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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, Gnostic, 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.

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/

The new edition of this book 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 below. You may print the book for your personal, non-commercial use.

ORDINATION SEMINARS 2004-2007:
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 Jesus. 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 by Paul. The Christian Gospels have to be "unspun" if we are serious about learning from the authentic Jesus of history. Our students gain basic literary-historical skills in recovering the historical Teachings of Jesus 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 all 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 authority of 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, and even by the non-religious so-called 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 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 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. Therefore the prime requisite for affiliation with the Home Temple is unequivocal reverence for the Master Jesus and all other authentic spiritual Masters.