A special meeting of the Sacred Oversee of the International Community of Christ, Church of the Second Advent, was held on Wednesday, April 29, 2009, in the chambers of the Sacred Oversee, to discuss future development at the Red Rock Consecrated Sanctuary, especially as that development relates to availability of water and water rights.

As the first matter of business, Bishop Savoy requested consensus on the next proposed project at Red Rock, the next stage of development at the Church of the Christian Churches. This project, he said, would put our water rights to use and would replace the old asymmetrical cross design with a new Second Advent Cross design. In this project, Revs. Staver and Foust would follow the new mathematical figures put down by Rev. Buchanan based on the correct gematria. It is possible to undertake this project now, Bishop Savoy said, because The Church had fulfilled the five-year federal requirements for development of the deer-feeding project and so The Church was now again free to take development of the Church of the Christian Churches to the next level.

While the federal requirements were no longer applicable to Sanctuary development, the state of Nevada has been getting stricter on water use, Bishop Savoy said, and the Christian Churches project would allow us to use our water rights within the guidelines already set. Bishop Savoy went on to explain the situation of The Church and the Sanctuary regarding its water rights and water availability. A summary follows:

Each parcel in the northland and the southland retains its own individual domestic water rights, which can be used either by drilling a well on each parcel or by having a single well on one of the parcels from which water is distributed to all the other parcels so long as it is from the same water basin.

In addition to domestic water rights, The Church has reserved to it 17.144 million gallons/year of additional water rights, which are presently distributed between two water basins: Antelope Valley, which serves the southland and half of the northland, and Biddel Flats, which serves the other half of the northland.

The primary point to this discussion of water rights is that The Church is at present not using enough water for beneficial use to keep its water rights without filing extensions, and if The Church cannot prove beneficial use for the additional water rights reserved to it, the state of Nevada has notified The Church that it will give those water rights to someone else. For the time being, undertaking the proposed Christian Churches project would allow The Church to prove beneficial use for its additional water rights; there was consensus among the members of the Sacred Oversee to undertake this project. However, questions arose regarding future water rights.

The present additional water rights of The Church are distributed over two water basins, Antelope Valley and Biddel Flats. The language of The Church’s water rights permit at present distributes those rights over these two water basins but does not indicate how much from each water basin. The state has asked The Church to determine how much of the 17.144 million gallons it wants to take from each basin so that the old combined permit can be put aside and two new permits issued in order to clarify use.

In addition, for The Church to maintain its water rights in the Biddel Flats water basin, The Church needs to drill a well in the northland that pulls water from the Biddel Flats basin. Initially, the state gave The Church until 12/27/09 to drill this well; later the state said it would give The Church until 2010 to drill the well since The Church would be unable to undertake the expense of a well while undertaking its other water projects in the southland. The decision The Church has to make is whether it wants to split use between the two water basins or put all its rights into the Antelope Valley water basin, since the state of Nevada is going to split the present permit in any case.

Following this summary of points delivered by Bishop Savoy, members of the Sacred Oversee raised questions and proposed courses of action regarding the matter of water rights. Ultimately, three basic courses of action were suggested: (1) to keep all the special use water rights in the Antelope Valley basin and give up all water rights in the Biddel Flats basin, (2) to keep  nominal rights in the Biddel Flats basin and the vast majority in the Antelope Valley basin, or (3) to split the rights equally between the two basins. Suggestions (2) and (3) were made with the understanding that any claim to water rights from the Biddel Flats basin would require that The Church drill a well, meter the use, and pump water from it with proven beneficial use.

Two other questions were also raised: (1) If The Church gives up its rights to water from the Biddel Flats basin under the present permit, could The Church apply for a new water rights permit for the Biddel Flats basin? (The thought here was that by applying for a new permit, all the old extensions filed by The Church would be discounted and The Church would have the chance to tackle the problem of water rights in the northland anew.) (2) If The Church gives up its rights to water from the Biddel Flats basin, can it create a new point of diversion in the Antelope Valley basin by drilling a new well in the northland that draws from the Antelope Valley basin permit and distributes water over the entire northland?

Bishop Savoy said that he would speak to Mike Buschelman, water rights consultant, and Doug Cannon, water rights attorney, on these matters to get their opinions on all the questions and proposed courses of action brought up during the meeting before he would get back to the Sacred Oversee to make a final decision.

On Thursday evening, April 9, 2009, Holy Thursday was observed with a communion service and homily in the Chapel of the Holy Child. Officiating was the head bishop, the Right Reverend Gene Savoy Jr., assisted by the cardinal bishop, the Right Reverend Sean Savoy.

Traditional Easter Sunday was observed with a Sunrise Divine Service at the Cathedral Church of the Americas at Red Rock Consecrated Sanctuary on April 12. The Right Reverend  Gene Savoy Jr. officiated. The concelebrant was cardinal bishop Sean Savoy, assisted by the canons of The Church — the Right Reverends Peter Foust, Robert Petrovich, and Ileana Isfan.

On Saturday April 18, the True Easter of The Second Advent Church, a special communion and New Divine Service were celebrated at sunrise at the Cathedral Church of the Americas at Red Rock Consecrated Sanctuary.

Head bishop Gene Savoy Jr. officiated, the Right Reverend Sean Savoy was concelebrant and was assisted by the canons of The Church, the Right Reverends Roger Weld, Reano Castell, and Ileana Isfan.

It was on Sunday April 18, 1982, that those assembled for Sunrise Divine Service at Red Rock Consecrated Sanctuary received confirmation of the Second Appearance of God through revelation when Jesus, as the Angel of the Lord, 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 fixed date of April 18, as Second Advent Easter—i.e., following the Sacred Solar Calendar of The Church—is celebrated annually with Sunrise Divine Services at the Sanctuary, as that date was established by the late Most Right Reverend Gene Savoy Sr., as The Man, following a series of revelations received on April 18, 1982, as he climbed the Seven Mountains of Metal at the Sanctuary. All of these events are recorded in The Church’s publication The Book of God’s Revelation.

This year, as is the tradition, fellowship and refreshments followed the service at the Sanctuary’s chapter house.Commemorative services honoring the First Advent calendar were held during the spring season.

The seven-week jubilee cycle of the Saturday evening Pannuches meal rite was observed at 7:00 p.m. in the Chapel of the Holy Child on February 14 and April 4. Officiating was the Right Reverend Gene Savoy Jr.

The Pannuches services are private assemblies of ministers-in-residence and are observed  after sunset in the Chapel at the downtown Apostolic Chancellery. These services precede the Sunday morning Jubilee Sunrise Divine Service held at Red Rock Consecrated Sanctuary—this spring on Sundays February 15 and April 5.

The Pannuches meal rite also corresponds to the last supper of Jesus, master rabban of the Essaei Order, who by tradition celebrated the same ritual following the calendar of the Essene Community of Light in ancient Israel. The Essenes, unlike other sects and First Dispensation Christianity, who follow a lunar calendar in determining the Easter cycle, preserved a solar calendrical system that designates April 18 as the True Easter.

Photo Roger Weld

On May 28, 2000, an historical celebration was held at Steamboat Hot Springs to formally recognize the hot springs as an historical site.

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In June 2000, thousands of wild flowers and one hundred tree seedlings were planted at Red Rock Consecrated Sanctuary along the creek bed fed by the Sanctuary pond.

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On July 11, 2000, Steamboat Hot Springs was featured on the local Nevada history television series John Tyson’s Journal.

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On July 20, 2000, in one of the first public visits to Red Rock Consecrated Sanctuary, thirty students of cultural geography at Truckee Meadows Community College visited the University Chapel and Red Rock Consecrated Sanctuary as part of their class. As their host on the tour, the Reverend Robert Petrovich responded to numerous questions raised by the class at the end of their Sanctuary visit regarding The Church’s concepts of the Second Advent and the Cosmic Christ, The Church’s use of the New Testament and its relation to Pauline teaching, Second Advent scripture, and the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Especially fascinating to the visitors was the concept that one needs to develop a certain level of spiritual Consciousness before one is able to understand higher spiritual concepts.

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On July 28, 2000, the Reverends Sean Savoy and Robert Petrovich delivered an hour-long presentation on the International Community of Christ, Project “X,” and the Andean Explorer Foundation’s Grand Ophir Expedition to thirty high school students and their counselors at Camp Galilee at Lake Tahoe, a summer camp sponsored by the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Nevada.

In the late summer of 1999, nearly the entire North Sanctuary was burned by a wildfire.

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On August 7, 1999, an Emancipation Service and Reception was held for fifteen-year-old Matthew Aaron Madonna, son of Michael McIntyre.

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In the month of September, The Church joined the local community to help defeat a proposal to build an open-pit mine and processing plant less than two miles from Red Rock Consecrated Sanctuary.

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On October 7, 1999, the Reverends Gene Savoy Jr. and Robert Petrovich attended the third luncheon gathering of ministers and faith leaders in the Reno-Sparks community at the Reno Stake Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

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On October 19, a table of ten members of the International Community of Christ, headed by Bishop Gene Savoy Sr., attended the Nevada Governor’s Prayer Breakfast, at which the Reverend Sean Savoy acted as Master Of Ceremonies.

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On October 23, Ms. Colleen Hooper and Deacon Larry Coesens exchanged marriage vows in the Chapel of the Holy Child.