From: Tyagi@HouseOfKaos.Abyss.com
Subject: CAW Introductory Information (A. Judith)
Date: Wed,  9 Feb 94 07:21:01 PST

Church of All Worlds

The Church of All Worlds is an eclectic, polytheistic, Nature oriented
religious community.  We worship deity in many forms, both masculine
and feminine, with special emphasis on the Goddess, seeking to restore
the archetypal sacred feminine to Her rightful place among the divine.
To this end we support and train women as Priestesses, as well as male
Priests.  We are pantheistic in that we see deity as immanent within
every living being, within all Nature, and within the Holy Biosphere
of Mother Earth, whom we regard as a living being of divine
proportions, most commonly referred to as Gaia, after the Earth
Goddess of ancient Greece.  As deity resides immanently within each
one of us, we support the growth of individuals to achieve their
maximum potential, serving the divine through the evolution of our own
and others' consciousness.  As our divine selves are strengthened
through contact with others, we foster the growth of tribal community
through shared spiritual experiences, commitment to service, and
continuous self-examination.  We are committed to evolving theaologies
that are life-affirming, that offer alternatives to war and
exploitation, oppression and ignorance, racism and sexism.  We value
and reclaim the ancient myths of our ancestors, and seek to enliven
and evolve them through group rituals and worship of the seasonal
cycles in the unfolding spiral of the year.  We seek to restore the
lost connections between Heaven and Earth, mind and body, male and
female, light and darkness, culture and planet, humans and Gods.


Science and Technology  

We do not see religion as separate from science and deplore the
separation of spirit from matter that has occurred in the minds of
scientists over the last 3-400 years.  We fervently support studies in
biology, astronomy, cosmology, geology, zoology, physics, chemistry,
anthropology, psychology and sociology.  Each of these disciplines is
an adventure in discovering more about the nature of immanent deity
that is the fabric of our universal home.  We are committed to helping
the world awaken to the an understanding of the larger planetary and
universal systems of which humans are only a part.  Knowledge is power
against ignorance, and can lead to understanding.  Reductionism and
scientific materialism, however, do little to foster a spiritual
understanding of the larger creation, or to connect the individual
with the divine nature of reality. Science has much to offer us and
gives us much to be thankful for, but it cannot provide the answer to
the questions that arise in spiritual seeking.

Our religion seeks to regard all things in their totality, which
includes being aware of both their light and their dark side and
this applies especially well to technology. Technology can assist
humanity by helping to advance consciousness and relieve human
suffering.  The creation of computer nets, information fields,
communication networks, and faster means of travel are all useful
tools in creating global communication that can help connect and
awaken the neural net of our planetary, Gaian intelligence.  When
technology is wielded by the hand of greed and domination, to the
point of harming the biosphere, then it becomes a tool of deicide,
and we feel it is a sacred duty to resist and expose the harm that
this causes to humans, animals, and the ecosystem.  We do not see
technology as a replacement for spiritual values, but as a tool for
communicating those values to more people. It must be used in
balance and with consciousness of its effect to the seventh
generation and beyond.


Diverse Paths of Worship  

As our name, Church of All Worlds, might imply, we do not
require the severing of any other religious ties in order
to join our church or become part of our spiritual community.
We open our arms to many paths, which include but are not
limited to Shamanism, Witchcraft, Voudoun, Buddhism, Hinduism,
Sufism, Gnosticism, and Christian Creation Spirituality.  We
combine these roots with other threads from transpersonal
psychology, body oriented disciplines, artistic expression, paths
of service, and Science Fiction, which helps us to dream the
future.  Looking forward, and helping to create and sustain a
healthy and meaningful future is an important element of the Church
of All Worlds.  We are less concerned with Creation theology than
we are with "Evolution Theology;" meaning we are more concerned
with our current purpose  on this Earth than how we got here.


Environment and Population   

Since the most important deity within our theaology is the
living being of Mother Earth, we are deeply concerned about
humanity's threat to the health of the biosphere through
population expansion, exploitation, and domination by humans
of other species.  We support the right of each living child
to a healthy family who can responsibly provide for them
financially, emotionally and spiritually.  We fight for stronger
reproductive rights that can prevent abortion, but should abortion
be needed, we strongly support a woman's right to choose her
destiny according to the counsel she receives from the Goddess
within.  We feel that it is unethical to force a woman to bear an
unwanted child into a world that has too many humans, and deplore
the sexism of a male dominated society that would impose such a law
on other human beings, and on the already overtaxed resources of
our Beloved Mother Earth.

We affirm the interconnected nature of all life and seek to create
a world of interdependent harmony, assisting the evolution of Gaian
consciousness and the awakening of humanity to their true
potential.


Mission Statement

To these ends we summarize our mission statement as follows:

The mission of the Church of All Worlds is to evolve a network of
information, mythology, and experience to awaken the divine within
and provide a context and stimulus for reawakening Gaia and
reuniting Her children through tribal community dedicated to
responsible stewardship and the evolution of planetary
consciousness.


Anodea Judith 
High Priestess 
Church of All Worlds  
P.O. Box 1542  
Ukiah, CA  95482-1542