What do you think about the sacraments?

The Liturgist

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I know! I got interested in weird sects because I find human religious behavior fascinating but Liturgist has me beat!

Cheers, my right-believing and gloriously melismatic Byzantine friend! Alas I feel I am but an ison to your doctrinal wisdom gained as it were through the benefit of an Orthodox phronema. The actual sources of much of my knowledge of obscure sects are penned either by Patristic sources like Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, Eusebius of Caesarea, Saint Epiphanios of Salamis, Saint John of Damascus and interestingly, Saint Nicodemus the Athonite (whose compendium of ancient canon law, the Rudder or Pedalion in Greek contains a massive amount of information on obscure heresies and belief systems that were anathematized or regarded as superstitions to be penanced, for example, there is an ancient canon against mutilating the deceased that Nicodemus himself states is applicable to the then-recent superstition about vampires, and he goes on to warn that anyone who digs up a reposed person to drive a stake through them is excommunicated), and more recent Orthodox writers like Fr. Seraphim Rose, whose Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future .

Now this only gets me information on cults, heresies and sects known to the Eastern Orthodox. There is also limited information from Oriental Orthodox and Assyrian sources as well. For a view of specific Western issues however, I have to use numerous other sources. As a traditional Congregationalist who regards himself as swimming in the general direction of the Bosphorus or the Nile or the Euphrates or the Aras rivers, all Orthodox streams, I am intimately acquainted with the ancient and modern history of Unitarianism, which unlike some in the UCC who opened a joint parish with the UUA, but like the Congregational Church of old, I view the Unitarians (particularly those in the US, those that formed out of a schism with the Congregational church and seized control of Harvard Divinity School) instinctively as a nemesis, and am well acquainted with the history of the movement since Sozzini, and how the Hungarian and Transylvanian Unitarians are being lured by the UUA into embracing the transcendentalism of Ralph Waldo Emerson and thus discarding the vestiges of Christianity they presently hold to).

In general, most cults in North America are boring, with the exception of a few which were or are spectacularly dangerous to themselves or others, like Heaven’s Gate, the People’s Temple, the Rajneeshis in Oregon (well documented in the Netflix series Wild, Wild Country), whose leader Ma Anand Sheila was convicted of several crimes, and who did engage in the first ever bio-terror attack in the US, fortunately with no fatalities. But I feel so sorry for people victimized by cults, and I pray for them - especially those victimized as children, but even people abused as adults, such as the women who were abused by NXIVM’s leader. How will such people be able to trust their local Church? (Even bearing in mind that despite what some in the media would have us believe, all of Nicene Christianity outperforms all other religions in terms of a lack of abuse of minors and always has, but even one case of abuse is one too many).

This takes us to a vital point for me, which is that its not an academic exercise about which doctrinal errors a group like Christian Science is committing, but the actual harm they are doing. We can have disagreements over minor points of doctrine with other Christians, but when we start getting into the sects and cults, there is a reason why Epiphanios called his book the First Aid Kit.*

Things get a little more fun and interesting when we get into some of the ancient religions, especially the persecuted minority religions of the Middle East, such as Zoroastrianism, Yazidism, Yarsanism, Alevism, Alawism, Bektasism, Mandaeism, Samaritanism and the Karaite (patrilineal, sola-scriptura and non-Talmudic) form of Judaism.

Now, of course, the vast majority of Bezopovtsy (priestless Old Believer) communities which I have mentioned I do not regard as even being heretical; they are Nicene Christians who simply have come to an inaccurate conclusion that there are no remaining legitimate priests. Those who live in Oregon and Pennsylvania have beautiful family lives and communities somewhat like those of the Mennonites.

I remember reading that there were (not sure if they exist anymore) a small sect of polygamous Old Believers in Siberia.

There were a few apocalyptic sects which did become heretical, driven to the extreme I think by a combination of the Nikonian schism, the absence of any priests or bishops they felt they could trust, who could set them straight concerning errors of faith, and also a Chiliastic phobia about the year 1666.

These eventually developed into a series of cults in the 18th century (by which time conditions had stabilized for Old Believers, and would soon see the Old Rite liturgy restored in edinovertsy parishes of the canonical Russian Orthodox Church) who are in no sense Old Believers, but whose doctrines did disgust all of the Russian Orthodox regardless of liturgical preference.

These groups included the flagellants, the immolators, and a group particularly reviled by the Czar, the Skoptsy (mutilators) who castrated themselves in violation of Canon I of the Council of Nicea. I do not advise that anyone conduct any research on these groups, as even with Google SafeSearch enabled, the results are not...well, shall we say G-Rated. The Czarist government made substantial efforts to suppress the Skoptsy as a threat to the general public (which one wishes at times might be made with regards to some modern cults like Scientology).

There were also the Molokans, some of whom were Nicene Christians, but some of whom converted to Judaism, and the Doukhobors. I believe I have mentioned them before; they are a Unitarian sect and thus naturally I am suspicious of them; they reject all scripture except the Sermon on the Mount, and later Leo Tolstoy paid for them to emigrate to British Columbia and the Prairie Provinces of Canada. The story does not end there however; in the early 20th century they expressed their displeasure over compulsory education by parading au naturel, which required the adoption of new laws prohibiting indecent exposure, which one would assume had previously been deemed unnecessary owing to the cold weather. A small minority also engaged in arson but were denounced by the main group. The Doukhobors still exist, in declining numbers, and no longer cause any problems; I would very much like to visit them, as they are said to be kind and hospitable. In terms of sacraments however, I believe they reject all of them, even the superficial sacraments of the Unitarians.** I can’t find any information confirming they even have religious rites per se, although they definitely have a strong religious conviction given the fervent belief required to inspire one to demonstrate as they did, even in winter.

*The actual title of Epiphanios work is Πανάριον, derived from Panarium, a rare case of an ancient Greek loanword from Latin, literally translated as “bread basket” but being akin to pharmacopeia in that it acquired a medicinal context, as used by Epiphanios, having the meaning of a physician’s bag of antivenins and antidotes for the poisons inflicted by heresy, with each heresy likened to a venomous or toxic creature. A dream of mine is to write a gloss and additional set of volumes, addressing the sects that have come into being since his time, and correcting his slightly inaccurate understanding of zoology (the basilisk was widely believed to exist in his time, and he likens a heresy to it, although who knows, maybe they did exist; perhaps they still do, since they can apparently kill by looking at you, although the mechanics of this baffle me), although I think Saint John of Damascus did technically beat me to the punch.

** Some Unitarians retain a Christian identity and practice baptism and communion, such as those at King’s Chapel in Boston, who famously use a modified version of the Book of Common Prayer with all Trinitarian references edited out; I believe some bona fide Nicene Christians actually historically attended that parish as their goal, on severing ties with the Anglicans, was to appeal to people regardless of Christology. Other Unitarians, eager to remove those remaining reminders of Christ our Lord, whose stare from Tiffany’s beautiful stained glass windows at their Arlington Street Church in Boston would inspire me to repent and worship Christ as my God and Savior, have replaced our sacraments with “naming ceremonies” and “flower communion,” and also attach a sacramental importance to the “Lighting of the Chalice.” Still others now use services taken from neo-Pagan and Wiccan sources, Sufi practices, the religions of Native Americans, and various occult practices of every imaginable variety. Not the ones in Hungary and Transylvania however; I would love to join or support a mission to try to counter the activity of the British Unitarians and the American UUA and preserve the love for Christ they still have, or better yet, persuade them of the Trinity.
 
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Paidiske

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How will such people be able to trust their local Church?

This is getting a little off topic, but if you will indulge me... I have had the extreme privilege of having a few such people in my pastoral care over time. And they do view many issues in church life differently and come at them with different perspectives (which is a gift). I remember one couple, for example, who before taking membership in my parish sat down with me and asked me to explain to them our complaints processes and accountability structures. If I were to do something wrong, how would that be handled? They were satisfied with our answers, but that points us to the need for structures which are transparent and in which everyone can be held accountable. (One of my most treasured memories in ministry is of the husband of that couple telling me, "I feel safe here." That we had build a community in which he and his wife could worship and grow safely).

We will build trust by being trustworthy. And not in paying lip-service to trustworthiness but in having robust processes in place for when someone goes off the rails. Part of that is being very clear on our theology of power, and how we expect power to operate for the good of all in our communities.
 
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