The Universal Gnostic Church: Prospectus

[ecosophia]

Ever since I started posting material on the traditions I inherited from John Gilbert, some readers have expressed interest in the Universal Gnostic Church (UGC), the religious body at the center of those traditions. After much reflection, I've decided to go ahead and set out the course of training that leads to ordination in the UGC. One of the reasons that this took quite a bit of reflection is that I've had bad experiences with this in the past. A lot of people treat ordination to the priesthood or priestesshood as a matter of getting a certificate that allows them to tell other people what to do. I've dealt with people who said all the right things to my face, and then turned around the moment they got ordained, and jumped up on a self-manufactured pulpit to play little tin god to anyone who would listen.

Ordination in the UGC is not an excuse to pretend to be a little tin god. It's not a license to tell anybody else what to do. It's a tradition of spiritual practice, right action, and the pursuit of personal experience of spiritual realities. Pursued in the proper spirit, it's also a whale of a lot of work. Consecration as a bishop -- the rite that permits you to ordain and consecrate others -- is even more work. The prospectus below will give you some idea of what is involved. In the weeks ahead, I'll clarify the rest of the details. First of all, though, we should review some history.

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The Universal Gnostic Church was founded in 1952 by Revs. Omar Zasluchy, Owen Symanski, and Matthew Shaw, three ministers of the Universalist Church in Pennsylvania who disagreed with their church’s decision to amalgamate with the Unitarian Church. They were inspired by what was then known of the ancient Gnostics, and hoped to combine the open-minded and tolerant attitudes of their Universalist heritage with the Gnostic focus on individual spiritual experience. Zasluchy and Shaw arranged to be consecrated to the historic episcopacy of the Christian church by Bishop Robert Monroe of the Liberal Catholic Church, an independent sacramental church allied with the Theosophical movement, while Symansky received consecration in two related lineages. The UGC was not exclusively Christian, despite this—it revered the Divine which, according to its teachings, was behind all religions.

While Bishops Zasluchy and Symansky remained in Pennsylvania, Shaw moved to Colorado. There he became an associate of the occult teacher Dr. Juliet Ashley, who had her own contacts with the UGC and had received consecration from Bishop Symansky in his lineages. In 1984 Shaw and Ashley both consecrated several new bishops of the UGC, John Gilbert among them. Later on, John and another UGC bishop, Betty Reeves, received consecration sub conditione from Warren Smith, a Gnostic bishop whose lineage included the Antioch-Malabar succession and the French Gnostic succession. (See note 1 below)

(Consecration sub conditione is an arrangement whereby a bishop whose lineage is in question receives an additional consecration from a bishop whose lineage is beyond doubt.)

The UGC had its own seminary, Universal Seminary, which prepared students for the priesthood or priestesshood. It had two monastic orders of its own, the Order of the Universal Monk and the Order of the Universal Nun, and several bishops of the UGC founded additional monastic  orders. For several decades in the late twentieth and very early twenty-first centuries, it was active in its own quiet way, with congregations on at least three continents.

Bishops of the UGC were permitted and even encouraged to found their own churches if they wanted to depart from the UGC’s own admittedly quirky traditions. One of these, the Gnostic Celtic Church, is still active today; it functions as the religious branch of the Ancient Order of Druids in America (AODA), another order in which John was an initiate. Several other churches that trace their lineage through the UGC also appear to be active today. To the best of my knowledge, however, the UGC itself went dormant nearly a decade before John’s death and has remained inactive since that time. As far as I know, similarly, the monastic bodies founded by the Church have become inactive.

This seems unfortunate to me. Odd though the UGC unquestionably was, it had its own lively traditions and teachings, and its forthright affirmation of individual freedom in the quest for union with the Divine seems even more relevant today than before. I was properly consecrated by John Gilbert and two other UGC bishops, Albert Stubblebine and Rima Laibow, in 2004, and I am therefore fully qualified to revive the tradition.  The one question I have is whether there are individuals willing to put in the necessary work to qualify as priests, priestesses, and bishops in the UGC tradition—for this is not something that is passed on lightly.

Belief or Gnosis?

The UGC is distinct from many currently popular religious organizations in that it does not expect its members or clergy to have some specific set of beliefs—that is, opinions about spiritual matters. That is what distinguishes Gnosticism from other religious movements. At the heart of Gnosticism is gnosis:  that is to say, direct personal experience of spiritual realities. Historian of religions Bentley Layton has proposed that the word gnosis might best be translated “acquaintance”—it’s not book-learning, much less repeating some set of opinions by rote. It’s the real but elusive kind of knowledge you get when you are actually, personally acquainted with someone or something.

Gnosis doesn’t just show up for the asking. Personal spiritual practice is needed to develop the capacities of body, mind, and heart that will bring you into direct contact with spiritual realities. The Universal Gnostic Church thus puts personal spiritual practice at the heart of its path.  

Gnostic traditions vary in their understanding of gnosis. Some insist that only certain people are capable of personal experience of spiritual realities. Some insist that the quest for that experience necessarily involves rejecting the material world or physical embodiment. The UGC does not accept either of these claims, and its name reflects this.  The UGC tradition proclaims a universal gnosis—that is to say, a gnosis that is available to all who seek it. The UGC tradition also proclaims a gnosis of the universe—that is to say, a gnosis that can be experienced in and through nature and the material world.

Requirements for Ordination

The UGC in its heyday highly encouraged any member who was interested in the church and its traditions to enter the minor orders of Cleric, Doorkeeper, Reader, Healer, and Acolyte. A set of papers, the Gnostic Lessons, were circulated among members, and included ceremonies of commitment by which members not in contact with an active congregation could receive the minor orders and develop their own spiritual life. Ordination to the priesthood and priestesshood, on the other hand, was a considerably more demanding and selective process.  The requirements for ordination varied from time to time—John was not the most organized or consistent teacher!—but he had no time for people who simply wanted to collect a certificate giving them a supposed claim to unearned authority.

This approach seems wise to me. The following qualifications therefore must be met before a candidate is qualified for ordination as a priest or priestess in the Universal Gnostic Church:

1. Completion of study in an affiliated tradition. The UGC in its heyday was associated with several initiatory bodies, which I have already revived. Two programs of study I have developed draw on the same material and either of these may also be used to qualify. If you intend to seek ordination as a priest or priestess, you must therefore complete one of the following courses of study.

Traditional Orders:
•    Ancient Order of Druids in America—initiation into the third degree.
•    Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose—self-initiation into the 6° Initiate grade.
•    Modern Order of Essenes—attunement as a Master Healer.
•    Order of Spiritual Alchemy—acceptance into the third level of the order.

Additional Options:
•    The Dolmen Arch course—completion of the Gwyddon Rhydd grade.
•    Golden Section Fellowship—completion of the three degrees of the Fellowship.(see note 2 below)

You do not have to complete one of these before you begin your studies for the priesthood or priestesshood, but you must complete this before ordination. This is non-negotiable. Other courses of study will not substitute for one of the listed options; don’t even ask. Please note also that I will ask you to document your studies.

2. Establishing and maintaining a personal spiritual practice. The UGC clergy is not a place for armchair mystics.  Daily practice of a set of spiritual disciplines related to the UGC tradition is part of the training for the priesthood or priestesshood. This can include developing ceremonies and practices for a group or congregation, but this must always be secondary to your own personal practice.

3. Completion of the Gnostic Lessons.  These are included already in the study program for the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose, the Modern Order of Essenes, and the Golden Section Fellowship. If you choose some other option, the Gnostic Lessons—which will be republished over the weeks ahead—should be studied and practiced. Here again, you can expect to document your studies.

4. Studies for the Priesthood or Priestesshood.  The traditional UGC training program focused on one of the classics of American spiritual literature, The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James. You will need a copy. This book has passed out of copyright and can be downloaded free of charge from many online archives:  for example, here. However, you may find it helpful to get a printed copy, because your studies will involve very close attention to this text; I wore out a copy during my studies. This was the book that inspired the three founders of the Universal Gnostic Church in their work. It presents spirituality as a deeply personal matter rooted in individual experience and accessible to anyone.

Two other books are required for your studies:

•    Practical Mysticism: A Book for Normal People by Evelyn Underhill. This is a concise and thoughful summary of traditional Western mysticism, more accessible than the author’s earlier and more diffuse volume Mysticism. Practical Mysticism is also out of copyright and may be downloaded free of charge from online archives:  for example, here. 

•    The Many Paths of the Independent Sacramental Movement by John Plummer. This is the one really worthwhile study of the broader movement of independent churches to which the UGC belongs, written by a participant in the movement. It is still in copyright, but may be purchased through the publisher, Apocryphile Press, or from  Bookshop.org.

Beyond this, you will need to study three (or more) holy scriptures or books of sacred narratives from three different religious traditions. Since the Gnostic Universal Church sees the Divine as being present in all religions, its clergy must be conversant with more than one set of scriptures. You may choose any scriptures or books of sacred narratives that you wish. Among the many options are:

•    The New Testament
•    The Bhagavad-Gita
•    The Dhammapada
•    The Tao Te Ching
•    The Kojiki
•    The Theogony of Hesiod and the Orphic Hymns (count as one scripture)
•    The Corpus Hermeticum
•    The Elder Edda
•    The Mabinogion
•    The Popol Vuh
•    The Book of Mormon
•    Oahspe

This list should be seen as suggestive rather than restrictive, and you should feel free to choose scriptures or sacred narratives that are not listed here.

You will be reading each of these volumes—the three books and the three scriptures—many times, and you will be expected to write about your thoughts, feelings, and responses to the ideas in them in quite some detail.

5. Ordination. In order to become a priest or priestess in the UGC you will have to arrange to visit me in Rhode Island in order to receive the sacrament of ordination.  This can only be done in person, and only a bishop can confer ordination. Once there are more bishops in the UGC, this will be a little easier, but for now the situation is what it is.

I’m well aware that this is a very demanding set of requirements, and many people who might otherwise be interested will be unable to complete them. That cannot be helped. I’ve tried to make the traditions I received from John Gilbert as accessible as possible, but in each case there are requirements that have to be met, and the requirements for ordination in the UGC are more challenging than any other. This will take you roughly as much work as you would expect to put into getting a divinity degree and ordination from a more conventional seminary—which is exactly the point, of course.

Requirements for Consecration

If you seek to become a bishop in the UGC, another set of requirements comes into play.

1. Ordination to the priesthood or priestesshood. You have to be a priest or priestess before you can become a bishop. It really is that simple.

2. Continued development of a personal spiritual practice. If it’s essential for a priest or priestess to pursue an active spiritual life involving regular practice, it is even more important for a bishop to do so. The bishops of the UGC are the bearers of the tradition—a tradition of practice, not of dogma.  It must be kept living through ongoing personal experience.

3. Completion of study in a second affiliated tradition.  The bishops of the UGC were custodians of the entire body of tradition associated with the church. Most of us learned all, or nearly all, of the various teachings John had to offer. I won’t require that—though I recommend it!—but you will need to do the work listed above in at least two such traditions before you can be consecrated.

4. Significant independent contributions to the UGC tradition. The standard way to qualify for consecration as a bishop back in the day was to take the teachings, come up with some personal way to work with them, and teach this to others in some organized concept. I qualified by taking on the task of reviving the Ancient Order of Druids in America and developing the very sparse material John had inherited into a fairly complete system of Druid nature spirituality.  Other bishops pursued their own visions in their own way. The point is that a bishop should do something personal and creative with the heritage of the UGC tradition.

5. Consecration. Once again, this has to be done in person, so you will have to visit me in Rhode Island after all the other requirements have been met so that you can receive the sacrament of consecration.

So here you have it. Next week I plan on posting a paper on the UGC’s apostolic succession. After that I’ll post material on the UGC's monastic dimension, then the six Gnostic Lessons, and then some material on how to approach the required reading. After that?  It’s up to you.

Note 1: I had previously believed, based on incomplete sources, that John was consecrated sub conditione by Herman Spruitt of the Church of Antioch. The lineage is the same in either case; Warren Smith was consecrated by Lewis Keiser, who was consecrated by Herman Spruitt.

Note 2: As of this writing the full sequence of degrees in the GSF has not yet been published; I hope to complete that process within the next few years.

Comments

[ecosophia]

Sure. That means regular practice in one of the affiliated traditions listed in the post -- the Ancient Order of Druids in America, the Dolmen Arch, the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose, the Golden Section Fellowship, the Modern Order of Essenes, or the Order of Spiritual Alchemy -- or some other practice based on one or more of these and drawing on the specific practices and teachings of the UGC tradition.

[(Anonymous)]

Gotcha, thanks.

I misunderstood you there - I thought it refers to personal spiritual practice, e.g. prayer, etc. (Was wondering what kind of spiritual regimen the UGC prescribes for their priests: three one-hour prayer sessions a day? Fasting and public chanting? Self-flagellation? ;-) )

Hm… So besides some general practice of, e.g., the GSF type, the UGC doesn‘t expect their priests and bishops to have any form of personal worship, or personal contact with deity or the divine - that‘s all up to the individual, even whether it happens at all? That‘s interesting.

Milkyway

[ecosophia]

The UGC does not prescribe spiritual regimens to anybody. It's all about walking your own personal path toward the Divine. I'm tempted to ask, "What part of Gnostic don't you understand?" ;-)