My Agenda

I. Intro

While God’s agenda is my true agenda, I can only share with you my ideas of the future of the new modern Gnostic revamping. I hope for this future to turn into a kind of Gnostic revival. But where I live at the moment their is not much going on here in my immediate environment concerning any type of Gnostic churches, retreats or seminars and study groups. To me this presents a problem one for those who (like myself) would like to have a community in which to have prayers and meditations.

II. Where I Live

As I have said I live on Long Island, in the Town of Hempstead. In my particular part of town their is a diversity of western religious practices. Those such as Christian (and all its mainstream denominations), Jewish, and Muslim. I am disappointed because, they’re is no Gnostic Church or even study group. If they’re was someone even on Long Island that had developed an interest in Gnosticism, particularly Christian Gnosticism they would have know where to go! This is the problem, the nearest Gnostic Church is The Alexandrian Gnostic Church in New York City, after visiting their website the Bishop said “Our parish in the New York/Northern New Jersey area is growing, and soon we’ll be moving into a regular place of worship. Our small community has committed to holding weekly liturgy and study groups, and we’re planning additional public meetings, classes, and seminars. We’ve got new people in formation, preparing to become servants of the growing ecclesia.“

My agenda is to help this church spread throughout Long Island, as a way to address the problem of opening the doors to those who do not know of any Gnostic community that can help them. Even if it is not an actual church within the first few years but a group or a retreat, fine by me, so as long as the Long Islanders who want to be part of a community have this option of being surrounded by fellow followers is the Gnostic way.

III. Open The Doors

While reading The Way of the Pilgrim and The Freedom Manifesto by Tom Hodgkinson. I had this great idea if the Gnostic Churches grow large enough throughout the country, we should open “homes” or rooms in “apartments” in which travelers go to for rest and refreshment, paying an inexpensive fee used to help cover for costs of buying food and maintenance of said shelter. The travelers would stay in these places for 1 to 3 days, paying on a nightly basis an inexpensive fee or contributing to the maintenance of said shelter, allowing the shelter to become self-sufficient and than after the passing of three days or when they wish to leave whichever comes first they move on to the next shelter.

Because, I can see the size of this project would cover beyond the borders of one nation. It can become expensive, so each Gnostic Church would be responsible for its own area that is close to their church. However, as the Gnostic Churches grow themselves (over time) the more area they can cover, perhaps sometime in the way future actually overlap their areas of responsibility, perhaps the official jurisdiction for the administrative side of these shelters would be The North American College of Gnostic Bishops. Their jurisdiction however is hard to say when it would come about, at the time of me writing this I am stuck between when the boundaries of the physical churches themselves overlap or right now while the community is still growing.

Another potential problem is, the “travelers” themselves, what if they are stealing from the shelter? Before, entering and leaving the shelter they are to have a kind of inventory check of what they have on them and unless allowed by the parishioner can be used to detect those who are actually stealing. Before the traveler takes off however — it would be with credit towards The Way of the Pilgrim why I say this — We give them food and drink for their journey that lies ahead of them.

We could of course help support homeless shelters but because of the way the world works today, their can be many homeless people and not enough room for the actual travelers themselves. How would I describe the traveler as opposed to the homeless person? The traveler is equivalent to the pilgrim (in the book: The Way of The Pilgrim), in my opinion, the traveler is more like someone who was called by a personal life changing experience (e.g. God or Gnosis) to take a life of traveling poverty and going cross-country or even international in their poverty,  does it need to be necessarily be God or can it be a person who genuinely feels like a life of traveling regardless of mode of transport is a better life. The homeless person in my opinion is two be separated in two groups: 1) Those who tried to re-establish themselves but cant and weren’t called by God to live a life of traveling poverty or  2)  Those who didnt bother to re-establish themselves and weren’t called by God to live a life of traveling poverty. Either way they were not called by God to follow this path, one is a burden the other is a group where we should also help these people re-establish themselves.

IV. Who Am I To Speak?

Who am I to speak about these things? This question is critical especially considering where I live; I live in suburbia in between the lower-middle class at home with mom and dad and 2 younger siblings, I work at a crappy part-time job, and I go to a community college. I have seen city life and how hard it can be and the countryside and how peaceful it can be. I am far from saying “I have seen it all” I find that boastful, saying that you think you experienced it all. What it is that I dislike is the lifestyle I am in, I dislike what i represents: White Lower-Middle Class makes me thing of the ignorant soccer mom and the workaholic father who works 9 to 5 and doesn’t spend time with his family. It saddens me greatly that the greatest thrill the middle class gets is watching American Idol or some “reality” TV Show, with a bunch of superficial who-ha’s!  I dont feel like I am living the American Dream nor is any other person, but rather we are living one big fat lie.

The world today (or American Culture at very least) is way to puritanical. They is no boundless opportunity and no open-mindedness we essentially “eating what we spew out” we don’t make new culture we repeat the same culture over and over again and than we realize that this repetition of what was once thought of as a good thing turns into a bad thing, like running on a treadmill. This need to free ourselves is represented in our culture as well and its starting to take effect. I have tried to open my mind to different perspectives and done my best to get as far outside the box as possible, I am tired of being in the box of social norms and constructs, if we are too be truly free we need to follow through with an actual individual path and leave herd mentality behind!

This is why I dare to speak about this idea, the idea that I need a: house, car, family, popularity, and every other material possession is a lie to me and to others out their as well. This is all part of one big lie to keep you under control, no defines their own bliss and happiness anymore instead marketers do that for us when they say “Your missing a part of yourself, buy product X and that gap will be filled!” Thats wrong, its wrong that they dare tell me I am not a full human being unless I buy something from them, its wrong that they define product X as the be all and end all to the existential gap that is in us, and its wrong because, its wrong, ad infinitum. No more of this puritanical class battle between what happiness is, happiness is in your definition no one else but you… If it comes from the heart than it is you.

The ideas I part to you may seem radical and revolutionary but its not in fact, it very libertarian point of view, something that America was founded under. Libertarians believe that you have all the right to do what you want to do to make the most of your life (by your definition of “the most of your life”) so as long as you do not infringe on the rights of others to do the same as well.