COMMUNITY COMMUNIQUE: FALL 1994
NOTICE: The Winter 1992 edition was the last Community Communique published until the Spring 1995 edition. From Spring 1993 through Winter 1995, the quarterly publication of The Community Communique was on hiatus, picking up again with the Spring 1995 issue. For this reason, you will not find archive copies of the print Community Communique from Spring 1993 through Winter 1994. However, we are providing coverage of Community events for this season in the collection of articles you will find below.
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CONTENTS: FALL 1994
1994 CONVOCATION
Annual Convocation
AEF & OSC Banquet
Clergy Counsels
HSR Annual Dinner
Benediction
Rev. Gary Buchanan: “What Is The Meaning of Human Spiritual Rights?”
REPORTS
Department of Ecclesiology
AEF & OSC Press Release
AEF News Release
PUBLIC EVENTS
Second Annual Luncheon for Reno-Sparks Ministry
Reno City Council Invocation
Governor’s Prayer Breakfast
Baha’i Press Conference & Memorial Service
Nevada Clergymen’s Appeal
RITES & SERVICES
Fall Wedding
First-Level Ordinations
Second-Level Ordinations
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1994 CONVOCATION
Annual Convocation
Over one hundred clergy and ministerial students of the Second Advent Church from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom gathered for the annual Convocation held October 5th through 12th in the Reno area. Events included the Jamilian University residence training series, Conference banquets, an afternoon social tea, a Sanctuary tour, the Counsels lectures, chapel services, and liturgical celebrations at the Red Rock Consecrated Sanctuary.
The fourteenth annual Counsels opened on October 5 with an afternoon check-in for all those in attendance at the Convocation. On Thursday, October 6 and Friday, October 8, both resident and non-resident clergy and clergy students met with Bishop Savoy at the Episcopal See for evening lectures. Morning and afternoon lectures on Monday October 10 and Tuesday October 11 completed the full Counsels series. The entire body of students and clergy participating in the Convocation were in attendance at the Counsels lectures. (See accompanying article this issue.)
First-year students enrolled in residence training met with The Most Right Reverend Gene Savoy at the Episcopal See for initial instruction on the mornings of Thursday, October 6 and on Monday and October 10. Advanced students enrolled in the three-year extension program attended morning and afternoon residence training sessions on October 6-7 and 10-11 before the evening Counsels lectures.
All non-resident students received a guided tour through the Red Rock Consecrated Sanctuary on the morning of Friday, October 7 to view church sites and other developments.
Regularly scheduled liturgical services determined the morning schedule on Saturday. At 10:00 AM, visiting clergy joined with resident ministers and their families in a Communion of Fellowship at the University Chapel.
Following Chapel services, several seminary students enrolled in the non-resident clergy studies program of the Sacred College Jamilian University of Theology received their first-degree ordination. The Most Right Reverend Gene Savoy conducted the rite of first-degree Ordination in his private chambers at the Apostolic Chancellery. Later that afternoon, visiting guests were invited to attend an afternoon tea at Bishopstead. Nearby, resident and non-resident mariners gathered for their annual luncheon.
On Sunday morning, October 9th, the Ordained attended a sunrise Divine Service and Communion of Fellowship at the Cathedral Church of the Americas. The Divine Service, officiated by The Most Right Reverend Gene Savoy, was performed before a vested congregation of the ordained. Bishop Savoy, the Officiating Minister, closed the Services with a Blessing over the Rabban priests. A light breakfast at the Sanctuary refectory followed.
During the Convocation week, two annual banquet events were held. On Wednesday morning, October 12, visitors and their families joined resident members of the Advocates for Spiritual Rights and Freedoms at the Annual Human Spiritual Rights Celebration. The Andean Explorers Foundation & Ocean Sailing Club annual awards dinner, held that evening, closed the week of Convocation events. (See accompanying articles this issue.)
AEF & OSC Banquet
The 37th Annual “Spirit of Exploration” Banquet was held on the evening of Wednesday, October 12, 1994 at the Convention Center of the Airport Plaza Hotel in Reno, Nevada.
Gene Savoy Jr., Treasurer of the AEF & OSC, acting as Master of Ceremonies for the evening, opened the program with an introduction to the “Explorers’ Triumphal March,” performed by the Foundation Orchestra while slides from previous expeditions played across the screen. The traditional Candle-lighting service followed. The Master of Ceremonies lit the Candle of Remembrance for members and friends of the Foundation who have passed on. Special tribute was paid to Conni Aggenbach-Whitaker, a member of the Foundation who passed on earlier this year. The ship’s bell was struck thirteen times in their memory.
To pen the musical program, the fourteen-member Sierra Highlanders Pipe Band performed an Explorers’ Tribute of traditional marches, reels, jigs, and hornpipes. The Sierra Highlanders Pipe Band is based in Reno and has performed together at festivals, in parades, and in competitions since 1961. Dinner and dancing followed, with musical entertainment provided by singer Lynn Rubel and a full dance band led on keyboard by the Foundation’s Musical Director, Gary Buchanan.
Dinner was followed by a video presentation of scenes from the 1994 Gran Vilaya-El Dorado VI Expedition undertaken this summer. The expedition, which returned only a few weeks before the awards banquet, was videotaped by Foundation Vice-President Roger Weld and edited by him for this occasion.
One of the main purposes of the Foundation’s annual dinners is to present awards to individuals who have contributed in some way to exploration and the furtherance of the Foundation’s goals. Belinda Chauvin, Public Relations officer, and Sean Savoy, Museum and Publications Manager of the AEF & OSC, carried the awards program with their introduction of Foundation award recipients and the presentation of awards.
This year nearly twenty Foundation members received the Explorer’s Medal, and seven members the Sponsor Medal. The Participant’s Silver Medallion was received by Max Luy. Citations of Merit were awarded to Robert A. Gill, Carmela de Orbegoso Russell, and Glen Jordan.
President Gene Savoy presented the Discover’s Medallion to Peruvian Foundation member Francisco Seoane-Weiss in absentia.
In his presidential address, AEF & OSC President Gene Savoy, the Featured Speaker of the evening, recounted events of the Gran Vilaya-El Dorado Expedition this summer under his direction.
The expedition, which began in June, traveled into the interior jungles and lower Andes of northeastern and central Peru, Departments of Amazonas and Huanaco. Extensive research was completed in these two separate regions within a ninety-day period.
The expedition was accompanied by over thirty-five members of the Foundation, including members from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Peru.
The primary purpose of the expedition into the Amazonas region was to finish filing and mapping the area inhabited by the ancient Chachapoyas culture in northeastern Peru. The Chachapoyan city, named Gran Vilaya by its discoverer, Gene Savoy, is estimated to cover over 100 square miles and contain some 24,000 structures. Located at altitudes of 6,000 to 11,000 feet above sea level, the ancient city may be the largest archeological find in the Americas.
Questions of the origin of the Chachapoyas people still persist. Was this caucasian race native to Peru or did they come from some far off land by means of the Sea? Glyphs discovered on three stone tablets in 1989 during the Gran Vilaya-El Dorado IV Expedition have led the Foundation to believe that there was contact with the so-called “Old World.” The glyphs appear to be similar to writing form Sinai. The tablets were visited again for further study, and with the discovery this year of additional glyphs, the Foundation is able to compare the patterns of the glyphs found at the two sites. The Foundation is continuing research on the theory that Peru could be the mysterious Ophir.
In addition to the discovery of the glyphs, the extensiveness of Gran Vilaya was confirmed with exploration and discovery of several connecting building developments of the city.
In the Department of Huanaco, at higher elevations ranging from 10,000 to 14,000 feet above sea level, Gene Savoy and a smaller team of researchers revealed the existence of over thirty building sites, some covered with seven-tiered roofs. The sites are believed to be Huacrachuco. A newspaper release reporting the finds in Huanaco appeared in the Lima paper El Commercio prior to the expedition’s return in late September.
The expedition was sponsored by the Institute of Culture of Peru, the Museum of the Nation, and the Office of the President of the Republic. Foundation President Savoy has been asked to lecture at the Museum of the Nation and the University of Lima on the new finds in Amazonas and Huanaco, and a video is in the works.
The presentation by President Gene Savoy was followed by the second musical performance of the program, an English rendition of the song “My Dear Chabuca” by tenor Michael Eardley.
Gene Savoy Jr. closed the program with an invitation to use the dance floor. The dance ensemble assembled some of the finest musicians in the Reno area: the AEF & OSC’s own Gary Buchanan on keyboard, Mark Lord on trumpet, and Cynthia Lang on violin, plus area musicians Frank Falcioni on Guitar, Rico Mordenti on woodwinds, Phil Jerome on string bass, and Rich Havens on drums.
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For over thirty years, the Foundation’s dinners have been open only to its members. During the past five years, Foundation members have invited others to join them while they honor those who have distinguished themselves in the field of exploration. The 37th annual banquet continues that tradition.
Founded in 1957, the Andean Explorers Foundation and Ocean Sailing Club is a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of historical, field and oceanic research, exploration, and the documentation of its findings by means of books, publications, motion pictures, and documentaries. Volunteers contribute their time and funds to carry on the work without remuneration. Geared toward the promotion of exploration by men and women of diverse backgrounds, the organization emphasizes the need to explore little-known areas of the world and to bring back photographic evidence of findings on land and sea.
History, which encourages original and unique research through the “spirit of exploration,” initially assumes a more important place than science or technology in the Foundation’s programs, all of which are open to the public at large. Information is shared with educational institutions, scientists, and specialists of many disciplines. Maps, charts, log books, journals, photographs, artifacts, and numerous collected items on display comprise the Foundation archives. In addition to land and sea expeditions, lectures are provided as a public and educational service to schools, civic organizations, and professional societies.
Clergy Counsels
The Fourteenth Annual Clergy Counsels, held during the Fall 1994 Convocation, comprised a series of six lectures delivered by The Most Right Reverend Gene Savoy. Evening lectures on October 6–7 were delivered at the Episcopal See. Morning and afternoon lectures on October 10–11 were held at the Forum of the Red Rock Consecrated Sanctuary of Prophecy. The entire body of students and clergy participating in the Convocation were in attendance at the Counsels lecture series.
Bishop Savoy opened the lecture series with a discussion of the benefits and some of the possible pitfalls of The System. He described as well the course or pattern of response through which each individual runs when he or she follows The System. It is better, he said, for one not to absorb higher energies if one is not aware of what is actually taking place on the level of the nervous system and force centers. It is for this reason that there are so many admonitions among the spiritual peoples of ancient times to keep the Teachings secret.
Continuing on a personal note, Bishop Savoy spoke from his heart on events of recent months that led him to experience a kind of disenchantment resulting from “so many rejecting the spirit, ignorant of what the soul and spirit really means.” He said he is now starting all over again, “teaching and living the truth, no longer disguising the Teachings.” He had regained his confidence in people, he said, “in those who want to prove the existence of God and want to be of service,” and therefore wants to reach out to those people. For this reason, Bishop Savoy stated, in the present six-lecture series he wanted to talk about the “Foundation” of The System and how The System came about.
He began by distinguishing between the physical soul and the spiritual soul. He discussed the Hermetic school, which passed from the Therapeutae in Egypt to the Greeks, and their teaching on the consumption of the Bread of Life to nourish the spirit. He discussed the two communions of the Ante-Nicene Church and emphasized the secret communion in which the True Bread of Life was consumed, a rite which was later removed from the Church. In this same regard, Bishop Savoy discussed the Essaei “Grace Before Meals,” which asked for forgiveness for eating dead food, the food they must consume because they had been generated in the physical world, while asking at the same time for the supersubstantial bread that feeds the spirit. And he referred to the members of the Ante-Nicene Church who, in the actual Lord’s Prayer, asked to be able to live in heaven while here on earth.
The second evening lecture opened with a discussion of the kind of character one must have to come into the Community. The lecture continued through a variety of other themes related to God’s Presence on earth. He discussed the role of the Teacher of Righteousness among the Essaei and the role among the early Christians of Jesus, who as part of the Godhead came down to earth as an angel to act as God’s intermediary.
The following three lectures opened a great variety of topics; each lecture, however, centered on two main themes: the authority of the Second Advent Church and the nature of spiritual healing. In these early lectures in the series, Bishop Savoy paid special attention to the liturgical use of hands among the Essaei — who washed their hands ritually, who kept them hidden except during liturgical services, and who raised them to the sun at morning while they reflected to the sun to purify it and asked for God’s beneficent Light on earth. They did this, he said, in order to keep their hands holy because their hands were used for healing.
With this emphasis on the liturgical use of the hands in ancient rites during these intermediate lectures, Bishop Savoy prepared those in attendance for the technical discussion of the final lecture, which served to discuss the performance of the ancient healing technique of “the laying on of hands.”
HSR Annual Dinner
The Sixth Annual Human Spiritual Rights Celebration, sponsored by the Advocates for Religious Rights and freedoms, was held at 11:00 a.m. Wednesday October 12, 1994, at the Convention Center of the Airport Plaza Hotel in Reno.
Members and guests were welcomed to this year’s celebration by The Right Reverend Robert Petrovich, Chairman of the Ministers Council for Constitutional Freedoms, who delivered a rudimentary sketch of the work of this year’s honoree, Gustave Stromberg. Rev. Petrovich noted that contemporary knowledge about Stromberg is so lacking that his name is not even listed in as prominent an encyclopedia as Britannica and that the only entries on his life are found in a paragraph or two in a biographical dictionary of science or parapsychology. Although a few hundred of Stromberg’s published works exist, Rev. Petrovich stated, these are mostly statistical analyses of stellar movements, and only a handful of popular texts were ever written by him, some of which have never been translated into English.
Following the program Invocation, delivered by Jamila Savoy, who is a high school junior and acolyte in the Second Advent Church, the Reverend Gary Buchanan, Chairman of the American Association of Concerned Clergymen, spoke on the program theme from a personal perspective, recounting a recent visit to his native North Carolina and his being received as a Second Advent minister by his family members and old friends on the occasion of his father’s funeral. (See accompanying article, “The Meaning of Human Spiritual Rights.”)
In keeping with the hope of renewed spiritual freedom, the first musical selection of the program was a composition titled “Plea for Grace,” composed by Rev. Buchanan on an ancient Alexandrian melos with words adapted by Bishop Savoy from Essaei fragments. This work was completed in October 1990 during the construction of the Cathedral Towers. It was written especially for Concelebration Services and was performed at the first Concelebration Service held at the Cathedral Church on Epiphany 1991. The arrangement for the Human Spiritual Rights celebration was performed by harpist Mary Niebuhr and members of the Jamilian Handbell Choir.
The brunch meal closed with a “Grace after Meals” pronounced by Mrs. Elizabeth Crook.
Brunch was followed by another musical selection. Harpist Mary Niebuhr, violinist Cynthia Lang, and the Jamilian Handbell Choir accompanied soprano soloist Michelle Carrothers in “So Is My Joy the Lord” a composition first performed on Epiphany Eve in 1983 and since performed regularly during the Christmas-Epiphany season. This is another composition by Rev. Buchanan, with words adapted by Bishop Savoy from the Odes of Solomon, a song of inspiration that tells of a seeker’s awakening to the life of the spirit.
The nominee selected for this year’s Enshrinement was the internationally renowned mystic astronomer Gustave Stromberg (1882–1962). Highly acclaimed for research in the physical sciences, his understanding of the nonphysical aspects of the universe is a legacy of even greater importance. Part of his greatness lies in his use of scientific knowledge to develop a clear perspective on the life of mind, immortality of the human soul, and God. He asserted that “as the matter in the earth is part of the original matter in the universe, so the life on earth is part of the original life in the universe.”
Some of Stromberg’s basic conclusions about man in the universe, organizing life fields, and his inevitable belief in the indestructibility and immortality of the soul are summarized in “My Faith,” one of the appendices to his famous book The Soul of the Universe:
I believe that behind the physical world we see with our eyes and study in our microscopes and telescopes, and measure with instruments of various kinds, is another more fundamental realm which cannot be described in physical terms. In this non-physical realm lies the ultimate origin of all things, of energy, matter, organization and life, and even of consciousness itself…. I am convinced that our consciousness is rooted in a world not built of atoms and that our mind in its many facets reflects some of the fundamental characteristics of its own origins.
Enshrinements in past years have included Mohandas K. Gandhi in 1990, P. Teilhard de Chardin and Kahlil Gibran in 1991, and Nikolas Tesla in 1993.
Reverend Petrovich opened this year’s Enshrinement Ceremony with an introduction of the Most Right Reverend Gene Savoy, the featured speaker of the evening, with a personal recognition of the “greatness” he recognized in “Bishop Savoy, who has founded the institutions of this Church, who has received Revelations and teaches them, who is restoring the forms of the True Liturgy for us in our age—the one who introduced us (or made clear to us in terms we could understand) the ways of the spirit and opened up to us the gateway to what Stromberg called the ‘non-physical world,’ the Worlds of Light.”
The Most Right Reverend Gene Savoy, President of the Advocates for Religious Rights and Freedoms, and Chairman of the World Council for Human Spiritual Rights, addressed the celebration’s theme by touching upon the thoughts of this year’s honoree, which, he said, “have contributed so much to shedding light upon the spirit,” rather than speaking about the man. Bishop Savoy explained that Stromberg’s thoughts are more complex than a short talk can convey and that he had on this occasion selected a few of Stromberg’s thoughts to reveal the man’s liberating ideas on “the subject of physical science, namely physics, and religious science, namely metaphysics.”
“Stromberg,” he said, “wrote on a pre-existent world of spirit whence the physical universe issued, a world beyond the universe of matter and energy, space and time, that existed before the coming into existence of our world, the solar system, indeed the whole material universe…. Stromberg called this spiritual universe the ETERNITY DOMAIN.”
“He believed that [domain] to be the world in which our minds are rooted, and in which both life and mind have their ultimate origin. He wrote further that when we discard our fragile bodies of flesh and bone at the time of physical death, a garment of flesh that binds us to the physical world of space and time, we enter into another world where mind is paramount. The ETERNITY DOMAIN, he thought, is our real home.”
Bishop Savoy went on to describe Stromberg’s belief that God “needs to be reinstated in the modern world in a new way because God is an indispensable element in the world needed to explain the ultimate origin of life, energy, matter, and consciousness” and pointed out the agreement on this point among several other scientists, including the astronomer Sir James Jeans, Paul Heegard of the University of Copenhagen, and Albert Einstein, who stated that true religion “does not come through blind belief but through an extension of our rational knowledge.”
The old idea that nothing comes out of nothing led Stromberg to write that when the universe came into being it had to have emerged from a pre-existent world, Bishop Savoy said. “Dr. Stromberg postulated that all living things are embedded in complex electrical fields which determine the structure and structural changes in living organisms. He considered these fields to be organizing fields.
“These fields are not anchored in matter but in another dimension beyond space and time, a pre-existing autonomous field of force; that is, a living force field. These pre-existing fields entering the physical universe carry not only the characteristics of life but also those of mind and consciousness. The gates through which the fields enter are nerve cells.”
Further, Bishop Savoy explained, “Stromberg felt that expressions such as compassion and love come from the ETERNITY DOMAIN rather than from the physical universe. Love, compassion and beauty are part of a non-physical essence pervading the whole cosmos.”
Stromberg agreed with the idea that the time will come when science will make tremendous advances, Bishop Savoy said, “not because more sensitive instruments capable of measuring and discovering things but because a few people have at their command great spiritual powers of insight which at present are not used but, as the art and science of spiritual healing is developed, will be used in a new way that will reveal that God exists—not only in the universe but in the depths of all people.” This God-nature, he said, need only be released.
Before the unveiling of this year’s Enshrinement, Bishop Savoy closed his address with these words: “To be sure, Dr. Stromberg was ahead of his time. He would rejoice at the strides made in recent years. And he would be delighted to know how many people recognize his efforts to liberate the human mind and spirit from outworn ideas, and how many remember him and love him. As we enshrine Dr. Stromberg today, we reach out to him in that ETERNITY DOMAIN wherein dwells his living spirit and soul.”
The Enshrinement ceremony was followed in the program by the Hebrew song “Dodi Li” performed by soprano Lynn Rubel, accompanied on harp and violin by Ms. Niebuhr and Ms. Lang.
The Right Reverend Reano Castell Lord closed the formal program of the afternoon with a Benediction very special to him. With his prayer he brought those in attendance into a centuries’ old tradition of his family. He first copied the prayer down, along with a few others, as a young man more than forty years ago, shortly before he left Switzerland for North America.
It is a Benediction first written down in his family’s Bible in the seventh century by a bishop of Cologne who was a family member. Although the prayer was originally written in Latin, another family member in the 1300s translated the prayer into old Swiss German. The version that Rev. Castell read this afternoon was translated by him into one of the dialects of Swiss German that exist today. He followed this reading with his English translation of the same prayer. This was the first occasion the prayer has ever been read in English.
The final musical performance of the afternoon was the melody “The Hymn to Human Spiritual Rights,” written to commemorate the building of the Monument to Human Spiritual Rights. It was first performed with a brass choir and handbells at the Cathedral Church in 1991 during the annual Human Spiritual Rights Ceremony. This afternoon it was sung by Lynn Rubel as a hymn without words, accompanied by harp, violin, and handbells.
The more than one hundred members of the Advocates and guests in attendance included extension students of the Project X program, visiting clergy students from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, resident clergy, and seminarians.
BENEDICTION
Wir Danken dir Himmlischer Vater,
fur all deine Gaben.
Dank und Ehre, Himmlischer Vater fur alle
Fruchte des Landes.
Lob und Ehre von uns fur diesen Tag.
Himmlischer Vater, ewiges Licht, stralende sonne.
Erleuchte alle Regionen,
uberall ist dein wahrhaftiges Licht,
erleuchte jede Person in diese Welt.
Zerstreue die finsterniss in unsern
Herzen und erleuchte uns im glanze deiner herrlichkeit.
Amen
We thank you, Heavenly Father,
for all your gifts and praise you,
As all who live must praise you each day.
We shall praise You for what You have given us.
Holy One of Blessing, we thank you for the land and its fruit.
Heavenly Father, Eternal Light, shine beyond the Heavens.
Radiant sun, illuminating all regions above,
below and across.
True Light, enlightening every person coming into the world,
dispel the darkness of our hearts and enlighten us
with the splendor of Your Glory.
Amen
Rev. Gary Buchanan: “What Is The Meaning of Human Spiritual Rights?”
A talk presented by the Reverend Doctor Gary Robert Buchanan, Chairman, American Association of Concerned Clergymen, to The Advocates for Religious Rights & Freedoms at the Annual Human Spiritual Rights Celebration, October 12, 1994. The portion of the speech printed here has been abridged for publication. The original speech included a personal account of Rev. Buchanan’s visit to his childhood home in the Piedmont of North Carolina on the occasion of his father’s funeral. This account was intended to exemplify how a person may foster the view that the spirit is “far superior to materiality and all other institutions of the secular world” and how we may foster Human Spiritual Rights and “help expand awareness of these rights in secular society.”
ALL MEMBERS OF THE HUMAN FAMILY have been endowed with a spark. It must be fanned. It is a seed which must be nurtured. It is that hope which does, indeed, spring eternal in the human breast.
The Universal Proclamation states that all are qualified to receive their true Image and surmount dense ignorance, which “is the cause of suffering, pain, fear, poverty, sickness, disease, anguish, hate, greed, selfishness, lust, evil, strife, plagues and all the ways of the world.”
And we are made to know that there is a New Light manifesting in the universe, pulsing as a drum and shaking man’s memory—persistent memory—of his origins in the Worlds of Light with God.
The symbols I offer: A spark aflame seeks air. A seed in root seeks light. A hope in nascence seeks faith.
All are moved to unite in faith, in hope, in love in religious fellowship in the image of a circle in the rites of redemption in search of God’s Word. Those who endeavor to overshadow that Light, to choke the flame, uproot the branch, traduce the faith, are in opposition to God, the Human Family, and themselves, for all members of the Human Family have been alienated from the Worlds of Light, the abode of Spiritual Beings of Light, and are by soul and spirit irresistibly drawn back to the Divine—to religion, to that redeeming force manifest, to fellowship with those inspired of God, to righteous laws and doctrines that give order and harmony to our lives, to the planet, and to all of cosmos.
Our Founding Fathers were inspired men holding a common vision of an America born, like a phoenix, out of the ashes of Old World tyrannies and religious intolerance. These men envisioned a New World sustained by “a ray of bright Glory now Beam(ing) from afar, Blest dawn of an Empire to rise; (where) The American Ensign now sparkles a Star, Which shall shortly flame wide thru’ the Skies.” (A song published in the Newport (Rhode Island) Mercury in 1774, shortly after the Boston Tea Party.)
Freedom, first and foremost Religious Freedom, was the spark, the seed, the hope of this nation, and is the principal guarantee of the “Bill of Rights.” However, this new land was to be far more than an abode of free-thinking philosophers and politicians; rather, it was to be a “New Zion,” a great “Beacon” to the rest of the world, casting Light far and wide, illuminating mankind with a new vision of “One Nation Under God” wherein all citizens might evolve spiritually, not simply in material and socioeconomic terms.
This vision was enunciated time and again by George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Francis Hopkinson, Joseph Warren, John Dickinson, and so many others, in statements Deistic and Masonic, Symbolic and Poetic. The “Liberty Tree” by Thomas Paine is but one example of such imagery:
In a chariot of light from the regions of day,
The Goddess of Liberty came;
Ten-thousand celestials directed the way,
And thither conducted the dame,
This fair budding branch, from the garden above,
Where millions with millions agree,
She bro’t in her hand, as a pledge of her love,
The plant she call’d Liberty Tree.
This celestial vision of America presented by our national patriarchs during the eighteenth century was picked up during the nineteenth by the so-called Transcendentalists such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Emily Dickinson, Sidney Lanier, William Jennings Bryan, among others, as well as Walt Whitman, who in his poem “I Hear America Singing” wrote:
I say the whole earth and the stars in the sky
are for religion’s sake….
I say the real and permanent grandeur of
these (United) States must be their religion.
Looking back, we note that in the mid-twentieth century our nation began to turn away from the religious and spiritual inspiration of our ancestors, their reliance upon divine guidance, their trust in man’s eventual evolution back to origin as a being of Light. Nowadays this reliance has been replaced by social and economic institutions, state and educational bureaucracies, scientific and medical establishments. And all too often the so-called mainstream religions and denominations are favored by the state because of their material and charitable contributions in secular society, while newer and more spiritually oriented congregations are viewed with suspicion and derision. We have, in fact, reached a point in our nation where religions must, in political and economic terms, be “state-approved”; and those who cannot prove their value, who are unprepared to discuss their most sacred beliefs and tenets before the media and government officials, are designated as “cults,” and quite often legislated, judged, and taxed out of existence. Is this not the very phenomenon against which our ancestors fought?
We see here a battle between religious rights, as defined by secular-minded forces, and spiritual rights, those natural promptings of conscience found among truly religious people in their desire to know God. The God of Spirit, Life and Love is rejected by the state in favor of the Demiurge, a god of materiality, obedience, retribution, crime, and punishment. But all people, especially Americans, have a right to know the difference, to reflect upon things of the spirit, to come together in fellowship and worship in the light, and to move on beyond popular theories and dogma concerning God to a level of deeper understanding and communion with God. There must be no interference by the state or any group of its citizens, and The Proclamation speaks to this issue in Article II, which states:
All members of the human family while expressing their spiritual beliefs, faiths or convictions, privately or in a church, temple, synagogue, monastery, convent or other place of worship or collective religious assembly are in essence united together in an invisible, spiritual organism animated by God to which every person, group of persons, social or religious organ is obligated to respect and to hold superior to any and all distinctive organs, whether social or religious, whatever they might be.
In other words, we of the International Community of Christ respect all religions and defend all religious expression, even holding such organizations and expressions superior to all other social or religious organizations (within context), for we recognize the inherent spiritual potential within religion; that is, animation by God and evolution of the species. And, while we do not believe that these rights are “to be interpreted to replace any civil law or laws or to cause anyone to place themselves above civil law and order,” we do view the spirit as far superior to materiality and all other institutions of the secular world.
Certainly, people must be allowed religious liberties, and they need to overlook sectarian differences, coming together in occasional assemblies. But more than this, there must be an evolution in religion, an expansion of spiritual understandings, of consciousness, of moving closer to our origins as beings of Light with God. This is the entire reason for religion, the only correct answer to the question, “What is the hope of the deceased?” And, as I presented these themes at my father’s funeral, I was comforted by my faith, by my office as a Minister of the Second Advent, and I did give comfort to many in that place who were in pain.
Thus, I believe spiritual teachings, as made available in the Church of the Second Advent, to be the wind that brightens the fire, the rain that wets the soil and brings forth good fruit. Or, as the voice of my Cherokee ancestors would say:
The fire which clarifies the mind, the water which purifies, sustains, and is symbolic of consciousness.
And I believe that the New Light of God’s Sun of Righteousness is strong upon our land, that many people are, indeed, feeling the pull of consciousness, that they are seeking direction for growth but lack the essential tools for understanding, for interpreting the information contained within those rays. It is our mission to preserve and institutionalize those tools and make them available to all who would seek them out, and all this within an atmosphere free of fear and intimidation, as envisioned by our American ancestors.
If we can be the sparks and plant the seeds, we will have accomplished our mission and fulfilled that hope, that dream, always present in the hearts of men and women.
REPORTS
Department of Ecclesiology
Through the months of August and September, volunteers and members of the Department of Ecclesiology worked together on Sundays to prepare the Sanctuary grounds for the Fall Convocation. Men, women, and youths of The Church grouped together as weekend volunteers to repair and clear churches and pathways throughout the Sanctuary of Prophecy (Southlands). The beautification project continued to the end of October. Volunteers cleared grounds and trimmed low-hanging branches of indigenous juniper trees over an expanded area around the Cathedral Church of the Americas, both to improve the appearance of the area and to promote fire safety.
AEF & OSC Press Release
Soon after the Gran Vilaya–El Dorado VI Expedition returned from Peru, the Andean Explorers Foundation & Ocean Sailing Club announced their findings to the Associated Press, to United Press International, to major U.S. newspapers and to local Reno news agencies through the following press release:
October 3, 1994
The Andean Explorers Foundation & Ocean Sailing Club (AEF & OSC), under the direction of world-renowned explorer, author, and historian Gene Savoy, just returned from a 90-day expedition into the interior jungles of northeastern and central Peru, Departments of Amazonas and Huánuco. Extensive research was done in these two separate areas of Peru.The Gran Vilaya–El Dorado VI expedition was accompanied by 40 members of the Andean Explorers Foundation from various nations, including Japan, the United Kingdom, Canada, Peru, and the United States. The headquarters of the AEF & OSC is in Reno, Nevada, and fifteen local members accompanied the expedition. The nonprofit Foundation has dedicated over 37 years to the pursuit of knowledge of ancient civilizations. The purpose of the expedition was to finish filming and mapping the area of the ancient Chachapoyas people that lived in the metropolis of Gran Vilaya, discovered by Gene Savoy in 1985. The ancient city of Gran Vilaya, which sits some 8,000 to 10,000 feet above sea level, covers an estimated 100 square miles in area and contains approximately 24,000 structures. On the 1989 Gran Vilaya IV expedition, Savoy, with members of the research team, uncovered three monolithic stone tablets bearing glyphs inscribed on their surfaces. The glyphs appear to be similar to some from Sinai, which could suggest contact between the Old and New Worlds. The Foundation is still researching and gathering more evidence that Peru could be the mysterious Ophir, land of gold, referred to by King Solomon. The just-returned expedition has added valuable new information to the Foundation’s research, including additional glyphs and new sites that substantiate its theories. The Foundation is presently working on a new video. Clips of the video will be shown at the Foundation’s annual awards dinner on October 12, 1994, at the Airport Plaza Hotel in Reno.
In the Department of Huánuco, at much higher elevations (ranging from 10,000 to 14,000 feet), a smaller team of researchers recovered over 35 different sites.
The expedition was sponsored in Peru by the Institute of Culture, the Museum of the Nation, FOPTUR, the Military, the National Police, and the Office of the President of the Republic. Mr. Savoy has been asked to return to Peru to lecture at the Museum of the Nation and the university of Lima.
AEF News Release
El Commercio, a newspaper in Lima, Peru, and a longtime supporter of Gene Savoy’s explorations in Peru, published the following article on the findings of the Gran Vilaya VI expedition. It appeared in Spanish in the September 25, 1994, edition. It is reproduced here in English for the first time.
Inca road once connected mountain and jungle, according to explorer Gene Savoy
September 25, 1994. The ancient Incas constructed long roads that joined mountain regions with the jungle, specifically, with Chachapoyas, which will be searched for by means of an expedition to demonstrate this fact about the middle of next year, assured explorer Gene Savoy yesterday.
He said that during July, August, and the first weeks of September, he directed an expedition organized by the Andean Explorers Foundation & Ocean Sailing Club, to the north of Huánuco and the ruins of Gran Vilaya (Amazonas).
The expedition, which took an investment of 300,000 new soles, was able to confirm that the remains of prehispanic construction that make up the archeological complex of Gran Vilaya extend about one hundred square miles.
He explained that this complex was constructed by an ancient Peruvian people, who then were conquered by the Incas, which made necessary roads that cross the north of Huánuco, the jungle of La Libertad and the south of Amazonas.
He reported that the expedition had to be suspended because of the beginning of the rainy season.
Participating in the expedition were representatives of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Peru.
Connected Constructions
For the other part, the national representative of said expedition, Francisco Seoane Weiss, reaffirmed that in the area north of Huánuco there existed prehispanic constructions that resemble temples and lodgings, interconnected by an extensive and complex network of stone roads.
He indicated that parts of some of them had been constructed with milky quartz, which from a distance had the appearance of a line of white paint.
CAPTION THAT ACCOMPANIES PHOTO OF SEVEN-TIERED ROOF AT HUANACO:
Archaeologists and members of the National Institute of Culture ought to study the remains of some 30 prehispanic constructions, located near the localities of Pinra and Huacrachuco (Huánuco), at some 4000 meters above sea level, claimed members of the Andean Explorers Foundation & Ocean Sailing Club, who announced their existence. According to what was told to “El Commercio” by explorer Gene Savoy, director of an expedition that has spent some weeks in the area, the edifices have seven roofs of stone—as seen in the photo—which are fastened by means of a kind of “nail,” which act like rafters. The shape—he said—resembles that of a Chinese pagoda. He explained that native communities surrounding these edifices are slowly destroying them by building walls and houses with them, because of which he urges national authorities to take care of this historical patrimony.
PUBLIC EVENTS
Second Annual Luncheon for Reno-Sparks Ministry
Saint Mary’s Parish Nurse Program sponsored a noon luncheon at the El Dorado Hotel Convention Center September 28, 1994, to report on the activities of the first group of nurses active in congregations throughout the Truckee Meadows. The reports at this Second Annual Luncheon covered the past year’s activities and future plans. There was also discussion of regional interest in forming a local chapter of the national Health Ministries Association.
Attending as representatives of the International Community of Christ were the Reverends Rebecca Willis and Donald Crook.
Reno City Council Invocation
The Right Reverend Robert Petrovich delivered the invocation to open the Reno City Council on Tuesday, October 25, 1994 at 12:00 noon. Rt. Rev. Petrovich is the second representative of The Church to deliver the invocation to open a City Council meeting. Accompanying Rt. Rev. Petrovich was the Reverend Gene Savoy Jr.
In February 1994, the Secretary to the Reno City Council first invited the Second Advent Church to send representatives of its ministry to participate in Reno City Council meetings.
In May 1994, The Church’s Office of Civil Affairs sent the City Manager’s Office a list of ministers from the Second Advent Church whom the City Council could call upon to open its meetings. The City Office has contacted all the churches in the Reno area and invited the ministers of these churches to provide invocations on a rotational basis for decades, but only recently has the City invited ministers of the Second Advent Church to participate.
Governor’s Prayer Breakfast
October 26, 1994. The Governor’s Prayer Breakfast was held Wednesday morning, October 26, 1994, at the Broadway Room in the Reno Hilton Hotel. Hundreds of secular and religious professionals gathered in prayerful support of the governor and leaders of the state of Nevada.
Following the prelude provided by harpist Mary Margaret Niebuhr, the Master of Ceremonies, the Reverend George C. Bratiotis of St. Anthony Greek Orthodox Church and General Chair of The National Conference, opened the ceremonial portion of the program with a welcome. Governor Bob Miller led the posting of colors and the pledge of allegiance. The Invocation was delivered by the Reverend V. James Jeffrey, Rector of Trinity Episcopal Church.
Governor Miller initiated the program of prayer messages presented by readers from the First United Methodist Church—Tongan Fellowship, the Hindu community, and Temple Sinai.
Choir selections by the LDS Regional Combined Choir, under the direction of E. Carl Chamberlain, provided a short interlude before the Executive Director of Greater Reno/Sparks Chamber of Commerce, Harry York, presented the keynote speakers of the event: Coni Taylor of the Greater Light Christian Center, Sister Patricia Kelly of Carmel of Reno, and Farida Kuraishy of the Muslim community.
The Benediction closing the program, delivered by National Conference Board Director Alexandra Voorhees, preceded the final event of the gathering, the singing of “America the Beautiful” by the choir and those assembled.
The Governor’s Prayer Breakfast is a local version of the President’s Prayer Breakfast, attended by heads of state from all over the world. Nevada’s 1994 breakfast was attended by local businessmen and union leaders, city and university officials, bankers, and religious from the Catholic, Lutheran, Greek Orthodox, Episcopal, LDS, and Second Advent communities in the Reno area.
The Second Advent Church, a patron sponsor of the event, was represented at the breakfast by The Most Right Reverend Bishop Gene Savoy, Rev. Gene Savoy Jr., Rev. Sean Savoy, Rev. Gary Buchanan, Rev. Jacklynn Lord, Rev. Belinda Chauvin, Rev. Elizabeth Reece, Albert Edgecomb, Victoria Skinner, and Robert Roy.
The 1994 breakfast was the sixth Governor’s Breakfast held during the term of Governor Miller and the eighth such event held since 1979.
Baha’i Press Conference & Memorial Service
The Spiritual Assembly Baha’i Faith of Reno invited twenty-five members of Reno religious communities to be members of the studio audience during its October 30, 1994, taping of a television program on the persecution of the Baha’i in Iran. Mrs. Olya Roohizadegan, the subject of a new Hollywood film, Olya’s Story, came to Reno following her recent tour of Europe to perform the one-hour television and press conference at SNCAT-TV studio. The film is the account of Mrs. Roohizadega’s experiences both as witness and victim of Iran’s persecution of the Baha’is, Iran’s largest religious minority.
Attending the afternoon taping of the program as representatives of the Advocates for Religious Rights & Freedoms were Advocates President The Most Right Reverend Gene Savoy and the Reverend Gene Savoy Jr. Attending the evening memorial service were the Reverends Robert Petrovich and Gene Savoy Jr.
Nevada Clergymen’s Appeal
This October the Nevada Clergymen’s Association invited all religious leaders in the Truckee Meadows to attend its annual meeting on November 10 at the International Community of Christ Church. Earlier this month, Committee Chairman the Reverend Gene Savoy Jr. contacted the offices of all religious organizations in the Reno area by phone seeking interest in the Association’s project to revise Nevada’s religious property exemption law. On October 31, Nevada Day, the Association mailed invitations to the event.
The 250 congregations contacted by phone and informed of the proposed change in legislation represent the faithful in the Reno/Sparks/Carson City area, which has a population of about 250,000. The calling was completed in two days. During those first two days, more than 50 congregations showed interest and are expected to attend the November meeting; 100 still had not returned the call; only 5 were not interested in receiving further information.
Nearly 20 of the congregations contacted had already been affected by enforcement of the new interpretation of Nevada’s current property tax exemption law. The current law has been in existence for many years. The new interpretation of this law has been in effect since 1990. The new interpretation of the law was the result of the Nevada Supreme Court decision on the International Community of Christ Red Rock Sanctuary case.
The Supreme Court decision followed the proposal of then Deputy District Attorney Thomas Riley that church land which is not actively being used for worship is not exempt property. According to this decision, nonexempt property also includes land that is not humanly improved. Thus nature sanctuaries and retreats are no longer exempt.
The following examples represent how churches who are interested in changing the new interpretation of the law are already being affected:
(1) Episcopalian churches are paying taxes on great acreages of church land throughout the state, land which they are holding and plan to develop in the future. In this case the land was owned by the church and considered exempt before the new interpretation of the law. Does this new interpretation of the law stunt the carefully planned growth of the Episcopal Church?
(2) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS, or the Mormon Church) has developed food farms in order to donate food to the needy members of their church as a charitable act. Is this agricultural use not exempt because the food is not donated to the general public?
(3) Many small congregations, mostly Protestant, have worshiped for many years in rented areas and have recently purchased land on which to build. They are now dumbfounded by the fact that they must pay taxes on the land until it is fully occupied as a functional church. Their budgets have been upset by this realization. Will these churches be taxed until the County Building Department determines that the building is fit for human occupancy?
The church property exemption law has been current since 1990. The case that changed the interpretation of this law involved the International Community of Christ’s Red Rock Sanctuary. Tax exemption had originally been granted to the Sanctuary in June 1982 by Chan Griswold, then Chief Deputy District Attorney and Head of the Civil Division for Washoe County. Written confirmation of the exemption ruling was presented to the International Community of Christ Church in October of that year. Suddenly, and in an unexplained manner, the exemption was withdrawn in December 1983 by the new Chief Deputy District Attorney, Thomas Riley, after the County Tax Assessor at that time, Charles McGowan, asked for Riley’s opinion on how to deal with the Sanctuary exemption.
The new County decision also lay claim to back taxes, which had to be paid in full. All efforts by The Church to reach a settlement were rebuffed by county officials, who had taken title to The Church’s properties at Red Rock and threatened to dispose of them through a tax sale. The Red Rock Consecrated Sanctuary, an open-air complex of over 1200 acres located north of Reno, has been used exclusively for religious purposes since its purchase in April 1980.
According to Riley’s opinion, the untouched natural mountain setting of juniper forests many hundreds of years old was to be considered by the County to be “wasteland” and therefore taxable. Only a small acreage around each of the twenty-five outdoor churches and shrines, roadways and residences of the entire 1200 acre complex were to be considered exempt. By Riley’s decision, the “sanctuary,” which exists for The Church as a whole entity, was made legally into a patchwork of exempt lots. Of the legal parcels, only a portion of each was to be considered tax-exempt; that is, only a portion of each lot was considered to be used for religious purposes.
Although a natural setting for retreat and contemplation is considered nonexempt in Riley’s opinion, the following kinds of absurdities would allow The Church to receive full tax exemption of the “sanctuary”:
(1) if the entire Sanctuary were paved
(2) if the natural area were deforested and then replanted by human hands
(3) if the natural forest were planted with additional trees planted by humans, even if those trees did not “take” in this high sierra environment.
There are also absurd nonexemptions presently active. One example is the tax condition of the Cathedral Church of the Americas located in the Sanctuary of Prophecy. According to Riley, backed by consensus of the Nevada Supreme Court, The Cathedral Church of the Americas, a towering open-air structure valued at $100,000 in materials alone, is exempt from taxation as a man-made structure, a “human improvement,” but the remainder of the lot on which it stands is not. To The Church this means that if taxes are not paid on the corner areas of the lot on which the Cathedral stands, The Church could conceivably lose the entire Cathedral to the County through repossession. This condition will continue to hold until the entire lot on which the Cathedral stands is “improved by human hands” in a way deemed suitable by the County.
The Nevada Clergymen’s Association is dedicated to securing and protecting the civil and religious rights and liberties of churches, synagogues, temples and other religious societies in the state of Nevada. It is organized to represent the special needs of religion to all appropriate government officials and bodies. The November 10 meeting will serve to further inform those of all faiths who are concerned about the future welfare of the religious institutions that provide the basis of the spiritual fabric of society in the state.
RITES & SERVICES
Fall Wedding
University Chapel
Officiating Minister: The Most Rt. Reverend Gene Savoy
Christine Marie Farlow and John Stephen Erickson of Reno were wed in a private ceremony on Monday October 17, 1994 at 2:30 p.m. Ms. Farlow’s mother and father were in attendance and assisted at the ceremony as Matron of Honor and Best Man.
First-Level Ordinations
During the Convocation proceedings this fall, several seminary students enrolled in the non-resident clergy studies program of the Sacred College Jamilian University of Theology received their first-degree ordination. The Most Right Reverend Gene Savoy conducted the rite of first-degree Ordination in his private chambers at the Apostolic Chancellery.
Ordained on Friday, October 7:
Robert Lee Fuller of Chattanooga, Tennessee, first enrolled in the Project X extension program March 1990.
Ordained on Saturday October 8, in respective order:
Charles Stewart of Jamaica, New York, originally enrolled in the Sacred Academy May 1977, reinstated July 1994;
Diane Stewart of Jamaica, New York, originally enrolled in the Sacred Academy May 1977, reinstated July 1994;
Lydia Von Imm of San Diego, California, first enrolled in the Project X extension program July 1988;
Jon Marshall Muncy of Las Vegas, Nevada, first enrolled in the Project X extension program in March 1990;
Karen Elliott of Aurora, Indiana, first enrolled in the Project X extension program February 1993.
Second-Level Ordinations
Ordinations were conducted at the Cathedral Church of the Americas by the Most Right Reverend Gene Savoy following Divine Service and Communion of Fellowship. Assisting were ten rabbans.
Ordained as Deacon Overseers of the Sanctuary at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday October 9, 1994:
Herman Aggenbach
James H. Bizeau
P. Amanda Buchanan
Francis Burkitt
Lawrence D. Coesens
Susan A. Coleman
Aaron Cutrer Jr.
Douglas DeMers
Mary Foust
Peter Foust
JoAnn Hainline
Ruth E. Harris
Gary F. Huss
Mansour Jahangiri
Bruce Kanzelmeyer
Dorothy Kubiak
Steven S. Larson
Linda LeBrun
Paul LeBrun
Yukinori Matsushita
James McDermott
Michael J. McIntyre
Jon Marshall Muncy
Patrick Newman
Andrew L. Oberhoulser
Karl Roehrborn
Rose Marie Ross
Robert G. Roy
Jane S. Sabin
Judy Seiltz
Gail Sharp
Stephen Sharp
Thomas Sheehan Jr.
Gerald W. Simonson
Gary Siroshton
Victoria C. Skinner
Nola I. Slevin
Georgia Smith
Michael Spohn
Ronald J. Theriault
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