Please pray or our candidates for ordination and incardination tomorrow. Also for Shane Hughes who has had an emergency appendectomy today so will not be with us sadly. Lord send your healing upon him in love Amen

Current Vacancies in CSJ: WE ARE SEEKING THOSE FROM OUR OWN CLERGY OR FROM THOSE OUTSIDE WHO HEAR GOD'S CALL, TO FILL THE FOLLOWING VACANCIES: ☆ Bishop Metropolitan for Asia & the Far East ☆ Bishop Metropolitan for the UK ☆ Bishops for Eire, Scotland, Wales & Englanf ☆ Bishop Metropolitan for Australasia ☆ Bishops for Southern America, Quebec, Montreal, Manitoba and the Northern region of Canada & the Arctic + Suffragan Bishops for Brazil, Argentina & the Antarctic, Peru and the Caribbean + Suffragan Bishops for The northeastern seaboard USA, Texas & Arizona, the Midwest, DC, New York state & Florida + Priests, Imams, Rabbis, Spiritualist Mediums, Ministers and other Faith leaders committed to the common union of all the people's of the Divine Creator by seminary or incardination. PLEASE email bishopcsji@gmail.com if you are interested in finding out about the largest multifaith voluntary ministry jurisdiction in the world, by the Grace of the Divine Creator, & how you might have your ministry dream revealed and made complete to you.

Exciting times ahead. As things stand, now I have recovered someway back to as normal as I get (!), on Saturday 24th March at 3pm in the Verely wooded enclosure outside Burley in the beautiful UK National Park that is the New Forest; Bishop elect the Rt Revd Jon Chapman and the Revd Fr Shane Hughes will be incarfinated into the CSJ and our local guys; the Very Revd Fr Martin Conyard and Revd Jonathan Harding-Rathbone will be priested after their journey as Deacons. Anyone who would like to attend is most welcome. You will need to park in the car-park at Verely (under the communications mast you can see from both directions on the Ringwood Rd. From the A31 turn off it is first on the right once you cross the cattle grid and obviously last on the right before the A31 slip road if coming from Burley. PLEASE bring a chair to sit on & sensible shoes /outdoor clothing is most advisable! The service will take around an hour and we will return to Peacehaven for tea and cakes afterwards. Please let us know if you will be coming as a good turnout for our wonderful candidates would be a wonderful show of support. God bless & Namaste +Barry

When Rev Jonathan and I have difficulty sleeping due to the pain being too bad we end up watching American Cop shows to numb us! Just watching a very sad episode of Law and Order SVU where 2 parents have a baby boy with the most horrendous disability and he is effectively permanently unconscious. Mum wants the court to allow her to turn off the life support, so Dad, under just as monumental an amount of emotional pain, in a moment of temporary madness, kidnaps the baby boy as he cannot give up hope of the medical fraternity coming up with a cure. I myself am torn on the pastoral advice I would give the poor parents &, having said goodbye to 2 beautiful babies myself with my former wife; Jack & Kimberley Megan would never have survived, & the tears are running down my cheeks. (obviously the image is a stock image and we pray that THIS little one has received that Almighty blessing of health & happiness) What would you do?

On behalf of Rev Jonathan Harding-Rathbone and myself I would like to thank all of you out there in CSJ land for your generous prayers and positive healing energies over the past week. I am home at last and on enforced rest for a week following my "brush with death" from the sepsis I developed that whacked my kidneys out of sync. Thanks also to AMU at the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch NHS Hospital Trust and the fantastic work of Dr Baker & team in the Resus Unit there who "brought me back" 3 times.

URGENT - Prayers needed please and NOW!!! We have just teen made aware for the 2nd time in the last 6 months anď from different and trusted sources, that the current administration of Pakistan has finally stopped the covert persecution of the Chriystian Community there. Hurrah I hear you shout in joy at the end of this outrageous, state-sponsored heinous abuse being perpetrated, allegedly, with the implicit authority of the Prophet Mohammed, and with the strength and power of Allah himself. THIS HAS TO STOP - AND STOP NOW!!! I can fully agree with the Sharia courts' pronouncement that this is, in some way, a retributive action against Christians for similar abuse that Indian/Pakistani Muslims suffered during the occupation by the British during Empire times up to the schism between Mr Jinnah & his Muslim parliamentary colleagues & the predominantly Hindu Congress Party led administration in the original transition government from imperialist occupation. Even today the Muslim administration in Pakistan is lashing out at Christians and it is really stoking community leadership's fire inside to create THE most atrocious conditions that are causing such stress and danger to Go and in that country, from clergy firebombing to actually detonating bombs in churches, using Shariah law to kill and maim. PLEASE pray for both sides in this situation that God/Allah will bring about the way ahead from this in the hearts of both Muslim and Christ is. Write to the Pakistani High Commissioner with your concerns:: His Excellency Mr Syad Ibne Abbas Pakistan High Commissioner to the Court of St James The Pakistan High Commission 34-36 Lowndes Square London SW1X 9JN Also pray that spiritual energies with provide a common sense resolution to this dire situation. Right here, right noe, pray the below with me, wherever you are..... Divine and ever-loving Spirit, our Father/Mother God, This situation has to end Innocents are suffering because other innocents suffered in years gone by. Now they Wang their slice of avenging for All the previous atrocities and this needs to cease. The world, Your creation, has plenty of space For all Your children to live in peace and harmony. We pray for those inspiring such hated filled activities to hear Your still, small and empowering voice, the heart of the Christ In both their and our hearts right now, Urging us to find a common sense answer to this awful issue. Help brother to hold close in their arms brothers of a different faith and bring a lasting peace and communion. Lord hear us, Lady hear us May we hear You Amen

My thoughts on Lent Today is St Valentine's Day, 02.14.18 (done that way for our continental American/Canadian 'family's, 14th Feb 2018 for the rest of us. According to the Roman Calendars rolling doodahs of moveable feasts, it also happens to be Ash Wednesday, the start of the 'other' purple season of 40 days of Lent. This is, of course, the time we set aside for contemplation and surrendering ourselves to misery, tummy ache from fasting and somebody making our otherwise pristine foreheads grimy with the imposition of the symbol (if your priest's thumb is somewhat artistic) of the cross, the ashes traditionally being made with the ashes of the burned Palm Sunday crosses from the previous year, mixed with a sprinkling of Chris (holy or blessed oil for anointing), to leave us (at least until we wash them off later for fear of our partner getting really annoyed that we have indelibly stained pur pillowcases with this grey sticky mess that no amount of detergent can make them whiter than white (although in OUR house it would be ME cursing the eejit who got us all smutty and icky & ruined my only real guilty plessure, expensive high count bedding. Yet ironically it's usually me as the eejit that imposed the ashes in the 1st place. So to Lent (still fuming at the smudge on our headset from LAST year's ash Wednesday calamity hee hee). We are supposed to give things up. Many people choose chocolate and cake because that way we get to pig out on Easter Day with the eggs, bunnies, Larry cake & all the goodness of an old fashioned Midlands Easter Day (with Lamb flavoured worn for Jon and I, being 'devoted vegetarians like what we is!). For some it is milk, others cheese (& THAT'S just not happening at 2 Baker Rd I can tell you for nothing!!!) Jesus the Master mentioned the ashes in both Matthew and Luke's Gospel but, as in much of His recorded utterances, the meaning of what He said is open to the personal interpretation of the reader/listener. On this occasion he is clearly specific and calls on those from Corazon & Bethsaida to publicly atone for their collective wrongdoings as a people like those in the more "relligious" in Tyre & Sodom would have done and it is MY contention thst here, as in Joel, Ecclesiastes, Daniel, heck 99% of the Old testament (Talmud, remember there WAS no NEW one until 150 years after His ascension, at least not written) he was merely following the oral tradition of most Rabbis of their time, repeating the scriptures time and again to get the message home. That there are times where repentant reflection is a good thing. And Lent is one of those times. Obviously every day should be a chance to reflect on what we have done against what we SHOULD have done, and pledge our whole will to try not to do it again, but here, as in Advent, we have an entire month and then some to focus on it. And that is no bad thing but you see, although a Catholic from birth and a Jew Way back in my father's family on the maternal line, I've pretty well got guilt sewn up. It's what we do. However, as a person always looking for the Grace of the Divine in every opportunity, either mine impacting on others and how HER grace can fill me more, witg this being my 49th Ash Wednesday in this incarnation, and with a constantly growing & evolving sense of self & my spirituality to boot, as I turn 50 a week today, about to set out, hand in hand with the most perfect husband/partner/liver other or better half that I could ever have been blessed with in Jon, I see myself actually about to spend the next 40 days only as a time of rejoicing in the truly bounty filled & radiant abundance God has helped me to find, by & through His, Her or It's Grace. I will wear my impositioned ash cross (if I get one that is), not as an outward mark of my inner/outer sin, nor the guilt I used to carry as a burden from seminary or even my inbuilt oh woe is me from my Jewish heritage. Rather I shall wear it as an outward sign of my acceptance of God's forgiveness for the sins I have committed & repented of in knowing of them, as well as those I am yet to realise & forgive myself for because, of course, how can we expect, demand of or plead for God to forgive us until we have done so ourselves. To err is human, to forgive divine, to BE forgiven and recognise the same in thst we forgive ourselves too, uber divine. Now where did I put the stain remover powder?

In CSJ we promote the practice of a "Deacons Cupboard" and you might like to know what it is. A practice of many centuries past it can be a real time physical 'Cupboard or cabinet within a place of worship in which attendees of that place can leave tins or packets of food or cash donations for the purchasing of the same so thst anyone in that locale, be they members of attendees or merely neighbours, can ask for "rations" if you like to give them a couple of day's of food, baby formula or even utility payments for gas, electric and water as may be necessary when there is more week/month left at the end of their income either anonymously or as a formal request for help. Given that, with the exception of our thriving community in Idaho under the stewardship of lay pastor; Ingrid Souster and her wonderful husband/community attorney; Kent, CSJ communities are, by & large, industrial rather than sacerdotal (ie: in, of, by & for the local population but without a permanent building) CSJ versions of this charitable ideology are etheric, although a couple of our clergy leaders have rooms in their own homes set aside as a non-perishable foodstuff store. As you are all aware, I hope, we do not go big on dogma or man made rules & regs, rather allowing ourselves to be open to God's ever practical Grace to guide us right. However, due to the society & mind set we find ourselves living in, this is one situation where we, by necessity, have to set some simple guidelines, and these are they (more common sense than dogmatic & entirely at your local management structure's discretion of course as to implication and exercision) 1. If a cash loan explain it is that. No hard sell needed just explain that the cash is not limitless & you are confident they would want to know the help afforded them would be there for others. Draft a simple agreement such as "I, Joe Bloggs of 3 The Glades, Pensecola, Florida abc123 accept that the $10 lent to me today, 12.25.16 by Rev P Spectre of CSJ Pensecola which i took as credit on my electric bill (receipt attached) for my residence mentioned, is due for repayment when I next receive my social security benefits on or about 01.02.17 (get a definite date. The likelihood of any leadership suing over such a paltry amount is negligible but it helps them tecognise that this loan has a value that they are responsible to repay). If canned food then ask them to perhaps add a tin of same extra to their weekly shop for a few weeks. Ironically preserved food loans usually come back 2fold in our experience but hard currency is the harder to get back. Perhaps you could also do a quid pro quo. We are loaning you $10, well we are leafletting in your district in a month's time. Deliver 2000 leaflets with Rita, Sue & Bob too & we will call it quits. Great for an occasional attendee to meet fellow attendees who might get Joe more open to getting more involved (oh & ALWAYS buy hot chocolate for street pounders, nothing better to start an ad hoc fellowship session). 2. IF it is a str84ward loan then there is NO INTEREST leviable (This we take from our Muslim colleague's principle of "Musharaka" effectively a shared enterprise. We would not charge ourselves interest if we raided our piggy bank in an emergency, so why charge others in need either?). 3. As 99% of us with the D C facility available hold cash as the main stock item, WE make the purchase/s with them. For example, if we know there is an addiction issue, or suspect the money might not be used for what they say it will, it would be incredibly improper of us to effectively 'enable' someone by handing them the very device that will, in the long term, bring them/others in their care (ie an addicted parent responsible for the safety and well being of 1 or more children or a disabled co-dependent adult) potentially to harm because the temptation for a packet of smokes, cans of alcohol or worse may well win out over running water or heat. We cannot avoid our responsibility under the 2nd Great Commandment in this regard. We also advise, for entirely that reason, that if the applicant is not well known to us, as well for the fact that though our cupboard might well APPEAR to be bursting at the seams from a cash balance perspective, we do not have Jesus' gift of taking a small amount of food & feeding the entire neighbourhood with extras left, and we want to be in the fortunate position to help as many as possible, we limit the amount to the bare minimum. We are talking Shop brand cola and jam/jelly sandwiches for 2 days, not champagne & caviar (!) (& this explains why a shelf or 2 of non perishables is always a good idea) And (partly because of the above) 4. Wherever possible, the decision should NOT be undertaken alone, anther's agreement must be sought. So what if it's midnight/3am on Christmas morning, even if your own community cannot be reached, you have over 500 colleagues across the world &, even if you have never spoken to them before, somebody will be at the other end of a 'phone or social media facility. As a last resort my telephone is on 24/7. We do not need to know the personal ins & outs of the particular person in need, just a brief outline and your considered opinion whilst respecting their wish/right for privacy too. Ok? 5. The other type of money or 'stuff the Deacons Cupboard (if it exists) can be used for are those occasional times when, with the best wills in the world, we know we will not see the money back. This can be the price of a cup of coffee for the homeless we meet whilst out in the community, so we can have a chat with her/him about their situation and if there is any practical use we can be to them, maybe the cost of a night stay in a local homeless shelter, laundering their clothes etc. It could even be (although the Trustees might raise an eyebrow) the price of a raffle or fund raising ticket from an associated charity, where one of the prizes could dramatically benefit the ministry you provide. And that's a weirdway of explaining the type of donations we support with a Deacons Cupboard but, if in doubt, just ask your colleagues, Ordinary or any of the Chapter. There will never be a question too daft to ask, nor any answer to un-thought through not to reply with. Leadership Income. On a slight aside but as money has reaed it's head, we have no issue with any community 'paying' their leadership a salary, stipend or expenses to enable them to effectively undertake their calling &, equally, no issue over said leaders earning a living from their ministries, such as building a growing community such as Idaho or in the conducting of weddings or the more usual for independent clergy the conducting of funerals (though much harder to get into than some would have you believe, again a discussion maybe for another time) so long as the doing of them is legal, transparent, above board (ie declared under local/national government laws) and moral. By moral I mean that the conducting of these sacraments are exactly that, the conducting of a sacrament where God's purpose and the person/people's spiritual/emotional needs are met first & foremost. Particularly with funerals, where the less moral of our colleagues have been known to not only make obscene amounts of money (& I speak as who would have been the 3rd generation of my family to own a relatively small, 2 funeral homes with 3 'satellite's arrangement centres family funeral business started by but sadly still bearing his name (W.G.Rathbone - Funeral Directors) in Warwick & Royal Leamington Spa here in the UK. I said would have been had it not been that my father, made physically & mentally seriously ill in trying to stay afloat in the shark infested waters if an industry dominated by the pile 'em high & sell it for as much as you can get any with, insensitive, 1 type fits all genuinely soul-less industry of "the Big 4" as they are known as in the industry who cut huge corners and centres out of a business that should be, as both Grandpa, both my grandmother's, mum, dad & I fought tooth & nail to keep moral, ethical and personal to each & every bereaved relative we came into contact with to such high stress that Mum forced Dad to sell out b4 it killed him, as it had my Grandpa and b4, they thought, it would me. I went against Pa's admonishment & worked in it anyway, for the Co-op (biggest of the 4) during a gap year from nursing but should have listened to him as I strongly believe it contributed to the major stroke I had at 36. All I will say here is that, should you develop a thriving funeral ministry, make it for the right reasons, your compassion, empathy & genuine love for your calling being what guides you so that (& yes it's personal to me) my Grandpa or Dad, or better still your own loved one, would have wanted YOU to conduct their last sacrament on this side of life. (I will give a tutorial video on funeral & wedding ministry in the forthcoming "Minister's Cookbook" - a guide to making your vocation go with a Bang, due out very soon via YouTube but a subscription (free) only part of our Spiritshacktv@gmail.com channel). Namaste, Om Ashanti, Pax et bonam +Me

Rev Shane Hughes has offered this as his personal statement for wishing to join the CSJ as an ordained ministry. As his ministry is already valid and without question, and valid ordination is for life, we do NOT need to ordain him aha. Instead on 24/02/2018 I, as Primate (senior Bishop for want of a better word, although even after 25 years and 3 months I still wonder what God's "joke" is on all of us!!) will lead a service of INCARDINATION where we all will confirm God's calling to him & our trust in Her divine will in bringing him to be a part of us) during the same service where Deacons the Rev Jonathan Harding-Rathbone and the Rev Martin T J Conyard will be priestess (the next step from Deacon, fully pertaining them to God AND our service) along with Bishop-elect The Rt Rev Ruth Moderhak as Diocesan Bishop for the USA & Canada, with temporary responsibility for the southern American continent, and incardinating The Rt Rev Jonathan M Chapman, who is to be diocesan Bishop of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland (Eire), to replace me as I take up responsibility (in addition to my pastoral responsibilities) as Bishop of the European Union with pastoral oversight of Africa. I already have the "titular" (honorary) Apostolic Bishopric of Melita (Malta) & Patmos after their associations with Saints Paul & John the Divine, + Jonathan will assume the titular Apostolic Bishopric of Aelia Capitolina believed to be associated with St Petrollena, one of the first LGBTQI female saints, assassinated by Diocletian during his persecution of early Christians after being found "lying" with her employer & lover St Capitolina. To +Ruth will be afforded the titular Bishopric of Damas in Syria, a vacant Greek Orthodox Eparchy (Bishopric) widely believed to have been the familial base historically of one of Christianity's 1st Martyrs, St Sebastian, who survived his assassination attempt & got to meet Diocletian where he warned him against his holocaust of followers of this new 'faith which decried the Emperor as purely mortal and not in any way a God, only to have been ordered tied to a stake and then hand stabbed 100 times with arrows by his Pretorian Guard and loyal Senators, hence the frequent homoerotic imagery of him full of arrow wounds, although it is widely regarded that the first piercing, recorded by Julian of Norwich (having seen it in a vision) through his heart by the Emperor himself, who then insisted on the staged execution with bows and arrows to preserve his status as a Roman imperial Deity. Ho hum. Please pray for all our candidates as they make their profession to minister according to the inspiration of the God of their hearts and welcome them in love. +Barry

It's with great pleasure that we welcome to the Diocese of the UK and the REPUBLIC of IRELAND, not only their new diocesan Ordinary; Bishop Jonathan M Chapman but also, subject to his application being approved; the Rev Shane Hughes, who will collectively take our number of interfaith clergy to 525. God is blessing our approach to 21st century communion of ALL religious backgrounds with such abundance, we can but give thanks. And the best way is by adhering to the Great Commandments and Commission of the Master Jesus the Christ. Same. Please welcome them both in love and may we collectively pray for their ministries to be blessed.

All modern representation of religions, originally inspired by the God of our hearts & those so in tune with the 'Christos' (the perfect energy that joins both material & spiritual, the essence of the Divine in us) live by the structure, tenets & creeds pertaining to the background teachings of each group, which we refer to as our Canons or Articles of Faith. Over eons of time these 'rules' get added to by human leaders &, though the original tenets still remain, due to the physical, emotional, societal & political influences upon them, they get submerged & occasionally dissipated entirely by these changes over time. Indeed these changes happen to usually appease frail human egos. So in the CSJ (& from the very 1st gathering of we who have been, incorrectly, referred to as "the 12 founding Evangelists" of whom I am the last one left (!), we spent many an evening refining how simply we could set these Canons and Articles of our Faith. As scholars of theology in one form or another, we find that ALL spiritual pathways are founded on one shared & liberating set. So here you go.... The Canons of The CSJ. Agreed 01.11.1992 (Also called our Articles of Faith). 1. We accept & affirm The Creator of all past, now & to the end of time, known by various names but collectively as 'GOD' is our Divine Creator. 1.1. All forms of existence, both permanent & temporary, are subjugate to GOD, & shall respect, revere & recognise GOD above all else with due honour & worship according to the practises of their individual &/or collective bodies. 2. We will, at all times, love & treat each other with the same respect, honour & equality, as we expect others to do to & for us. 2.1. No one person or theology is greater than, supreme over or more relevant to any other. 2.2. All practical expressions of personal/corporate activitis of faith should include respectful consideration for, & honest education of, one another's core beliefs &/or persuasions. 3. We believe in Personal Responsibility. It was once said that all actions have an equal or opposite reaction. No activity in our lives is exclusively our "fault", nor even our responsibility, & how we face up & respond to the major AND minor occurrences is how we learn to grow spiritually. 3.1. Human-kind has, since the earliest of days, sought to control & dominate it's neighbours, often through exercising of aggressive actions. Whilst we recognise this can, sadly, be the only avenue remaining open to the protagonists, it must be the duty and responsibility of those mature to see, that negotiation & communication should always be the preferred route for resolution. 3.2. Where human disagreements exist, conflict of any kind should always be the very last resolution considered. 3.3. Debate or discussion which permit respectful collective responses/solutions are always preferable to aggressive game playing. 4. We recognise that many are called, & a few are chosen. 4.1. The apex of spiritual awareness should be our ultimate goal throughout our physical lives, and the practice of spirituality over physicality will allow us all to climb ever closer to that height. Some will climb faster, it matters not how fast others may climb ahead, nor that we might climb more readily than our neighbours. All that matters is that we are always focused on climbing. 5. We earn Compensation & Retribution by our every deed - this is how we learn. 5.1. Other than the Divine Creator no one has the power, responsibility or right to sit in judgement on us or we on them. Except ourselves. 5.2. Judicial reflection & reaction to each and every action we undertake throughout our lives should be always encouraged, if not by our equally flawed and fragile neighbours, then by ourselves. We should frequently revisit our lives to that point, to see where and how we could have reacted in a more appropriate and spiritually educated manner. 5.3. The wise ones listen, look & learn from life's events, however small or insignificant. The less enlightened fail to grow through their own happily ignorant journeying. 5.4. We can, & should, aim to help others, but with humility & not arrogance, & the same applies to our reception of freely-offered assistance. 6. We practice a model of the servant shepherd in our relationships with each other. 6.1. As the tenet of the old religions say; "So long as it hurts none, do as you will". Whereas we will, assuredly, be hurt by others throughout our lives, by the actions of others AND our own, we earn a further step towards spiritual perfection or back down equally quickly, through our responses to life. 6.2. No one person in life is more or less 'superior' than any other before any other, including knowledge, education or attainment of position of power. 6.3. The Primates, Prelates, Bishops, Managers, Presidents or Royalty have no greater or lesser right to stand before the Throne of Grace than the lowliest of supplicant. 6.4. The higher one climbs, the more one should recognize how long is that climb and submit willingly to help out our brothers and sisters who are yet to tread in our footsteps and rejoice when they learned what we know and happily accept their hand up to the next lesson with humble Grace. 7. It doesn't matter what your Faith is, all that matters is you HAVE Faith. 7.1. Simply stated, very simple to believe but often not at all simple to accept, our spiritual growth and uniting through our acceptance of the difference in other peoples' faith practice, we must always be respectful of our fellow journeyman & women, if for no other reason than the 2nd Canon's call. 7.2. Historical activities are in the past and, like the last meal we ate, they should no more affect our now & future selves' inter-relationships than anything else, less in fact as the meal has been finished. The above are guides for life that have appeared as the basis of all the religious practices across time. Whilst we cannot in any way accept that these are all that correspond and reflect from religion to religion, we accept these to be the simplest and most resonating through all our experiences as people of faith.