Ecclesia Gnostica
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The Ecclesia Gnostica (Latin for The Gnostic Church) is a gnostic church organized in England and since 1959 in the United States originally under the name Pre-Nicene Gnostic Catholic Church.[1] It is centered in Los Angeles, California with parishes in Seattle, Washington, Portland, Oregon, Salt Lake City, Utah, Sedona, Arizona, and Oslo, Norway.[2][3]
It has a sister organization named the Gnostic Society, which also run the gnosis.org website on gnosticism. This organization is intended for studies of gnosticism, not religious services.
The bishop of the church is Stephan A. Hoeller, a notable Gnostic who has written extensively on Gnosticism and Jungian psychology.
The Ecclesia Gnostica celebrates five initiatory sacraments as listed in the Gospel of Philip: Baptism, Chrism or Confirmation, Eucharist, Redemption (sacrament) and Bride-Chamber. With the additional two sustaining sacraments of Holy Orders, and Anointing of the Sick. (The sacraments of Penance and Matrimony, are considered to be secondary sacraments having been substituted for those of Redemption and Bride-Chamber.)[4]
The sacrament of Redemption is designed to deliver a person from the shackles of the Demiurge and the Archons. The effects traditionally held by the Gnostic Church are: (1) It remits all of one's faults and gives one the strength not to commit grave offenses; (2) It perfects in one the change produced by the Baptism of Water; (3) It makes one the temple of the Holy Spirit; (4) By its effects practitioners become complete Christians;(5) It renews the link between one's soul and the Twin Angel or Deific Double from whom one has been separated at one's descent into the Archonic realm; (6) Finally, it assures one of one's liberation from the cycle of birth and death and thus frees one of the necessity of future embodiments on earth.[5]
The sacrament of Bride-Chamber is used in order to seal the effects of the sacrament of redemption, uniting the soul of the practitioner with that of the twin angel or Deific Double and similarly also unites the soul with God in the Fullness (Pleroma).[6]
[edit] References
- ^ http://gnosis.org/ecclesia/ecclesia.htm 2008-03-26
- ^ http://www.paranoiamagazine.com/hoeller.html retrieved 2007-08-07
- ^ http://gnosis.org/eghome.html retrieved 2008-03-26
- ^ http://gnosis.org/ecclesia/catechism.htm#LESSON%20IX retrieved 2008-03-26
- ^ http://gnosis.org/ecclesia/catechism.htm#LESSON%20X retrieved 2008-03-26
- ^ http://gnosis.org/ecclesia/catechism.htm#LESSON%20X retrieved 2008-03-26
