The church is the generalization of the episcopacy.

The episcopacy is the distillation of apostolic authority.

Apostolic authority is the operation (ontos) of apostolic nature.

Apostolic nature is so because of its coherence with Christologic nature.

Where there is Christologic nature, there is the episcopacy.

Where there is no Christologic nature, there is no episcopacy.

Where there is apostolic nature, there is the church.

Where there is not apostolic nature, there is not the church.

Christ is present in what is Christological.

He is not present in what is not Christological.

Bishops are of the apostles, not like them,
homoousias, not homoiousias.

If they are like the apostles, they are impostors.

Any claim of episcopacy in the absence of Christologic nature
is a species of violence and nothing besides.

Democratic polity secures righteousness, and therefore peace, to the extent that the electorate's decisions are produced by apostolic nature alone. Proximately, church polity includes democratic procedure. Ultimately, church polity cannot be democratic because apostolic nature is not wide-spread enough to make democratic procedure productive of righteousness, and therefore of peace. Democracy as ultimate polity would secure righteousness, and therefore peace, among ordinary humanity only if every decision were made by consensus of every being affected, which would be, every being.

All this on polity is said of church polity.

However, it is true regarding the polity of any organization.

The episcopacy may be in the most remarkable

-- and the most unremarkable --

of places.

God may use but certainly is not bound to precedent

... or to anything ....

Jerome's veneration of Peter means that Peter is the Rock (Foundation of the Church) who is transformed existentially by Faith through Grace as recorded twice, once in the incident of naming the Christ (not a strong naming since he is promptly condemned) and finally at Pentecost. It is not Peter, son of ordinary parents, who is the Rock. It is Peter Son of Christ, Son of the Father, in fact, who is the Foundation of the Church. In other words, apostolic nature is the Foundation, not an individual with a miter on their head. As Jerome says (Homilies), 'a vestment does not make a bishop.' Only internal, Christologic nature makes a bishop. Jerome, of all people, was fully aware of the elevation of scoundrels to sees and was not inclined to call one of these the genuine article. Jerome's veneration of Peter was made in reference to a Peter (a Pope, and by implication, any bishop) whom Jerome regarded as blessed. Jerome was not inclined to drape the language of veneration on a Borgia. The office belongs to internal nature, not to a place or to a tradition. It is personal, not institutional. Apostolic authority proceeds from apostolic nature and from no other source. Consecration cannot do it. Like all Sacraments, consecration is an outward sign of an inward and invisible Grace, of an existential transformation into and towards Christologic nature. Otherwise, the figure of Christ as head of the Church (Bride, following Prophetic figure of Jerusalem as Bride of YHWH) is ludicrous. Christ is head of a whore? A Borgia? Jesuits rammed this rubbish through at Vatican I, like crap through a goose, but there isn't one of them who believes it. Neither does God. It isn't true. It's a lie. Unless there is the inward and invisible Grace, the Sacrament is just dough and alcohol. The Sacrament has no generative capacity. It feeds and confirms. It does not and it can not generate or make. The only thing that has generative capacity is the will of a living Master. Destiny is made by the resolve of a Master and by no other means. His or Her will is what sets a personality Godward. A Master's will and hand operate in perfect integrity. Really, the purification of Catholic dogma regarding Church polity during this millennium starts with Huss. The Peter who is the Foundation of the Church is the Peter who has been Christ-ed, not an ordinary Peter who makes himself selected for ordination and then goes chicken. The very fact of polity reform within the Catholic Church (Roman, Greek, Episcopalian) attests that nature (Logos), not material, makes a bishop. Adwaitha Hermitage June 14, 1993

The picture at the top of this page was drawn by Mary Graham and colored by David R. Graham. Its title is Elijah's Cloak and it is part of Isa, a coloring book from Adwaitha Hermitage.

Phenomena to Study (U.S.A.)
Phenomena to Study (Poland)
Catechesis For The Sai Era
Reminiscences from the North Sea