Guidance And Request For The Bishops
Memorandum For The Bishops
November 12, 1996
Exegesis of St. John in the desert focuses, usually, on a diet of bugs washed down with a dollop of honey. “Phew !” one thinks, and rightly, “Who would want to eat that?” Well, apart from an assassin or a survivalist, no one would … willingly. Yet the exegesis in these terms continues … a misunderstanding developed from biblical literalism.
Locust is the bean of the locust plant and known in herbalists’ lexicons as St. John’s Bread. To cooks and frequenters of health food stores it is carob. And as if a yogi would eat bugs, yet! One will not eat meat! Why should one eat bugs?!?
St. John consumed a most agreeable diet consisting of a chocolate substitute cum digestive aid and the mellifluous elixir of gods. He was an adept in every way. May have had cavities, however, from an excess of honey.
One thing commending church leaders to the experienced as incompetent is their implacable commitment to the imbecility that diet is of no account to spiritual life. “Bugs or caviar, who cares?” the churchman intones, misquoting St. Paul and ignoring St. Benedict, “So let’s have caviar if we can and intoxicant while we’re at it.”
Anglicanism is the Latin Church.
The Latin Church is
Hieronymean Exegesis,
Ambrosian Liturgy,
Benedictine Organization,
Carthusian Piety
and
Franciscan Logic.
Until it is refreshed by the Systematics of Logos Theology, Christian Biblical Exegesis is at a dead-end, being mere whimsy contrived from regnant prejudice.
Theology is the theory.
Scripture is the notation.
The Church is the instrument.
Life is the music.
God is the player.
The churches grind under ignorant, ill-disciplined leadership: scholars and clergy. Morale is low, élan desultory. A small surge in lay membership reflects lay determination to save the Church from the leaders and the religion from the churches. The best talent of the people looks to commitments non-ecclesiastical. Scholars and clergy garner less respect than medias and politicians do, and such respect as occurs directs towards what they should be rather than towards what they are. For, no one today is more remiss or inefficient in the execution of their duty than are scholars and clergy, whose duty it is to teach all duties.
Scholars and clergy have lost faith in Faith itself. They do not exhibit and therefore cannot inspire confidence in the might of God, the ownership of Christ or the parousia (intense presence) of the Holy Spirit. Scholars and clergy are unimproved by monastic clarity. Their intellects have become soiled and warped and these must be now burnished and straightened.
The need is to restore discipline to scholars and clergy. This will attract leadership with disciplined initiative to ecclesiastical commitment. Discipline is the basis of morale, which is the foundation of membership, and this membership is the guarantor of happy, prosperous society.
You are requested to execute the following programs with a view to rebinding (Latin re + ligare, to re-bind together) the society whose welfare you are meant to foster.
Jerusalem
means
“My God is the Sun.”
Poverty: Clean Blood
Let scholars and clergy of all stations submit to zero-tolerance random drug and alcohol testing identical to that required for holders of a commercial drivers’ license (CDL). Modification of the regime should accommodate the consumption of communion wine within very narrow confines.
Chastity: Clean Heart
Let the Mass be said in Latin, with an attached trot, regularly and in public at as many altars as may be practical. Use as base the Ambrosian Liturgy, which is the Roman Catholic Liturgy.
Obedience: Clean House
Let personal and academic standards for admission to theological education at least double with respect to preparation and stand at the top 9% or less with respect to standing as measured by a combination of grades, portfolios and representations from third parties.
Object?
Where?
Everything is subject.
Poverty: An Amplification
Does the irony that operators of public and commercial transit maintain a higher standard of living than do scholars and clergy need further comment? I think not.
Besides the matter of blood stream, however, there is another way to indicate the dis-ease. In 1969 I earned a B.D. (now M.Div.) degree from the Union Theological Seminary, New York City. In 1994 I earned a Ten-Year Safe Driving Award from the Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle. For one I was handed a piece of paper and for the other, a gold watch. The watch meant much to me and the paper nothing and I wanted to know the reason for this feeling. The answer was in the requirements for being presented these mementos. The paper could be earned by an irresponsible person who paid money for it. It was common and worthless. The watch could be earned only by a responsible person who earned it over a lengthy period in dangerous conditions. It was valuable and precious. The paper vanished long since in a protest. The watch is on the wrist, a useful instrument.
Chastity: An Amplification
The Vatican is a nation-state, not a church. The Pope is a head of state, not a minister of religion much less an emissary of God. The Roman Catholic Church is the Latin Church. It has nothing to do with the Vatican, which is a nation-state. The Roman Catholic Church is collegian, ultra-democratic, Benedictine, based in Calabria, Milan and Narbonne with major centers in Geneva, Prague, Berlin, Edinburgh, Lincoln and elsewhere. The Roman Catholic Church is sun-centered, meeting on Sundays and descending from the Solar Cult at Jeru-salem (My God is the Sun). Its Liturgy is Milanese, Ambrosian. Its piety is Carthusian. Its theology descends from Pythagorean Logos Doctrine (Greek docta, learning, wisdom). Its exegesis and its literary style are Hieronymean. And its general outlook on life is Franciscan, which is to say, humane, humorous and humble.
We are the Latin Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion. Our roots are as indicated. We can flourish on these roots only. The institution must be radicalized, rebound to its roots so that nourishment can disseminate from soil through root to limb and organ.
aggiornamento is a failure. Far from drawing in new members, it alienated old ones and sardonically amused the gallery. Every ploy employed to attract customers drove them away. And for this we must revere our bishops, who led the deconstruction/deformation? The bishops have been blaming everyone but themselves, who have authority commensurate with responsibility and chose to apply both to ends not contemplated by the Holy Spirit. The church didn’t just lose members. The bishops drove them away. And they anathematized who disagreed with their actions. For this they deserve reverence? A sound thrashing would be more apropos. But a condemnation will suffice and is here applied.
Want to be a “middle road?” Then when you start one thing, let the former persist. Rewrite The Book of Common Prayer and The Hymnal but let congregations use former versions. Did the Holy Spirit change His Mind? Say the Mass in the vernacular but say it also in its native tongue, whose sonics constructed the Church (as compared with the churches) and sustain her. Do not rip the petals off the flower. Let them fall off of their own accord. But we have barbarians for bishops who are so full of themselves that they rip the hearts out of people’s pieties while asserting that the CHURCH is served withal. And then they claim to embrace all and hold a middle road! The bitter irony of that jest is not lost on its originators, who are the more culpable therefore.
Let the Mass be said in Ambrosian Latin and derivatives and let The Book of Common Prayer be amended towards inclusiveness of its previous concretions.
Obedience: An Amplification
The standards for theological education and ordination are pathetic. Seminary matriculates and graduates are losers, defectives, idlers, cheats and pompous. The seminary process appears to be a clean pipe: garbage in, garbage out. Ignorance sneers from the chairs of worthy professorships into faces convinced that theology is a body of opinion and religion a feather on the winds of cultural diversity. Individuals are ordained when neither baptized, regenerate nor called. And bishops and other clergy harass one another in a corporate environment bereft of due process.
When the product doesn’t sell, raise the price. Theological education should be a pattern of elective course work at least from the age of 16 years. Earlier is better. Philosophy and mathematics are the particular preparation for ecclesiastical leaders. The competency in mathematics of students entering seminary should be equal to that of students entering medical school. Who is not a mathematics adept cannot be a theologian or a church leader. The competency in philosophy of students entering seminary must be complete in both Realism and Nominalism together with their antecedents, such as Plotinus and Aristotle. In addition, thorough grounding in German Idealism and the great synthesis of Kant and Spinoza, and its falling apart, are essential preparations for theological study.
Latin should be a prerequisite of seminary entrance, at least three years of it. Greek would be beneficial and Hebrew would help, along with French and/or German and/or Spanish. Proficiency in a non-European language would be desirable but should not be mandatory. Acquaintance with Sanskrit should be mandatory, and as the years roll forward this aspect should scale up from “acquaintance” to “prerequisite,” of importance equal to that of Latin.
Finally, aspects of the life of Jesus are going to be emerging which will cause profound embarrassment to the church and especially to her sense of identity in history and her reputation for veracity in self-representation. There’s going to be a lot of opportunity to grip the arms of the chair and just let the wind blow. Where it will all come out I don’t know. But I can say with perfect assurance that wherever it is, it will be a happy place and with room for a very large and multi-faceted family. The Anglican Communion is an axis of advance of this development.
Prepare as indicated here.
Reminder For The Bishops
December 3, 1996
The denomination is to the church
as a crew is to a vessel:
necessary but replaceable.
The fundamental loyalty of each crew member
must be
not to the crew, the denomination,
nor to the vessel, the church,
but to the vessel’s Owner.
Crews are replaced and perish.
The vessel is designed to a specific life-span.
But the Lord and Logos abide forever.
Gentlemen,
A short while ago you were requested to execute the following programs with a view to rebinding (re-ligare, to re-bind together) the society whose welfare you are meant to foster.
Poverty: Clean Blood
Let scholars and clergy of all stations submit to zero-tolerance random drug and alcohol testing identical to that required for holders of a commercial drivers’ license (CDL). Modification of the regime should accommodate the consumption of communion wine within very narrow confines.
The central doctrine of Anglican piety
— the Doctrine of the Real Presence —
is Lutheran.
The English Church
— along with the English Monarchy and language —
is German.
Chastity: Clean Heart
Let the Mass be said in Latin, with an attached trot, regularly and in public at as many altars as may be practical. Use as base the Ambrosian Liturgy, which is the Roman Catholic Liturgy.
Man is to God
The Inseparable Other,
“The Bride of Yahweh.”
Obedience: Clean House
Let personal and academic standards for admission to theological education at least double with respect to preparation and stand at the top 9% or less with respect to standing as measured by a combination of grades, portfolios and representations from third parties.
To the unaware we say, “Christ is in you.”
To the aware we say, “You are in Christ.”
To the very aware we say nothing. We enjoy their presence.
To the fully aware … well …
it would be easier to purchase a Swiss bank
with all of its contents
than to get the company of such a one.
The target date for full execution of these programs is September 1, 1997. Meanwhile, you are requested to have on my desk, wood or electronic, beginning January 1, 1997, bi-weekly reports detailing progress you are making towards that goal, which is definite. These reports will be reviewed and comments specifying corrections and improvements will be returned to you promptly for action.
The language of request is used in deference to your positions as senior executive officers of an organization, one crewing the church. Ignorance of, non-compliance or insufficient compliance with these requests would constitute you in a condition of insubordination with respect to the wishes of the Holy Spirit, and such a condition would set in progress consequences appropriate thereunto.
Notification For The Bishops
September 14, 1997
Last year you received guidance and request as follows:
Poverty: Clean Blood
Let scholars and clergy of all stations submit to zero-tolerance random drug and alcohol testing identical to that required for holders of a commercial drivers’ license (CDL). Modification of the regime should accommodate the consumption of communion wine within very narrow confines.
Chastity: Clean Heart
Let the Mass be said in Latin, with an attached trot, regularly and in public at as many altars as may be practical. Use as base the Ambrosian Liturgy, which is the Roman Catholic Liturgy.
Obedience: Clean House
Let personal and academic standards for admission to theological education at least double with respect to preparation and stand at the top 9% or less with respect to standing as measured by a combination of grades, portfolios and representations from third parties.
A date of September 1, 1997 was given for compliance with this guidance as indicated by bi-weekly progress reports starting January 1, 1997. Assistance was offered and the seriousness of the guidance and bi-weekly reports was explained. September 1, 1997 has come and gone and compliance was not achieved.
You are now in a condition of fundamental insubordination with respect to the wishes of the Holy Spirit. You know what that means.
Footnotes
1 The attitude behind such sentiments echoes the famous bottom-line of Vatican foreign policy: “Kill them all. God will know his own.”
2 When an assault occurs in Padukah, Kentucky, the blame for it rests on the Presiding Bishop. Final power — and therefore final responsibility — rests on the governor’s teacher, not on the governor. When society is unhappy, the reason is misfeasance, malfeasance and/or nonfeasance by scholars and clergy.
3 “Social justice” and “freedom” are rigorous discipline among scholars and clergy.
4 Logos Theology is mediated through the centuries by the likes of Augustine, Cornelius Jansen, Bonaventure, Nicholas of Cusa, Joachim of Floris, Friedrich Schelling, Roger Bacon, Jean Guyon, Jon Huss, Benedictus de Spinoza, Moses ben Maimon, The Knights Templar, Blaise Pascal, Count Zinzendorf, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Richard and Thomas Hooker, Paracelsus, Joan of Arc, Dionysius the Areopagite, Sir Isaac Newton, G. W. Leibnitz, Jonathan Edwards, Friedrich Schleiermacher, Paul Tillich, Teresa of Avila and Teilhard de Chardin.
5 Ordination of women, support of abortion, support of civil rights, support of unnatural acts, eisegesis of scripture, gun running in civil wars, etc.
6 ECUSA is a democratic organization for the majority involved, the clergy. It is not a democratic organization per se — nor need it be one — and clerical suggestions to the laity that it is such are a calculated dishonesty and therefore chargeable.
7 Scholars and clergy are ignorant of the phenomenon of mantra and for this reason they misunderstand the Mass and its purpose.
8 … and dare to lecture demurrers and the broken-hearted for “mean spiritedness!”
9 A significant fact is that almost all of our greatest mathematicians were clergy or children of clergy.
10 Since calculated Africanization and renegade Islamization of K-12 and undergraduate education systems have occluded all knowledge and especially philosophy and is only just now coming under correction, it should be anticipated that, for some years hence, students applying to seminary will have acquired philosophical knowledge on their own from primary or near-primary sources rather than from teachers in certificating institutions, where such knowledge no longer exists or exists in such perverted forms as to be useless in reality. Adjustments in certification expectations regarding philosophical study will be necessary until Africanization and renegade Islamization have been removed from K-12 and undergraduate systems.
Update 1: “Lex orandi, lex credendi (Latin loosely translated as the law of what is to be prayed [is] the law of what is to be believed) is a motto in Christian tradition, which means that it is prayer which leads to belief, or that it is liturgy which leads to theology. It refers to the relationship between worship and belief. As an ancient Christian principle it provided a measure for developing the ancient Christian creeds, the canon of scripture, and other doctrinal matters. It is based on the prayer texts of the Church, that is, the Church’s liturgy. In the Early Church, there was liturgical tradition before there was a common creed, and before there was an officially sanctioned biblical canon. These liturgical traditions provided the theological framework for establishing the creeds and canon.”
A remarkably accurate statement to find in Wikipedia.
Joel D. Harrison: The Most Important Thing You Need To Know About Friedrich Schleiermacher’s Theology
AMDG
