Just one of many New Age changes taking place....Zuukie1
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Subj: The Emergence of Neo-Paganism in the Episcopal Church, USA
From: LeePenn
The following story - about the emergence of neo-paganism and "Divine Feminine" spirituality in the Episcopal Church in the USA - appeared last year in The Christian Challenge, a traditionalist Anglican magazine. I encourage you to re-distribute the story as widely as possible -- as long as you do not change the story, and as long as you credit me as the author and The Christian Challenge as the publisher.
To verify that you get a complete version of the story: it ends with a list of 35 sources. If you receive an incomplete version, e-mail me and I will send you an ASCII file of the entire story. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
I am sending 1-2 stories a day to get new list members caught up with those who have been on my list previously. There are 3 or 4 stories in this "backlog", which I will be sending later this week. Thereafter, you will get new stories as I write them, every 2-6 weeks.
Lee Penn
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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STRANGE "DIVERSITIES"
Commentary Report By Lee Penn
The Christian Challenge
ON THE EVE of the meeting of Anglican primates from around the world that occurred in March 2001 in Hendersonville, North Carolina, Episcopal Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold re-stated his commitment to "diversity": "We are members one of another, like it or not, and we learn to live together."
In his March 4 sermon to the primates assembled, the Archbishop of Canterbury described the Devil as "the ultimate fundamentalist, the quintessential literalist, the dyed-in-the-wool reductionist."
Both Anglican leaders thus tipped their hands: there is to be no exclusion of innovative theology within the Anglican Communion, lest those who enforce Christian order act like "fundamentalists," causing a schism in which those of divergent beliefs cease to "live together."
Yet one wonders whether Dr. Carey, at least, knows where this "fundamentalist"-shunning diversity is leading ECUSA --- and this writer is not referring to homosexuality. Alongside the 2000 Episcopal General Convention's resolution supporting "committed" nonmarital sexual relationships --- which was startling enough --- was its first visible nod to witchcraft.
It was not the first time elements of neo-paganism had surfaced in the Episcopal church, however.
ECUSA has in fact opened two main doors to the theory and practice of witchcraft. The first was California Bishop William Swing's United Religions Initiative (URI), a venture which Bishop Griswold endorsed in mid-1999 when he attended the 150th anniversary celebration for the Diocese of California. Wiccans participate actively in URI summit meetings, and one of the URI's symbols is a globe surrounded by 15 symbols for the world's religions--- including the Wiccan pentagram. Participants in URI events have included the Pagan Sanctuary Network, Druids, the Temple of Isis, the "Goddess Holding the World Mural Project," the Covenant of the Goddess, the Coven of the Stone and the Mirror, and the "SerpentStone Family" coven in North Carolina.
The second door to witchcraft was opened when the "Resources for Jubilee" booklet was distributed to delegates on July 5 during the 2000 General Convention "Jubilee Eucharist" led by Griswold. The booklet carried the endorsement of the Rev. Rosemari Sullivan, convention secretary; it was offered as "a possible source of ideas to carry with you from the Jubilee morning." Bound inside this booklet was the summer 2000 issue of Spirituality and Health, published by Trinity Episcopal Church on Wall Street. The publication contained articles promoting "witchcamps," the Wiccan "Pentacle of Iron" (described as "a symbol emphasizing the interconnectedness of many points, rather than a polarized thinking system of good/evil or black/white") and a "shamanic journey into the underworld and back again" taken by the rector of Trinity Church with the guidance of a raccoon spirit. After some protests within the House of Bishops, the booklet was no longer circulated---but it was not publicly repudiated..
The defenders of Wicca present this religion as a benign way to connect with one's self and with the Earth. Starhawk, author of the Wiccan classic, The Spiral Dance, says, "We're drawn to an earth-based spirituality out of a longing for some true, intimate connection with the earth." Margot Adler, a Wiccan priestess for 25 years and author of Drawing Down The Moon, says that "when the altar is set, the candles lit, the circle cast, you know it is ritual time. Your deep self knows that you are ready to enter what Wiccans call 'the place between the worlds,' the place we often reach in dreams, or in art. Through dance, chant, gesture, breath, candles, incense, the experience of speaking our concerns and truths, and sharing food and drink together, we can reconnect with each other. At these moments, we understand once again that we are connected to the cycles of life, to the rhythms of birth, growth, death, and rebirth." (Like Adler, Griswold refers to plural truths.)
The public face of Wicca seems benign. The reality is otherwise. Each February in San Francisco, the neo-pagan Ancient Ways bookstore hosts a 3-day "PantheaCon" convention for witches which is increasingly well attended (more than 1,200 in 2000, double the 1999 attendance). The convention offers workshops that include a full range of ways to explore sacred sex, holy drug use, occultism, and black magic.
Those serving as workshop leaders also publish books on Wicca, lead classes for the public, and speak at interfaith gatherings. At the 1999, 2000, and 2001 conventions, two active participants in Swing's URI, Rowan Fairgrove and Donald Frew---elders in the Covenant of the Goddess, "the largest Wiccan religious organization in the world"---offered speeches about pagans in the interfaith movement.
Unusual sex-related workshops at the 2001 PantheaCon included "A Bouquet of Lovers: Open Relationships in a Pagan Tribal Context," a ritual dance in honor of "the Sacred Harlot of Rio," a "queer sexmagick" class on oral sex (titled "Slip of the Tongue," with an unprintable course description), and "Sacred Whore: Sexuality for Love, Healing and Fun."
Other workshops focused on the "five points of the Iron Pentacle," "The scales of the serpent: Aleph," two Labyrinth workshops, "Blending Toltec and Witch Wisdom" (the "wise" Toltecs practiced large-scale human sacrifice and worshipped the sun), "Experiential Exploration of Shamanic Divination," "Inner Archetypes and the Ecstatic Path of Eternal Tantra," "The Path of the Dragon," "Spell Casting," "root-based sorcery in European folk magic," and "New, Improved Sex & Drugs" (led by a self-described "pagan, poly, psychedelic psychiatrist" and her husband, "fungophile and student of shamanism"). Mixed with these workshops were sessions for pagan children and teenagers, such as one on "Traditional Discordian Ritual & Sacred High Mass of Eris."
The opening ritual of the convention was led by the owner of the Ancient Ways store, a founder of the Covenant of the Goddess---and the mistress of the Sirius Oasis, a lodge of the Ordo Templi Orientalis, which practices the occult rites espoused by Aleister Crowley, the English satanist of the early 1900s. (In his Confessions, Crowley said, "I was not content to believe in a personal devil and serve him, in the ordinary sense of the word. I wanted to get hold of him personally and become his chief of staff.")
*Signs Of Things To Come?*
The December 2000 issue of New Oxford Review included this speculative "news release" I composed about the church in 2015:
"On Halloween 2015...a Midnight Communion/Celebration service was held in the remodeled - and just reopened - National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. for All Peoples' Day. This service combined a neo-Wiccan Samhain ritual with an Anglican-style "Rave Mass." Icons of the spirits and the saints, draped in red and black, lined the Cathedral. Male-identified clergy wore black vestments, and female-identified clergy wore red. The service began with a procession of clergy and altar servers down the central aisle of the Cathedral, led by the co-Rectors of the Cathedral - a male-to-female transsexual, and his/her partner, a female-to-male transsexual. In keeping with the Wiccan tradition of "sky clad" rituals, the members of the altar party solemnly disrobed; in single file, they walked the Grand Labyrinth that surrounded the Altar of Unity for All People. The High Priest and High Priestess began the Liturgy of the Word by asking the spirits of the Four Directions and the Five Elements to bless all the participants in the Work of the People. The first lesson, read from the Moon-Altar on the west side of the church, was from the Egyptian Book of the Dead. The second lesson, read from the Sun-Altar on the east side of the church, was from the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The Gospel reading was from the Gospel of Thomas. In lieu of a sermon, the High Priest and the High Priestess performed the Rite of Marriage between the Cosmic Christ and Gaia at the Altar of Unity."
You're probably thinking this is wildly imaginative and something that will never happen. Perhaps. But most elements of the service described have active proponents--or have already happened within ECUSA or the wider Anglican Communion.
*Icons draped in red and black, used in Episcopalian prayer? Already happened, in the Meditation Room of last year's Episcopal General Convention.
*Wiccan services for Samhain, the holiday that occurs on November 1? This was traditionally the Celtic new year; the feast began at sundown on the preceding day---our Halloween. It is still a major Wiccan feast.
In the May 2000 issue of Mission Bell, (the newsletter for the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real, California), editor Stacey Warde wrote an article contending that neo-pagan rituals will renew the church. In the article, titled "Neo-Paganism: Revival of nature religions could be instructive for Christians languishing from Church torpor," Warde said that neo-pagan practices "promise direct and immediate contact with the numinous, seek to honor nature and the body," and "foster the uninhibited experience of the ecstatic...
"The vitality of Neo-Paganism, the revival of ancient pre-Christian religious practices, including shamanism, suggests to me that the Living Water we seek might also be found in sources other than in official Church doctrines, fables and rituals," Warde wrote.
Odd celebrations also have already occurred on Episcopal turf. A liberal Episcopal parish in San Francisco, for example, inaugurated the New Year with an "All-Night Dance Celebration" focusing on "the life force." This event was run by the Divine Rhythm Society, which on December 21, 2000 also had held a winter solstice program titled "Love in the Dark," a service of poems and songs in which Christ was never mentioned, and Kali, Mother Earth, and Sophia were honored.
And, as noted above, pro-Wicca articles were in the "Resources for Jubilee" booklet given to all General Convention 2000 participants with official approval.
*Formal reconciliation between Anglicans and pagans? Church of England priests met with Druids and pagans on July 1, 2000 at the "Spirit of the Land 2000" conference to "herald a new era of reconciliation and respect" among the faiths. The meeting was to "end with short acts of worship from each tradition, Christian and Druid songs, and the saying together of the Millennium Pledge."
*Using the Labyrinth in Episcopalian churches and worship services? There are permanent labyrinths at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, and in many other Episcopal churches. There was a 35-foot wide labyrinth at the 2000 Episcopal General Convention, placed behind the altar. The labyrinth movement is led by Lauren Artress, a priest at Grace Cathedral. She got this idea from New Age guru Jean Houston, and describes the Labyrinth as "an ancient symbol for the Divine Mother, the God within, the Goddess, the Holy in all creation." Phoebe Griswold, the wife of the Presiding Bishop, has led labyrinth pilgrimages in conjunction with Ms. Artress to Chartres in 1999, 2000, and 2001--- indicating that ECUSA's First Family approves of this new devotion as promoted by the Labyrinth Project.
*Nudity as part of an official worship service? In 2000 university professor Dave Leal and Anglican priestess Karen Gorham wrote Naturism and Christianity, calling upon Christians to accept nudism. Nudity is usual for Wiccan ceremonies.
*Transsexual priests? In the Church of England, the Rev. Peter Stone recently underwent a sex change operation and now---with his/her bishop's support, and prior approval from Lambeth Palace---works as the Rev. Carol Stone.
*Sun-altars and Moon-Altars in an Episcopal Cathedral? Yes, these were used at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco when Matthew Fox celebrated a "Planetary Mass" on October 29, 1994.
Somehow, those jokes about renaming ECUSA the Episcopagan Church don't seem so funny anymore.
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provided that there are no changes in the headings or text.
Permission to reprint the entire article is granted provided that
it is identified as originating with: THE CHRISTIAN CHALLENGE,
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Sources:
Except as noted below, all Internet documents were on the Net as of March 5, 2001, when this story was initially released. Some Internet articles may have been moved to new locations, or removed from the Net entirely, since that time.
1. Kevin Eckstrom, "Tension brewing as Anglican leaders gather for annual meeting," Religion News Service, March 2, 2001 - for Griswold quote
2. George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, "The test of leadership," Anglican Communion News Service, sermon preached March 4, 2001
3. Diocese of California, "July 17, 1999 - We Shined," http://diocal.org/pcn/5pcn99/index2.html
4. URI symbol with the pentagram - United Religions Initiative, "72 Hours," http://www.united-religions.org/newsite/72hours/index.htm ; also, http://www.united-religions.org/newsite/guide/index.htm
5. "United Religions Initiative Webring," http://nav.webring.yahoo.com/hub?ring=uri&list; includes the Pagan Sanctuary Network and the Northern California Local Council of the Covenant of the Goddess
6. United Religions Initiative, "Archive of 72 Hours Projects - Geographical Listing;" projects in Mobile Alabama, Isis Oasis California, and San Francisco California, http://www.united-religions.org/newsite/72hours/projects.htm
7. United Religions Initiative, "June 1999 Global Summit Conference," http://www.united-religions.org/events/jun2.shtml; printed in 1999; no longer on the Net
8. "About Coven of the Stone and the Mirror," http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/2416/cosminfo.html ; also, "About Cascadia," http://www.wicca.drak.net/gardnerian/cosminfo.html
9. Telepathic Media, "Daily Goddess News," http://www.cynico.net/telepathic/astro/goddess.html; printed in 1999; no longer on the Net
10. "Hauen Ypotame," http://moss.witchesgathering.com/index.html
11. PantheaCon 99, http://www.ancientways.com/presenters99.html (printed in 1999; no longer on the Net) - conference held February 12-15, 1999; also http://www.magicalacts.org/pc99.html (printed in 1999; no longer on the Net)
12. PantheaCon 2000, http://www.ancientways.com/presenters/presenters00.html (printed in early 2000; no longer on the Net) - held February 18-22, 2000, at the Cathedral Hill Hotel in San Francisco
13. PantheaCon 2001, http://www.ancientways.com/html/schedule01.html - held February 16-19, 2001, at the Cathedral Hill Hotel in San Francisco
14. For the activities of the Sirius Lodge of the Ordo Templi Orientalis, see the on-line newsletter of March-April 1990, at http://www.textfiles.com/occult/OTO/tlc03.occ
15. Aleister Crowley, The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, ch. 5 (1929; rev. 1970), as quoted by The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, Columbia University Press, 1993
16. See the summary of Crowley's life in John P. Newport, The New Age Movement and the Biblical Worldview, Eerdmans, 1998, pp. 539-543
17. Starhawk, "Sacred Ground: Listening to the Land," June 1, 2000 column, http://beliefnet.com/story/27/story_2715.html
18. Margot Adler, "Spirit & Matter: At the Center of Things," May 10, 2000 column, http://beliefnet.com/story/24/story_2407.html
19. Eyewitness account of the Meditation Room and the Labyrinth, from General Convention 2000, "Not against flesh and blood," http://www.prayerbook.ca/cann0093.htm.
20. David Burnett, Dawning of the Pagan Moon, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, 1991, p. 152 - regarding Samhain
21. Stacey Warde, "Neo-Paganism: Revival of nature religions could be instructive for Christians languishing from Church torpor," The Mission Bell, May 2000; http://www.ecr.anglican.org/bell/npagan.html; printed 7/4/2000; the article (and all other Mission Bell stories) have since been removed from the Net
22. Divine Rhythm Society, program for "Love in the Dark," December 21, 2000
23. Parish bulletin for St. John the Evangelist (San Francisco), December 17, 2000
24. Lauren Artress, Walking A Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Tool, Riverhead Books, 1995, pp. 1-3, 67
25. Labyrinth Project, "Let Us Walk With Mary, 2001," http://gracecom.org/labyrinth/lwwm2001/body.shtml; see also a reference to Phoebe Griswold leading a Labyrinth pilgrimage to Chartres in 2000 at http://www.brisbanepowerhouse.com/02_program_2001/14_labyrinth.htm
26. Eyewitness report by a person who attended General Convention 2000; e-mails dated 8/4/2000 and 8/7/2000
27. David Mills, "Official Booklet Praises Witchcamps and Shamanic Journeys at GC2000," July 10, 2000; also, quotations from "Resources for Jubilee," in a leaflet prepared by the American Anglican Council, http://www.prayerbook.ca/cann0080.htm
28. Karen Gorham and Dave Leal, Naturism and Christianity, Grove Books (UK), 2000
29. P. J. Bonthrone, "Don't feel bad about nudity, vicar tells Christians," London Telegraph, July 29, 2000 (http://www.telegraph.co.uk)
30. Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark, Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: The Twentieth Century, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999, p. 44, see also pp. 74-75: "There are other aspects of Wicca, in particular, which are unusual among religions of any period. … A second is the celebrated practice of ritual nudity …"
31. Linda Savage, Ph.D., Reclaiming Goddess Spirituality: The Power of the Feminine Way, Hay House, 1999; the quote is from the author's comments on http://www.amazon.com
32. Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue, Book 3, Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc., 1998, p. 56
33. Victoria Combe, "Sex-change vicar tells how her prayers have been answered," London Telegraph, November 29, 2000 (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) ; see also Sean O'Neill, "Vicar can carry on preaching after sex change," June 20, 2000
34. Spirit of the Land, "Towards a new era of reconciliation and respect," http://www.agored.demon.co.uk/SOL2000.html, also, ""Contributors," http://www.agored.demon.co.uk/SOL2000Speakers.html
35. Matthew Fox, "Experiencing the First Planetary Mass," Creation Spirituality, Spring 1995, Vol. 11, no. 1, p. 32
