This is the international Internet
presence of
Church of the East.
Church of the East is the holy instrument installed by our Lord Yesu
the Saviour and his close devotee St. Thomas the Twin. The purpose
of Church of the East is to forward the Yoga of Jesus to all humanity.
Church of the East was officially founded in North India during the
Lord's second ministry to the East in the year 45AD, probably when St.
Thomas ordained the first deacons for the area around today's city of
Mumbai (previously Bombay) [see Acts of Thomas for reference].
The Yoga of Jesus is forwarded to the world through this growing shrine
in cyberspace. We hope to fulfill our Western members' demands for
devotional media, tuition, training, provision of devotional items, and
literature by means of this highly interactive experience of sharing.
Church of the East established a remarkable presence in Southern Africa
and North America since 1996. European membership is also growing.
Our members in the English speaking western world are all new, or recent
members, and most of us are studying and finding ways to live the Yoga of
Christ in the new world with its unique challenges.
This site has more than 120 pages at present. The members-only
subscription site INTERACTION offers access to discussion groups, chat
rooms, courses, newsletters and specialized esoteric groups. We
thank you for the grace of your presence with us. You are welcome to
enjoy the Light with us.
Church of the East holds to a particular set of holy
Scripture called the Eastern Bible
The Eastern Bible is the collection of most popular Scripture used in
the Church since the Lord's ministry to the East. The Eastern Bible
is a spiritually mature book of mystical Scripture. It does not aim
to provide historical or chronological data, or superficial data of
general interest--it also does not contain socially-smooth reworked or
overworked data intended to be used for political gain. The Eastern
Bible is a collection of mystical Scripture--each verse presenting
challenges to the seeking soul--each verse holding potential to
paradigm-shift the seeker's cognition into the spiritual realm. The
Apostle to the West, Paul, is purported to have remarked that he has two
types of teaching at his disposal--milk for babes and strong meat for
grown men. Aligned with this allegory the Eastern Bible may be
understood as an astringent of strong esoteric herbs and spices-a
medicinal tonic for the mystic soul.
The earliest book written about Jesus is the collection called Mystical
Sayings of Yesu The Saviour our Lord. These cryptic sayings were
collected by St. Thomas, probably as short notes, and it represents the
earliest and most thorough collection of Jesus teaching. Unlike
other books Mystical Sayings comes to us in a roughly unedited format and
thus includes a host of very difficult to understand, and easy to
misinterpret, Sayings the churches of the West have edited out of their
later books (such as the Gospels for instance).
Another interesting aspect of the Eastern Bible is that the Acts of
Thomas contains the earliest Liturgy, the earliest full Initiation Rite
and Jesus' original teaching, expressed by this early church, concerning
the Male and Female aspects of our theistic approach to God.
Church of the East's understanding of the Almighty
Ultimate--God--is not confined to a trinity of male persons
Church of the East knows The Ultimate as beyond understanding and
description in human terms. We know The Ultimate is Omnipotent (ALL
power or force exist in God and comes from God--thus is there no place for
another force, less even an opposing force), and Omnipresent (present in
all, outside of all and within all), and Omniscient (ALL knowledge,
science and thought are but three energies within the unlimited Energy of
God).
We also make use of a theistic approach to God
We also make use of a theistic approach to God because we recognize the
human need to identify with familiar concepts in our attempts to
understand higher indescribable concepts. In this sense we inherited
from our Lord and St. Thomas the theistic approach to God--making use of
the family symbols of God the Father, God the Mother and the Spirit of God
incarnated into the human being as we are all Children of God. We
understand God to be complete, Male and Female -- Yin and Yang. We
approach the Divine Mother as we approach the Divine Father, and we
respect the Divine residing in all God's children (the meaning of the
salutation, Namaste). To this effect the Divine Liturgy end with us
repeating the often frightening (and always challenging) maxim, "Our love
for God is measured by our love for one another".
Yesu (Jesus) is venerated as an example of the human being perfected by
deification (the end of the process of theosis). In our theistic
approach we appoint Yesu to lord over our souls (soul, which is mind), as
he Lords over the angels that help humans to grow, because we are assured
that he has holds our spiritual welfare as His prime objective, and works
all the time to assist us in the quest for improvement. We venerate
Yesu as our ever-present Divine Brother, and we delight in communion with
His angels.
A life affirming theology
Unlike many religious paths, Church of the East inherited from its
founders a life affirming theology. We know that human life is
exactly that which we are supposed to experience--and we must endeavour to
experience it to the fullest. We are to sanctify life, and therefore
hold to the principle of Sacred Sensuality. We are sensual beings
endowed with a great number of special sensory 'tools'. We sense our
environment--we sense life in the human context--this is our school.
To make sure that we sense it all, and sense it well, and that we sanctify
our senses--is the quest. This leads us on another path than those
who choose the deny the senses as if it be an evil. We do not
subscribe to the idea that God creates us in an evil human form--but we do
understand that the human has the immense power of creation in its mind,
and those of us who do not sanctify our thoughts can create evil--and
those of us who can sanctify our thoughts can create holiness, blessedness
(happiness) and prosperity for the universes.
