Universal Gnostic Church: Another Bishop

I'm quite startled, so soon after announcing Claire Schosser's formal recognition as a bishop of the Universal Gnostic Church, to announce the appearance of another UGC bishop on the scene. No, I didn't consecrate anyone: one of the other bishops John Gilbert trained, ordained, and consecrated back in the day has surfaced, and agreed to become part of this small but burgeoning revival of the UGC tradition. Because he lives in the mountains of northern Georgia and has to keep the more esoteric dimensions of his work on the quiet side, he prefers to go by his sacramental title, Tau Palamas, rather than his legal name. That's him on the left.

(Tau is a title, by the way, not a first name. Ordinary Christian bishops like to put a cross in front of their names -- for example, if one John Smith were to be made a bishop, he might write his name afterwards as +John Smith. Bishops in the Gnostic tradition in France and the Francophone world in the nineteenth century started replacing the cross with the word Tau, because the Tau cross is the Gnostic cross -- though oddly, the Franciscans also use it. That's a Tau cross below on the right.  So if you encounter a bishop who uses a sacramental name and it has Tau in front of it, you've got a Gnostic. It's not required to take such a name, but many Gnostic bishops do. I have one, though I rarely use it: Tau Silvanus.)

Tau Palamas, as I was saying, is a published author as well as a bishop of the Gnosis. His focus is esoteric sacramental Christianity, and he is strongly influenced by the classic mystics and mages of the Eastern Christian tradition, as well as by Hermeticism and Zen Buddhism -- a very classic sort of mix for a UGC bishop! He can be contacted, for those interested in his work, at taupalamas at gmail dot the usual.

So there are three of us now. If this keeps up we can call a council and elect a presiding archbishop, and the UGC will be up and running for real.