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ladytetra777) wrote2023-12-03 01:13 pm
ladytetra777) wrote2023-12-03 01:13 pm
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The Many Paths of the Independent Sacramental Movement, Ch. 3
The third chapter in Plummer's thesis sketches an early history of the modern independent sacramental movement through three roots: (i) heritage of the Western Church, (ii) heritage of the Eastern Church, and (iii) new priesthoods developed through direct experience in North America. Plummer notes at the start of the chapter how vital of a fixture priesthood is in independent sacramental communities, with some groups having the majority of its members ordained in some way. This theme continues with clergy that are repeatedly consecrated to further legitimize their role as clergy and consolidate multiple lineages to individuals. Here, I'll discuss these three historical strains in relation to the modern independent sacramental movement and against my own experiences.
The old Western Churches stem from several European groups, primarily Catholic, and largely stemming from a schism in Utrecht, what was then the Netherlands, in the 1700s. Bishop Cornelius Jansen's book Augustinus was charged as too theologically close to Luther and Calvin by other Catholics of the day, yet the Jansenist movement persisted with a dedicated following. Archbishop Pieter Codde refused to sign legal documents against Jansenism in 1702 and was deposed for it, leading to a Utrecht without a bishop after his death eight years later.
It would not be until 1719 that missionary Bishop Dominique-Marie Varlet would continue to perform confirmations in Utrecht. This church continued quietly until the First Vatican Council of the Roman Catholic Church in 1869, where the group would define papal infallibility as one of jurisdictional and doctrinal authority, leading to a schism across Western European churches. Old Catholicism would spread in reaction to papal infallibility and subsequent proclamations issued by the Vatican, serving as a theological backdrop in the face of differences prompted by rulings from the Vatican and later becoming the import of the Western Church unto the independent sacramental movement of today.
The Eastern Church would similarly spread its DNA to North America, with claims of independence from the papacy in the 1850s. Dominican French missionary Raymond Ferrette resigned his Catholic priesthood in favor of Protestantism, working with Presbyterians in Mesopotamia and Kurdistan. Again, similar to the Western Church, examples of practitioners like Ferrette are abound, with clergy changing their minds, clergy disagreeing with the Vatican, clergy expelled from orthodoxy, and then converting and functioning outside the purview of orthodoxy but still in service of God as Christians. This I believe is the key takeaway from the chapter: the differences that crop up as time moves forward and new generations practice in new ways, the seeds of new movements are sown, many of which splinter off from Catholic orthodoxy and add a new flower to the garden of the independent movement. Here is another lens by which the United States can be seen as a “melting pot”, as the adage goes.
The final group Plummer discusses in (iii) are the new North American priesthoods, some of which are rooted in traditional practices, and others in esoteric practices. In a group like the Evangelical Orthodox Church, the majority of which would join the Antiochian Archdiocese in the 1980s stateside, a blend of Protestant groups would then blend further into mainstream orthodoxy through joining the Antiochians. Here is Plummer’s discussion of multiple consecrations from the previous chapter coming back: individual clergy going through repeated consecrations are strengthening the legitimacy of their practice and stake to priesthood, but furthermore, events like these are tightening the community, which I see as necessary to heal a community torn by schism. The latter of these new American groups are practicing esoteric techniques in conjunction with worship as their spirituality. For example, Earl W. Blighton founded the Science of Man Church in 1961 stateside, doing so after claiming to experience inner contact with holy figures such as Jesus and Paul. This group still continues to operate, and does so with its apostolic succession originating from a man whose experience was not of a bishop laying hands on him, but of interior changes he then carried outward in the name of service.
Plummer is building upon his previous chapters in providing this detailed history of the independent sacramental movement. Each schism between groups results in fractures that sometimes reconcile with other splinters to synthesize a new congregational landscape. The Vatican revises its laws, some groups dissent, leave, and then revise their own practices independently. The conclusion is atomization of worship as we are seeing what Plummer claimed in the beginning of his dissertation: the variety in independent groups here is daunting because of how different their lineages are. The Gnostic Church falls outside of older traditions or mainstream Christian orthodoxy in that its lineage is largely predicated upon esoteric practices not unlike the Science of Man Church. Occult workings and ineffable visions serve as the impetus for these clergy to work and worship, as seen with Jules Doinel founding the Gnostic Church in France in 1890.
Significant to my own practice as an occultist and a Christian, there is a preestablished sense of routine, ie, a mixture of meditating and working from occult books (such as the Bible!) that inform my own experience of God in a sense that matches parts of all these groups and contrasts parts of all these groups. The starting point of “let there be light!” is still shared, and a belief in the validity of mystical experiences is shared with some, yet I am still local to my own geography and era in which I live. What I get out of reading Plummer is validation that Christianity is confusing, no one has an objectively “correct” approach, and that there is a real humanity in the continued effort in what is ultimately the face of the unknown.
The old Western Churches stem from several European groups, primarily Catholic, and largely stemming from a schism in Utrecht, what was then the Netherlands, in the 1700s. Bishop Cornelius Jansen's book Augustinus was charged as too theologically close to Luther and Calvin by other Catholics of the day, yet the Jansenist movement persisted with a dedicated following. Archbishop Pieter Codde refused to sign legal documents against Jansenism in 1702 and was deposed for it, leading to a Utrecht without a bishop after his death eight years later.
It would not be until 1719 that missionary Bishop Dominique-Marie Varlet would continue to perform confirmations in Utrecht. This church continued quietly until the First Vatican Council of the Roman Catholic Church in 1869, where the group would define papal infallibility as one of jurisdictional and doctrinal authority, leading to a schism across Western European churches. Old Catholicism would spread in reaction to papal infallibility and subsequent proclamations issued by the Vatican, serving as a theological backdrop in the face of differences prompted by rulings from the Vatican and later becoming the import of the Western Church unto the independent sacramental movement of today.
The Eastern Church would similarly spread its DNA to North America, with claims of independence from the papacy in the 1850s. Dominican French missionary Raymond Ferrette resigned his Catholic priesthood in favor of Protestantism, working with Presbyterians in Mesopotamia and Kurdistan. Again, similar to the Western Church, examples of practitioners like Ferrette are abound, with clergy changing their minds, clergy disagreeing with the Vatican, clergy expelled from orthodoxy, and then converting and functioning outside the purview of orthodoxy but still in service of God as Christians. This I believe is the key takeaway from the chapter: the differences that crop up as time moves forward and new generations practice in new ways, the seeds of new movements are sown, many of which splinter off from Catholic orthodoxy and add a new flower to the garden of the independent movement. Here is another lens by which the United States can be seen as a “melting pot”, as the adage goes.
The final group Plummer discusses in (iii) are the new North American priesthoods, some of which are rooted in traditional practices, and others in esoteric practices. In a group like the Evangelical Orthodox Church, the majority of which would join the Antiochian Archdiocese in the 1980s stateside, a blend of Protestant groups would then blend further into mainstream orthodoxy through joining the Antiochians. Here is Plummer’s discussion of multiple consecrations from the previous chapter coming back: individual clergy going through repeated consecrations are strengthening the legitimacy of their practice and stake to priesthood, but furthermore, events like these are tightening the community, which I see as necessary to heal a community torn by schism. The latter of these new American groups are practicing esoteric techniques in conjunction with worship as their spirituality. For example, Earl W. Blighton founded the Science of Man Church in 1961 stateside, doing so after claiming to experience inner contact with holy figures such as Jesus and Paul. This group still continues to operate, and does so with its apostolic succession originating from a man whose experience was not of a bishop laying hands on him, but of interior changes he then carried outward in the name of service.
Plummer is building upon his previous chapters in providing this detailed history of the independent sacramental movement. Each schism between groups results in fractures that sometimes reconcile with other splinters to synthesize a new congregational landscape. The Vatican revises its laws, some groups dissent, leave, and then revise their own practices independently. The conclusion is atomization of worship as we are seeing what Plummer claimed in the beginning of his dissertation: the variety in independent groups here is daunting because of how different their lineages are. The Gnostic Church falls outside of older traditions or mainstream Christian orthodoxy in that its lineage is largely predicated upon esoteric practices not unlike the Science of Man Church. Occult workings and ineffable visions serve as the impetus for these clergy to work and worship, as seen with Jules Doinel founding the Gnostic Church in France in 1890.
Significant to my own practice as an occultist and a Christian, there is a preestablished sense of routine, ie, a mixture of meditating and working from occult books (such as the Bible!) that inform my own experience of God in a sense that matches parts of all these groups and contrasts parts of all these groups. The starting point of “let there be light!” is still shared, and a belief in the validity of mystical experiences is shared with some, yet I am still local to my own geography and era in which I live. What I get out of reading Plummer is validation that Christianity is confusing, no one has an objectively “correct” approach, and that there is a real humanity in the continued effort in what is ultimately the face of the unknown.