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We take as our Source and Center the leadership of Jesus Christ. As the highest
expression and most perfect manifestation of our
conception of the character of God, we give Him our complete allegiance and loyalty.
We are satisfied to belong to Him and to Him alone. In Him we have our Power,
our Peace, our Plenty. In Him we live, move and have our being.
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We Accept as our law of conduct and the source of our energy the two Great
commandments that He gave us upon which rest all the law and the prophets. The
deepest passion of our lives is to learn how to love God with all the strength of
our dedicated bodies, all the intelligence of our dedicated minds, all the loyalty
of our dedicated hearts, and all the devotion of our dedicated souls. We shall try
to practice and, by the contagion of our example, inspire other to practice loving
our neighbors as ourselves, regardless of their nationality, race
or creed.
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Our constitution of conduct shall be woven out of The Sermon On The Mount. Through
adherence to this constitution we shall hope to make religion go beyond Science and
become an Art, lifting it above Law into Grace, and from a Code into a Contagion.
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We recogonize that this Way of Life can be learned as a Science and practiced as an
Art, but not until it is experienced in the form of Spiritual Rebirth can its full
Power be released upon earth. We agree that this Rebirth cannot be achieved through
creeds, rituals or laws,
but only by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This we do not explain or try to
explain. All we pretend to know is that when we are meek in heart, forgiving toward
our enemies, with love for our fellow man and with faith in God, and turn and become
as a little child, this experience is
more likely to be ours.
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Everything about our union together and our basis for working shall be as fluid as
the sea and as free as the air. Christ and all He represents is central; everything
else is marginal. Where and when we find confusion in our concept of Him, we feel
assured that when we vision
that concept through the lens of the Sermon on the Mount and the two Great
commandments,
and His sacrifice on the Cross, we shall see Him as he really is. In our attempts to
get close to Christ some may take the door of mysticism, some the door of
sacraments, some the gateway of metaphysics and some the path of social service. The
indispensable thing is that no matter what the door we may use, we shall arrive at
the place where we shall all have the Mind of Christ Jesus.
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We shall recognize three circles in our united efforts at spreading the Kingdom of
heaven through the hearts and souls and minds of men. The outer circle which was
described in the Gospels as the "multitude" must be fed by parables and
simple, practical teachings that those who hear are able to receive.
The middle circle is where the teachers and apostles shall be taught through
messages that may be more intimate and sacred, knowing that the hearers will not
trample that which is holy underfoot. Finally there is the inner circle, the inner
family, where we shall share our deepest inmost experiences and highest
revelations, and keep much in secret and in silence, to share with God alone.
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Finally we come to the specific means by which this Kingdom may be projected into
the activities and lives of men. These may take the form of projects such as summer
camps and winter retreats, establishing healing centers of institutes of prayer,
planting of prayer groups and convening groups of businessmen or Congressmen or
ministers for inspiration or training
for the larger work. We believe that these projects should be prayerfully visioned,
carefully planned and then not committed to a committee to be committed to death,
but to some individual in the group who is on fire with zeal and devotion regarding
that particular project as a means of bringing the Kingdom into manifestation in
that particular way upon this earth.
With this bond of faith to unite us, one in impact but not in compact, with union
in Christ and freedom in action, moving as an organism and not as an
organization, we hope to unify and strengthen the deeper spiritual forces of the
nation and the world that are working to save mankind in this age of crisis.
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