As this World Looks at this Church of Antioch

‡ Most Rev. H. A. Spruit

A: What Do They See About Us?

(1) That we are an ancient spiritual organism, more than an organization, tracing its history to a period before time began. By inference we see that we got our start from Melchisedek, contemporary of Abraham. By documentation we go back to Jesus through seventeen lines of succession and so recognized by the Christian establishment which has proven our Sacraments and Orders valid.

(2) That we are lineal successors to Traditions initiated by Saints Peter and Paul at Antioch, Syria, in 38 A.D.

(3) Since the term "catholic" was first used at Antioch, so we use it, not as a stricture hobbling us to a hidehound past, but in its original meaning as dynamically oriented to the Center of Life by the Individual Person. Its translation of the word "catholic" is: "according to the whole, holistic."

(4) That we are a viable spiritual movement with approximately 200 Clergy, Bishops, Priests and Ministers to be found all over the world. (5) That we passed by the artificial cleavages that divide the body of humankind. The God who has made of one blood the nations of the world, sees us strong and united at the highest levels of ecclesiastical life in a government which unites the Matriarchate and the Patriarchate and at the parish level where women and men are equals.

B: What Do They See About Our Church?

(1) That we are not a church type of thing mired in a maze of organizational clutter, a creedal abomination seeking mindless submission to dead issues. We see churches past and present merely as points of departure from which we advance toward patterns of Divine extension, portions of which were once known and are now being recovered, and which were once known obscured by an apostate Christianity.

(2) That churches as now constituted are failing to meet the psychological, temporal and spiritual needs of the day, many of them navigating the high seas of God in crude sailing ships. We respond to these deficiencies not in negative criticism, but by offering positive alternatives that offer a high sense of personal and philosophical integrity as well as spiritual security. We know that in order to survive, the priorities of the Space Age are binding.

(3) That we aim seriously at professional expertise and spiritual capacity so as to be co-operators with God in evolving a humanity adequate to continue the evolutionary thrust.

(4) That while we accept the early traditions of the Church of Antioch, which we are, we operate in the manner of an "Order of Christian Mystics."

(5) That love is the fundamental law of this Church.

C: What Do They See About Our Philosophy?

(1) That our focus is neither on Theology nor on a Transcendent Deity. Theology killed much of the Church. Our focus is on the individual who is the Repository of an Immanent God. Our mission is to give maximum assistance to persons in the recovery of the Inner Divinity, a position we were created to assume.

(2) That our Insight derives from two Sources, a lesser and a greater. The lesser one derives from the Holy Scriptures. The greater one proceeds from that Inner Sense of Knowing, which is the result of personal, sacramental and spiritual growth, and which in some circles is known as GNOSIS.

(3) That since many embodiments are needed to reach ultimate evolutionary goals, the search for personal salvation is a misdirected drive. We seek liberation from all that restrains our growth and our maturation in understanding.

(4) That it is the function of the Church, above all else. to help us to the reality of this secret.

(5) That the Christ, the oldest and most mature Spirit ever to reincarnate on Earth, personally directs us and this Church. This Christ came as Jesus to Earth to reinstate in human awareness the Holy Spirit as the Source of Energy by which evolution progresses.

D: What Do They See About Our Method?

(1) That we are a Sacramental Church, using a modality of Worship based on exacting Principles of Theurgy and Spiritual Science.

(2) That we are committed to halt the erosion of the moral quality of life to the adherence of the Seven Principles of Morality.

3) That we use exacting spiritual and psychological tools in a professional manner in assisting growing persons in their quest for evolvement. We do not approach anyone with a sense of supenority, but as equals and as fellow pilgrims.

(4) That the method of prayer, scientifically used is our greatest resource. It is the method by which heaven and earth may become united, in which the inhabitants of material and spiritual worlds learn to consciously interact with each other in the solution of the problems of life. We understand Prayer as the bonding process used by millions of beings of light in which they unite their insights with those of God, of humanity and themselves into purposeful interaction of the forces of life.

--The Most Rev. H. Adrian Spruit, Patriarch
Church of Antioch