The Worldwide LuxUmbrian Communion

THE CHURCH OF LIGHT AND SHADOW

The LuxUmbrian Communion is one of the traditions or expressions of Christian faith. Others include (but are not limited to) Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Lutheranism. What makes our communion unique is that we embrace the hidden, esoteric, and magical aspects of our religion and praxis.

The Communion is organized into a series of jurisdictional regional areas. These regions may be subdivided into dioceses, and dioceses into parishes and Covens. All jurisdictional regions are in communion – or a reciprocal relationship – with each other.

There is no central authority in the LuxUmbrian Communion. All the jurisdictional regions are autonomous and free to make their own decisions in their own ways – guided by recommendations from the Two Instruments:

  1. The Bishop's Synod, and
  2. The Landmarks

Bishop’s Synod

The Synod of the LuxUmbrian Communion is composed of the Bishops of the various jurisdictional regions. Their churches are autonomous yet inter-dependent in their relationships with each other.

The Synod’s authority as a body is limited to votes of inclusion of other jurisdictional regions; votes of suspension and expulsion of jurisdictional regions; and recommendations with regards to liturgical norms and other areas of “Church life.”

Their own regional churches determine how their ministry is carried out in their own context. The customs and responsibilities vary between jurisdictional regions.

The Landmarks

PREAMBLE

1. The LuxUmbrian Communion is the collective name for the current parties to the agreement set out herein, and such parties are known as “members”, and their participation known as “membership”.

2. The parties to this agreement constitute a Communion between autocephalous jurisdictions, each of which is acknowledged by the others to be a clear and distinctive part of the one, holy catholic and apostolic church, and which remain self-governing. Individuals may also be admitted as prescribed below

3. The unity and committed communion of member jurisdictions, (and, where appropriate, individuals) which is created by this agreement constitutes in itself a further clear and distinctive part of the one, holy catholic and apostolic church, and which is additional to the individual parts represented by the autocephalous member jurisdictions.

MEMBERSHIP

4. All regional bodies and individuals fall under the jurisdiction of their regional Bishop.

5. Bishops of non-member jurisdictions may apply to incardinate their entire jurisdiction as an autocephalous body under the Communion.

6. Parties are free to participate in other intercommunion agreements including those with bodies that do not belong to the LuxUmbrian Communion. Being in intercommunion with a member jurisdiction does not make a non-LuxUmbrian member a member of either body.

7. Membership has three categories as enumerated below.

a. Communities, by which are meant independent self-governing ecclesiastical jurisdictions, headed by a Bishop or Bishops in full Apostolic Succession. In this case all their clergy are bound to the terms of the agreement. Further, all congregants of such churches are entitled to the benefits conferred by this agreement. For all purposes, the senior bishop of the member church is deemed to have authority to bind its entire clergy and lay members.

b. Solitary clergy, by which are meant any persons ordained to the Major Order of Deacon or any higher Order. Clergy who have promised canonical obedience and who wish to become parties must provide evidence of the permission of their Ordinary so to do.

c. Solitary laity. A solitary member may not be or continue to be a lay member of the LuxUmbrian Communion if they have been or are ordained to the Major Order of Deacon or any higher order or are or become a minister in any denomination. They must reapply for membership of category B (unless their current church is currently a category A member) in the event of being so ordained or becoming such a minister.

8. Since the LuxUmbrian Communion is underpinned by an agreement between all participants, it follows that membership may only be granted to a new community, solitary clergy person or solitary lay person with the unanimous agreement of all voting members of the Communion (The Bishop’s Synod).

TERMINATION OF MEMBERSHIP

9. Any solitary clergy or lay member who is not part of a member community, or any community may withdraw from the communion on notice, without prejudice to the continuation of the agreement between the remaining members.

10. Any solitary clergy or lay member who is not part of a member community, or any community may be dismissed from membership on the majority vote of the other parties who have voting rights. Since the Communion is an agreement at will, no reason need be given.

THE BENEFITS

11. Each member jurisdiction recognizes the independence of the others and maintains its own.

12. Each member jurisdiction agrees to admit members of the other member jurisdictions to participate in the Sacraments on and subject to the same terms as its own members.

13. This agreement does not require from any member jurisdiction the acceptance of all doctrinal opinion or sacramental devotions characteristic of the others but implies that each acknowledges the others to be Catholic and Apostolic.

14. In view of each member jurisdictions internal autocephaly, no one is entitled to minister within another jurisdiction without that jurisdiction’s express authority. Each jurisdiction has absolute discretion to issue general or specific faculties to the individual concerned or to decline so to do.

ADMINISTRATION

15. The Communion is overseen and administered by the bishops of each individual member jurisdiction and members of category B holding valid episcopal consecration and may conduct business in person or by correspondence or by electronic means as need arises.

AMENDMENT

16. The terms of this agreement may be amended by a majority decision of those entitled to vote (the Bishop’s Synod).

LIABILITY

17. No solitary or community member, or member of such community is in any way responsible or vicariously liable for the acts of any other solitary or community member, or member of such community by virtue of this agreement and/or its terms.

CONDITIONS OF MEMBERSHIP OF THE LUXUMBRIAN COMMUNION

as extrapolated from the synopsis of the constitution of Synesius, A.D. 1906

Members are required to accept the following:

A. INTRODUCTION

1. The Catholic Apostolic faith is rooted in the Divine, in terms of Trinity, and in sacrifice as an exemplification of the sustaining power of the divine nature in creation and mirrored in the passion drama of the Morning Star, the realization of this understanding being the way to grow into the unity the creator wills for creation.

2. The purpose of the LuxUmbrian Communion is to draw together in a federation and ecclesial cohesion the various Esoteric, Apostolic, Ecclesiastical Persons, Bodies, and Communities.

3. The fragmentation and sectionalization of the Apostolic Esoteric Sacramental Movement, with its richly ordered liturgy, creative theology - drawing upon a depth of philosophical eclecticism - has enabled an adaptable form of Christian spirituality to be both modern and postmodern in its outworking, and evolution.

4. The severing of ties from a single corporate structure has provided a creative opportunity and a determination to explore a revisitation of some of the originality of what the Apostolic Esoteric Sacramental Movement set out to be with a greater emphasis on freedom of thought and renewal of liturgy.

5. Throughout its history the Apostolic Esoteric Sacramental Movement has remained faithful to its understanding of apostolicity and sacramentalism, grounded in a profound understanding of the Incarnation.

6. It has even wrestled with the difficult doctrines of Atonement and Redemption to contextualize them within the wider dimensions of the plurality of all faiths.

7. It remains Christian, yet frees itself from dogmatic speculation, to enable its members to progress in an understanding of faith, both from a perspective of personal awareness and intuition.

B. RECOGNITIONS

8. The LuxUmbrian Communion aims at combining Catholic forms of worship, stately ritual, deep mysticism, Sacramental Witchcraft, and witness to the reality of sacramental grace with the widest measure of intellectual liberty and respect for the individual conscience.

9. The LuxUmbrian Communion recognizes seven sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, the Holy Eucharist, Absolution, Holy Unction, Holy Matrimony and Holy Orders.

10. The LuxUmbrian Communion regards the scriptures, the creeds, and traditions of the church as some of the means by which the teachings of the Morning Star have been handed down to his followers. It does not invest them with any idea of literal infallibility nor historical accuracy.

11. The LuxUmbrian Communion recognizes a maternal aspect of divinity.

12. The LuxUmbrian Communion believes that there is a body of doctrine and mystical experience common to all religions, which cannot be claimed as the exclusive possession of any. Moving within the orbit of Christianity and regarding itself as a distinctively Christian church it nevertheless holds that other religions may be divinely inspired and that all proceed from a common source.

13. The LuxUmbrian Communion accordingly does not seek to convert people from one religion to another. It has no wish to proselytize the adherents of any other church.

14. The LuxUmbrian Communion leaves to its members, freedom in the interpretation of creeds, scriptures, and tradition, and of its liturgy and Doctrine.

15. While it may present certain doctrinal statements to its members, it does not exact from them acceptance of any dogmatic standards.

16. The LuxUmbrian Communion neither forbids nor enjoins the marriage of its clergy.

17. Human ethical responsibilities embrace tolerance, love, and the common human family and must, because of the inherent oneness of all life, extend beyond nation and color to fellow-beings of all religions, of no religion, and even to those who deny the existence of the Divine.

18. Further, The LuxUmbrian Communion believes that we have ethical duties towards all the realms of nature within which pulses the Divine’s creative life; as elder siblings, we should, as a sacred trust, protect and nurture the plants and animal creation.

19. The LuxUmbrian Communion does not refuse to marry divorced persons.

20. In the Blessed Sacrament Jesus Christ is present under the form of bread and wine. The LuxUmbrian Communion affirms that the Holy Eucharist, far from being a mere commemoration of his life, death, and resurrection, is Christ’s supreme theurgical gift of himself to his church.

21. The expression of beauty in acts of worship is most valuable in our technological and utilitarian age.

22. The LuxUmbrian Communion does not, as a body, enter politics or social work. It feels that it should rather make itself a motive power behind social and political progress by inspiring its members with the love of humanity and the desire to serve their fellows, while leaving them free to select their own suitable aims and methods.

23. The LuxUmbrian Communion teaches the existence of the Divine, infinite, eternal, transcendent and immanent.

24. There is a communion of saints.

25. There is a ministry of angels.

26. We have ethical duties to ourselves and to others. Because we are children of the Divine, we are siblings and inseparably linked together.

27. The Morning Star instituted various sacraments in which an inward and spiritual grace is given to us through an outward and visible sign.

C. AGREEMENTS

28. To the use of a Common Liturgy

29. To the acceptance of the Common LuxUmbrian Calendar

30. To the basic organizational structure of the ELU

31. To be bound by the Instruments of Communion and the Landmarks

Canon Law

Canon Law begins from that basic affirmation of equity which is the fact of membership in the Body of Christ - a status deeper and stronger than any civil contract or philosophical argument. And it seeks clarity about who may do what and who is answerable to whom, because every Christian must know how to work out their responsibility to the Divine within the context of the various relationships and obligations in which they are involved.

The LuxUmbrian Communion as a whole, unlike the Roman Catholic Church, does not have a centralized canon law of its own. Each of the autonomous Member Churches, however, may have their own internal canonical system.

Jurisdictional Regions

As of the time of this writing, there are currently three Jurisdictional Regions, as outlined below.

The Holy Cross Region under the leadership of the Bishop of Washington includes those states highlighted in green above, as well as the majority of European countries, and Western Canada.

Our Lady, Star of the Morning Region under the leadership of the Bishop of Florida includes those states highlighted in blue above, as well as Eastern Canada.

Our Lady, Queen of Witches Region under the leadership of the Bishop of Nevada incudes those states highlighted in orange above, as well as Asia and the Pacific islands.