Thursday, May 25, 2006
THE HOLY ORDER OF MANS
I need a scorecard to keep track of who is playing on which team in the Roman Catholic Church.
I need an even bigger scorecard to keep track of who is playing on which team in the Orthodox Church.
The sanest voice I've found on the subject of the present religious landscape is Fr. Seraphim Rose of the St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood.
But now this turns up, placing the St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood in very questionable company.
This Holy Order of Mans is part of a Theosophy Group listing at the Rick Ross website.
If that isn't bad enough, there is this website as well.
The Holy Order of MANS was founded by Earl Blighton in 1968 in the San Francisco Bay Area. Blighton (aka Father Paul), was a 67 year-old retired electrical engineer and mail-order minister from Rochester, New York. Blighton professed an eclectic set of beliefs based on Rosicrucianism, Kaballah, the Occult, Tantrism and Theosophy.
This philosophical cornucopia was wrapped in a veneer of Catholicism in: dress, monastic vows and structure. Mission stations and training centers were established in sixty cities and forty-eight states between 1969 and 1974 (peaking in 1977 at 3000 members). Blighton assumed the leadership role in the council as the Director General. The suborder of the followers consisted of the "master teachers"- priests specially trained by Blighton, minister-priests, stewards, disciples, students, and novices.
The Holy Order of Mans seems to be associated with the Order of Christ/Sophia.
Orthodox? Roman Catholic? Gnostic Catholic? Planet Mars Catholic?
They have one thing in common with Roman Catholicism. Sexual abuse.
Ironically, a review of one of Fr. Seraphim's books by "Presbytera Irene" at Amazon is scathing:
Nothing Orthodox in these Gnostic ramblings of Fr. Rose, February 23, 2006
It is astonishing that those claiming to be Orthodox in these reviews, have never actually read the Church fathers on this topic. Rose bases his speculations on Gnostic tales ("Tale of Basil the New") found in the Bogomil groups, and on the superstitions which came into the Russian Orthodox under the Latin "captivity" which included this idea of "Purgatory".
St. Mark of Ephesus is very clear against any idea of the soul "journeying" through demonic "judges" in his homilies. Our Pascha celebrations tell us that "Christ is Risen! The demons are fallen!"
St. Isaac of Syria writes (Epistle to Symeon of Caesaria) "[We] convict the false writings called "revelations" which, composed by originators of corrupt heresies under the influence of demonic phantasies, describe celestial dwelling..the pathways to Heaven, the places set apart for judgment (toll-houses) ..But all these..are shadows of a mind inebriated by conceit and deranged by the working of demons..This.especially assaults monks who ...inquire into empty opinions, yearn for novelties, and are superficial"..
How well said by this Desert Father who saw the Mandean Gnostics and knew their myths, warning against them! St. Irenaios (op cit. Bk. I, Chap 25) warned the Church in Rome against the Gnostic pagan idea of the soul being saved apart from the body.
Anyone who believes that a long beard and a monk's robe makes a Christian Orthodox monastic is ready for any devilish pablum. The new age Gnostic mixture in Rose's writings certainly fit the description.
What an unholy mess the religious landscape has become since Vatican II.
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
