{"id":1122,"date":"2009-02-16T18:45:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-16T18:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1122"},"modified":"2009-02-16T18:45:00","modified_gmt":"2009-02-16T18:45:00","slug":"a-cathedral-re-discovers-mystical-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1122","title":{"rendered":"A Cathedral Re-discovers Mystical Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"

My laugh-out-loud moment Sunday came when reading an article in the Denver Post titled “Finding Faith in the Wilderness<\/a>.” (The full name of the Episcopal cathedral in Denver is St. John’s in the Wilderness.)<\/p>\n

Below, dozens of candles flicker near icons in the dark nave. Incense hangs in the air. Congregants can choose to sit in a pew or on thick cushions at the foot of a simple altar. A stringed Moroccan oud gives even traditional songs of praise an exotic twist, but there is also world music, chant and jazz. <\/span><\/p>\n

“We’re using the cathedral in new ways, making it more inviting and even sensual,” said the Rev. Peter Eaton. “It’s meant to celebrate and bring alive all the human senses. We think that, in metro Denver, there is nothing else like us.<\/span>“<\/p>\n

In other words, a “a more mystical and meditative feeling than what big-box churches or traditional Protestant services provide.” In other words, liturgy, sacred theatre — what they used to be good at before the Episcopalians developed a bad case of Vatican II<\/a>-envy back in the 1960s and started trying to be “relevant.”<\/span><\/p>\n

I have quoted anthropologist Harvey Whitehouse’s distinction between “episodic” and “doctrinal” religion before<\/a>. Sacred theatre is episodic. Having processions with torches and banners is episodic. (Clifton’s Third Law of Religion: All real religions have torchlight processions.)<\/p>\n

<\/span>The point of this post is not to make fun of Episcopalians, however. I merely want to emphasize the point that vivid experiences count for more than doctrine or theologizing. We Pagans should not forget that fact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My laugh-out-loud moment Sunday came when reading an article in the Denver Post titled “Finding Faith in the Wilderness.” (The full name of the Episcopal cathedral in Denver is St. John’s in the Wilderness.) Below, dozens of candles flicker near icons in the dark nave. Incense hangs in the air. Congregants can choose to sit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[10,24,5],"class_list":["post-1122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-american-religion","tag-christianity","tag-paganism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-i6","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6070,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6070","url_meta":{"origin":1122,"position":0},"title":"The Day of the Dead Post that was not Written","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 2, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This would have been the perfect writing prompt for a Day of the Dead post: a big family memorial service for my uncle Jim, my mother's younger brother, once well-known in the Denver legal scene. But I am not writing that post, full of ancestral stuff. He died in September,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1166,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1166","url_meta":{"origin":1122,"position":1},"title":"CESNUR, Day 3","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, I did take the tour of the Cathedral of the Madeline. After a day of listening to talks on Mormon violence--and violence against Mormons--the cathedral felt like Goddess religion. (The Lady Chapel, after all.)","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12672,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12672","url_meta":{"origin":1122,"position":2},"title":"Pagan Studies: 2022 American Academy of Religion Call for Papers","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 25, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Call for Proposals for the Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado, November 19\u201322, 2022 is now available, and the PAPERS System\u00a0is open for submission. This is the Contemporary Pagan Studies Unit's particular call, to save you searching. More info from the AAR secret headquarters in north Georgia: The Annual Meeting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/denver-conv.-bureau.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/denver-conv.-bureau.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/denver-conv.-bureau.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/denver-conv.-bureau.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/denver-conv.-bureau.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/denver-conv.-bureau.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6201,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6201","url_meta":{"origin":1122,"position":3},"title":"Isis Gets Some Ink*","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A fairly straight-forward article on one of the Denver area's longer-lived occult bookstores, Isis Books, appeared in Sunday's Denver Post. \"Makeshift Egyptian temple\" is not quite right, though. The building used to be a mortuary with columns out front (where the limos used to pull up) that lent themselves to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"books\"","block_context":{"text":"books","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.isisbooks.com\/images\/sign_frontLg.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":885,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=885","url_meta":{"origin":1122,"position":4},"title":"Book-signing at Isis","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Come Saturday, I will venture into the bustling hive of northern Colorado, where all the people drive shiny cars, to give a little talk and sign copies of Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America at Isis Books.Time: 3 p.m.Date: Saturday, June 9Place: Isis Books, 5701\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"publishing\"","block_context":{"text":"publishing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=publishing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=51","url_meta":{"origin":1122,"position":5},"title":"Trudging Along with Baskets of Corn","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 15, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"This Denver Post article on carrying corn to Chaco Canyon helps to illuminate the world of Bone Walker and the Gears' other Anasazi novels. (See entry for 28 September 2003.)NOTE: I do not know how long this link will be good, since the Denver Post does not make its archives\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}