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The Way of Priesthood

Each human heart yearns for union with the profound Reality that is its source, being, and true nature.   For an increasing number of people, institutional religion no longer satisfies this yearning.  They are ready for sacramental training in a life of self-evolution and service--the sacred way of Priesthood.

 

 

 

Home Sanctuary and Altar

Before there were churches, people gathered for private worship in their homes, just as Mar Yeshua, the Master Jesus, had done with his close disciples. The spiritual intimacy of the Havurah Seder or sacred meal developed into the Holy Communion or Eucharist of the Christian churches, with far more ancient roots in the sacred meals of the mystery religions of Greece, Egypt, and the Middle East. Today the "Mass" and other aspects of Priestly Sacramental ministry are most meaningfully practiced and experienced in the sanctuary of home and private altar with a small gathering of close spiritual companions--without church dogma and creed, but with reverence for the sacred fire of Divine Communion that Mar Yeshua and all great Masters have rekindled for humanity. 

 

 

Priesthood in the New Age

Click on this book cover for a downloadable electronic copy of Priesthood in the New Age, scanned from the original manuscript written by Bishop Keizer in 1986. It explains the philosophical basic and rationale for Home Temple Priesthood--why it is interfaith, non-professional, Kabbalistic, Theosophical, open to all sincere aspirants, and integrated with the Temple of the Holy Grail (T:.H:.G:.), our initiatic mystery school. It also describes some of the mystic and esoteric aspects of Priesthood in human service, as well as the spiritual power of direct historical lineage (Apostolic Succession) from the Master Jesus.

 

THE HOME TEMPLE

The Home Temple is a new vessel for powerful and transformative spiritual impulses that are emerging in twenty-first century humanity.

• Rather than doctrinal "belief," the Home Temple awakens the interior knowledge of the Heart  transmitted by Yeshua and embodied in the higher mystical teachings of Masters from all traditions.

• Rather than professional clergy supported by the donations of non-ordained laity, all members of the Home Temple are encouraged to progress through the traditional degrees of Apostolic Ordination, and there is no separate class of paid professional clergy.

• Rather than male-dominated church hierarchy, the Synod of Bishops is a collegial order of women and men with equal vote and standing.

• The male and female Presiding Co-Bishops maintain a deep commitment to re-establishing the feminine  mother-goddess roots of spirituality that were foundational to the work of Jesus.

• Rather than a costly three-year onsite academic seminary program, the Home Temple offers low-cost, six-month  distance-learning modules comprising both study and spiritual practice that prepare for Ordination as Deacon and Priest, with elevation to Bishop (Episcopate) by nomination and vote of the Synod of Bishops based on proven spiritual leadership.

• Our unique ordination training program is based on the Jewish Messianic, Merkabah, and wisdom-school mysticism and Kabbalistic practices of Mar Yeshua, the Master Jesus, as scholars have been able to recover and reconstruct them.

• Rather than emphasis upon theology, the Home Temple provides pathways for advanced spiritual Initiation through T:.H:.G:., the Temple of the Holy Grail, and training in esoteric Grail Priesthood.

• INTERFAITH EMPHASIS: After Ordination, Priests and Priestesses are free to work in their own metaphysical or theological frameworks subject only to the Home Temple Code of Ethics, reverence for the Master Jesus, the Home Temple Statement on Vitalistic Healing, and annual report to their Bishop. Outstanding Priests and Priestess are nominated by their Bishops for Consecration as independent Bishops of the Home Temple Synod.

For details see FAQ's, Charters, and Home Temple.

• Twenty-Two Lines of Valid and Legal Apostolic Succession

Home Temple Ordination transmits the full repertoire of twenty-two extant lines of valid, historic Apostolic Succession from the Master Jesus for spiritual ministry after completion of studies in our unique home-study seminary program. These are the same Holy Orders transmitted in Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Take the link on the buttons to the left to APOSTOLIC LINEAGES. You may also wish to view the narrated flash presentation HERE.

For a detailed history of the Independent Episcopate, we provide a newly-revised online PDF file of The Wandering Bishops: Apostles of a New Spirituality by Lewis Keizer. If you don't have Adobe Acrobat Reader, click here: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/

 

 

 

A new edition of Dr. Keizer's The Wandering Bishops: Apostles of a New Spirituality is not yet in print. However you can open and print out the PDF file of the previous edition by clicking on the image of the book cover to the left. You may print the book for your personal, non-commercial use.

 

• Ordination and Training
  (Take this link to see how recent Ordinands minister to their communities)

Home Temple Ordination confers valid Apostolic Succession--the Priesthood of Melchizedek. The training materials for Ordination are based on the universally-applicable traditions, Kabbalistic teachings, and spiritual practices of Mar Yeshua, the Master Jesus.  These are not doctrines of any church or religion, but the authentic teachings and practices of a great Spiritual Master, as contemporary scholars have been able to understand and restore them.  They were better preserved in medieval Chasidic, Kabbalistic, Gnostic, and Sufi traditions of Judaism and Islam than in Eastern or Western Christianity. Today they constitute a vital new spiritual impulse for people in their quest for personal and social transformation.

During Ordination training, postulants use a specially-designed Sacramentary to maximize their understanding of the historical teaching and practices of Mar Yeshua, the historical Master Jesus. After Ordination our independent Priestesses and Priests are free to use their own spiritual liturgies, teachings, and religious emphasis subject only to the Home Temple Code of Ethics and reverence for the Master Jesus.

 

 

• Our Home Seminary Ordination Program

This is not a dry, textbook-based correspondence course.  A fascinating combination of integrative spiritual practice with academic texts, audio lectures, video demonstrations, tests, seminars, Skype video mentorships, and online instructional links prepares the candidate for Ordination into Diaconate, Priesthood, and Episcopate in direct Apostolic lineage from Mar Yeshua. All of these materials are now delivered online, digitized for download, and accessed through password protected pages.

Our program provides an  authentic path of spiritual development and religious expression without denominational bias or Christian dogma.  It puts members into communication with colleagues worldwide who share a common vision of human spiritual evolution in all spiritual paths.  

 

• APPLICATION: Careful screening includes three character references

• TUITION: $600 each for six-month Diaconate and Priesthood online modules; one set of materials may be shared at reduced tuition for each by two applicants accepted to the program who wish to form a study partnership

• CODE OF ETHICS: All Postulants for Holy Orders must agree to our Code of Ethics under legal signature; violation of Ethics may demit from Home Temple

• ORDINATION: Weekend Seminar and Ordination by Home Temple Synod Bishop upon completion of studies and final approval by Presiding Bishops; first Diaconate, then Priesthood

• FAST TRACK: Previously Ordained independent clergy in valid Apostolic Orders, as well as seminary-trained non-Apostolic ministers, may petition the Presiding Bishops for evaluation of previous seminary education and admission to the Home Temple Priesthood or Synod of Independent Bishops by completing low-cost supplemental studies

A Priestess or Priest who demonstrates spiritual leadership and worthiness is invited to be advanced into the Episcopate, or Office of a Bishop, to serve in the world-wide Synod of Home Temple Bishops. As an Independent Bishop of the Home Temple, he or she may choose to exercise non-profit ministries through a legal and independent Corporation Sole.

Click to hear an orientation to the Diaconate Studies by Bishop Keizer.

Ordination is now available in England, Australia, Canada, South America, and the U.S. 

• SCHOOL OF SACRED STUDIES:
  Seminary Degrees and Certificates

The Home Temple SCHOOL OF SACRED STUDIES offer programs for its clergy leading to the Bachelor of Divinity (B.D.) for those who successfully complete Priesthood Studies, the Master of Divinity (M.Div.), Doctor of Divinity (D.D.), and Doctor of Vitalistic Healing (D.V.H.) degrees, as well as Certification in Pastoral Counseling.

Link to the HOME TEMPLE SCHOOL OF SACRED STUDIES.

 

 

• ORDINATION SEMINARS 2004-2010:
  Photos from recent Summer and Winter Ordination Seminars (CLICK HERE)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Home Church and Mission Charters

We train and empower sincere, mature people to conduct their own unique spiritual ministries. Independent Priests and Priestesses offer sacramental, transitional, and life-cycle spiritual services, as well as teaching, counseling, and other forms of ministry to their families and communities. Although rooted in the Apostolic Succession transmitted by Mar Yeshua, the Master Jesus, they are free to incorporate Buddhist, Shamanic, Goddess, Sufi, Theosophical, Hindu, Native American, or any other elements of transformational human spirituality into their churches, teachings, ministries, and rituals. Home-based ministries may be chartered as federally tax-exempt, non-profit churches or missions of the Home Temple.

Completion of Diaconate training qualifies the student as a Candidate for Ordination into the Apostolic Deaconate with Charter as a Mission of the Home Temple. Completion of Priesthood training qualifies the student as a Candidate for Ordination into the Apostolic Priesthood and Charter for an independent Church of the Home Temple. Click on the CHARTER button for more information. 

An Independent Priest or Bishop already operating a ministry may apply for Home Temple Articles of Affiliation leading to church Charter or (in the case of a Bishop) formation of a legal Corporation Sole. Affiliation of a previously Ordained or Consecrated minister requires Fast Track (see below) and, in the case of a  Bishop, completion of Home Temple Episcopal training (First Order T:.H:.G:.).

• Mar Yeshua: Reverence for the Master Jesus
  The Centrality of Jesus Studies for Home Temple Seminarians

Our focus in Ordination training is not upon theology, doctrine, dogma, or creed, but upon the historical Teachings of the Master Yeshua. This area of academic focus is called Jesus Studies. It is not possible to understand the Basor or "Gospel" proclaimed by Yeshua through literal study of the New Testament. The Gentile Greek Christians who produced the biblical gospels lived three generations after Yeshua, were in conflict with the original Jewish Messianic congregations established by Yeshua's talmidim or "disciples," and were proclaiming the Gospel of Paul--who had never been a disciple of Yeshua and, like the later Gnostics, based much of his interpretation upon his personal visions and revelations. The Christian churches proclaimed a Gospel about Jesus, a Heavenly Redeemer and miraculously begotten Son of God, crafted in the context of Pauline soteriology. The historical teachings and Halakah of Mar Yeshua gave way to gentile Christian worship of Jesus as the Passover Lamb of God who was sacrificed on the cross to expiate the sins of all who would believe in his deity. The Christian Gospels have to be "unspun" using proven scholarly text- and literary-historical methods if we are serious about learning from the authentic Yeshua (Jesus) of history. Our students gain basic literary-critical skills in recovering the historical Teachings of Yeshua so that they can be studied, taught and applied to their own spiritual walk in life. The focus, then, is not on Christianity, but on authentic spirituality that can be applicable to any religious tradition.

In Home Temple Ordination Studies we address all the legacy of Apostolic Succession--Liturgics, Old and New Testaments, History, etc--but our focus is upon the historical Teachings and practices of the Master Jesus as scholars have been able to recover and understand them. Like Thomas Jefferson, who created his own "Jefferson Bible" consisting only of the sayings of Jesus from the New Testament, we reverence Mar Yeshua not just as a spiritual teacher, but as the incarnate manifestation of God's Word. It is important to note that bibliolatry--the worship of the Bible as the literal Word of God--entered history only some 400 years ago as a means for Protestantism to replace the ecclesiastical authority of Catholic Apostolic Tradition. Today Christian biblical literalism and emphasis upon "belief" in doctrine has replaced the Master's Halakah or "way of walking" in life. Today the authentic Teachings of Jesus can often be found better practiced in Buddhism and other religions than in Christianity, and God's "Name" (Justice, Compassion, etc.) more truly hallowed outside of Bible-believing Christianity, especially by secular and non-religious people of conscience and ethical humanists.

However, it must be clearly understood that although the Home Temple respects all spiritual traditions and draws from them in an orientation that is Kabbalistic and theosophical rather than conventionally Christian, yet it is through Mar Yeshua and his chosen successors that the ancient Priesthood of Melchizedek has been transmitted to us. By being trained and initiated into his authentic Messianic traditions, we are able to draw close to all Spiritual Masters for guidance and empowerment. Mar Yeshua was the first-born of the New Humanity (Bar-Enash). He mediates spiritual rebirth. Yeshua demonstrated highest human spiritual potential in achieving the Qimah, "Resurrection," or conquest of death. He thus established continuity of consciousness and his living Bodhisattva presence for all who would strive to evoke the Messianic evolutions of the New Humanity and the New World. We reverence him as a Master of Masters, we serve under his protection and guidance, and we gratefully draw upon the riches of human spiritual striving transmitted through the lineage of the historic Apostolic Succession of the Master Jesus, as well as those of of world religions. Therefore the prime requisite for affiliation with the Home Temple is unequivocal reverence for the Master Yeshua.