Clergy Training
Overview
Introduction to IRCC Training:
I bring you my Greetings in the name of the Father, and Son and Holy Spirit. It is probably safe to assume since you are reading this introduction that you are preparing to enter training as clergy with the Independent Reformed Catholic Church, I welcome you.
You are about to enter one of the most fulfilling and satisfying events of your life, and at the same time one of the most demanding.
Some of you will find that the demands are too great, that the studies are too strenuous and long range or that "your call" was not to serve God as a clergyman.
We are a strict and very conservative Jurisdiction, and we shun the liberal approach to serving Almighty God.
Many of the individuals that apply for training or incardination with the IRCC do not bother to read our requirements and the result is that they waste their own time and ours. Serving God and functioning as a church is not a game for us, it is our call of duty. Some consider us legalistic and if following the Bible, Gods Laws, ancient Canon and tradition and Christ's teachings are legalistic, then we are.
Serving God as a clergyman is a sacred privilege not a right, we do not attempt to make the training or the function as clergy easy but follow ancient and Biblical standards.
I caution you here, that if you are not 100% committed and ready to make serving God as an Ordained the major thrust of your earthly life PLEASE do not apply for ordination with this Jurisdiction, you will not succeed. There are MANY other churches that will allow you to "do your own thing" and that will allow you to "play" church under their banner; we are not one of them! There is MUCH more to the Priesthood than wearing a bit of white collar at your throat, unfortunately many have not understood this.
The material you will find presented by the IRCC in these initial training sessions only scratches the surface of the immense amount of data that you will amass as you continue on the path that you have chosen, it is just preliminary preparation and a basic introduction to the way we do things within the IRCC.
I would first like to first address "being a student" and preparing to enter the clergy. There is a wide mis-comprehension that Theological "studies" are at an end upon the achievement of some designated achievement, whether that end is ordination, a religious degree or achievement of some ecclesiastical goal. Nothing could be further from the truth! Theological studies for the clergyman is a LIFETIME endeavor, one is NEVER through learning. God continues to open avenues of truth for the dedicated and serious clergy-person until the day he departs this life. If you ever reach the point of "Knowing it all," of "Being satisfied with the understanding you have" or: Become UN-teachable; you have outlived your true usefulness as a clergyman; to put it bluntly, "When you are through learning, you're through."
The second thing I wish to address is a fact that you will notice as you continue through the posted material. That is, that some of it was prepared by teachers, instructors or clergy-persons outside of the IRCC jurisdiction. This is intentional and with purpose. Although we are in many cases not in full communion or full doctrinal agreement with some of these folks, it is our policy within the IRCC to reach out in measured tolerance to others and allow their talents to glorify Almighty God.
This matter of tolerance however can be and in fact is a serious matter and can without doubt be a dangerous one. The face of sin today often wears the mask of total tolerance. Martin Luther made the observation that total tolerance is nothing more than total lack of conviction in disguise; we tend to agree with him in this. We do not by any means advocate total tolerance on the cultural, political, social and certainly not religious level. But we do certainly advocate modified tolerance that allows others the freedom of choice within of course God established ecclesiastical boundaries.
We base our approach to religious tolerance from this guideline:
Practice all above positive affirmations in all possible situations of life and as a positive result you will see progress in your process of learning to LOVE and practice that ever increasing purity of love in all new upcoming and existing situations of your life.
What causes Religious intolerance?
Can the infinitesimal nature of God be limited by a name, sect, function or even religion? Personally I think God is much bigger than that.
But, people like to see their own "Self" in others. What they don't like in themselves, they don't like to see in others. People keep dividing themselves by man-made Religions, Sects, beliefs, and practices until they like what they see. This conditioning in Nature causes bloated ego and intolerance. And I am certain it is not pleasing to God.
What scripture tells us about this is pretty clear:
To have peace , LOVE must rule, there is no other way. Religion in and of itself cannot bring about peace. And also, even with all the money, power, influence and the knowledge that mankind has, peace is impossible without LOVE.
"My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and truth." -(1John 3:18)
My final notation has to do with the way we conduct our ritual life within the IRCC. For some of the more traditional, the ritualistic modifications will seem strange, but this is the way that we function. For others our way will seem strict and demanding, and it is. This is by design and we are very uncompromising when it comes to the demands and duties assigned to us by Almighty God. Some will have problems with the fact for instance that we are a practicing "Sabbath Keeping" Church adhering to the divine instructions of keeping the seventh day Sabbath or that we do not accept Futurism and a secret Rapture as divine truth, but adhere strictly by scripture in this matter.
So there you have a basic outline. Again welcome aboard. May Almighty God bless you; he who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit.
YOU HAVE JUST HAD YOUR FIRST IRCC TRAINING LESSON!
Archbishop Benjamin Driggers, OBB
Overview
Introduction to IRCC Training:
I bring you my Greetings in the name of the Father, and Son and Holy Spirit. It is probably safe to assume since you are reading this introduction that you are preparing to enter training as clergy with the Independent Reformed Catholic Church, I welcome you.
You are about to enter one of the most fulfilling and satisfying events of your life, and at the same time one of the most demanding.
Some of you will find that the demands are too great, that the studies are too strenuous and long range or that "your call" was not to serve God as a clergyman.
We are a strict and very conservative Jurisdiction, and we shun the liberal approach to serving Almighty God.
Many of the individuals that apply for training or incardination with the IRCC do not bother to read our requirements and the result is that they waste their own time and ours. Serving God and functioning as a church is not a game for us, it is our call of duty. Some consider us legalistic and if following the Bible, Gods Laws, ancient Canon and tradition and Christ's teachings are legalistic, then we are.
Serving God as a clergyman is a sacred privilege not a right, we do not attempt to make the training or the function as clergy easy but follow ancient and Biblical standards.
I caution you here, that if you are not 100% committed and ready to make serving God as an Ordained the major thrust of your earthly life PLEASE do not apply for ordination with this Jurisdiction, you will not succeed. There are MANY other churches that will allow you to "do your own thing" and that will allow you to "play" church under their banner; we are not one of them! There is MUCH more to the Priesthood than wearing a bit of white collar at your throat, unfortunately many have not understood this.
The material you will find presented by the IRCC in these initial training sessions only scratches the surface of the immense amount of data that you will amass as you continue on the path that you have chosen, it is just preliminary preparation and a basic introduction to the way we do things within the IRCC.
I would first like to first address "being a student" and preparing to enter the clergy. There is a wide mis-comprehension that Theological "studies" are at an end upon the achievement of some designated achievement, whether that end is ordination, a religious degree or achievement of some ecclesiastical goal. Nothing could be further from the truth! Theological studies for the clergyman is a LIFETIME endeavor, one is NEVER through learning. God continues to open avenues of truth for the dedicated and serious clergy-person until the day he departs this life. If you ever reach the point of "Knowing it all," of "Being satisfied with the understanding you have" or: Become UN-teachable; you have outlived your true usefulness as a clergyman; to put it bluntly, "When you are through learning, you're through."
The second thing I wish to address is a fact that you will notice as you continue through the posted material. That is, that some of it was prepared by teachers, instructors or clergy-persons outside of the IRCC jurisdiction. This is intentional and with purpose. Although we are in many cases not in full communion or full doctrinal agreement with some of these folks, it is our policy within the IRCC to reach out in measured tolerance to others and allow their talents to glorify Almighty God.
This matter of tolerance however can be and in fact is a serious matter and can without doubt be a dangerous one. The face of sin today often wears the mask of total tolerance. Martin Luther made the observation that total tolerance is nothing more than total lack of conviction in disguise; we tend to agree with him in this. We do not by any means advocate total tolerance on the cultural, political, social and certainly not religious level. But we do certainly advocate modified tolerance that allows others the freedom of choice within of course God established ecclesiastical boundaries.
We base our approach to religious tolerance from this guideline:
- say YES to divine pure love
- say YES to loving ALL.
- say YES to forgive ALL whatever needs to be forgiven
- say YES to helping all - whatever help is needed
- say YES to action without desires, without expecting presupposed results
- say YES to action in the name of God, Jesus,and the Holy Spirit
- say YES to your innermost fire of LOVE and accept the huge flow of LOVE that is possible to flow through all of you.
Practice all above positive affirmations in all possible situations of life and as a positive result you will see progress in your process of learning to LOVE and practice that ever increasing purity of love in all new upcoming and existing situations of your life.
What causes Religious intolerance?
- Feeding Ego of the Self
- Mine versus theirs mentality
- Ignorance
- Desire to be superior
- Conditioning by the Nature
Can the infinitesimal nature of God be limited by a name, sect, function or even religion? Personally I think God is much bigger than that.
But, people like to see their own "Self" in others. What they don't like in themselves, they don't like to see in others. People keep dividing themselves by man-made Religions, Sects, beliefs, and practices until they like what they see. This conditioning in Nature causes bloated ego and intolerance. And I am certain it is not pleasing to God.
What scripture tells us about this is pretty clear:
- "Thou shalt love the lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."(Matt.:22:37-40).
- "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I haved loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. (John 13:34-35).
- "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you ---" ( Matt.5:43-48 )
- "Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you ---" ( Luke 6:27-38 )
- "love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again: and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil." ( Luke 6:27-38 )
To have peace , LOVE must rule, there is no other way. Religion in and of itself cannot bring about peace. And also, even with all the money, power, influence and the knowledge that mankind has, peace is impossible without LOVE.
"My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and truth." -(1John 3:18)
My final notation has to do with the way we conduct our ritual life within the IRCC. For some of the more traditional, the ritualistic modifications will seem strange, but this is the way that we function. For others our way will seem strict and demanding, and it is. This is by design and we are very uncompromising when it comes to the demands and duties assigned to us by Almighty God. Some will have problems with the fact for instance that we are a practicing "Sabbath Keeping" Church adhering to the divine instructions of keeping the seventh day Sabbath or that we do not accept Futurism and a secret Rapture as divine truth, but adhere strictly by scripture in this matter.
So there you have a basic outline. Again welcome aboard. May Almighty God bless you; he who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit.
YOU HAVE JUST HAD YOUR FIRST IRCC TRAINING LESSON!
Archbishop Benjamin Driggers, OBB