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The Alexandrian Gnostic Church
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Welcome to the website of the Alexandrian Gnostic Church (AGC), a modern Gnostic sacramental community on the Path of Radical Transformation. We hope you will spend some time looking over the pages. The material will serve as an introduction to our approach to Gnostic spirituality. If you desire to go further in your own spiritual exploration, you are cordially invited to contact us for encouragement, guidance, and companionship. We are witnessing, at the outset of the twenty-first century, the beginnings of a bold movement towards a new expression of spirituality. This growing phenomenon is both ancient and modern- ancient in that its inspiration lies in the traditions and writings of the early Gnostics and their heirs. It is modern in that these traditions have found new life in the needs of the people in our time. For too long, mainstream spiritual life has been confined to established religious organizations and churches which hove ordered what should be the most exciting adventure of a person’s life into a very reduced and chiefly negative ordeal of obedience to laws, self-negation, and belief that the organization itself is the object of spiritual endeavor.. Thoughtful people have struggled with theresulting emptiness, or have explored the religions of the East, or have turned their backs on it all.
Fortunately, the Spirit is still moving over the waters, and, within the last century, has revealed the raw matter of a fresh approach. In the nineteenth century, Sophia, Spirit of Divine Wisdom, gave birth to the revival of a Gnostic church, which had long been forced underground. Notably, in 1804 Bernard Raymond Fabre-Palaprat, drawing upon the hidden tradition of the Church of John, founded the Johannite Church of Primitive Christians. In 1890, Jules Doinel, compelled by a vision of Sophia, founded the Gnostic Catholic Church in France, proclaiming the “Year of the Restoration of the Gnosis.” These were the beginnings of a new flowering of gnosis, and the Alexandrian Gnostic Church traces its heritage to both of these Churches. In 1945, in the wake of a brutal war and the creation and use of horrific new weapons, the Light again shone in the darkness. Shepherds in Egypt found some jars filled with parchments which had been buried from view for seventeen centuries. These parchments spoke of a Christianity which had previously existed only in fragments, in the angry denouncements of “church fathers” of the orthodox church, or in legend. They were gathered into the Nag Hammadi Library and a new generation of spiritual seekers responded to the truths which they contain. These texts are the fuel for the current Gnostic revival. The texts resulted in an explosion of scholarly interest in gnosis over the recent decades. Now, the time has come for practice. It is time for thought to advance into action and inform the lives of many. This is the project of the Alexandrian Gnostic Church. The AGC is a growing community currently centered in the New York City/ Northern New Jersey area. We honor the transformative power found in traditional ritual and practices. We draw upon many sources, including the Gnostic communities of the first centuries of the common era, and those of numerous prophets and mystics from more recent times. Our task is to weave these with current approaches to create a gnostic praxis which is suitable for the time in which we live. We welcome all, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, or ethnicity, who wish to explore and embrace a genuine spirituality. We are open to you at where you are today, at whatever level of spiritual involvement, of whatever religious background. There is an excitement in the emergence of a vital Gnostic presence. Come, be part of it with us.
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© The Alexandrian Gnostic Church
www.AlexandrianGnostic.org