Sergius & Bakkhus
(New Jersey USA)
the Moorish Orthodox Church of America.
E-MAIL: [email protected]
BISHOP MICHAEL FRANCIS AUGUSTINE ITKIN: CONFESSOR & PIONEER
"after a long period of apostasy - including becoming overly-involved in Catholic ritualism, liberal popular protestantism, and Gnosticism - praise God! Both our Church-community and I, myself, have undergone a rebirth through the Holy Spirit testifying to Jesus' presence in our midst."
While continuing the emphasis on Liberation Theology, the Churhc now saw itself in a position analogous to the Radical Reformers of the sixteenth century. Accordingly, Bishop Itkin placed himself in the Anabaptist-Quaker-Mennonite tradition and assigned himself the additional task of confronting these churches with their sexism. He replaced the sacramental theology of Catholicism with the Mennonite Confession of Faith, minus the article on "Marriage and the Home" which committed Mennonites to the nuclear, herterosexual family.
Prior to his passing, Saint Mikhael had reassumed the mantle and the obligations of a Bishop of God's Church, as Mar Mikhael occupying the position of Metropolitan-Archbishop of the Holy Apostolic -Catholic Church of the East (Chaldean-Syrian), while keeping intact his philosophic committment to the Radical Reformers, and suffusing the whole with a flavor of mystical Sufism. The church claimed unity in faith with the Church of the East, popularly designated as the Nestorian Church, the lineage that Bishop Herford (Mar Jacobus) brought to the West, through his representative David Stanns (Mar David) in 1938. The theology is Orthodox, holding to the Nicene definition of the Trinity. The Church uses as its Lectionary the Peshitta, the Aramaic Biblical text, and in
1978, Bishop Itkin's jurisdiction was recognized by Mar Anthony (Bishop W. Martin Andrew) of Britain as being
"the sole jurisdiction actually carrying on the work of Mar Jacobus (Herford) and of the original Evangelical Cathoic Communion in the United States."
Saint Mikhail of Califorina consecrated or assisted at the consecration of a good number of episcopi vagantes, and ordained countless numbers to the Holy Priesthood, many of whom became trusted and competent leaders in their own right, but perhaps the most well-known of the Saint's followers was Marion Zimmer Bradley, noted science fiction/fantasy author (The Mists of Avalon [1982]) and The Firebrand [1987]). Bradley, a lesbian, was married to Walter Breen (himself a gay man) for many years, and with whom she had three biological and several foster children. After decades of providing pastoral counseling at the Pacific Gay Center, both Bradley and her former husband were ordain by Bishop Itkin in 1980.
At its height, the Church, headquartered in Daly City, Califorina (190 Palisades Drive) had 15 parishes with 3,500 members in the United States and 6 foreign missions. Mar Mikhael was assisted by a Synod of Bishops in administering the Church, which had jurisdiction for North and South America as well as for the Far East,. In the process of its growth acquiring Charismatic practices and promoting the Gifts of the Spirit, i.e., healing, prophecy and speaking in tongues, among others. That fact, along with its consideration of itself as standing within the Radical Reformed heritage, rendered the jurisidction unique in the annals of the Syro-Chaldean tradition.
Owing to this "dual tradition" identification, Saint Mikhail's jurisdiction took a distinctly "low church" approach to sacramental life, recoginzing onyl three of the seven traditional sacraments; for historical purposes, the jurisdiction accepted the 1903 Pastoral Letter to the Syro-Chaldean Christians in India authored by Bishop Herford.
Following its own statement of faith which acknowledges Christ as sovereign and liberator, the community was fully wedded to a liberation theological praxis that included a struggle against sexism, heterosexism, racism, classism, imperialism and violence. It strongly supported and worked for Christian Gay/Lesbian liberation, feminism, racial integration, civil rights, economic mutuality, democracy, universal citizenship and non-violence. The Community never considered itself a gay or homosexual Church, but rather a "Christian Covenant-community for all people, preaching the inclusive love of God to everyone."
