An Episcopal priest and theologian who popularized the rave-like “Techno Cosmic Mass” and advocated goddess worship recently led a seminar on mysticism and Earth spirituality to coincide with Earth Day.
Warning that environmental degradation caused by raging against “Gaia” had to cease, the Rev. Matthew Fox made frequent references to “the Goddess” and the divine feminine during his environmentally-themed lecture and workshop, “Earth Spirituality and the Mystical Tradition.” The event was held in April at the Unitarian Universalist Church in the Washington suburb of Rockville, Maryland, and sponsored by the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation.
The “Rev.” Matthew Fox.
Need more be said?
Google him if you wonder why.
Has the Shalem Institute gone off the deep end?
Poor Hildegard. She really gets misused and abused these days. I wonder if she didn’t enjoy the academic obscurity more . . .
[blockquote]“Creation spirituality begins with the concept of original blessing instead of original sin,†Fox explained in a 2005 documentary. “You came into the world as a real expression of divinity and as something beautiful and yearning to connect with others, including the creator.â€[/blockquote] I think it is safe to say that they are off the deep end Ralph. To call him a theologian is a misstatement. Mythologian would be more on point.
Is this fellow aware that N Michigan is once again conducting a search for bishop? I could guarantee him a place on the short list. Shows you where TEC is, that this guy has been a priest in good standing for 16 years, teaching something diametrically contrary to Christianity. And that they made him a priest in the first place because he was teaching it, rather than in spite of, knowing full well that he was under discipline by the CDF and left the Catholic church as a result. Of course, you can be deposed for abandoning the communion of the Church for accepting full communion with the GS. But teaching blatant heresy is OK.
Matthew Fox was ordained as a member of the Dominican Order by the Roman Catholics. He was silenced for heresy by them. He then got his orders received by TEC. We didn’t create him, but TEC gave him a home.
However, I remember reading several years ago that he had resigned his orders within TEC and moved on. Did he then get himself reinstated? There seems to be a lot of that going around these days.
A clerical collar provides cache` that one would not otherwise receive. He hasn’t been all that busy over past years — or at least his activities haven’t been publicized for a while. But it would seem that he is now back, and purveying the same old gnostic junk that he cooked up 30 years ago.
#4 Hey TJ – Is the Genpo Lama still trying to become the Anglican Communion’s first Buddhist bishop?
No comment.
This man and what he represents within ECUSA are just “too easy” as targets.
The article by IRD states:
[blockquote]Following his departure from Roman Catholicism, Fox has served as a priest in the San Francisco-based Episcopal Diocese of California since 1994, working with the group Friends of Creation Spirituality and the now-shuttered University of Creation Spirituality.[/blockquote]
However, while he was, in fact, received by the TEC diocese, I do seem to remember that he subsequently resigned his orders, disconnected from TEC and floated off into some kind of religiously diverse limbo. His own website does not mention TEC or being a TEC priest at all — his biography does not include any reference to TEC. Could IRD have heard of the brief time of his being picked up by the Diocese of California (TEC) but missed his leaving of it?
Is it worth it to anyone to track this down? TEC has enough problems without including Matthew Fox as “clergy in good standing” which I am fairly certain he is not.
Stephano — are you there guy? Feel like looking this up?
Gives a whole new meaning to Fox Trot, doesn’t it? Ranks his “theology” right there with Montezuma’s Revenge and the (pick any South American country) Two-step! Apropos!!!
http://www.ecdplus.org/clergy/?clergyID=41857
Cosmic Nonsense.
Let me be a partly dissenting voice here. I found some of what Fox wrote in his earlier days helpful. Original Blessing had some good insights, and Fox was always trying to make links between askesis and the world around us – including such areas as work, play and the environment. There were bits that were simply goofy – saying that his dog was his spiritual director, for example.
Increasingly he began to cobble together bits from various traditions that were simply incompatible. I recall reading for example his assertion (in the same sentence, I think) that we need to combine the insights of the Jesus Seminar and the mystics. Bizarre. I was repelled by reading some propositions that he asserted rather in the mode of Luther’s theses, including statements about the Pope that were gratuitously offensive.
Fox’s elliptical orbit says to me that we all need community when it comes to faith. The community, the tradition, the church, the communion to which we belong, may at times seem to frustrate us, but without it we are lost. We need it to challenge us and to give us a balance against what may seem at the time brilliant insights but which with time and perspective we will realize were flawed.
Fox’s bio, as provided by Shalem, lists him as an Episcopal priest. During the seminar, Fox noted his conversations with Bishop Andrus about resuming the cosmic mass in the Oakland area, which according to Fox, Andrus was excited about. They believe this post-modern form of worship is attractive to both young people and those of diverse backgrounds.
Fox seems to have had a bit of financial trouble with the University of Creation Spirituality — it initially came about when he brought his ecumenical faculty with him from Holy Names College following his expulsion from the Dominicans. Fox mentioned the need to lay off staff, the school was shuttered in 2007. Since then, he’s been leading his own non-profit, the Friends of Creation Spirituality (which has been around for a while), as well as writing and lecturing.
Fox seems to have a solid following, if a homogeneous one: the lecture had around 200 people, a few less for the workshop. Considering everyone there coughed up $115 for the admission, that’s no small achievement to get a crowd that size. On the downside, the crowd was entirely white, overwhelmingly of retirement age, and disproportionately female (especially at the workshop). I was almost certainly the only young man there. This is interesting, considering that Rockville is a thriving and ethnically diverse town. It gives you an idea who is reading Fox’s work, and who is not.
#6- We will see. Rumor has it that the reason he stayed off the “episcopal search team” this time is so that he won’t be accused of conflict of interest this time.
However, we should be careful about labeling him a “Buddhist bishop”, as some Buddhists find this quite offensive. Apparently, practicing 2 or more mutually exclusive religions doesn’t set well with them. either.
#8- The assertion that he is still a priest is straight off his Wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Fox_(priest)
Even if he left TEC, he still qualifies to be a bishop, so long as he was at some time baptized. I know, I didn’t believe it either, but that is the qualification used in N Michigan’s search, and lo and behold, it is canonical.
Tony Seel confirms that Fox is still in TEC-
http://diocny.blogspot.com/2010/05/its-matthew-fox-show.html
“The next time an Episcopalian complains if you call TEO non-Christian, ask him why his “church†has never officially run Matt Fox.”
I assume he meant “run Matt Fox out of the priesthood”- or some such.
Alas, the Gaia hypothesis is entirely speculative. Why not the Medea Hypothesis? It may be, perhaps, more accurate and a deeper analogy to at least one of Christianity’s traditions.
#14 TJ
Yes, I see what you mean
It is good to be able top count on TEC in all matters spiritual. Such fresh insights! Such illuminations! Such joie de vivre! After all people like Fox need a den somewhere safe.
Strange. TEC has become the across-the-border safe house for every illegal spiritual immigrant there is. What can the congregations be thinking by now? What is it they really want? What do they expect from their church? Larry
[blockquote]illegal spiritual immigrant[/blockquote]
Larry, I think you coined one there.
Is there any footage or actual descriptions of what a Techno Cosmic Mass is? I’m morbidly curious…that might even beat the Trinity Church Wall Street Clown Mass footage.
I’m right, there is:
http://www.visualmeditation.com/TCMdemo.html
Wow…just…wow.
Notice the association with Grace Cathedral – the home of the Labyrinth Project et. al. For further info check out http://fatima.freehosting.net/Articles/Art7.htm.
This is a good introduction to both Fox and the Techno Cosmic Mass from a 2005 documentary:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1625633075153286458#
Don’t miss the part at the end with Fox dancing in his stole — it’s a hoot!
Yeah, Pb, I was struck by the Grace Cathedral connection too. It’s no accident that the neo-pagan Matthew Fox was warmly welcomed into TEC and the priesthood by that infamous universalist and syncretist +Bill Swing. But it’s sad to know that the former Dean of Grace Cathedral, Alan Jones+ (son-in-law of Madeleine L’Engle and author of some fine books), also tolerated such a notorious heretic having any role whatsoever on staff (even if it was only in a part-time or volunteer capacity).
Hmmm. And Bishop Peter James Lee took over as Interim Dean of Grace Cathedral last fall (October 1st), yet he also apparently hasn’t done anything to remove Fox or discipline him. Which certainly seems to diminish +Lee’s right to think of himself as a moderate centrist.
Thanks, Jeff, for posting this revealing piece. I’ve never trusted the trendier-than-thou Shalem Institute, but I’m still surprised they allowed themselves to be publicly associated with such a bizarre nutcase as Matthew Fox.
David Handy+
Much thanks to everyone who tracked this down. There was a point at which he sort of drifted away from church connections — he discussed this in his autobiography. He was calling himself a post-christian or something along those lines. It must be that he never took official steps to be removed from the roles — or found it helpful to continue to be considered clergy of some denomination in order to have the status. Apparently describing oneself as a post-christian or ex-churchman is NOT to be considered “abandonment of Communion.”
I was disgusted when I first heard that he had been picked up by a TEC bishop. I am even more disgusted that he remains a priest in good standing while so many faithful clergy have been dumped by this fine bunch of apostates. Ah well. Nothing new.
#21
When Old White Guys Get Down. Yawn. But my favorite part was definitely the guy petting the snake. Does that mean the TCM crowd is a bunch of…snake-handlers???
I take it that all apostosies/heresies are not created equal? I mean, Spong is still a bishop(!) Ditto, Righter. Then, of course, you have KJS and her amorphic theology. Genpo, on the other hand remains a priest, though deprived of the pointy hat…while Redding in Seattle was deposed…and 1/2 of that Druid/TEC priest couple in Pa was forced to renounce his orders shortly after renouncing his previous renunciation of Druidism (while his wife remains a priest in good standing). Then, of course, TEC posted on its website, the “Stations of the MDGs” to substitute for the Stations of the Cross during Lent.
What a sick sick joke TEO has become.
Matt’s tame. Try the PB as scarecrow. That’s TIA!
Re: #28
TIA? Transient Ischemic Attack?