there are so many beautiful elements to the history and practices of the historical church that is undermined by a truly corrupt hierarchy and abhorrent theology
Yes, this is exactly my view. The question that I'm always returning to is what to do about it. So far I've come up with three possible answers:
1. Create a new church which fills the need for devotion, beauty, magic and ritual, but which rejects Christian theology in favor of devotion to pagan deities. I've done a lot of work on this with the New Druid Church project, which is ongoing, though the work gets bogged down sometimes.
2. Participate or carve out a new niche in the Independent Sacramental Movement, to help create a place for Christians who want the sacramental life without the horrors of the Roman hierarchy, or any other hierarchy. I've dipped my toes in here, too-- a friend of mine is an Independent bishop who has offered me ordination, and I've also been in contact with the Holy Celtic Church International for some time.
3. Western Rite Orthodoxy.
Each one of these has its problems, to whit:
1. The pagan deities I know best are those of the Druid revival. We get along famously, but they are not at all the same type of beings that the saints and angels of the church are. Not that they're bad or evil-- they aren't. But they are powers of Nature, and Nature emphatically does not have the same type of concerns that human beings do. Thus I've found that the Druid gods are very happy to bless my yard and garden, keep my home free from difficult spirits and so on, but when it comes to human relationships... it's really not their department.
2. Much of the independent movement is rooted in the Liberal Catholic tradition. (If you aren't familiar, that's a church founded by Theosophists in the early 20th century; nothing to do with liberal politics.) There is a lot to admire in that tradition, but I personally find their liturgy... well, the polite way to say it is "not appealing."
3. This is a viable option, but there's a lot to give up if you go that way. In a big, more or less mainstream Catholic church, a baptized and confirmed cradle Catholic can fly under the radar-- no one knows that you're doing the LBRP in your bedroom at night, and the priest isn't going to deny you the sacraments. Western Rite Orthodox churches are small, consist mostly of converts, and everyone knows each other-- if you go this route, there's no hiding your interest in occultism or whatever else. And like I said to Methylethyl below, there's also the matter of having to give up basically everything from Aquinas forward.
JMG likes to say that it's more important to make a choice than which choice you make. And he's 100% right-- I could hem and haw like this forever. But the fact is that, for me personally, I find it a very hard choice to make, to the point that I've been pursuing options 1 and 2 actively for several years now, while keeping 3 in the back of my mind.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2021-05-28 06:28 pm (UTC)Yes, this is exactly my view. The question that I'm always returning to is what to do about it. So far I've come up with three possible answers:
1. Create a new church which fills the need for devotion, beauty, magic and ritual, but which rejects Christian theology in favor of devotion to pagan deities. I've done a lot of work on this with the New Druid Church project, which is ongoing, though the work gets bogged down sometimes.
2. Participate or carve out a new niche in the Independent Sacramental Movement, to help create a place for Christians who want the sacramental life without the horrors of the Roman hierarchy, or any other hierarchy. I've dipped my toes in here, too-- a friend of mine is an Independent bishop who has offered me ordination, and I've also been in contact with the Holy Celtic Church International for some time.
3. Western Rite Orthodoxy.
Each one of these has its problems, to whit:
1. The pagan deities I know best are those of the Druid revival. We get along famously, but they are not at all the same type of beings that the saints and angels of the church are. Not that they're bad or evil-- they aren't. But they are powers of Nature, and Nature emphatically does not have the same type of concerns that human beings do. Thus I've found that the Druid gods are very happy to bless my yard and garden, keep my home free from difficult spirits and so on, but when it comes to human relationships... it's really not their department.
2. Much of the independent movement is rooted in the Liberal Catholic tradition. (If you aren't familiar, that's a church founded by Theosophists in the early 20th century; nothing to do with liberal politics.) There is a lot to admire in that tradition, but I personally find their liturgy... well, the polite way to say it is "not appealing."
3. This is a viable option, but there's a lot to give up if you go that way. In a big, more or less mainstream Catholic church, a baptized and confirmed cradle Catholic can fly under the radar-- no one knows that you're doing the LBRP in your bedroom at night, and the priest isn't going to deny you the sacraments. Western Rite Orthodox churches are small, consist mostly of converts, and everyone knows each other-- if you go this route, there's no hiding your interest in occultism or whatever else. And like I said to Methylethyl below, there's also the matter of having to give up basically everything from Aquinas forward.
JMG likes to say that it's more important to make a choice than which choice you make. And he's 100% right-- I could hem and haw like this forever. But the fact is that, for me personally, I find it a very hard choice to make, to the point that I've been pursuing options 1 and 2 actively for several years now, while keeping 3 in the back of my mind.