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ladytetra777As Plummer details across this chapter, leadership in the independent movement is far from what is seen in standard orthodoxy. Many mainstream groups do not ordain women or LGBT+ persons, and those seeking a position of clergy may have greater opportunities to serve in an independent group than with a group refusing their ordination on the basis of background. Plummer states that many independent groups are majority clergy; this phenomenon results in part from potential clergy barred on the basis of background. He offers a comparison to the Quakers, saying that like the Quakers, many independent groups abolish the laity, not the clergy, in their congregational composition. In this chapter, Plummer examines who is ordained in the independent movement, and how their practice and training differs from orthodoxy.
Ordination in independent group typically has different criteria than orthodoxy. As previously mentioned, women and LGBT+ persons can be ordained to serve within the independent movement, but so can occultists seeking a directly magickal practice within a congregational setting. Jules Doinel’s revival of Gnostic Christianity in the 1800s lit the fire for further gnostic movements to follow, connecting formal liturgy to ritual magick. I am reminded again of Crowley’s Gnostic Mass here, simultaneously written to be a formal liturgy and an intentional working of ceremonial magick. The mingling of these forms is a feature of some independent groups have, but I have never seen in organized orthodoxy. Yes, a writer like Michelle Belanger will call a mainstream church service as a working of magick in the Psychic Vampire Codex, but then offer the caveat that this magick is directionless. The difference I see here is in the intentionality.
The daily minutia of an independent clergyperson shares one trait with ordination: heavy variability. Plummer notes groups like Spiritus Christi, ranging from three paid clergy against its over 1,000 congregation to the All Saints Cathedral with a higher proportion of clergy to laity present during service. As mentioned in previous chapters, there are even the solo practitioners, who quite literally have a one to one ratio of clergy to congregation size, unique in how the solo approach opens up liturgy for customization and expression beyond what a large group *could* feasibly allow given its size. This is to say daily experience, ranging from size of laity worked with to pay, if there even is any, will vary heavily pending on the group and that there is no standard to expect when considering the independent movement as a whole.
The third aspect Plummer explores here is the training of these independent clergy, and this follows the theme of the preceding paragraphs: experience is prone to variability. Plummer corroborates critics of the independent movement who claim independent clergy is untrained at best and ineffective at worst, citing that yes, he has also met clergy following new age practices, just as he has met clergy who were trained and then ordained in less than a week. While some of these clergypeople can be successful, the broader picture is more than just “some clergy are trained in a short period of time.” I can attest to this, as I’m writing for a seminary program that I know will not be completed in this year or the next one.
The through-line here is clear: the independent movement in its splintering from orthodoxy leaves room to grow in varied, unexplored, and unexpected directions. People previously banned from ordination, or people seeking to fuse liturgy with occultism can have a place within this movement. People who go through seminary may have credentials equal to those who were trained in a day, and people who have a practical life as clergy may have the same title as a person with a day job reading a sacred text on public transit. For me, the point is that so much of mainstream orthodoxy is untapped, that the potential for what our species can use these sacred texts and tools for is simply greater than I have conceived of. I have been so beholden to classical books in my occult studies, but I am made to think of chaos magick here. There may be an “exact” formula for executing magick according to Stephen Skinner, but I don’t think a chaos magician will see that formula as much beyond a series of correspondences and a vehicle to move the mind. I know what works from the magickal texts I’ve practiced out of for me, but if I am to learn from Plummer here, it’s that I have known what works for me *so far* as a necessary distinction to make.
Ordination in independent group typically has different criteria than orthodoxy. As previously mentioned, women and LGBT+ persons can be ordained to serve within the independent movement, but so can occultists seeking a directly magickal practice within a congregational setting. Jules Doinel’s revival of Gnostic Christianity in the 1800s lit the fire for further gnostic movements to follow, connecting formal liturgy to ritual magick. I am reminded again of Crowley’s Gnostic Mass here, simultaneously written to be a formal liturgy and an intentional working of ceremonial magick. The mingling of these forms is a feature of some independent groups have, but I have never seen in organized orthodoxy. Yes, a writer like Michelle Belanger will call a mainstream church service as a working of magick in the Psychic Vampire Codex, but then offer the caveat that this magick is directionless. The difference I see here is in the intentionality.
The daily minutia of an independent clergyperson shares one trait with ordination: heavy variability. Plummer notes groups like Spiritus Christi, ranging from three paid clergy against its over 1,000 congregation to the All Saints Cathedral with a higher proportion of clergy to laity present during service. As mentioned in previous chapters, there are even the solo practitioners, who quite literally have a one to one ratio of clergy to congregation size, unique in how the solo approach opens up liturgy for customization and expression beyond what a large group *could* feasibly allow given its size. This is to say daily experience, ranging from size of laity worked with to pay, if there even is any, will vary heavily pending on the group and that there is no standard to expect when considering the independent movement as a whole.
The third aspect Plummer explores here is the training of these independent clergy, and this follows the theme of the preceding paragraphs: experience is prone to variability. Plummer corroborates critics of the independent movement who claim independent clergy is untrained at best and ineffective at worst, citing that yes, he has also met clergy following new age practices, just as he has met clergy who were trained and then ordained in less than a week. While some of these clergypeople can be successful, the broader picture is more than just “some clergy are trained in a short period of time.” I can attest to this, as I’m writing for a seminary program that I know will not be completed in this year or the next one.
The through-line here is clear: the independent movement in its splintering from orthodoxy leaves room to grow in varied, unexplored, and unexpected directions. People previously banned from ordination, or people seeking to fuse liturgy with occultism can have a place within this movement. People who go through seminary may have credentials equal to those who were trained in a day, and people who have a practical life as clergy may have the same title as a person with a day job reading a sacred text on public transit. For me, the point is that so much of mainstream orthodoxy is untapped, that the potential for what our species can use these sacred texts and tools for is simply greater than I have conceived of. I have been so beholden to classical books in my occult studies, but I am made to think of chaos magick here. There may be an “exact” formula for executing magick according to Stephen Skinner, but I don’t think a chaos magician will see that formula as much beyond a series of correspondences and a vehicle to move the mind. I know what works from the magickal texts I’ve practiced out of for me, but if I am to learn from Plummer here, it’s that I have known what works for me *so far* as a necessary distinction to make.