Only within his own soul can a man find the means to unseal the lips of an initiate. He must develop within himself certain facilities to a definite degree, and then the highest treasures of the spirit can become his own.

He must begin with a certain fundamental attitude of soul. In spiritual science this fundamental attitude is called the path of veneration, of devotion to truth and knowledge. Without this attitude no one can become a student. . . . There are children who look up with religious awe to those whom they venerate. . . . From the ranks of such children are recruited many students of higher knowledge. . . . It is a blessing for every human being in process of development to have such feelings upon which to build. Only it must not be thought that this disposition leads to submissiveness and slavery. What was once a childlike veneration for persons becomes, later, a veneration for truth and knowledge. ~Rudolf Steiner

“It is unfortunate that many people think spirituality, as with some religious cults and churches, is all about worshiping individuals. Mr. Steiner explains that, while this may be true of children (and childish or lazy adults), It is not true of the real seeker, the person seeking a higher life, a higher world. To that person, it is not about worship, but about gaining knowledge, wisdom, and truth. And true knowledge (Gnosis), wisdom and truth can come only from awakening your spiritual faculties and using them regularly until you reach a high state of enlightenment, a state where you don’t have to look up things in books, or debate them with intellectuals, he simply knows what is right and what is wrong, what is true and what is lies, distortions, or half-truths.”

< Read the entire article online on Harold’s blog at spiritsun.net. >

contributed by Harold Boulette

“The time when one’s immediate natural impulse on the first sunny spring day was to get outside and enjoy it is long gone. Only the very courageous or “careless” who defy the grim warnings from medical mandarins and cancer specialists, wholeheartedly endorsed by the sunscreen industry, dare to venture forth into the ‘dangerous’ sun. Unless they are covered head to toe with sun protection factor (SPF) 60, they gamble with their lives, or so they are made to believe, by those who serve their own vested interests. Fortunately, this view is beginning to crumble in the blatant absence of scientific proof that sunlight causes disease. What is being discovered instead is that lack of sun exposure is one of the greatest risk factors for disease.”

The article goes on to summarize the discoveries and efforts made by European doctors to employ ultraviolet radiation to cure some of the most dangerous diseases until pharmaceuticals came into the medical picture after World War II.

< Read the entire article posted December 03, 2007 by Andreas Moritz at naturalnews.com. >

link submitted by Robert Petrovich

MARCH 2015

3
Ann Cunius
Sabrina LaCasas

7
Ann Cunius
Cheryl Shafer
Sabrina LaCasas

11
Ann Cunius
Sabrina LaCasas
Cheryl Shafer
Joseph Roy
Tracy Reinert

14
Ann Cunius
Cheryl Shafer
Erica Wilsey and children, Mikayla, Jamie and Carys.
Tracy Reinert

18
Tracy Reinert

21
Tracy Reinert
Frieda Nelson

25
Frieda Nelson
Kevi Wood

28
Frieda Nelson
Kevi Wood

 † indicates Memorial Prayer

Saturday, May 2, 2015
10:00 AM COMMUNION
Chapel of The Holy Child
RR Gene Savoy Jr.
Lector: RM Rebecca Willis
Cantor: Rev. Larry Coesens
Reader: Rev. Michael Spohn

Sunday, May 3, 2015
5:51 AM NEW DIVINE SERVICE
Church of New Pentecost
Leave: 5:00
Gate: 5:35
Sunrise: 6:04
RR Gene Savoy Jr.
Concelebrant: RR Sean Savoy
Assistants: RC Roger Weld
RC Robert Petrovich
Rev. Barbara Whitney
Organist: RC Gary Buchanan

OPEN-AIR COMMUNION
Church of New Philadelphia       RC Ted Staver
Church of New Qumran       Rev. Michael McIntyre

Wednesday, May 6, 2015
12:00 N COMMUNION
Chapel of the Holy Child
Rev. Karen Elliott

Friday, May 8, 2015
9:00 AM PRAYER & FELLOWSHIP
Chapel of the Roses
(Service Suspended due to Remodeling)

Week 7A

 Two thousand years ago Jews would stone a person for working on the Sabbath.  By comparison, in the 21^st century, people are being criminally charged for the abuse and killing of domestic animals.  A seven-year-old child in Western culture today can do math problems using zeros; a concept unfathomable 1,500 years ago and that child would have been celebrated as being beyond genius.  Many expressions of music, art, and architecture from the past century would be virtually indigestible for anyone living 700 years ago.

A new science lies on the horizon that suggests that humans are evolving in a fashion not apparent by any biological display.  Cognitive anthropology is the study of cognition to identify conscious peculiarities between cultures, past or present, and peripherally includes inter-species investigations of humans, primates, dolphins, birds, canines, rodents, even lizards, ants, and bees. 

Carl Jung made a good case for cognitive anthropology, although a bit wishful, long before the science was born, stating, “The differing degrees of self-knowledge within [humankind’s] own species are of little significance compared with the possibilities which would be opened out by an encounter with a creature of similar structure but different origin. . . . The possibility of comparison and hence self-knowledge would arise only if [humankind] could establish relations with quasi-human mammals inhabiting other stars.” (The Undiscovered Self, rev. trans. by RFC Hull, 1958, paragraphs 526 and 525.

Like all previous weeks in this tour, this is just a brief introduction, and the citations are only a whisper compared to all volumes on the subject.

PART A

Daniel Everett, No title (Everett talks about the Pidaha (pronounced pih-ra-ha), a people who have no words for colors or numbers nor consider any distant past or future), September 9, 2013: 46 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad6V9AKt24U&list=PLvUXF94GJw3PJURjalMdE57CNjjAmfCi4

Klaus Zuberbuhler and Con Slobodchikoff, “Wild Talk,”Radiolab,October 18, 2010: 21 minutes. http://www.radiolab.org/story/98611-wild-talk/

Ed Green et al., “End of Neanderthal Man,” September 23, 2008: 5 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIQNzbd4-RY

Robert Sapolsky,”The Uniqueness of Humans,“TED Talks, Stanford University, 2009, posted January 2010: 38 minutes.

https://www.ted.com/talks/robert_sapolsky_the_uniqueness_of_humans

by Michael McIntyre

< WEEK 7B >

No teacher of the spiritual life wishes to establish a mastery over other persons … He would not tamper with anyone’s independence. Indeed, none respect and cherish human independence mote than the spiritually experienced. … Whenever the initiate leaves his enclosed spiritual sphere and steps forth before the world, he must immediately take a third law into account. It is this: Adapt each one of your actions, and frame each one of your words in such a way that you infringe upon no one’s free-will.

The recognition that all true teachers of the spiritual life are permeated through and through with this principle will convince all who follow the practical rules proffered to them that they need sacrifice none of their independence. … Originally all rules and teachings of spiritual science were expressed in a symbolic sign-language, some understanding of which must be acquired before its whole meaning and scope can be realized. This understanding is dependent on the first steps toward higher knowledge, and these steps result from the exact observation of such rules as they are given. ~Rudolf Steiner

“This is one way you can tell the true spiritual teacher from the phony, the cult leader. The true spiritual teacher tells you what you need to know to grow spiritually (note that it is not necessarily the same for each individual), but makes no effort to force you to follow that path. She may recommend that you eat certain foods and avoid others, but will not criticize or ostracize you for eating something you were advised to avoid. A real spiritual teacher may recommend that you dress in certain colors, for example, if you are a very materialistic type, he may advise that you avoid wearing red or orange and instead wear green, blue and purple. He will not, however, kick you out of the school because you show up in an orange jacket.

“On the other hand, the cult leader who tells you what to wear, where to live, who to marry, etc. and enforces it with a strong hand is not at all a spiritual leader. The preacher who insists that you cannot possibly be saved if you do not join his church and follow his rules to the letter is also not a real spiritual teacher. And the preacher, church or religious group that tries to get laws passed to force everyone into their church, or at least to follow it’s teachings,  is also a fraud. A real church or spiritual school would, of course, love it if everyone followed their teachings, but they would never try to force anyone by legal means, by violence, or by any other form or coercion.”

< Read the entire blog online at spiritsun.net. >

by Harold Boulette

Saturday, April 25, 2015
10:00 AM COMMUNION
Chapel of The Holy Child
RR Gene Savoy Jr.
Lector: RC Roger Weld
Cantor: Rev. Vickie Hewlett
Reader: Noriko Roy

Sunday, April 26, 2015
5:58 AM NEW DIVINE SERVICE
Church of New Pentecost
Leave: 5:00
Gate: 5:40
Sunrise: 6:13
RR Gene Savoy Jr.
Concelebrant: RR Sean Savoy
Assistants: RC Roger Weld
RC Ted Staver
Rev. Barbara Whitney
Organist: RC Gary Buchanan

OPEN-AIR COMMUNION
Church of New Philadelphia       Rev. Robert Roy
Church of New Qumran       Rev. Larry Coesens
Church of New Bethany       Noriko Roy

Wednesday, April 29, 2015
12:00 N COMMUNION
Chapel of the Holy Child
Rev. James Elliott

Friday, may 1, 2015
9:00 AM PRAYER & FELLOWSHIP
Chapel of the Roses
Rev. Ben Hubbard

Record of the introduction of Assembly Bill 391 through the Nevada Assembly from the Nevada Legislature’s web site PHOTO: www.leg.state.nv.us

Tracking of Assembly Bill 391 through the Nevada Assembly from the Nevada Legislature’s web site PHOTO: www.leg.state.nv.us

Nevada Assembly Bill AB391, which revises provisions governing the exemption from property taxes of certain property used for religious worship, has now made it through the Nevada Assembly and is on its way to the Senate to be reviewed and voted on.

Currently, if any religious organization in Nevada purchases a piece of property to build on, it would be taxed until fully developed. Under the proposed amendment to NRS 361.125, property purchased for religious purposes would be exempt from the time it was acquired.

AB391, an important piece of legislation that expands the scope of religious property tax exemption in Nevada and will benefit all religions in the state of Nevada, was introduced in the Assembly on March 17, 2015 by Michael Hillerby of the firm Kaempfer Crowell. On April 8th, the bill was printed and referred to the Assembly Committee on Taxation, where it was discussed and finally voted upon. The bill passed unanimously in committee 12-0.

On April 16th, the bill was read and passed unanimously by Assembly vote: 40-0, with two assembly members absent.

Following that vote, the bill was read for the first time in the Senate on April 17th and referred to the Senate Committee on Revenue and Economic Development, where it will be discussed and voted on in coming days.

Once the bill was passed, several other important people and organizations came on board to give their full support: The Washoe County Assessor; The Carson City Assessor; the Religious Alliance in Nevada (RAIN); the Lutheran and Episcopalian Alliance in Nevada (LEAN); and the Nevada Catholic Conference.

Bishop Gene Savoy Jr., Head Bishop of the International Community of Christ and President of the Nevada Clergy Association, has been working diligently for the past several months to prepare this piece of legislation, which would not only provide full tax exemption for Red Rock Consecrated Sanctuary, an event that Church members have been awaiting for over three decades, but also provide protection to all properties devoted to religious purposes.

Bishop Gene Savoy Jr. and Michael Hillerby’s father, Fred Hillerby, now retired, have been working on presenting the bill for nearly two-and-one-half years. The 2013 Nevada legislature was already in session when the two began their collaboration. And since the Nevada legislature meets for 120 days every two years, 2015 was the earliest the bill could be introduced.

< To read the text of Assembly Bill 391 as it was introduced, CLICK HERE. >

Bishop Gene Savoy Jr performing Pannuches Meal Rite PHOTO: Stephan Fuelling

Pannuches Meal Rite
The 92nd Pannuches Meal Rite was held Saturday, February 28, 2015 at 6:00 PM. Jubilee Sunrise Divine Service was held in Sanctuary the following morning.

The 93rd Pannuches Meal Rite was held Saturday, April 18, 2015 at 6:00 PM. Jubilee Sunrise Divine Service was held in Sanctuary the following morning.

Second Advent Easter (April 18)
On Thursday April 18, 2013, a concelebrated Sunrise Divine Service was performed at the Cathedral Church of the Americas. A light breakfast was served at the Sanctuary Chapter House following the service.

April 18 is celebrated as True Easter in the Second Advent Church in a twofold manner: first, we commemorate the spiritual resurrection of Jesus on this date in keeping with the solar calendar, which, unlike the lunar calendar used by First Dispensation churches, is fixed; second, we remember the Revelations received in Sanctuary on this date in 1982, an event that served to confirm the importance of this date in the Sacred Calendar of the Church. Revelations received on this date are recorded in The Book of God’s Revelation.

PHOTO: Stephan Fuellling

* * *

On April 18, 1982, The Church received a revelation confirming the Second Appearance of God when the Angel of the Lord in the form of Jesus manifested in visible form at the Sanctuary of Revelation and entrusted The Church with the keys to open the Seals of the Book of Revelation. The date of Second Advent Easter was established as part of the Sacred Calendar following the series of Revelations that The Man received on that day as he climbed the Seven Mountains of Metal.

It is recorded in The Book of God’s Revelation that, while on the fifth mountain, the Mountain of Bronze, The Man was exhorted to instruct the Righteous and the Ordained Ministers in the Sacred Calendar of God’s Word, to let them be knowledgeable in the Days of His Appearances and Blessings, and to let them gather together at the prescribed times so their spirits might be anointed by God’s Comfort and strengthened by His Consolation. Thus Second Advent Easter has a unique and sacred significance to members of the Second Advent Church.

On that day in 1982, while The Man stood on the summit of the Mountain of Iron in the Sanctuary of Revelation, an Angel of the Lord appeared to The Man out of the midst of the Four Luminaries, identified Himself as Jesus and spoke:

All prophecies having been fulfilled, Judgement is now upon the world of the living. The Heavens declare the glory of God in His Final Appearance. He has established His Tabernacle in The Sun whose rays enlighten the Soul of the Righteous, putting them on The Way of holiness.

The blind are made to see His Image. The deaf are made to hear His Word. The dead are made to rise at His Coming. Every Spirit is judged before The Creator. Freedom to err is abolished. The wicked find no sanctuary in Darkness, for it is lit and evil is exposed.

As foretold by The Father in Heaven who revealed understanding of future events to His prophets in visions, the fruit of the vine is abundant. All may drink anew the dew for a blessing as drops from the honeycomb. God pours out His Holy Spirit as from a fountain flowing from a rock over desolate wastes. By the perfection of His Light, God breathes His Word a final time. His utterings bring forth a New Creation. He reveals the Image of His Countenance.

God has opened the gates of the Heavenly Temple. The altar is of Light fashioned by the luster of His Presence on the Throne of His Glory. The tabernacle is lit by the sun, and the Bread of Life is placed thereupon. The Heavens are rolled up like a scroll inscribed with His Statutes and Judgements. His Law is written on the Tablets of Light borne by the Ark of His New Covenant as a rainbow.

I ministered to Israel, to a generation unworthy of redemption, and I was scourged by faithless men. I, a man of sorrows who bore the grief of the people turned to their own ways, did intercede for the transgressors, sacrificing myself not to God but to my people out of my love for them. But Israel understood not my preordained presence, which was my destiny from birth as God’s Appointed One. . . .

Moses and the prophets of the remnant of True Israel spoke of my coming to redeem the people. With the rejection of me, the Light went out from the land. But the precious remnant, shortlived, awaited the Advent of God and the brightness of His Second Coming.

The Day of The Lord is near. He appears out of the Darkness to enlighten the whole Creation with His Image and to judge it with His Word. It is meet that He manifest His Image before His full coming and prepare the Creation with His Word. For I declare unto you that when He comes to restore the creation and reveals Himself, nothing shall live save His Light and those Souls reborn of that Light. . . .

Further Revelations received by The Man on April 18, 1986, are recorded with commentary in The Book of God’s Revelation.

In the Second Advent Church, Easter is a fixed date in the Sacred Calendar. The Church celebrates true Easter each year on April 18. On this day The Church honors both the day of Jesus’ Resurrection and the day of Jesus’ Revelations and Appearance at the Sanctuary.

It is known that the Eastern Church had celebrated Easter every year on April 16, the 14th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, also known as Passover. The day of the crucifixion, a Friday, and the 14th day of Nisan, was recognized as the beginning of the 15th of Nisan. Jesus was resurrected on the following day, Sunday the 16th.

The Church, holding to the solar calendar of the Essaei, maintains that the date of Easter cannot be movable in present-day time reckoning, as it is under the lunar calendar (determined as the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring). The fixed Sacred Calendar of the Second Advent ministry recognizes that an annual alignment of the earth and sun, planets, stars, and the cosmos in general, makes this day cosmically important.

Because the manifestation in Sanctuary took place on April 18, 1982, The Church considers this day to be the day in alignment with the original date of the Resurrection. For these reasons The Church keeps this day sacred.

The Gospel message records Jesus as saying, “For the son of man shall come in the glory of the Father with His Angels; and then He shall regard every person according to his works.” It was written by prophets of former times that God would send His messenger to prepare the way of God’s Second Coming, as promised to Adam and Eve, and come as a fire to refine the world. The Old Testament presents the prophecy of Malachi: “For behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven and all that do wickedly shall be stubble, but unto you that love me, shall the Sun of Righteousness appear with healing in its rays, and ye that do righteously shall grow up as a new people of God. And I shall spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.”

With God’s manifestation in the Sun of Righteousness on February 2, 1962, and the Appearance of Jesus on April 18, 1982, the Second Advent of God and the manifestation of Jesus and the Angelic Host have transpired and are presently at work for the salvation of the righteous.

This week we will look at the brain. Any of us are able to drive an automobile without knowing the inner workings of the machine. But a professional race course driver is certainly familiar with engine design and dynamics. There are many popular misconceptions about the brain, and having some primary understandings of the brain will leave us better suited to talk about consciousness in light of our Teachings.

The first three videos in this week’s selections are short: 24 minutes total. They are a good introduction to basic brain structure and function that may be referred to at any time and will help prepare you for presentations in later weeks.  

Asap Science. 7 Myths About the Brain You Thought Were True, June 6, 2014.  3 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfgkAJmp9-A

Iain McGilchrist. The Divided Brain, October 2011. 12 minutes. https://www.ted.com/talks/iain_mcgilchrist_the_divided_brain

Armando Hasudungan. Brain Overview: Lobes, Diencephalo, Brain Stem, and Limbic System, September 19, 2012. 12 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRyp8EdRUiE

Nancy Kanwisher. A Neural Portrait of the Human Mind,  March 2014. 18 minutes.

http://www.ted.com/talks/nancy_kanwisher_the_brain_is_a_swiss_army_knife

Neil Burgess. How Your Brain Tells You Where You Are, November 2011. 9 minutes.

https://www.ted.com/talks/neil_burgess_how_your_brain_tells_you_where_you_are

Daniel Wolpert. The Real Reason for Brains, July 2011. 20 minutes.

https://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_wolpert_the_real_reason_for_brains

Susan Herculano-Houzel. What Is So Special About the Human Brain?, June 2013. 14 minutes.

https://www.ted.com/talks/suzana_herculano_houzel_what_is_so_special_about_the_human_brain

— Michael McIntyre

< Read WEEK 7A >