wpeb.jpg (32274 bytes)The Liberal Catholic Church

wpe7.jpg (9006 bytes)
A tri-annual magazine exploring the deeper aspects of religious thought, experience and practice in the world today

back home up next

"Know it well - Love was His Meaning"

Charles Mugleston, England

(Title quote from Mother Julian of Norwich, England 1342-1429 who Thomas Merton once described as 'The Mystic of Mystics')

All sounds recoil thence, where speculation has no room, nor does the mind penetrate there. The liberated is not long or small or round or triangular... he is not black... or white... he is without body, without contact of matter, he is not feminine or masculine or neuter; he perceives, he knows, but there is no analogy whereby to know the nature of the liberated soul; its essence is without form; there is no condition of the unconditioned.

Mahavira

"For those who love - time is eternity..." gentle, rhythmic application of prayer, meditation and contemplation brings self-verification of Spiritually illuminating and prophetic statements such as the above by Vardhamana Mahavira (c. 599-527 B.C.) the last of the Jain Teachers and an elder contemporary of The Buddha.

Its essential message is timeless, but its prophetic message very timely, being offered as a gesture of love to all Liberal Catholics who are coming to the GES-12, and those that are not, for their generous consideration, hoping that its healing insights will help forge a new, deep and beautiful Unity within the Church as it prepares to embrace the New Horizons that lie ahead.

Providence leads and we must follow. Providence is the Logos of Wisdom Herself. Providence gave birth to this ground-breaking Church through Bishop James I. Wedgwood and, most interesting to relate, his unique Chalice -Golden in hue bearing a turquoise blue Egyptian Scarab on its base, seven amethysts around the central knob and open Lotus blossoms around the bowl- though once sadly leaking, is now being repaired - renewed. Here is synchronicity indeed, symbolic of the state of the Church no less -a leaky Chalice is a Church losing vision and a Church losing people, but a Chalice restored is a Church renewing its vision and regaining people- serving its sole reason for existence as the body and mouthpiece of Christ: "Behold, I make all things new." Radical renewal is the Way of The God of Surprises: "This is the lila (play) of God who demonstrates different Ideals to suit different times" as Sri Ramakrishna saw very clearly. Thus one has to have an eye and an ear open to Providence, working closely hand in Theurgic hand to effectively implement Its changes and then, as Mother Julian of Norwich says: "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well." But, if we do not look and listen and learn, then as Evelyn Underhill says: "The Divine Light strikes the soul broad awake; rends our dreams; shows us where we are, what we are, and often that is very bitter knowledge."

Bishops, Priests, Deacons, Sub-deacons, Deaconesses, those in Minor Orders and Laity, Mystics in the Making one and all - we are all called to receive and give what the still small voice, or, the writing writ large on the wall is conveying to us. As recognised for instance in the wise Rule of St. Benedict: "Now the reason why we have said that ALL should be called to Council, is that God often reveals what is better to the younger." (Chapter 3)

Loves Mysterious Alchemy Transforms All Things Into Itself.

Love eternally draws all things, wisely and effectively to Itself and thus we become At-One with The One. Providence is now asking us to move on towards a greater understanding and living symbolic expression of Itself as an All-inclusive Oneness before the Altar of the Most High God - as a Living Mirror of The One Who IS. That means purely and simply Women Bishops, Priests, Deacons, Sub-deacons, women in Minor Orders standing alongside their male counterparts. Is not the Largest View, The Largesse of God, fully loving our neighbours as ourselves and that indeed, both inside and outside the Christian Communion?

Love conquers ALL, works through ALL Transforming ALL - so ALL should represent It. Love is unstoppable: "My Word will accomplish that for which I send It out." Here is the Voice of love, as yet so little intuited as to all It implies.

Love, unconditional love "…for there is no condition of the unconditioned..." will therefore have Its Golden Perfect Day, individually and collectively, will be represented at Its Altar by ALL who freely, humbly and fully Identify with IT.

For...

"When you make the two one,
and when you make the inner as the outer
and the outer as the inner
and the above as the below,
and when you make the male and female
into a single One,
so that the male will not be male
and the female not be female --
then you shall enter the Kingdom."

The Gospel according to Thomas - Logion 22

Here is The Mystic Vision - Gods Full Circle: To see God in all things and all things in God.