The Order of the Transfiguration

I. INFORMATION

A New Ecumenical Order with Links to the United Nations and the World Council of Churches

The Order of the Transfiguration is an ecumenical religious order in the catholic Christian tradition, affiliated with the International Council of Community Churches, a member-church of the National Council of Churches, USA and the World Council of Churches, Geneva. In corporate status the Order of the Transfiguration is part of the Interfaith Studies Division of the Institute of Integral Human Sciences, a non-governmental organization affiliated with the United Nations.

An Ecumenical Membership with Interfaith Perspectives

The membership of the Order includes both clergy and lay men and women, married, single, and celibate, from many Christian traditions, including Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, Old Catholic, and Protestant. There is also an affiliate-membership of persons from the other world religions, East & West, and new religious and spiritual movements.

A New Movement in Global Christian Spirituality

The Order of the Transfiguration stands at the forefront of a new movement in Christian spirituality for those with global perspectives who desire to combine the personal commitment of “…a faith in the living Christ and His Mystical Body, the Church…” with an intelligent and responsible study of the world’s religions & cultures, East & West, and those common forms of transformative human mystical & psychical experience which gave rise to faith in a Transcendent Order and conversation in one’s life and values.

An Exploration in Search of God’s Activity in the Other World Religions & Cultures

As a contribution to inter-religious understanding and world peace, persons in the catholic, protestant & orthodox Christian traditions have formed an ecumenical religious order with interfaith perspectives …linked with teachers and groups… from the other great religious traditions of the world ’united in the common quest for universal human values, East & West through personal study and transformative spiritual experience.

Is Western civilization ready to sustain such an achievement at this stage of its spiritual evolution? Yes! Many religious people today are ready to work together for tolerance and understanding of one another for world peace. In today’s Global Village we can indeed meet in the spirit of equality, and respect for the wisdom that has been delivered to prophets, saints, sages and masters of all traditions. We are ready to work together for our transformation into a “New Humanity” and the restructuring of the planet.

You are invited to join this great undertaking as part of a work of spiritual “perestroika,” East & West, for a new “people of god” and a more authentic and humane “new world order” in the 21st century!

A Rule of Life for the Modern World

We are self-supporting Men and Women … Married and Single … living separately or together in communities … from all races and religious backgrounds … dedicated to a New Humanity and a New World Order. Personal vows are formulated by each member in consultation with a spiritual advisor. Each member follows the sacramental & theological commitments of his or her tradition.

A Bridge Between the Holy Catholic Church of Christ and His “Sheep of Other Folds”

The Order of the Transfiguration has been formed as a Bridge between the One, Holy, Catholic, & Apostolic Church, the Mystical Body of Christ… and the World’s Religions, East & West, and New Religious & Spiritual Movements & Groups. In the Order, both Christians and persons formally outside of the Christian tradition — who may never-the-less be viewed as members of the “Mystical Body or Christ” by virtue of the “Indwelling Logos” — may realize their full integration as spiritual participants through: (1) celebrating and/or studying the Word & Sacraments in the Christian Mysteries, (2) exploring of Wisdom traditions in the World’s Religions and Cultures, and (3) personal forms of spiritual and psychic development achieved through the practice of meditation and other forms of ancient and modern spiritual sciences, East & West.

An East-West Global Spiritual Network

A new East-West network of existing spiritual groups has been brought together in a common purpose. Associate religious from other Christian religious communities, and invited leaders from other World Religious Traditions may participate in the vision, ideals, works, and fellowship of the Order and it’s objectives.

II. PROFESSIONAL PURSUITS AND SPIRITUAL OBJECTIVES

The “New Monastics” of the Order of the Transfiguration are professionals and others from various religious backgrounds — living either alone, with their families, or together in communities — and working toward the common objective of a “New Humanity in Christ.”

The Study of Ancient Systems of Human Spirituality & Wisdom

To this end many members of the Order are actively involved in the study of ancient systems of human spirituality and wisdom, and the various typologies of human spiritual and psychic experience, for the light that such studies may shed on the rich heritage of catholic Christian tradition.

The New Sciences of Consciousness & Healing

At the same time — and as a corollary to their vocation to implement the Father’s will on the earth “…as it is in Heaven” — many members of the Order are also actively engaged in the exploration and development of new sciences of consciousness, intuition, creativity, and healing, and in the pursuit of new paradigms for the reconciliation of science and spirituality, East & West, for the establishment of universal human values in today’s global village.

The Recovery of a Sense of the Transcendent in Human Life

Members of the Order of the Transfiguration believe that a serious and systematic study of such subjects is essential to the future of Faith in God, Christ, and the existence of those higher, invisible orders of reality which interact with human beings for their ultimate transformation into a new species on this planet. The Order of the Transfiguration is founded upon the belief that modern secular culture has lost touch with the inner psychic and spiritual dimensions through which the action of the formation-in-Christ, promised in the Christian scriptures, must occur. It is for this reason that this new Order has been founded.

The Convergence of Human Potentials with “The Mysteries of Redemption”

The Order believes that we must each develop an intuitive awareness of the multi-dimensional Divine Reality which surrounds, encompasses and interacts with our world and gives it its truest and highest meaning and purpose. The Order of the Transfiguration also believes that the modern Church cuts itself off from the greatest foundational experiences of the apostles and prophets reflected in its own scripture and tradition, as follows: visions; apparitions; post-mortem contacts with the dead saints; invocation of saints & angels; prophecies; healings; the on-going processes of personal revelations among saints and mystics in the history of Christianity and the other world religions, ancient and modern; the nature and uses of ritual and sacramentals, liturgy, and Eucharistic action as effective instruments of the “Mysteries of Redemption.”

Restoring “The Gifts of the Spirit”

In the Christian tradition one should understand the place and role of the “gifts of the Spirit,” particularly prophecy, inspirational teaching, and healing, in the life of those who are living “the Resurrection life” of the “New Being.”

III. THE HISTORY & THEOLOGICAL RATIONALE OF THE ORDER

The Order of the Transfiguration was founded at a special ceremony held on the Feast of Saint Thomas, Apostle of India, on December 21, 1988 in Corinth, Greece, by Father John Rossner, an Anglican priest and a professor of comparative religion & culture at Concordia University in Montreal.

The founding ceremonies were held in the ruins of the market-place at ancient Corinth where St, Paul taught the Corinthians. The sire is marked by an inscription in Greek and in English; “I reckon that the tribulations of the present time are as nothing when compared to the Glory that shall be revealed in us.”

The Mystery of the Transfiguration

The site – with this inscription – was symbolically appropriate, for the Order celebrates the mystery of the Transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor as an outward and visible sign of the Divine Plan for our own ultimate transformation into “New Beings in Christ,” and for a “New Humanity in a New World Order.”

A Cosmic Plan for Human & Planetary Transformation

Out of the ruins of the “old humanity” and the “old world order” – in both his and our present world epoch – there is a Cosmic Plan described by St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians, Ephesians, and Colossians, nineteen centuries ago… for the ultimate spiritual transformation of the human race and the planet itself.

The Hope of Saints in Many Traditions

Faith in the reality of God, of the Cosmic Christ, and in the existence of such a Divine Plan working itself out in our lives, in nature, and in history, has given inspiration, strength, courage, and hope to countless generations of Christian saints, ordinary people, as well as persons from other great world religions in this and past centuries, who have worked to change the world “from the darkness to the Light” through acts of love, forgiveness, and compassion, and the performance of intelligent forms of social action for the upliftment of humanity rendered in the marketplaces of life.

You Are Invited to Participate in the Spiritual Work of the Order

The motto of the Order of the Transfiguration is “The New Monastics for a New Humanity.” The principal mission of the Order is to assist in the Divine Plan for the recreation of the human race and the planer-earth, which was – for Christians – prefigured in the event known as “the Transfiguration” of Jesus Christ.

Transformation into the New Being

To participate intentionally in the Divine process by which grace transforms us and the world around us into “New Beings in Christ” is to participate in the true quest for the recovery by both the Church and Society of an understanding of “the Cosmic Christ and the Primordial Tradition.” The reintegration of the inner spiritual and psychic lives of human beings with the outer material world, and the transformation of both by the mind of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit is our goal.

Rediscovering the Resurrection Life

Consequently the Order of the Transfiguration is dedicated to the rediscovery by persons today of the profound mystical, psychical, and spiritual experiences of the Resurrected Christ, “the mystery of Christ in us,” and of the Communion of the Saints, which gave birth to Christianity as a world-religion and as a great force for personal transformation and social change in the world.

The Charism of the Order

This charism will be performed in the light of the acquisition of knowledge from recent discoveries in the new sciences of consciousness and healing, as well as from the standpoint of a familiarity with – and openness to – the important truths that God has revealed to humanity through the other great religions and cultures of the world.

“On Earth as in Heaven”

The solemn mandate of Our Lord that we should pray daily that the Father’s will might be done “… on earth, as it is in heaven” cannot be fulfilled easily by those who have forgotten or lost the intuitive perception that “heaven is real, and closer than we think.” The faith-knowledge that we are surrounded by guarding angels and guiding saints in the invisible portion of the “cosmic sea” of the great “Uncreated Light” that surrounds our inner and outer worlds is essential to the rediscovery of “The Cosmic Christ and the Primordial Tradition.”

The Development of a New Curriculum for Catholic Christian Formation

It is to the study and integration of such subjects into a new curriculum for catholic Christian formation that the Order of the Transfiguration is dedicated as a “mid-wife” of a New Humanity in a New World Order.

The Order believes that the future spiritual evolution of humankind according to the Divine Plan, unfolded in progressive revelation of Old & New Testament experience – and reflected in wisdom traditions in the world’s religions – includes the awakening, purification, and illumination of the individual and collective consciousness of humanity, the “initiatory death and rebirth” reflected in the language of scripture and the service of holy Baptism.

It is to the reality behind these words, and behind the wonderful words of Eucharistic Communion wherein we are described as “… one body with Him, He in us, and we in Him” that this New Monastic Order for the 21st Century is dedicated and consecrated “ … on Earth, as it is in Heaven.”

The Order of the Transfiguration works actively to support and implement:

I. The declaration of human right of the United Nations charter, and efforts of non-governmental organizations of the United Nations toward the promotion of inter-religious & inter-cultural understanding for world peace;

II. Statements of the World Council of Churches on the social teachings of the modern churches, and on ecumenical & interfaith cooperation;

III. The declaration “nostra aetate” on “the church and non-Christian religions” of the second Vatican council.

The International Institute of Integral Human Sciences

The Order of the Transfiguration is a Christian community within the interfaith studies division of the IIIHS, a non-governmental organization affiliated with the United Nations, for promoting the cause of human psychophysical integration & psychospiritual awareness. The IIIHS has established a professional membership in over 20 nations, and a network of 43 chapters and/or affiliated groups throughout North America.

The International Council of Community Churches

The Order of the Transfiguration is a Christian community and an interfaith member-unit within The International Council of Community Churches, a worldwide body affiliated with the National Council of Churches, USA, and the World Council of Churches, Geneva. The ICCC believes in ecumenical “post-denominational Christianity,” and includes self-governing member-churches of both protestant and catholic orientation & polity, as well as religious communities and centres with metaphysical interests and interfaith perspectives.

Cover Image: From an icon panel at Hosios Monastery Greece, 11th century A.D.