WHAT IS THE HOME TEMPLE?

The Home Temple is an association of  diverse non-professional, interfaith, and home-ministry practitioners of 
sacramental Priesthood who are devoted to the authentic and historical Teachings, practice, and 
stream of human spiritual evolution initiated by Mar Yeshua, the Master Jesus.  The Teachings 
are better preserved in Chasidic and Kabbalistic traditions of Judaism than in Christianity, but they 
have been restored by the tools of modern scholarship and made available for private study by Home 
Templars.  Transmission of the historical lineage of Apostolic Priesthood provides each Home Templar 
with an intimate mystical link to the living Master Jesus that potentiates self-evolution and service to 
humanity. Many Home Temple practitioners work in congregations or chaplaincies.

IS IT A CHURCH?

The Home Temple is a non-profit religious denomination operating under the same laws as churches, 
synagogues, and other temples. As an alternative to religious professionalism and career clergy, 
however, no money is collected and no salaries or fees paid for religious services. Spiritual vocation is 
separate from professional vocation. The Home Temple charters home churches or ministries that 
operate under their own names. Bishops may also elect to incorporate their ministries as specific 
corporations sole operating in connection with the Home Temple under certain conditions. Home 
Temple founding Presiding Bishops and Directors Lewis and Willa Keizer serve on the Board of 
Directors with other Bishops of the Synod. The Board of Directors is advised by the Board of Directors of the Synod of Home 
Temple Bishops, which meets annually in conference. 

WHAT IS THE MISSION OF THE HOME TEMPLE?

The mission of the Home Temple is

1.      To screen, train, Ordain, and empower postulants for home-based, interfaith, non-professional 
(i.e., non-fee-based), independent Apostolic Diaconate, Priesthood, and Episcopate 
based on the teachings and practices of Mar Yeshua, the Master Jesus, using 
distance-learning, seminar, and other modalities.

2.      To keep in communication with the world-wide Synod of Home Temple Bishops to find ways that Bishops can empower each other’s 
ministries, explore ways to cooperate collegially, and carry on other business of the 
Home Temple.

3.      To provide educational and consulting programs and seminars in specific areas of 
concern designated by the Directors of the Home Temple, including (but not limited to) 
life-cycle ministry such as the Death Doula program;  the history, comparison, phenomenology, and practices of Buddhism and other religious traditions; self-healing and spiritual transformation using homeopathy, hypnotherapy, 
movement, sacred liturgy, incubation or dream-therapy, and other effective means.

4.      To offer regular sacramental liturgy and spiritual services such as Divine Communion 
and traditional life-cycle ministries without fee.

5.      To promote the development of non-professional sacramental Priesthood, home churches 
and ministries, volunteer chaplaincies, and other Apostolic ministries consistent with the 
historical teaching and practice of Mar Yeshua, the Master Jesus.

6.      To operate a special program for esoteric and mystical studies and practices as a First- 
and Second Order mystery school called the Temple of the Holy Grail (T:.H:.G:.) that 
develops the work of theurgical Grail Priesthood for the blessing and evolution of humanity 
and the planet, and for the self-evolution of the Priest(ess). 

7.      To empower worthy women and men with appropriate spiritual training and legitimate orders 
of ministry in the historical lineages of valid, traditional Apostolic Succession from Mar Yeshua, 
the Master Jesus, that will be exercised without fee according to the Home Temple Code of Ethics, 
which is published on the Home Temple web site, introductory materials, and training handbooks, 
and must be signed by every postulant before receiving authority to proceed in the studies.

HOW IS THE HOME TEMPLE PROGRAM DIFFERENT FROM THOSE OF      

OTHER HOME-STUDY SEMINARIES?
        

1.	The Home Temple Movement is an international impulse initiated to serve the spiritual needs of the 
	New Humanity that church and other religious institutions can no longer satisfy. 
        

2.	The Home Temple program is less costly and more accessible than denominational and "degree mill" 
	home study seminaries that either lack Apostolic Succession or do not normally consecrate bishops.
        

3.	Home Temple academic curriculums are based on contemporary objective scholarship, not 
	denominational doctrine and dogma.
        

4.	Studies and seminars are personally overseen by highly qualified spiritual initiates and practitioners.
        

5. 	Deacons, Priests, and Bishops of the Home Temple are free to teach and practice their own 
	spirituality within the framework of a basic code of ethics---diversity is encouraged.  

6. 	The Home Temple consecrates bishops from among its priesthood without distinctions of race, 
	religion, gender, or sexual preference.
        

7.  	The Home Temple integrates powerful spiritual practice with academic training--it is not merely a 
	"book learning" correspondence course.
        

8.	The Home Temple is selective in accepting Postulants and reserves the right to refuse further ordination 
	or disaffiliate an ordained person who does not uphold the ethics and standards of priesthood.  
	In extreme cases, a Presiding Bishop may convene an ecclesiastical court to hear evidence.       

WHAT IS APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION?
        

Apostolic Succession is the lineage of ordination originating with the Master Jesus and his Apostles.  It 
has been carried down through history by the Catholic and Orthodox churches. As opposed to Protestant 
ministry, which is not a true Priesthood, it can be transmitted only by bishops who are historical 
successors of the Apostles.  It is also known as the Priesthood of Melchizedek.  In the latter part of the 
nineteenth century, valid lines of Apostolic Succession were transmitted into independent church groups 
of Europe, England, and America, much to the chagrin of Roman and other church hierarchies.  After 
years of legal battling in ecclesiastical and secular courts, the Catholic and Orthodox churches were forced 
to recognize the validity of these “irregular” Apostolic orders. Apostolic Succession provides a powerful, 
invisible link to the Master Jesus and becomes a vital source of interior transformation for each ordained 
person through meditation, dreams, and the Sacraments.  In the early churches, most members of a 
congregation were ordained into major or minor Apostolic orders. In the Home Temple, all members 
receive ordination. To the threefold major orders of Bishop, Priest, and Deacon, which are transmitted 
through ordination and laying-on of hands, we add the minor-order office of  Subdeacon, for which 
certification from the Presiding Bishops is provided when a person first undertakes studies as a Postulant 
for ordination as a Deacon.  Since the offices of Priest and Deacon are incremental delegations of 
Apostolic authority by laying-on of hands, the certification as Subdeacon is also such a delegation.  The 
Home Temple has no laity.  All members are at various levels of ordination in all twenty-two surviving lines 
of valid Apostolic Succession.           “You are a chosen generation, a royal Priesthood.”  I Peter 2.9
        

WHO ARE HOME TEMPLE PRIESTS AND PRIESTESSES?
      

Home Templars are people from all walks of life who share a common devotion to the authentic teachings 
of the Master Jesus and sacramental, practice-based spirituality. They need not be members of any 
specific religion. Christian baptism is not required. The Home Temple is not a Christian church denomination. 
Other than a basic code of ethics, it does not promulgate any denominational doctrine or dogma. Home Templars 
may be Christians, Buddhists, Jews, or unaffiliated with any religion.  Each Home Temple is unique in its 
spiritual diversity.  

The Home Temple is an association of  men and women committed to spiritual self-transformation and social 
service empowered by the sacred Priesthood of Melchizedek. They have chosen to join a growing international 
spiritual community taking private action to end the cultural distinctions that religious institutions have promulgated 
between clergy and laity, men and women, Christians and Jews, and any other discriminations of race, gender, or sexual 
orientation. Yet they approach life in a sacred way, honoring the reality of things that religious institutions have distorted. 

The mission of the Home Temple is to empower such people with the world’s oldest and most powerful continuous spiritual 
lineage from one of the greatest spiritual teachers who ever walked the earth—the Master Jesus.