The New Age movement in the Epis

The New Age movement in the Episcopal Church

Lee Penn

Summary:

This story describes New Age activity within the Episcopal Church, emphasizing activity within Bishop Swing's diocese, the Diocese of California. It covers The Rev. James Parks Morton and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the Rev. Matthew Fox and his "Rave Masses", and the Rev. Lauren Artress and her Labyrinth Project.

Update: Since I wrote the following story, there has been additional news from the Labyrinth Project (also known as Veriditas), based on the Fall 1999 issue of "Source," their newsletter. * Canon Alan Jones, the Dean of Grace Cathedral (the San Francisco cathedral under Episcopal Bishop Swing), will be installed as an "honorary canon" of Chartres Cathedral in France, on May 14, 2000. This is a reciprocal gesture, since Francois Legaux, the Rector of Chartres Cathedral, was installed on June 17, 1999 as an honorary Canon of Grace Cathedral. (pp. 1, 4, 14) * Some rich people and foundations are supporting the Labyrinth. For example, in Lansing, Michigan, National City Bank donated $100,000 to set up a Labyrinth in a garden at a local hospital, and a gift of $125,000 "was received from a community member to name it." (p. 6) * For the first time in Labyrinth Project literature, they mention the United Religions Initiative (URI). Of course, the Labyrinth Project is for the URI. The Labyrinth Project is having a 24-hour retreat at Grace Cathedral from noon on December 31, 1999 through noon on January 1, 2000, as Grace Cathedral's contribution to the URI 72-hour "Interfaith Peace Building Project." (p. 7) * The article "Thinking of Creating a Labyrinth" contains the following: "Objective: To keep the sacred geometry design intact when building the labyrinth. To employ all the equations of proportion and utilize all of the components that make up the labyrinth. To create sacred space with the labyrinth being used as the centerpiece and container for peoples [sic] spiritual exploration and renewal." (p. 8) "Types of labyrinths: The two most powerful and established labyrinths are the Seven Circuit labyrinth, also called the Classical Labyrinth, and the Eleven Circuit Labyrinth from Chartres Cathedral. Each has a long historical lineage and tradition." (p. 8) "Sacred geometry: Proportion, and using the geometry that has been handed down, is the key to keeping the integrity of the design. Use all the components of the labyrinth. Do not make it a "hybrid." (p. 9) * The Labyrinth Project again confirms its New Age origin. On pp. 16-17 of the newsletter, there is a time-line with the significant events in the history of the project. The very first item is: "January, 1991: Lauren [Artress, the head of the Project] walks a labyrinth at a Jean Houston seminar." (p. 16) [The story below describes the activities and affiliations of Jean Houston.] * An article about a team of architects and consultants that designs new Labyrinths says, "Because of some of the bio-energetic fields of some of the proposed products [to be used in new labyrinths], it is even more important to discuss the placement, and remedies required, in order to offset the bio-energetic fields of the materials. The principles of geomancy, Feng Shui, and architectural design will be used to locate the initial labyrinth site." (p. 19)

The Labyrinth Project staff are doing a good job of proving that the Labyrinth walk, as they practice and teach it, is a New Age devotion, and not an authentic revival of a medieval Christian practice.

Conditions of use:

This story is an extract from a book-length manuscript by me titled "False Dawn, Real Darkness: the Millennial Delusions of the United Religions and the New Age Movement." You may re-distribute this story by hard copy or electronically, and you may abridge or quote from this story - IF you give credit to Lee Penn as the author, and IF you include - in the body or as a footnote - the following statement:

"Excerpted from "The United Religions Initiative: Foundations for a World Religion" (Part 2), to be published in the fall of 1999 by the Journal of the Spiritual Counterfeits Project. You may order the complete story from the Journal, or subscribe to the Journal, by calling (510) 540-0300, or by writing to the Spiritual Counterfeits Project, Post Office Box 4308, Berkeley, CA 94704, or by visiting the SCP web site, http://www.scp-inc.org/."

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James Parks Morton and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine

Other New Age supporters of the URI include the Very Rev. James Parks Morton, formerly the Dean of the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, and now President of the Temple of Understanding. (570) While at St. John the Divine, Morton said, "The language of the 'Sacred Earth' has got to become mainline." (571) Morton acted on this belief by holding a St. Francis Day communion service in 1993 that invoked the gods Yemanja, Ra, Ausar, and Obatala; the celebrant was Episcopal Bishop of New York Richard Grein. (572) (Yemanja is an Afro-Brazilian goddess of the sea (573); Ra is the Egyptian sun god; (574) Ausar - also known as Osiris and the Green Man - is the Egyptian god of life and death;(575) Obatala is the Voodoo "Father of Wisdom".(576)

Other Sunday masses at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine have included Sufi and Lakota ceremonies.(577) It was from the pulpit of the Rev. Morton's cathedral in 1979 that James Lovelock first publicly explained the Gaia theory - that the earth as a whole is a living, conscious organism.(578) Morton has worked to spread the Green gospel nationwide; he "co-founded the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, a group that has reached over 53,000 congregations of every faith across America with the ideas of sacred ecology and environmental responsibility." (579) He is also a board member of the Earth Charter Project and of Global Green, USA (580) - an affiliate of Gorbachev's Green Cross International.

The Episcopal Diocese of California

The attraction of New Age leaders to the URI should not be a surprise, given the influence of the New Age movement in Bishop Swing's own diocese. This influence has arisen without any public hindrance from the Bishop of California. On the contrary - Bishop Swing has fostered these non-Christian tendencies in the Episcopal Church.

Bishop Swing has made Matthew Fox a priest in the Episcopal Church, and has given consistent moral and financial support to Fox's efforts. The Veriditas Project, a New Age style revival of the ancient devotional practice of walking in labyrinths, has arisen in the Bishop's own parish, Grace Cathedral. Bishop Swing chose to extend an invitation to "new spiritual movements" to join the United Religions Initiative. All of this indicates that Bishop Swing either does not understand the problems posed by the New Age movement for the souls of the faithful (and for those outside the Church who are being led astray by this movement), or that he considers the New Age movement to be a good thing.

This is not to say that the Episcopal Diocese of California and its parishes are entirely under New Age influence. However, there ought to be no such presence in a Church professing the Christian Faith. By analogy - a lake needs to be contaminated by only a small amount of PCBs or dioxin in order to be considered polluted and in need of a clean-up.

Matthew Fox

Bishop Swing accepted Matthew Fox, formerly a Catholic priest, into the Episcopal priesthood in 1994. Since then, Bishop Swing has offered unswerving public support to Matthew Fox, allowing "Rave Masses" to occur at Grace Cathedral(581) and lending $85,000 of Diocesan funds to help Fox establish the University of Creation Spirituality.(582) This university now has 260 Doctor of Ministry students.(583)

Each month, more than 1,200 people attend Fox's "Techno Cosmic Mass," held in a former ballroom in Oakland, California.(584) In an article for a monthly New Age newspaper, Conscious Life, Elaine Cohen describes the services:

"A team of about 35 people - researchers, electricians, techies, carpenters, designers, scholars, rappers, rabbis, disc jockeys and theologians of Christian, Buddhist and Muslim faith - put forth a joint effort to stage one Techno Cosmic Mass. Each Mass has a thematic focus such as Angels, or the Celtic tradition or Reviving the Sacred Masculine. For the Return of the Divine Feminine theme, over 700 goddess images from all cultures were projected on the walls."(585)

Matthew Fox described the Rave Mass that occurred at Grace Cathedral on Reformation Sunday, October 29, 1994. There was a sun altar and a moon altar, used in a "Mass" where sin was "renamed:"

"It was like being in a forest, where every direction one turned there was beauty and something interesting to behold. This included not only the singers, dancers, and rappers I have referred to already, but also the projections on large video screens, on television sets, on a huge globe suspended over the beautiful altars (one a sun altar, the second a crescent moon altar). On the screens were hummingbirds hovering, galaxies spinning, flowers opening, humans marching, protesting, embracing and polluting (sin was present and indeed renamed for us at the Mass). Life was there in all its panoply of forces, good and not so good, human and more than human."(586)

Perhaps it's just as well that Fox did not name or describe the "forces ... more than human" that attended this service.

Fox incorporates dance into his "masses," the better to stimulate the chakras of those who attend:

" 'Dancing is [one of] the oldest forms of prayer,' says Fox, 'which you see in the African, and native American traditions, the Jewish and Christian traditions as well. Dance gets people into their lower chakras, the direct link with the life force'." (587)

Fox is not the first to envision worship services that would get people "into their lower chakras." In his 1932 novel Brave New World, Aldous Huxley had prophesied sensual, high-tech liturgies that go even further than the Rave Mass. As Huxley's "Solidarity Service" moved to its peak, "a sensation of warmth radiated thrillingly out from the solar plexus to every extremity of the bodies of those who listened; tears came into their eyes; their hearts, their bowels seemed to move within them, as though with an independent life."(588) (Huxley's service in Brave New World, however, climaxed in a manner that does not occur in Fox's services.)

Fox has said that his theological agenda is to overturn Christian doctrine, as it has been understood since the first ecumenical Council at Nicaea:

"What is the rediscovery of the Cosmic Christ if not a deconstruction of the 'power Christology' that launched the Christian empire in the Nicean [sic] Council in the fourth century and an effort to reconnect to the older, biblical tradition, of Christ as cosmic wisdom present in all beings?"(589)

Bishop Swing was present at Fox's 1994 rave liturgy, and loved it. He said that:

"the Mass reminds him 'of an experience I had as a 9-year old boy in West Virginia, coming to a sense of God through Nature. That gets so layered over by generations of study and theology, but this Mass leads one back toward that great awe.' Swing, who has been bobbing to the techno-music, says it's 'so nice to see the church with a new song and a new language,"(590) and added "The whole business of having the Eucharist in the context of Nature, and the planets, and the unfolding of life is a context that has to happen. This is probably around the time of the genesis of liturgies like this, and I'm sure that there will be more and more. It's coming ... So we brought a lot of people in their twenties and thirties who don't go to church, and they were struck by this. I love it. I think we're on our way."(591)

Fox has influence within the Episcopal Church nationally, as well. One of his lecture circuit stops was to give a keynote speech at the June 1997 National Conference of the Episcopal Recovery Ministries at All Saints Parish in Pasadena, California. The speech "moved from individual recovery to recovery in and of the Church to recovery of the planet."(592) Fox is also a familiar figure at New Age "holistic" conferences.

Veriditas and the Labyrinth Project

Grace Cathedral is also home to Veriditas,(593) led by Lauren Artress, an Episcopal priest and an honorary Canon of the Cathedral. (594) Veriditas is also known as the Labyrinth Project.

The two labyrinths at Grace Cathedral are copies of the labyrinth that has been at Chartres Cathedral in France since the Middle Ages. During the Middle Ages, pilgrims to Chartres could walk this labyrinth as the culminating point of their journey. Similar labyrinths also exist at a few other medieval cathedrals in France and Germany. A story from the Grace Cathedral web site reports:

"Early Christians took a vow to visit the Holy City of Jerusalem at some point in their lives. During the Middle Ages, as the Crusades made travel to Palestine unsafe, other means were needed to honor that sacred commitment. Labyrinths were adopted by the Roman Church to offer the congregation a way of fulfilling their sacred vows. Christians made their pilgrimages to the cathedral cities of Chartres, Rheims or Amiens, completing their physical and spiritual journeys in the cathedral labyrinths." (595)

The Chartres labyrinth is normally covered with chairs; it is cleared of obstructions for special events - such as the Labyrinth Project pilgrimages.(596)

Despite this link to a Christian tradition, the labyrinth walk - as practiced and promoted by Veriditas - is New Age in origin and spirit. The same story from the Grace Cathedral web site, written by a supporter of the Labyrinth Project, shows the extensive non-Christian lineage of religious use of the labyrinth:

"Labyrinths predate Christianity by over a millennium. The most famous labyrinth from ancient times was the Cretan one, the supposed lair of the mythological Minotaur, which Theseus slew with the aid of Ariadne and her spool of thread. Turf labyrinths still exist in England, Germany and Scandinavia, and are thought to be linked with local feminine deities and fertility rituals." (597)

Veriditas' own literature about the meaning of the labyrinth is virtually free of specific connections to Christian tradition or practice. For example:

"What is a Labyrinth? The Labyrinth is an archetype, a divine imprint found in religious traditions in various forms around the world. ... The labyrinth is a mandala that meets our longing - for a change of heart; for a change of ways in how [sic] we live together on this fragile island home; and for the energy, vision, and the courage to become agents of transformation in an age when no less will suffice to meet the challenges of survival."(598)

Veriditas promotes walking through labyrinths as a transformative spiritual experience, a way for "all to find healing, self-knowledge and our soul assignments and to continue weaving the Web of Creation."(599) According to Artress, the Labyrinth is also "a perfect spiritual tool for helping our global community to order chaos in ways that take us to the vibrant center of our being. You walk to the center of the labyrinth and there at the center you meet the Divine." (600)

Veriditas newsletters and advertisements consistently invoke an amorphous form of spirituality, as if the Incarnation had never happened. For example, a November 1998 article at the Grace Cathedral web site said, "In 1992 the Reverend Lauren Artress brought the labyrinth to Grace Cathedral in an effort to bring people back to their center and allow them to experience Spirit for themselves."(601) The name, the Lordship, and the saving acts of Christ are rarely mentioned by the Labyrinth Project - a radical difference from widely used Christian walking devotions such as the Stations of the Cross. This is no accident; the mission of Veriditas is not to promote a specifically Christian use of the labyrinth as a devotional tool. Instead, as Artress said in the first Veriditas news letter:

"Veriditas is an interfaith non-profit religious corporation. Its mission is to propagate the use of labyrinths - from all traditions - around the world and to teach people its use as a spiritual tool."(602)

Labyrinth Project literature demonstrates that the Project does not provide a Christian context for this "spiritual tool."(603) The Project calls upon God as "God," "Living God," Living Light," "the Divine," "Divine Mother," Divine Life Force," "Source," and "sacred feminine." Some of these names are firmly within the Christian tradition, and others - such as the "Divine Mother" and the "sacred feminine" - are not. The project's literature assiduously avoids providing the specific Christian content that anyone could get from the Lord's Prayer, the Apostle's Creed, the Rosary, or the Jesus Prayer.(604) In the three Labyrinth Project newsletters published in 1998, there is no mention of the Trinity, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, the Empty Tomb, God the Father, or God as Lord and King. The Holy Spirit is not named as the Third Person of the Trinity. The words - and the concepts - of sin, divine judgment, heaven, hell, repentance, redemption, and salvation are likewise absent. Stories in the Project's newsletters mentioned Jesus only three times over the course of a year.

Since 1995, Artress has promoted the Labyrinth as a way to make a connection with "the Divine feminine," "the God within, the goddess." A friendly reviewer of Artress' Walking A Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Tool, a book published in 1995, quotes one of Artress' descriptions of the Labyrinth: "The labyrinth is a large, complex spiral circle which is an ancient symbol for the divine mother, the God within, the goddess, the holy in all creation."(605) Artress led a Labyrinth workshop, "Sacred Circles: A Celebration of Women's Spirituality," at the Episcopal National Cathedral in July of 1996; one of the speakers was Jane Holmes Dixon, the Suffragan Bishop of the Diocese of Washington.(606) (In recent years, Ms. Dixon has made several forced visits to conservative Episcopal parishes in her diocese that do not recognize the legitimacy of ordaining women as priests or bishops.) Regarding this workshop, Artress said, "we are doing a wonderful women's conference called Sacred Circles. It is based on the labyrinth and the sacred walk being connected to the Divine feminine."(607)

In July of 1999, the Labyrinth Project advertised a "Women's Dream Quest" workshop called "Dreaming the Abundance of the Divine Mother." (Lauren Artress and Judith Tripp were the co-founders of the "Women's Dream Quest)."(608) The announcement states, "In the fullness of summer's bloom, we experience the generosity of the mother who nourishes her family, her projects, her planet, and herself. We celebrate the abundance of the Divine Mother and open to receive her blessings."(609) Other "Women's Dream Quest" workshops held at Grace Cathedral and advertised by the Labyrinth Project have included "Inviting the Tender Spring to Come," "Dreaming the Midsummer's Night Dream," and "Dreaming the Rich Darkness of Autumn," all held in 1998.(610)

Jean Houston: mother of the Labyrinth at Grace Cathedral

An on-line news story provided by Grace Cathedral states that Artress' "mentor and teacher" is Jean Houston, "a leading figure in the Human Potential Movement" and "co-director of the Foundation for Mind Research in Pomona, New York."(611) Artress first walked the labyrinth "in a workshop at psychologist Jean Houston's Mystery School" (612) in 1991; from that time onward, "the idea to place the labyrinth in Grace Cathedral suddenly dominated her life. ... This initial experience nurtured her spirituality and sent her imagination sparking with the idea of creating a universal walking ritual open to people from all traditions."(613)

Houston can thus add the Veriditas Project to her long list of accomplishments on behalf of the New Age movement. Houston claims wide influence, having "worked to implement cultural growth and social transition in more than 40 countries with international development agencies, and in Bangladesh and Burma with UNICEF. She consults to CEOs and leads workshops at companies such as Kraft, Xerox, General Electric, Beatrice Foods, and others."(614) Over the years, Houston's collaborators and advisers have included a host of advocates for the post-1965 spiritual upheaval in the US and Western Europe, including Stanislav Grof, Elaine Pagels, Joseph Campbell, Margaret Mead, Alan Watts, Moshe Feldenkrais, and Edgar Mitchell.(615)

Houston, like Artress, promotes "spirituality" per se as a good thing. However, not all spirits are good ones. Opening the door to the "divine mother" can open the door to worship of pagan goddesses. Dr. Robert Masters, Houston's husband (616) and a co-founder of her Foundation for Mind Research,(617) provides an example of this. He describes himself as one who has "devotedly followed the Way of the Goddess Sekhmet for more than thirty years."(618) The on-line bookstore at Jean Houston's web site sells two article reprints and one book that offers honor to "Goddess Sekhmet."(619) Part of Masters' "Invocation of Sekhmet" calls upon this Egyptian goddess: "Thou art the Terror Before Which fiends tremble! Thou are Lust! Thou art Life! Ever-Burning ONE!"(620)

Veriditas is also offering "labyrinth seed kits" for $125, plus shipping costs. It appears to be a Western way to invoke New Age energy, using "equations of sacred geometry" to build a labyrinth with "the intended balanced, energetic climate":

"The Veriditas Seed Kit enables groups to make this powerful transformational tool available for ritual and spiritual discovery. The Seed Kit is designed to assist groups in creating a portable eleven circuit canvas labyrinth. It contains a series of booklets that give basic information on the materials you will need to assemble, the steps to take in making the labyrinth and the necessary equations of sacred geometry you will need to layout [sic] and make a labyrinth. ... The kit is unique in that it follows the lost tradition of sacred geometry allowing you to make the labyrinth with the intended balanced, energetic climate that is created regardless of size."(621)

A Labyrinth devotee describes the results of this spiritual practice for him:

"It has opened my creativity and has aroused my personal senses for feelings and promoted relationships with others. I have been drawn to the symmetry, brain re-mapping and energy production possibilities. I have every hope that the labyrinth will do the same for others who walk this ancient sacred path."(622)

This poor fellow does indeed write as if his brain has been re-mapped. As for "energy production" - can he give us any evidence of net gain in kilocalories or joules due to use of the Labyrinth?

Meanwhile, word of the Labyrinth spreads worldwide; as Artress says, "We have been on the Peter Jennings ABC Evening News, on the front page of the New York Times and even been taped for the 'Remembering the Spirit' segment for Oprah!"(623) Artress claims that "over a million people have walked the labyrinth at Grace Cathedral alone, with hundreds of other sites springing up across the country."(624)

Some Catholics have been drawn into the Labyrinth, as well. Foremost among these is Fr. Fran�ois Legaux, Rector of Chartres Cathedral. He first visited the Labyrinth at Grace Cathedral in May of 1997.(625) After this visit, Fr. Legaux wrote to Lauren Artress that "I returned to Chartres convinced that I need to open myself more to this labyrinth way and to offer its use even more."(626) Since then, Fr. Legaux has hosted several Labyrinth Project pilgrimages to his cathedral.(627) Fr. Legaux was installed as an Honorary Canon of Grace Cathedral at a "Festive Evensong Service" held on June 17, 1999; he also was one of the three presenters at the "Moments in Time" labyrinth pilgrimage at Grace Cathedral on the weekend of June 18-20.(628)

In addition, Labyrinth workshops have occurred at these Catholic sites: the Franciscan Renewal Center in Portland, Oregon (October, 1997(629) and November 1998)(630), the Serra Retreat Center in Malibu, California (October 1998 (631) and February 1999)(632), the Bons Secours Retreat Center in Marriotsville, Maryland (March/April 1998(633) and August, 1999)(634), and the Holy Spirit Retreat Center in Encino, California (March 1996)(635). If the Labyrinth walk at these sites is led as a Christian meditation by Christian facilitators, this is not a problem. If, however, the Labyrinth walks at these Catholic facilities are led in the fashion suggested by the Labyrinth Project, then these facilities are - knowingly or not - helping their guests connect to "the Divine feminine."(636)

The predecessor to Veriditas was the Quest Program, founded in 1986 by Lauren Artress.(637) In addition to introducing the Labyrinth to Grace Cathedral, Quest sponsored other openly New Age events. For example, Quest and the California Institute of Integral Studies co-sponsored two "celebrations of divine union" in the spring of 1995: seminars on "The Renaissance of Christian Spirituality: Eros, Ecstasy, & Creation," and "The Sacred Marriage: Alchemy at the Edge of History."(638) The teachers of these classes included Barbara Marx Hubbard and Rosemary Ruether, among others. The ad appeared on the back cover of Creation Spirituality magazine, whose editor-in-chief was Matthew Fox.

A common funding source for Episcopalian, New Age antics

There's at least one common source of funding for these Episcopalian, New Age antics. Laurance S. Rockefeller and his Fund for the Enhancement of the Human Spirit have funded Matthew Fox,(639) the Quest Program,(640) Grace Cathedral,(641) and Barbara Marx Hubbard. In one book, Marx Hubbard describes Rockefeller as her "beloved patron," (642) and in another, she says that Rockefeller's "intuition about 'the Christ of the 21st Century' deeply inspired me."(643) Rockefeller also assisted the Lindisfarne Association, thus supporting the efforts of James Parks Morton, David Spangler, and other New Age luminaries.(644)

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Footnotes

NOTE: Internet document citations are based on research done between September 1997 and August 1999. Web citations are accurate as of the time the Web page was printed, but some documents may have been moved to a different Web site since then, or they may have been removed entirely from the Web.

570 Late 1997 letter from the Interfaith Center of New York and the Temple of Understanding, signed by the Very Rev. James Parks Morton as President of the two groups

571 Alan AtKisson, "The Green Cathedral: An Interview with the Rev. James Parks Morton," IN CONTEXT # 24, Internet document, http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC24/Morton.htm, p. 3

572 Terry Mattingly, "Liturgical Dances With Wolves (1993): Ten Years As An Episcopalian: A Progress Report;" p. 2; he quotes the printed worship booklet for 'Liturgy and Sermon, Earth Mass - Missa Gaia,' distributed on October 3, 1993, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine

573 "Yemanja," Internet document, http://www.wigmag.com/culture/stories-yemanja.html; its name is also spelled "Yemenja"

574 "Ra," Internet document, http://www.radiant.org/bubastis/deity/ra.html

575 "Asar (Osiris)," Internet document, http://www.radiant.org/bubastis/deity/asar.html, its name is also spelled Ausar

576 "Obatala," Internet document, http://cultural-expressions.com/ifa/orisha/obatala.htm

577 Trebbe Johnson, "Genesis of a movement: Paul Gorman's quest for a whole-earth religion," e-Amicus, Spring 1997, Internet document, http://www.nrdc.org/eamicus/97spr/ge1.html, p. 3

578 Alan AtKisson, "The Green Cathedral: An Interview with the Rev. James Parks Morton," IN CONTEXT # 24, Internet document, http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC24/Morton.htm, p. 3

579 Temple of Understanding bulletin, "The First Annual Juliet Hollister Awards," December 16, 1996, United Nations, New York City

580 Interfaith Center of New York, "Bio: The Very Reverend James Parks Morton," Internet document, http://www.interfaithcenter.org/JPMBio.html, pp. 2, 3

581 Richard Scheinin and Matthew Fox, "Reinventing Ritual: The Planetary Mass," Creation Spirituality, Spring 1995, Vol. XI, no. 1, p. 29 ("Press Release: Multimedia Mass A New Form of Church for Postmodern Era")

582 "ECUSA Diocese Helps Fund 'Creation Spirituality' School," The Christian Challenge, May 1996, p. 18

583 Elaine Cohen, "Matthew Fox: Techno Cosmic Mass Heralds New Spirituality," Conscious Life, July 1999, p. 11

584 Elaine Cohen, "Matthew Fox: Techno Cosmic Mass Heralds New Spirituality," Conscious Life, July 1999, p. 11

585 Elaine Cohen, "Matthew Fox: Techno Cosmic Mass Heralds New Spirituality," Conscious Life, July 1999, p. 11

586 Richard Scheinin and Matthew Fox, "Reinventing Ritual: The Planetary Mass," Creation Spirituality, Spring 1995, Vol. XI, no. 1, p. 32 (Matthew Fox, "Experiencing the First Planetary Mass in America")

587 Elaine Cohen, "Matthew Fox: Techno Cosmic Mass Heralds New Spirituality," Conscious Life, July 1999, p. 11

588 Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, 1932, Harper Perennial (1989 ed.), ISBN 0-06-080983-3, p. 83; see the description of the remainder of this liturgy on pp. 78-86 (chapter V, part 2)

589 Matthew Fox, "Creation Spirituality: Here Come the Postmoderns," Creation Spirituality, Autumn 1995, Vol. XI, no. 3, p. 5

590 Richard Scheinin and Matthew Fox, "Reinventing Ritual: The Planetary Mass," Creation Spirituality, Spring 1995, Vol. XI, no. 1, p. 28 (Richard Scheinin, "Multimedia imagery Techno-ambiant [sic] music It's the Planetary Mass")

591 Richard Scheinin and Matthew Fox, "Reinventing Ritual: The Planetary Mass," Creation Spirituality, Spring 1995, Vol. XI, no. 1, p. 30 ("Reactions")

592 William Sibley, "From the Superior," Holy Cross (Newsletter of the Order of the Holy Cross), Vol. XIX, No. 2, p. 2

593 Lauren Artress, "The Birth of Veriditas," Veriditas, Winter 1996, Vol. 1, No. 1, p. 1; according to Artress, this word - spelled viriditas in classical Latin - means "springtime"

594 Lauren Artress, "The Birth of Veriditas," Veriditas, Winter 1996, Vol. 1, No. 1, p. 1

595 Peter Corbett, "Pathfinders: Walking medieval labyrinths in a modern world," Internet document, http://www.gracecathedral.org/enrichment/features/fea_19981120_txt.shtml, p. 2

596 July 9, 1999 e-mail from Bryan Dunne, reporting on a recent BBC program about the labyrinth; July 4, 1999 e-mail from Cathy Conwill, who visited Chartres in the fall of 1998

597 Peter Corbett, "Pathfinders: Walking medieval labyrinths in a modern world," Internet document, http://www.gracecathedral.org/enrichment/features/fea_19981120_txt.shtml, p. 2

598 Labyrinth Project, "What Is A Labyrinth," Internet document, http://www.gracecom.org/veriditas/press/whatlab.shtml, 1996

599 Lauren Artress, "The Launching of the Labyrinth Network: Restoring the Web of Creation," Veriditas, Vol. 1, no. 2, Summer 1996, p. 1

600 Lauren Artress, "Q and A with Lauren," Veriditas, Vol. 1, no. 2, Summer 1996, p. 18

601 Peter Corbett, "Pathfinders: Walking medieval labyrinths in a modern world," Internet document, http://www.gracecathedral.org/enrichment/features/fea_19981120_txt.shtml, p. 1

602 Lauren Artress, "The Birth of Veriditas," Veriditas, Winter 1996, Vol. 1, No. 1, p. 1

603 The analysis in this paragraph is based on a detailed review of these Labyrinth Project publications: Source, no. 6, Spring 1998; Source, no. 7, Summer 1998; Source, no. 8, Fall 1998, and "Moments in Time," a Veriditas brochure issued in the spring of 1999

604 "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner."

605 Lauren Artress, Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Sacred Tool, Riverhead Books/G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1995; sentence quoted by Pamela Sullivan, "Book Review," Pacific Church News, June/July 1995, p. 8

606 Advertisement, Veriditas, Vol. 1, no. 2, Summer 1996, p. 6; "Spiritual Perspectives Program: A Look at the 1996 Sacred Circles Conference," Internet document, http://www.cathedral.org/cathedral/nca/spiritual-perspectives/sacred.html, p. 1

607 Lauren Artress, "Q and A with Lauren," Veriditas, Vol. 1, no. 2, Summer 1996, p. 15

608 Veriditas, "Dreaming the Abundance of the Divine Mother," advertisement in brochure issued in the spring of 1999, p. 3

609 Veriditas, "Dreaming the Abundance of the Divine Mother," advertisement in brochure issued in the spring of 1999, p. 3

610 Advertisement for "Women's Dream Quest," Source (newsletter of the Labyrinth Project), no. 6, spring 1998, p. 4

611 Kristen Fairchild, "A Passion for the Possible: An Interview with Jean Houston," The Spire, Textures 11/04/97, Internet document, http://www.gracecathedral.org/enrichment, p. 4

612 "Spiritual Perspectives Program: A Look at the 1996 Sacred Circles Conference," Internet document, http://www.cathedral.org/cathedral/nca/spiritual-perspectives/sacred.html, p. 1

613 Lauren Artress, "The Labyrinths of Grace," Grace Online, 07/01/97, the archives; Internet document, http://www.gracecathedral.org/enrichment, p. 1

614 "Jean Houston On-Line: CountryLiving's Article," Internet document, http://www.jeanhouston.org/articles/genius.jean.html, p. 3

615 "Foundation for Mind Research," Internet document, http://www.jeanhouston.org/foundation.html, pp. 1-2

616 Paula Span, "Spirits Lifted, Not Summoned," Washington Post, June 25, 1996, p. C01; Internet version obtained from http://washingtonpost.com

617 "Foundation for Mind Research," Internet document, http://www.jeanhouston.org/foundation.html, p. 1

618 Robert Masters, "The Sekhmet Project," Internet document, http://www.robertmasters.org/sekhmet/sekhmet.mail.html, p. 1

619 Jean Houston and Robert Masters Bookstore, Internet document, http://www.jeanhouston.org/books/bookstore.html, p. 1

620 Robert Masters, "The Sekhmet Project," Internet document, http://www.robertmasters.org/sekhmet/sekhmet.mail.html, p. 3

621 "Seed kit," Source (newsletter of the Labyrinth Project), no. 6, spring 1998, p. 4

622 "meet Stu," Source (newsletter of the Labyrinth Project), no. 6, spring 1998, p. 7

623 Lauren Artress, "Imagine ...", Source (newsletter of the Labyrinth Project), no. 8, fall 1998, p. 12; for further information about Oprah Winfrey, see Ron Rhodes, "The 'Oprah Effect'," SCP Journal, Vol. 22:4-23:1, 1999, ISSN 0883-13, pp. 26-37

624 Grace Cathedral, " 'In the labyrinth,' Artress says, 'the set path takes you to the center' ..."; Internet document, http://www.gracecathedral.org/enrichment

625 Lauren Artress, "An Honored Guest from Chartres Cathedral," Veriditas, Vol. II, no. 1, spring 1997, p. 1

626 Chanoine Francois Legaux, Letter to Veriditas, Source (newsletter of the Labyrinth Project), Vol. II, no. 2, summer 1997, p. 2

627 Advertisement, "Mary and the Birth of the Soul," Source (newsletter of the Labyrinth Project), no. 6, spring 1998, p. 2 and Source, no. 8, fall 1998, p. 13; also, advertisement, "Let Us Walk With Mary," Source, no. 8, fall 1998, p. 2

628 Advertisement, "Moments in Time," Veriditas, brochure issued in the spring of 1999, p. 1

629 Advertisement, "Circles of Inspiration," Source (newsletter of the Labyrinth Project), Vol. II, no. 2, summer 1997, p. 21

630 Advertisement, "The Theatre of Enlightenment," Source (newsletter of the Labyrinth Project), no. 6, spring 1998, p. 23

631 Advertisement, "The Theater of Enlightenment," Source (newsletter of the Labyrinth Project), no. 7, summer 1998, p. 2

632 Advertisement, "The Theater of Enlightenment," Source (newsletter of the Labyrinth Project), no. 8, fall 1998, p. 22

633 Advertisement, "The Theater of Enlightenment," Source (newsletter of the Labyrinth Project), no. 6, spring 1998, p. 23

634 Source (newsletter of the Labyrinth Project), no. 8, fall 1998, p. 22

635 "Lauren's Travels 1996," Veriditas, Vol. 1, no. 1, Winter 1996, p. 6

636 Lauren Artress, "Q and A with Lauren," Veriditas, Vol. 1, no. 2, Summer 1996, p. 15

637 "Experience the Labyrinth," advertisement in The Learning Annex, October 1995, p. 25

638 Back cover ad, Creation Spirituality, Spring 1995, Vol. XI, no. 1

639 Matthew Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance, Harper San Francisco, 1988, ISBN 0-06-062915-0, p. xi

640 Veriditas promotional flyer, "Veriditas invites you to the Theater of Enlightenment," 1998

641 Donor list, Grace Cathedral Magazine, Spring 1995, p. 9; covers donations made to the Cathedral capital campaign as of March 1, 1995; Rockefeller donated at least $10,000, according to this listing.

642 Barbara Marx Hubbard, Conscious Evolution: Awakening the Power of Our Social Potential, New World Library, Novato, California, 1998, ISBN 1-57731-016-0, p. viii

643 Barbara Marx Hubbard, The Revelation: A Message of Hope for the New Millennium, Nataraj Publishing, Novato, CA, 1995, ISBN 1-882591-21-6, p. 350

644 The Lindisfarne Association, "History of the Association," Internet document, http://redwood.pacweb.com/lindisfarne/history.html, p. 1

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