiritual truth is made by those
who discover that divinity resides within. If God is Love, then it is through
our love that we come to a real and abiding knowledge of God. For Christians,
love is spiritual knowledge par excellence.
SPIRITUAL
We seek to draw back the veil, first to discover the
deeper intellectual import and then the experiential dimension, which is the
true meaning of spiritual symbolism in scripture, ritual, liturgy and
theology.
OPEN COMMUNION
At Gentle Shepherd, we believe that the chief purpose of
our spiritual community is to perpetuate the historical sacramental
tradition as instituted by Jesus Christ, and as preserved through apostolic
succession. We maintain that the sacraments are channels of divine grace and
are therefore easily available to all.
We believe that the Eucharist puts us in communion with
the Christ and is a channel of Grace without parallel. Therefore, at our
altars all reverent persons are welcome to receive communion, whether members
or not.
OPEN HOLY ORDERS
Holy Orders are open to all, regardless of gender,
marital status, or sexual orientation. While we value of the principle of the
“priesthood of the laity,” we also recognize the importance of valid of
Holy Orders for the administration of the sacraments. Our solution is to make
orders available to all qualified candidates who wish to serve Christ through
ordained ministry. Such candidates are required to have a level of academic
achievement and prior life experience which demonstrates the potential for the
successful completion of a program of formation and for the professional
practice of ministry. This formation is supervised by the our order's
seminary, Sophia Divinity
School.
AN INVITATION
Do you want the freedom to read and investigate the best
of modern thinkers and writers, at the same time keeping your roots in the
beauty and form of the traditional church? Large numbers of clergy and lay
members are leaving their traditional churches because they have realized that
there was no longer a possibility of their using their intelligence to utilize
the best thinking in this new age and yet remain in their churches.
The great tragedy is that these people are often the most
intelligent and best educated church members! They have used their time and
energy to keep up with the times and investigate the best thinking of our age
and they have had the heartbreaking experience of having to leave the
churches, which they still love and in which most of them were raised in, in
order to respect what they have learned.
If you are such a person, it could be that you are
spiritually ready to join us at Gentle Shepherd Church Antioch but perhaps do
not even realize it. We set no limits to your thinking but instead encourage
you to use your intelligence to develop the deepest spiritual truths
that you can. We urge our family to read and assimilate all they can on
scriptural interpretation, comparative religion, mystical traditions, as well
as the best works in psychology, psychiatry, philosophy, and anthropology. At
the same time, we share in community the experience of worshiping in the
rich traditional beauty of Eucharistic fellowship.
need to know more???... read on for a bit more depth....
Independent Catholicism for
Modern Christians
Independent Catholicism is a journey for us all, a visit to places we may
have visited many times before in a different light, but also a passport to
locations that many of us have longed to investigate. As children of one of many
traditional churches, sometimes prisoners of its dogma and tenets, many of us
have often felt less than empowered by the compromises, hypocrisies, and
dictates with which to which we were subjected in the name of Christ. While our
inner faith may not have been compromised, many have often felt despair at the
rigidity and intolerance of these old fashioned teachings. And of course guilt
when our souls could simply not find conciliation with prevailing thought.
Gentle Shepherd Church was founded by a small and brave group of Christians
that had fought and sacrificed for their beliefs. Coming from a variety of
church backgrounds from Catholic to Adventist, they had scratched from the very
ether a small church, a community really, that has embraced the spirit of
independent Catholicism. This was not an easy thing for them to do in Richmond,
one of the most conservative cities in the nation. Firstly, they were all gay.
It was extremely difficult for them to even find a place to worship. Then,
Catholicism in the south is not as prevalent as in other areas, and all
Catholics tend to be thrown together into one basket. It has been a difficult
task to convince outsiders that Rome has no monopoly on Catholicism, and that
there can be viable independent and modern thought within a branch of the
original and traditional church.
In spite of these obstacles, our little church as survived, and is exposing
the Richmonders to a Catholicism that most people never knew existed, a church
of love and tradition, of community and tolerance to which most churches pay
only lip service. And now, our little community endeavors to expand their
horizons, spreading a message of peace and inner spirituality to all that will
listen.
Independent Catholicism
The scriptures have for the most part held an untenable position as divinely
inspired revelations, often allowing the perpetration of "pious fraud"
through the pulpits. It is our belief that the scriptures can only be truly
understood if they are read in historical context, and with a deeper
understanding of the circumstances surrounding their authoring. We attempt
always to bring to the attention of others the fact that the Bible can be and
has been used to bring to focus nearly anything that a quick mouth and silver
tongued preacher desires.
This should not mean to imply that biblical lessons should not be used to
teach modern day life situations and to serve as examples in how we can love
God. At Gentle Shepherd, we elect to participate in the use of modern findings
to construct a reformed Catholicism; perhaps then we can we can also minimize
the adverse reactions such as fundamentalism fossilization and an abandonment of
Christian belief in favor of some other sort of spirituality.
The non-independent Catholic denominations seem to have a massive problem in
understanding that modern man needs modern religion, and that a
"living" religion more viably meets the needs of educated and
enlightened humanity than does dogmatic "fire and brimstone" rhetoric.
Freedom to evolve, whether it is with an infusion of new scientific
discovery, or a new and more precise translation, or even a reevaluation of
prior non conforming thought, should be the moving factor in motivational
religion and fulfilling our faith in Christ the Redeemer. At Gentle Shepherd, we
fee that this freedom start with the denominational leadership.
Mystical
We harbor the belief that the elements of "the sacred" are
structures of our consciousness, which would seem to be more in keeping with a
church that desires to attract and keep contemporary worshippers. In fact, the
fundamental message of Christianity as the knowledge that "the kingdom of
God is within you" is, and always has been, an innate factor in the
development of Gentle Shepherd Church. We teach that the spirit of Christ is
manifested in our interaction with the world, and that we as individuals are the
only Christ that many people will see in their day to day lives. We feel that
this innate spiritual evolution and expression of faith is in fact a
developmental asset for human spirituality.
Reformed
If you ask the great majority of our little flock about the difference
between Orthodox and Reformed Catholicism you would undoubtedly be surprised by
their ignorance. We teach the traditions of the sacraments, the history of our
religion, and the core basis of our belief as Christians. Our instinctual
reflexes have always been to deny any doctrine as sacrosanct. This is one area
where we differ substantially with other branches of Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and
many of the Protestant denominations.
The importance of personal freedom and personal responsibility is paramount
to us in terms of the repression many have all suffered at the hands of
organized religion, government, and society as a whole. Our fundamental belief
that we were all created in the diverse image of God precludes our forced
acceptance of "external conditions." and embraces the continuing
spirit of reform begun by Christ against the orthodoxy of Jewish Law.
We agree with the premise that simply replacing one "orthodoxy"
with another is not conducive to the success of a modern church, especially when
based on anachronistic scriptural interpretations. Our future at Gentle Shepherd
will continue to operate under the original Catholic premise that the spirit of
the Law is Love.
Our belief in the full power of the sacraments is reinforced by our personal
spiritual need to justify all teachings in context of contemporary thought and
learning. This route is of course limited in most of the main line
denominations. Today however, our clergy rejoice in being able to instill the
concepts of personal responsibility and freedom of choice that were previously
considered almost nefarious.
Liberal
For many of us, our experiences in main line Christianity, both Protestant
and Catholic, has exposed us to a full spectrum of beliefs ranging from ultra
liberal to fanatically fundamental. Our belief is that fundamentalism is often
in contradiction to reason and often wrongly mistaken for faith. Bronislaw
Malinowski's once wrote that religion is functional and particular to social
environment. Certainly, our current lifestyles, levels of education, and mental
attitudes are not even vaguely related to those of the past. We, as a spiritual
community dealing with the modern world, find it both curious and frustrating
that many of the major religious denominations, both orthodox and reformed, have
remained indifferent to this social evolution.
If we concentrate not on the absolute verity and non-contextual translations
of the scriptures, but instead on what they may have meant in terms of the
socio-political times in which they were written, then we can perhaps gain
insight into the thought processes of the oh-so human beings that authored them.
We can then use these insights, thoughts, traditions and aspirations, to aid in
our individual spiritual development, the internal manifestation of our own
personal Christ. And…. most importantly... we can do this without taking a
position secondary to our own intelligence.
Catholic
The original founders of Gentle Shepherd labored long and hard about whether
or not to found a "catholic" church, understanding that the definition
of "catholic" was in fact not fully understood by the world at large.
Upon deciding to do so, a great deal of soul searching was done to determine
whether or not the needs of the small group could be met or even compromised by
a liturgical church. Highly appealing was the preservation of apostolic
succession, a feeling of connection to the Christ and his immediate successors
that seemed especially important to those who had spent decades being
castigated. The value of tradition, especially of the sacraments, was also of
great interest.
However, our primary concern has always been the maintenance of an emphasis
on responsibility, individual thought and conscience. Our quest for affiliation
with a group that is more liberal than magisterial and more dedicated to
progress than compromise has led us to where we are today with the Catholic
Apostolic Church of Antioch. We adopt the simple but profound statement that
liberal tradition being "freedom for," rather than "freedom
from" or "freedom to" as being far more consistent with our
theology. It is the direction in which our clergy leads us. Our desire to be
"catholic" in the true spirit of "universalism" is not to
adhere rigidly to a dominating monolithic hierarchy but rather to create
spiritual bonds that both recognize the value of tradition and promote faith by
the development of internal growth, understanding, and self -evaluation.
Spiritual and Religious
We believe that faith is beyond the limits of experience and hence
unknowable, and therefore it follows that spirituality and religion are two
separate but distinct entities. Our clergy is called to assist parishioners in
our voyage to spirituality, but to emphasize that the voyage must be individual
and personal. The tools are at our disposal are the basic religious tools;
rites, tradition and history, the so-called "best resources for spiritual
growth." It is in the realization that worship in itself does not
automatically result in spirituality that we find the basis for the success of
religion in the modern world. The Church of Antioch, we believe, can provide a
synergism between religion and spirituality to foster internal enlightenment and
development.
Love
It has always been particularly perplexing and disappointing that a church
based on the tenet that "God is Love" could have degenerated into
myriad factions of intolerance, self-indulgence, and even hatred. Many in our
spiritual community have been the targets of various forms of
"non-love" by church, friends, and even close family. There is simply
no room in our personal theology for any but the Augustinian dictum: " Love
and do as you will." It is also an intrinsic part of our community life at
Gentle Shepherd, and will so remain.
Eclectic
If we accept together a basic premise that a primary factor for success
within the framework of modern religious expression is the development of
"self," then we must be willing to accept the requirement for
diversity of thought, practices and resources. Conventionality and
"religion by rote" were contrary to the metaphysical development of
the early church, Why then should we expect that they be anything but a
hindrance in this day and age if we are searching for the enrichment of our
souls and spirits. Rather, we prefer to devote ourselves 'to study and to
explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven." Let us glean the wisdom,
thoughts, faith and traditions of the ages, and transform them into a meaningful
expression of what is important and relevant to us in Modern Christianity.
Pluralistic
We believe that to believe in spirituality as an internal presence demands
that we allow in others the individuality of their own free expression. We do
believe sincerely that those who inflict their beliefs on others and thus hinder
the development of the Christ in each of us have perpetuated much injustice. We
also object vehemently to those who would use the church to impede the rights of
others.
A Spiritual Journey
Believing that that divinity is both mystical and internal, the duality of
divine worship and spiritual science as components of religious methodology
should certainly not be foreign to us. Thus Gentle Shepherd's affiliation is
with the Catholic Apostolic Church of Antioch, which embraces such precepts as
interior spiritual experience and sacramental grace while eschewing canonical
doctrine. We see this as a way for our community to evolve and flourish in a
modern and difficult world. .
But we understandable that we are just one of the possible routes on the way
to an infinite Source, and that as a cultural manifestation our obligation as a
Church is more to enhance holistic awareness as a tool of spiritual development.
We must, in doing this, take into consideration the vast differences in those
who share this world with us, and we must respect and recognize these
differences.
It is the recognition of God's "internal" self-authority that
provides the spiritual power that is the ultimate validation for any religion.
We use this power to find this personal and individual truth, but we must
understand that it is valid only for us as individuals. Although we can not
share it with others, we can guide them to the development of their own personal
level of interpretation.
If we carry this premise forward, we can then further understand that
scriptural and historical writings can only be the personal interpretation of
those that wrote them, even in their original form and unaltered by church and
social politic. We can take advantage of modern translations and historical
findings that allow us to consider historical context. We can learn from them,
again using them as tools for our own personal interpretation, but we should not
be held to considering them as veridical.
We can open our minds to the mystical spirituality of the Gnostics and the
non-Christian spiritualists, and we can pursue without guilt other paths that
were forbidden under the label of heresy to feed the magisterium of the Church.
Most importantly, we can objectively respect the diversity of religious thought
that has evolved as the Christian community and exploit it without guilt in our
quest for spirituality through individual primacy. We can, through a combination
of sacramental rites and spiritual practice foster a reawakening of focused
spiritual exercise and encourage mature esoteric thinking in those who may be
prepared for it, at the same time admitting that all are deserving of it.
Modern and Traditional
It is almost absurd to assume that modern man can remain viably attached to
the dictates of fixed and inflexible religious denominations. We believe that
denying the changes mandated by current psychosocial attitudes is fact
responsible for growing church attrition. We cannot insult modern intelligence
by offering a church where dogma and other barriers prevent free thought.
Rather, reliance on tradition and belief as stepping-stones to freedom of
thought, conscience and expression would appear to be the more successful route
to spiritual development.
As a Church, Gentle Shepherd realizes that our individual sources of
inspiration will differ immensely, as will both our innate and developed
spiritual experience. Our responsibility is therefore not one of control, but
one of management. Our goals emphasize the diversity of spiritual force and
coalesce this power into a common expression of the living Spirit.
Liberal Tradition
The development of the Church as a temporal and even political institution
has always seemed to be the antithesis of The Christ's teachings. Purges,
schisms and reformations have resulted in monolithic entities that emphasize
differences. By emphasizing individuality of spiritual development with a goal
of commonality and unity in The Spirit, we revive the repressed and forgotten
vigor of early thought in successful combination with liturgical form and
apostolic succession of orders.
In short, we must not teach that "there is only one way." Our
success will be measured by simply teaching that "there is a way," and
that we each have in ourselves the ability to enrich our knowledge to the point
where we can find that way. There is no secret formula, no recipe that we can
impart with rites, dogma, dictates, rules, and prohibitions and impart to
others. There is however a vast store of separate ingredients in the form of
history and traditions that we can use to concoct our own personal and internal
flavor of spiritual completeness.
