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History, Structure & Purpose |
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![]() We teach that The Order of the Holy Cross has a heavenly spiritual body, but no earthly organization and that the members of this heavenly order are of all religions of the world. The idea is that all religions of the world teach at their core two basic things: First, to love God first; second, that we may love God by loving our brothers and sisters as ourselves. As regards The Gnostic Order of Christ's Christian expression, we may look to Early Christianity, prior to the formation of Orthodoxy. During the time of the Early Christian Church, churches were small communities and/or schools lead by teachers. Jesus and John the Baptist were such teachers. We assert that their message was for all and cosmopolitan in nature and that the goal of spiritual practice was then and is now to develop a personal relationship with God: to come to know God for ourselves individually and to live a good life. Israel, at the time that Jesus lived, was the crossroads of the Western World and was a part of the Greco-Roman world. As a result, the general community, especially in Israel, was influenced by many steams of thought. The communities of the Early Christians were cosmopolitan in nature, meaning they studied and incorporated into their teachings, expressions and elements of many religions of the world including Greco-Roman and Eastern philosophies and practices, the sciences pertinent to their time period and so on. Similarly, the Western World today is influenced by many spiritual traditions. While The Gnostic Order of Christ is Christian, we incorporate in our traditions and study, ideas and elements of religious practices generated by the religions of the ancient and present global community. These may vary from teacher to teacher, thus, we have no specific dogma or doctrine other than that Jesus Christ was a universalist whose teachings transcend differences of practice and faith. The Priesthood of Melchizedek is the order spoken of in the Bible when Melchizedek blessed Abraham. All priests of every tradition of the Western World are ordained into the Priesthood of Melchizedek. According to tradition, our particular lineage was first received from St. Paul, the Apostle in revelation by Father Paul Blighton during the mid 1960's. Father Paul Blighton and eleven others, one of whom was Sufi Murshid Samuel Lewis and some of whom were already ordained established this tradition primarily through The Holy Order of MANS in 1968.
We Baptize and Initiate in The Western Tradition. The Baptism that we use is a little different than the traditional Baptism. Our Baptism is a personal Initiation and at the same time an Initiation into the Universal Order of The Order of the Holy Cross. The Baptism we use is actually the first of what are sometimes called the Four Great Initiations of The Western Tradition. These initiations were given and were widely practiced in the early church prior to the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. The Baptism is of Chrism, of Christ Light and the Holy Spirit, as in the days of Early Christianity. Our Baptism signifies the commitment of the individual to the Spiritual Path and The Way taught by Jesus Christ and other Great Teachers. In the Eastern Tradition, these Initiations correspond to the Great Awakening, Illumination, Self-Realization and God-Realization. We receive Communion and accept the forgiveness of sins. We accept that Communion contains the essence of the spiritual body, mind, and heart of the Great Christ. We believe in the conscious acceptance of Communion that we are forgiven and transformed and that we gradually become Christed. We believe that Jesus and Mary are Christed beings available to one and all, no matter what faith and that all anyone needs do is call upon them to be in their presence. The structure of The Gnostic Order of Christ is based upon the model of the Ancient Path and the early Christian Church. We are householders called to live the spiritual life; some through the taking of Vows to God; some through the receiving of Initiation; some through ordination to the Priesthood of Melchizedek, and all through our devotion and a commitment to our spiritual practice for the purpose of creating a better world. We do not take vows to any earthly body, nor do we live in monastic communities. We all live and work in the world. We are an order "without walls" as one states, belonging to a heavenly body that has no earthly entity. Wherever we go we are a part of that heavenly spiritual body, united with all of those who have taken vows to serve God by serving people in the global community of the world we live in. We are a part of the body of Christ. |
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Our Vows |
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Priests and Teachers administer vows only to God. Vows are optional and may be taken one at a time or all together: Service: We serve God by serving all. God is love and light and life in action. God is ever in motion and is ever giving. We strive to be agents of God in our actions in the world. |
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The Way: Our Spiritual Practice |
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Our Spiritual Practice is The Way: The Way is our Spiritual Practice. Our spiritual practice is basically defined by the following six practices: Loving Devotion: We actively seek to know the great wisdom and the heart essence of All Faiths from within our own beings in ardent dedication to our path and God through our spiritual practice. Retrospection: We perform retrospection to examine our own thoughts and actions objectively in the light of spiritual teachings and to perceive the good intent and heart of all concerned. |
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See the chart: The Six Universal Elements of Spiritual Practice | ||
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