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Category: Announcements
Trish Nowland ordained to the Diaconate
On 30 July, Rev Ms Trish Nowland was ordained a deacon by the presiding bishop of the Gnostic Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, the Most Reverend Christine Payne-Towler at Bishop Christine’s home in southern Washington state.
On her return to Sydney, Trish will take up dual affiliation with the AJC, allowing her to serve as a deacon in both churches.
The role of a deacon is to proclaim the gospel, to assist the priest or bishop at the altar, to visit and care for the community. Our prayers go with Deacon Trish in her new ministry.
Contemplative Eucharist
As we prepare ourselves to enter the season of Lent, please consider yourself thoroughly invited to join with us this Sunday evening at 6:30pm, to take part in the liturgy of the Contemplative Eucharist at 15 Francis St, Darlinghurst.
The intent of the readings across these weeks that lead into Lent circle around the characteristics of the Holy Spirit, as encountered in both orthodox and heterodox scriptures, and indeed, in our own still moments, where we might attune closely to our senses, and realise more deeply the treasures of quiet contemplation.
Wisdom, sanctification and the purifying fire of love are the qualities which we are graced to witness in every encounter, in every breathing moment where we presence the divine energy of the Trinity, described in orthodoxy as the unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, recognised perhaps as the hypostasis (unified essence) of the Invisible One, Christ and Barbelo in apocryphal sources, particularly in the Apocryphon of John.
As the readings call us to partake in the intermingling of Sophia, wisdom, with Barbelo, the first thought, so too are you deeply welcomed to come and share with us in the Contemplative Liturgy, led by Reverend Tim Mansfield, to renew and invigorate the subtle, still presences of each of these qualities that are indeed with us in every moment, every hour, every encounter, with each other.
Readings:
The Holy Spirit As Sanctifier
http://www.gnosis.org/ecclesia/lect023.htm
The Apocryphon of John
http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/apocjn.html
Contemplative Eucharist – 6:30pm
The service this Sunday will be the Contemplative Liturgy, written by our very own Reverend Tim Mansfield. The service alternates engagement and stillness, provoking a meditative attitude and the cultivation of deeper perceptions. The service features prayer and contemplative practice, including a period of silent meditation, as well as sharing of the Body and the Blood, in the form of bread and wine.
We follow the service with some conversation, hot drinks and snacks. Please come along and join the discussions, sharing in fellowship and hospitality.
Trish Nowland
The congregation at St Uriel’s meets on the fourth Sunday of the month at 6:30pm at:
The Unitarian Centre
15 Francis St
Darlinghurst, NSW
Rector: Father Tim Mansfield
Ritual of the Bridal Chamber
‘If someone experiences Trust and Consciousness in the heart of the embrace,
they become a child of light.
If Someone does not receive these,
it is because they remain attached to what they know;
when they cease to be attached, they will be able to receive them.
Whoever receives this light in nakedness will no longer be recognizable;
none will be able to grasp them, none will be able to make them sad or miserable,
whether they are in this world, or have left it.
They already know the truth in images.
For them, this world has become another world,
and this Temple space [Aeon] is fullness [pleroma],
They are who they are. They are one.
Neither shadow nor night can hide them.’
~The Gospel of Philip
The above quote comes from the website for the Church of Gnosis, the spiritual home for the beloved episcopi vagantes (wandering bishop) of the post-modern global Gnostic communion, +Bishop Rosamonde Ikshvaku Miller. On January 19th, our greater ecclesia celebrates the consecration of +Tau Rosamonde, the first woman to be publicly ordained in the apostolic succession of the Ecclesia Gnostica, on this day in 1974.
Already consecrated as the seventh and last Marashin in the Holy Order of Miriam of Magdala in 1962, +Tau Rosamonde thus carries multiple lineages into the Church of Gnosis, which she sees as ‘not an end, but a field of action’.
Certainly, the Ritual of the Bridal Chamber, a ritual composed by +Tau Rosamonde, reads as a deeply inspired, incredibly liberating liturgy, incorporating Lurianic Kabbalah, Hermetic invocation, and Christian tradition to become a beautiful blessing by which the Eucharist is celebrated as the mystery of the sacred marriage, of Word and Wisdom.
This Sunday 16th January at 6:30pm, in rememberance of the anniversary of the consecration of +Tau Rosamonde, Fr Tim Mansfield+ will lead us for the first time in the celebration of The Ritual of The Bridal Chamber at the Parish of St Uriels in Darlinghurst. Please come along and celebrate with us, as we unite together in prayer, liturgy and chant to realise the divine nature of the One, uniquely revealed through and within each and every sacred moment, each and every person.
References:
http://www.gnosticsanctuary.org/
http://www.hometemple.org/WanBishWeb%20Complete.pdf
The Ritual of The Bridal Chamber – 6:30pm
The Ritual of The Bridal Chamber is a service that will call your physical, subtle and spiritual self to presence the sacred marriage of word and wisdom in the form of eucharistic communion, enlivened with the rich beauty of prayer, chant and song written and composed by +Tau Rosamonde Ikshvaku Miller.
Please come and join us and stay for a cup of tea and snacks afterwards, and relax into Sunday evening discussion and company.
Trish Nowland
The congregation at St Uriel’s meets on the fourth Sunday of the month at 6:30pm at:
The Unitarian Centre
15 Francis St
Darlinghurst, NSW
Rector: Father Tim Mansfield
Third Sunday in Advent – Contemplative Eucharist
Please come join us on Sunday 12th December, as we gather together to engage in contemplative practice, blended with liturgy.
The Contemplative Eucharist takes the essentials of eucharistic celebration, and intertwines the contemplative practice of centering prayer, allowing that we might still our mind, and attend to our heart, and engage more deeply with the sacramental mystery always present in communion.
In this third week of Advent, we're invited to recognise the coming of the messenger, to set aside our ordinary mundane concerns to allow the joy and bliss of the celebrations of the coming of the Light to arise and be present within our awareness.
As we read in the introduction of the Secret Book of John:
"A little child appeared before me in the light.
I continued looking at him as he became an old man
And then he changed again, becoming like a young man.
I didn't understand what I was seeing,
But the one likeness had several forms in the light,
And these likenesses appeared each through the other
And the vision had three forms."
Source:
http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/apocjn-davies.html
We understand that many layers may be present or 'seen', in our each moment, but that we might attend to them more closely and understand the mystery contained within, a little more deeply.
The Contemplative Eucharist graces us with an opportunity in this time of preparation for the coming of the light, of Christmas, to engage with more presence in the practice of contemplation, seeking to enrich our understanding of that Divine transformation which we celebrate, the coming of a change herebefore unknown on earth, that which is the celebration of the birth of Christ, in the Christmas feast.
Service – 6:30pm
The service this Sunday will be the "Contemplative Liturgy", written by our very own Reverend Tim Mansfield. The service alternates engagement and stillness, provoking a meditative attitude and the cultivation of deeper perceptions. The service features prayer and contemplative practice, including a period of silent meditation, as well as sharing of the Body and the Blood, in the form of bread and wine.
We follow the service with some conversation, hot drinks and snacks. Pleas come along and join the discussions, sharing in fellowship and hospitality.