The Many Paths of the Independent Sacramental Movement, Ch. 2

Plummer uses the second chapter of his dissertation to review the scant preexisting academic literature studying the independent sacramental movement. He notes that some studies, including those by Moss and Leech, effectively gloss over the movement without any substantial takeaways outside the purview of orthodoxy, with one study by Anson literally comparing the movement to "Alice in Wonderland." There are existing studies on singular independent groups like the Mariavites or the Polish National Catholic Church (PNCC) which are substantially useful, but not as far-reaching in scope as the work Plummer presents. The case being made here is clear: literature that deeply engages with the sacramental movement as a whole and offers nuanced takeaways on its practice, history, and succession is lacking as of the time Plummer finishes his work.

Growing up under the rooves of mainstream churches, anything that fell outside the expectation of orthodoxy was maligned if not outright deemed demonic, so I found myself unsurprised at the narrow range of academic coverage on the sacramental movement. Even Unitarian churches, a denomination I would not encounter firsthand until undergraduate life, were considered too fast and loose to receive recognition by one of my church elders in the same way a Protestant or Methodist church would as legitimate servants of God. Gnosticism is even further from mainstream organized Christianity, and unlike Unitarianism, I have never found a practicing Gnostic sect I could walk to. Being assigned this text in a seminary for Gnostics, I felt that having the expectation I would not see details studies on groups like the Gnostics in the current era made sense; however, I was in no way prepared for the breadth of groups Plummer covers here.

Booklets like "Old Catholic: History, Ministry, Faith, and Mission" or "The Wandering Bishops" mentioned in this chapter circulated as assistance for those looking to participate in the independent movement must have been integral to fostering community in a pre-Internet age. Finding a PDF of Keizer's "Bishops" reveals a short text staking the legitimacy of Anglican Episcopal orders, a history of church relations, and even a brief directory of independent clergy, many of whom were alive and practicing at the time of Keizer's initial publication in 1976. To me, this reads like an analogue to texts like "Principia Discordia" or "Angel Tech;" DIY, completely unaffiliated with anything corporate, and most importantly, effective. I can learn about energy work from "Tech" in the same way I can learn about history in "Bishops:" the value in reading does not come from the ethos of a large dynasty, but in that its contents are unavailable almost anywhere else. Keizer says yes, Christianity extends far beyond the mainstream and he offers a brief survey of where it can go in a short pamphlet.

By finishing the second chapter in my initial reading, I was excited to learn more. The tension between orthodoxy and independent clergy felt palpable; as if the human-judged legitimacy of practice has a tangible affect on the relationship of that practitioner to God and that these discrepancies are severe enough to differentiate a Christian from a non-Christian. Where does Gnosticism fit in with all this, I wonder, with dispute over the existence of some of these sects like the Cathars of antiquity. Clearly, Gnostic sects still exist in modernity, but what do they look like in a world after the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls?

The third chapter on the roots of the sacramental movement will begin to ground these questions, as that chapter is the subject of my next post.