In the words of the musical prophet Bob Dylan, we all "gotta serve somebody". It is not a question of whether we will serve, but who or what we serve. No one can truly live in "anarchy" (ruled by nothing and no one). And even if we think we live an "autarchy" (where we are ruled by self alone), we will find we are really ruled by our own compulsions, as we seek and serve power or profit, pleasure or praise. The only way out is to choose to serve the One who is truly Good because he alone is fully God: Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, the One chosen to lead us into abundant life. Thus, Christarchy is our commitment to serve Christ as the Source, Ruler, and Goal of every dimension of life.
Over the last two decades I have developed a Prayermap as my primary way to implement Christarchy and practice Christ in my everyday life and community. The ultimate purpose of Christarchy is to form Christlike Communities of persons who embody Christ. As C.S. Lewis has said about our common life in Christ's Body: "The Church exists for nothing else but to draw [people] into Christ, to make them little christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose." This final goal of becoming "little christs" can be summed up in the ten points of C.H.R.I.S.T.L.I.K.E.:
CHRISTOCENTRIC: We immerse ourselves in the Story of Jesus so we can interpret Scripture and History with a Christward trajectory.
HEALING: We follow Christ in healing God's children, our communities, and all creation, so we all become healthy, fruitful, and creative.
RECONCILING: We restore right relationships with God, each other, and ourselves through Love, forgiveness, and community building.
INCARNATIONAL: We unite humanity and God in a panentheistic vision of creation by embodying Christ as members of his social body.
SACRAMENTAL: We focus Christ's Light, to magnify his Love, and experience his Life, here and now, in ritual and action.
TRINITARIAN: We model our communities on the God of Love who is unity and diversity in Godself as Father, Son, and Spirit.
LIBERATING: We protest unjust powers and overcome systemic evils that oppress God's children and destroy God's creation.
INSPIRED: We overflow with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in spiritual practice, mystical experience, and gifts for ministry.
KATHOLIC: We pursue Christ's mission to share all of God's grace with all people, in all of creation, until God is all in all in apokatastasis.
EMBRACING: We include all that is good and true and beautiful in Christ from all arts and sciences, cultures and religions.
Each of these concepts is deep and rich, inviting us into the Divine Life of Jesus Christ. Each concept could be— and has been— explored in their own essays and chapters and books written across Christian history. However, to orient ourselves to each of these concepts, we will provide a brief introduction and Scriptural basis to explore the meaning of these concepts below, so we can see how "Christarchy forms Christlike Communities". The perceptive reader will note that five of these concepts are mainly about our worldview and theology: Christocentric, Incarnational, Trinitarian, Katholic, and Embracing. The other five concepts are primarily about how we practice: Healing, Reconciling, Sacramental, Liberating, and Inspired. Together these outline a "faith and practice" which is effective in helping us embody Christ. So let's dive in:
CHRISTOCENTRIC:
We immerse ourselves in the Story of Jesus so we can interpret Scripture and History with a Christward trajectory. To be Christocentric is to recognize that Jesus is the essential center of our spiritual map, and the lens through which we interpret every dimension of reality. By immersing ourselves in his Story, we discover that Christ is the archetypal Pattern of Life, revealing what it means for humanity to be "fully alive" in God. He further serves as the necessary Trajectory of Scripture, providing the "True North" that guides us through the evolving narrative of God's revelation. Finally, we look to Jesus as the Goal of History, the one who draws all creation toward a final reconciliation in God's abundant life. By centering our perspective on him, we find a cosmic stability where "Christ is before all things, and in him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:17). This focus transforms our worldview into a meaningful participation in the unfolding drama of Divine Light. Thus, the concept of Christocentric unfolds in three distinct ways:
1. Christocentric means Christ is the Pattern of Life: To recognize Christ as the Pattern of Life is to accept that Jesus is the ontological blueprint for what it means to be truly human. As St. Irenaeus famously posited, "The glory of God is a human being fully alive." This is not merely a slogan of self-improvement. It is a profound claim that in the person of Jesus, we see the perfect integration of humanity and divinity. Jesus models a life of "Life, Love, and Light," showing us that our primary vocation is theosis: Participation in the very life of God. For those who sincerely seek God, this means that spirituality is not an escape from our humanity but the ultimate fulfillment of it. Jesus provides the archetypal trajectory for our personal character, demonstrating that a life of radical empathy, integrity, and sacrificial love is the only way to truly thrive. When we immerse ourselves in Christ's story, we aren't just reading a biography. We are looking into a mirror that shows us our own divine potential. This transformation involves having Christ's character formed within us, allowing his priorities and values to become our own. By adopting his "Way," we move beyond a religion of rules, into a relationship of shared life, where we are actively being "conformed to the image of God's Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family" (Romans 8:29). This centering serves as the foundation for the entire Christarchic movement.
2. Christocentric means Christ is the Trajectory of Scripture: Treating Christ as the Trajectory of Scripture invites us to move away from "flat" readings of the Bible that view every verse as having equal weight or static, frozen meaning. Instead, we view the biblical narrative as a dynamic spiritual map that is constantly evolving toward its North Star: The person of Jesus. This approach mirrors the experience of the travelers on the road to Emmaus, where the risen Christ "interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures" (Luke 24:27) to show how the Law and the Prophets were always leading toward his "saving embrace." As modern scholars like N.T. Wright have insisted, Scripture functions as a grand drama in which the earlier acts prepare the way for the climax of God's Word made flesh in Christ. We interpret the complexities of the Old Testament— including its shadows and struggles— through the clarifying lens of Christ’s Light and his Greatest Commandments of Love. This "Christward trajectory" allows us to see the development of God’s revelation as a movement toward ever-greater love and inclusion. By focusing on this directionality, we remain deeply rooted in the sacred texts while avoiding the pitfalls of literalism or proof-texting. We find our anchor in the promise that "Christ is the goal of God's law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who is faithful" (Romans 10.4). This interpretive move ensures that our theology remains vibrantly centered on the living Word.
3. Christocentric means Christ is the Goal of History: Finally, we see Christ as the Goal of History, a vision that provides cosmic meaning to our existence. This perspective rejects the notion that history is a series of random, chaotic events or a cyclical trap of suffering. Instead, it embraces a panentheistic eschatology where the entire universe is being drawn toward a final reconciliation in the heart of God, through Christ, by the power of his Spirit. Thinkers such as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin have spoken of this as the "Omega Point" of cosmic evolution: A final destination where all of creation achieves its divine purpose and true identity through Christ. This suggests that the "Rule of Christ," or Christarchy, is the hidden current moving humanity toward a New Creation characterized by justice and the fullness of life. For the curious seeker of God, this eschatology of thriving transforms every action into a sacred contribution. Our efforts to heal the planet, protest injustice, and create beauty are not futile: They are our participation in an unfolding divine drama. We live with the hope that history is not headed for destruction, but for a glorious transformation where systemic evil is finally overcome by Divine Love. The ultimate trajectory of history is to "gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth," as a plan for the fullness of time (Ephesians 1:10). In this vision, Christ is not just the source of our past, but the radiant promise of our ultimate future, beckoning us every Godward.
HEALING:
We follow Christ in healing God's children, our communities, and all creation, so we all become healthy, fruitful, and creative. In the Christarchic vision, healing is far more than a clinical event. It is the holistic restoration of our original design for thriving. This restorative work begins within the individual— body, spirit, and soul— as we are made whole by the Healing Light of Christ. It then ripples outward to heal our social architectures and institutions, transforming them from battlegrounds of competition into gardens of creative fruitfulness. Ultimately, this mission reaches a cosmic horizon where we join in the work of Tikkun Olam, repairing a broken creation until it achieves its ultimate reconciliation. This multi-dimensional restoration is the core of the Gospel, as evidenced when "Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people" (Matthew 4:23). By following the Great Physician, we move beyond mere survival into a state of generative creativity. And so, we can unpack the concept of Healing across three dimensions, from the most personal to the most cosmic:
1. Healing entails that Christ heals God's children so we are made whole in body, spirit, and soul: To follow Christ in the work of healing is to seek a state of "wholeness" that transcends mere medical recovery. In the Christarchic vision, healing restores us to our intended state of thriving. This restorative process addresses the total person— the physical body, the energy of our spirit, and the emotional soul— ensuring that every dimension of our life is saturated with Divine Light. When we are healed, we don't just return to a baseline. We move toward a state of fruitfulness, where the "Fruit of the Spirit" becomes the natural harvest of our lives. This is the goal of theosis— participating in God's own life— where our individual character begins to mirror the character of Christ, manifesting as love, joy, and peace. We recognize that our internal "maps" and "scripts" must be healed from the wounds of trauma and the shadows of our past, to allow our divine potential to emerge. By trusting in the faithfulness of our Creator, we participate in a lifelong journey of sanctification, praying that "the God of peace himself make you wholly holy; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept entirely whole and completely blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this" (1Thessalonians 5:23-24). This individual wholeness is the primary seed from which a wider, communal thriving eventually grows.
2. Healing entails that Christ heals our communities so we may thrive as creative children: Christarchy recognizes that individual excellence cannot truly flourish in isolation. Thriving requires a healthy social architecture: A "creative culture" that provides the necessary conditions for full flourishing. Healing must extend beyond the individual to our families, schools, neighborhoods, and institutions, transforming them from battlegrounds of systemic competition into gardens for our divine potential to flourish. When our communities are healed, we move beyond the "survival mode" caused by social fragmentation and into a collective state of creativity. This communal fruitfulness is expressed when we nurture healthy children, build functional families, establish just institutions, and grow a radiant culture that celebrates the good, true, and beautiful. We fulfill our original mandate to be "stewards" of life when our social interactions reflect the "unity in diversity" found in the Trinity. By repairing our relationships and dismantling the barriers of "othering," we create a fertile ground where every person can contribute their unique gifts to the social body of Christ. We ground this communal mission in the foundational blessing of creation, where "God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and manage it'" (Genesis 1:27-28). In this vision, our entire culture becomes an act of creative worship.
3. Healing entails that Christ heals all creation so we may fulfill our Divine potential: The ultimate horizon of Christ’s healing work is cosmic in scope, encompassing the entirety of the natural world. In the Jewish tradition of Tikkun Olam, or "repairing the world," we are called to be active partners with God in the restoration of a broken creation. Because we hold a panentheistic view— believing that God’s Life and Light permeate every atom— we understand that the healing of the planet is a spiritual necessity. Systemic evil does not only oppress humans. It also destroys the habitats and ecosystems that God called "good" when God made all things (Genesis 1). To follow Christ is to advocate for the thriving of all creatures and the restoration of the earth’s balance. This fruitfulness involves helping all creation live into its divine potential, moving toward the "Apokatastasis" or the final reconciliation of all things. When we care for the environment and protest ecological destruction, we are participating in a grand drama of universal restoration. We look forward with hope to a future where the hostility of the natural and human worlds is finally resolved into a "Peaceable Kingdom." We find our ultimate ecological and spiritual hope in the prophetic promise that "the wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid... they will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 11:6, 9).
RECONCILING:
We restore right relationships with God, each other, and ourselves through love, forgiveness, and community building. In the Christarchic vision, reconciliation is the holistic restoration of the fractured dimensions of our existence: Our connection to God, our relationships with others, and our internal sense of self. This is the restoration of the Great Commandments of Christ to love God will all we are, and to love our neighbors, as we love ourselves. This begins with the vertical dimension, shifting us from alienation into a panentheistic intimacy that recognizes God's "Saving Embrace" as our primary reality. This foundational love then ripples horizontally, empowering us to build thriving communities through empathy, peacemaking, and the dismantling of systemic walls. Finally, reconciliation reaches into the depths of the psyche, replacing "bad maps" of self-loathing with an appreciation for our identity as God's "treasured possessions." By integrating these three loves, we move beyond religious legalism into a character formed by the Spirit. We are empowered for this mission because "All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:18). Similar to Healing, the concept of Reconciling is applied in three dimensions, but in reverse: From the most cosmic and divine to the most inward and personal.
1. Reconciling shows that Christ restores Love for God to live out thriving spirituality: Reconciliation begins with the vertical dimension: The restoration of our primal union with the Divine Source. In our journey, we often operate with "bad maps" of God, viewing the Creator as a distant judge, a negligent landlord, or a cosmic barrier to our freedom. Christarchy proposes a shift from this alienation to a panentheistic intimacy, where we recognize that we live, move, and have our being within the Life of God. Jesus does not come to change God’s mind about us, but to change our minds about God, revealing a "Saving Embrace" that was never actually withdrawn. By immersing ourselves in the Story of Jesus, we find the courage to let go of the shame and religious legalism that clog the channels of grace. This atonement— our "at-one-ment" with God through Christ— is the foundation of all thriving, as it re-orients our heart toward its True North. When we accept that we are fundamentally "treasured possessions" of the Trinity, and beloved children of a loving God, our spirituality moves from a place of duty to a place of delight. We find our spiritual alienation resolved as we realize that "we love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19), allowing this foundational affection to become the engine for our personal and social transformation.
2. Reconciling shows that Christ restores Love for neighbors to live in thriving relationships: We cannot contain our "vertical" Love from God and for God. We must let it overflow into "horizontal" relationships of Love for God's children. The horizontal dimension of reconciliation involves the difficult, daily work of community building through the social body of Christ. In a world defined by "othering" and systemic division, Christarchy calls us to see every person as an image-bearer of the Divine. This restoration is powered by the "Christlike Virtues" of Empathy and Peacemaking, which allow us to navigate conflict without resorting to the violence of exclusion. Forgiveness is treated here not as a vague sentiment, but as a robust social technology: A way to clear the wreckage of the past so that a beautiful future can emerge. As we participate in Christ’s life, we are tasked with dismantling the walls of hostility that separate different races, classes, and spiritual paths. We move beyond mere tolerance toward a radical inclusion that seeks the "divine potential" in everyone we meet. This is the heart of the "Greatest Commandment," which serves as the interpretive lens for all our ethical actions. We fulfill our mission as "Katholic" people by striving to live out the truth that "you shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12:31), recognizing that our own thriving is bound up with the thriving of the whole human family. Dr. Martin Luther King put this best when he said "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."
3. Reconciling shows that Christ restores Love for self to live with thriving character: Finally, Christarchy addresses the internal reconciliation of the psyche, restoring a healthy and integrated love for oneself. We believe that Love from God leads to love for self, providing a psychological liberation from the "inner critic" or the "bad maps" of self-loathing. To love oneself is not an act of ego, but an act of deep appreciation for God’s handiwork within our own being. We find our stability by resting in the profound theological truth that "I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are your works, that I know very well" (Psalm 139:14). This acceptance of God's "Yes" to our existence is the foundation of thriving. We cannot truly give what we do not have, and if we do not see how much God loves us, it will be very hard to see how much God loves others. Indeed, loving self as God does leads us to strive to be Godlike in our character. As we align our interior life with the Light of Christ, we move toward theosis, where a Godlike character forms the fruit of the Spirit in us: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, sensitivity, self-control, and wisdom. Without this internal reconciliation, our external efforts at peace are often compromised by unhealed wounds, hidden shame, and unresolved trauma. But when our self-love is rooted in God's love, and our self-image is rooted in how God sees us, this becomes the springboard for a life of service and integrity.
INCARNATIONAL:
We unite humanity and God in a panentheistic vision of creation by embodying Christ as members of his social body. The Incarnational dimension of Christarchy moves the mystery of the Word made flesh from a historical event into a present, lived reality. We begin by recognizing Christ as the Archetype of Humanity and Divinity united, providing the blueprint for our own participation in the divine nature, or theosis. This union is made possible because creation itself is panentheistic: A sacramental "thin place" where the Divine Source permeates every atom of existence. Consequently, we do not simply admire Christ from afar. We continue his mission as the Social Body of Christ, embodying his love and justice within the material structures of our daily lives. This vision is grounded in the profound revelation that "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth" (John 1:1, 14). The concept of Incarnational ripples out into all creation in three concentric circles, from the historic person of Jesus Christ, out to every person and place in the cosmos.
1. Incarnational reveals that Christ is the Archetype of Humanity and Divinity United: To speak of the Incarnation is to recognize that Jesus Christ is the ultimate archetype where the infinite and the finite meet in perfect harmony. In the person of Jesus, we do not see a divine being masquerading as a human, nor a human being who merely "did his best" as he manifested "divine consciousness". Rather, we witness the full realization of what it means to be a person. As St. Athanasius famously insisted: "God became human so that humans might become divine". This union reveals that humanity and divinity are not mutually exclusive categories but are intended for one another in the process of theosis. Jesus serves as the blueprint for our own thriving, showing us that our physical bodies, our emotions, and our social lives are capable of carrying the very life of God. When we look at Christ, we see the "Pattern of Life" that we are called to emulate and imitate, suggesting that our deepest self is found not in isolation, but in our participation in the divine nature. This archetypal union gives us a new map for our identity, confirming that our material existence is the chosen vessel for God’s glory. We ground our understanding of personhood in the reality that "in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily" (Colossians 2:9), which provides the foundation for our dignity and our destiny.
2. Incarnational reveals that the Incarnation is possible because Creation is Panentheistic: The mystery of the Incarnation is not an isolated miracle that breaks the laws of nature, but the supreme expression of a reality that is already true: All of creation is panentheistic. This means that while God is more than the universe, the entire universe exists within the life of God, and God’s Life, Love, and Light permeate every atom of existence. This is quite different from other visions of God, in which God is merely "pantheistic" as the impersonal force or energy that permeates creation, but is completely blind and unresponsive to human need. It is also quite different from "deism", in which God so transcends creation that God is completely separate from it and uninvolved in it. If God were entirely separate from matter, the Word becoming flesh would be an impossibility. However, because the Divine is already the "Source" of all things, the material world is inherently "Sacramental": Every created thing shares in God's being and so is capable of manifesting the divine. This vision allows us to see the world as a "thin place" where the boundary between heaven and earth is porous. It aligns our faith with a deeply interconnected and energetic cosmos, where the "Logos" is the underlying logic of all that is. When we embrace this panentheistic map, we no longer see a divide between the sacred and the secular. Instead, we recognize that every dimension of our life— our work, our relationships, and our environment— is a site for God’s redemptive action. We find the theological justification for this world-affirming view in the truth that "in God we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28), a reality that Christ made visible and concrete for us.
3. Incarnational reveals that we continue the Incarnation as the Social Body of Christ: The Incarnation did not end with the Ascension, when Jesus went into the heavens to be with the Father. The incarnation continues today through the "social body" of Christ, the community of those who follow the Christarchic way. To be "Incarnational" is to accept our vocation of embodying Christ’s character in our collective life, making his love and justice visible in the here and now. Teresa of Avila reminds us: "Christ has no body but yours; No hands, no feet on earth but yours; Yours are the eyes with which he looks in compassion on this world; Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good; Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world." Thus, we are called to be the hands that heal, the voices that protest injustice, and the hearts that reconcile. This is not a metaphor for a religious club, but a description of an organic, spiritual reality where our diversity of gifts— our "creativity" and "service"— works together for the thriving of the whole. As we participate in the life of God, we become a "Katholic" presence, sharing Christ’s life with all people in all places at all times. We recognize that we are not just followers of a teacher from the past, but the active presence of that Teacher in the world today. This high calling is summarized in the apostolic reminder that "now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it" (1 Corinthians 12:27). By living as this body, we fulfill the divine potential of our communities and draw the world into the saving embrace of God.
SACRAMENTAL:
We focus Christ's Light, to magnify his Love, and experience his Life, here and now, in ritual and action. Sacramental living is the practice of holy perception, where we learn to see the material world as "charged with the grandeur of God." By focusing the universal Light of Christ through sacred acts, we magnify his Love and participate in his Life here and now. This begins with specific rituals that act as lenses for the soul, most notably the two great sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist: Our rites of inclusion and nourishing. Yet, this vision expands into a universal Sacramental Principle, where nature, art, and daily actions become "thin places" revealing the Divine Source. In our demythologized world of consumerism, where everything is turned into a commodity to buy and sell, we are often shadowed by the gloom of disenchantment. But a sacramental life calls us to shine through the gloom and live as children of God's radiance. We navigate this panentheistic reality with the conviction that "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light" (Ephesians 5:8). By training our gaze on these holy signs, we transform mundane routines into sacred encounters with the living God. Thus we can unpack the concept of Sacramental in three overlapping kinds of practices:
1. Sacramental means that Christ uses sacred signs and ritual acts to focus God's universal Light in particular ways: Sacramental theology is the art of holy perception. We live in a world that is, as the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote, "charged with the grandeur of God," yet our human limitations often prevent us from seeing the divine presence that permeates every atom. Sacraments function as magnifying glasses, concentrating the diffuse, universal Light of Christ into a sharp, burning point of Love and Life. Just as a magnifying glass can take the universal light of the sun and focus it into a white-hot beam, so also sacraments are spiritual lenses which focus the Son-Light into concrete experiences of union and healing. When we engage in ritual, we are not "summoning" a distant God. We are acknowledging a God who is already here. This is the essence of our panentheistic vision: That the material world is not an obstacle to the divine but the very medium through which the Divine is revealed. By setting aside specific physical elements— water, bread, wine, oil— we train our souls to recognize that every dimension of creation is a potential "thin place" where the Kingdom breaks through. This intentional focus allows us to magnify Christ’s presence in our daily lives, transforming mundane routines into sacred encounters that shape our character. As we fix our gaze on these holy signs, we find the clarity needed to navigate a chaotic world, trusting that "the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (John 1:5), providing a lamp for our feet as we walk the path of Christarchy.
2. Sacramental means that Two Great Sacraments— Baptism and Eucharist— are the normative means of grace for Christ's followers: At the center of our communal life stand the "Two Great Sacraments" of the Gospel: Baptism and the Eucharist. These are the foundational rites of passage and participation that knit us into the social body of Christ. Baptism is our sacrament of inclusion: The ritual death and rebirth that strips away our fragmented worldly identities and grafts us into the life of the Trinity. It is the definitive "Yes" of God to our existence, marking us as Christ’s own forever, and commissioning us for a life of service and justice. The Eucharist, or Holy Communion, is our sacrament of nourishing: The weekly feast where we participate in the Life of God by consuming Christ’s presence in and through the elements of bread and wine. In the breaking of the bread, we encounter the risen Lord in a way that transcends intellectual understanding, receiving the spiritual nourishment necessary to sustain our movement toward reconciliation and liberation. We do not just remember a past event: We re-member the life of Christ as we bring together the scattered members of his body in one place to share his life together. Eucharist opens a spiritual portal into our current reality where the past and future meet at the table of grace. Through these rites, we affirm that our physical participation is a spiritual necessity, recognizing that "the cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?" (1 Corinthians 10:16).
3. Sacramental means that Christ works through a diversity of other sacramental acts in which God meets us where we are: While we cherish the historic rites of the Church, our sacramental vision extends far beyond the sanctuary. Christ works through a vast "Sacramental Principle," meeting us in every dimension of the human experience. Whether it is through the other traditional rites— Confirmation, Ordination, Marriage, Reconciliation, and Unction— or through the "sacrament of the present moment" found in nature, art, and science, God uses the material world to convey grace. This is the ultimate incarnational logic: If the Word became flesh, then all flesh and all matter are now capable of bearing the Word. Indeed, Jesus tells us that when we care for the least and the last and the lost, we are caring for Jesus himself (Matthew 25.31-46). We find Christ in the hands of the healer, the feeding of the hungry, the protest of the advocate, the reminder that we are forgiven, and the quiet beauty of a shared meal at sunset. These acts of service and creativity and appreciation are themselves sacramental when they are aligned with the trajectory of Christ’s Love. By recognizing the divine potential in all things, we overcome the dualism that separates the "spiritual" from the "secular." We embrace a life where every honest action can be consecrated to God’s glory, trusting that "everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer" (1 Timothy 4:4-5). This universal sacramentalism ensures that Christarchy remains a grounded, world-affirming movement.
TRINITARIAN:
We model our communities on the God of Love who is unity and diversity in Godself as Father, Son, and Spirit. The Trinitarian vision provides the metaphysical blueprint for Christarchy, revealing that the Source of all is not a solitary force but an eternal communion of Love. This framework serves as the Divine Compass for orienting our spiritual and social maps. First, we encounter God as an infinite relational dance— perichoresis— proving that Love is the essence of the Divine Life. Second, we see how the Trinity maps God’s presence as simultaneously transcendent, personal, and immanent, grounding our panentheistic worldview in God's inner life. Finally, the Trinity offers the social architecture for our communities, modeling a "unity in diversity" where every unique person thrives within the social body. We ground our life together in this mystery, praying that "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you" (2 Corinthians 13:13). Just as Trinitarian means there are three Relations within the God who is One, so also there are at least three main dimensions to how the Triune God shapes our worldview and communal practice:
1. The Trinity reveals God is Love: To say that "God is Love" is a profound metaphysical claim that finds its ultimate grounding in the doctrine of the Trinity. If God were a solitary, isolated monad, God could not be "Love" in God's very essence before the creation of the world. Love would be an attribute God acquired only after creating something to love. However, the Trinitarian vision reveals that God is eternally Love because God is an eternal "communion of persons": A dynamic, relational dance of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This concept, often called perichoresis or mutual indwelling, suggests that the Divine Life is a constant, self-giving flow of affection, care, and life-sharing. For the seeker of God, this means that the universe is not the product of a lonely or ego-driven deity, but the overflow of a pre-existing, infinite joy. We are invited to see the Trinity as the Source of the "Life, Love, and Light" that we seek to manifest in Christarchy. This relational nature of God provides the "True North" for our own spiritual maps, reminding us that we are created by Love, for Love, to Love. By participating in this divine life, we move beyond abstract concepts of God, and into a living relationship with the One who is the Parental Source of Love, the Beloved Son, and the Spirit of Love shared between them. We rest in the theological certainty that "Love is from God, for everyone who loves is born of God and knows God... because God is Love." (1 John 4:7-8).
2. The Trinity reveals God as transcendent, immanent, and personal: The Trinity offers us a comprehensive map of the Divine presence that is simultaneously transcendent, immanent, and personal. We speak of the Father as the transcendent Source: The "beyond" of all things who is the ground of all being. We speak of the Son as the personal Word or Logos: The "with" of God who enters our history and becomes the "Archetype of Humanity." And we speak of the Holy Spirit as the immanent Breath: The "within" of God who animates the cosmos and inspires our mystical experiences. This Trinitarian framework supports our panentheistic vision, allowing us to recognize God as the Creator who is both higher than our thoughts (transcendent), closer than our own breath (immanent), and who walks with us through the Valley of the Shadow of Death (personal). For those navigating the complexities of modern science and philosophy, this model avoids the pitfalls of a distant Deism or a simplistic Pantheism. It presents a God who is big enough to hold the vastness of the universe, yet intimate enough to meet us in the "sacrament of the present moment." This triad of presence ensures that our spirituality is well-rounded, engaging our intellect through the Father, our ethics through the Son, and our hearts through the Spirit. We find the anchor for this three-fold reality in the promise of "one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all" (Ephesians 4:6), a truth that integrates the cosmic and the personal.
3. The Trinity reveals true Community as unity in diversity: Finally, the Trinity serves as the ultimate social architecture for our communities, providing a model of perfect unity in diversity. In the Divine Life, the Father, Son, and Spirit are distinct persons with unique roles, yet they are entirely one in essence and purpose. This "communion of persons" rejects both the oppressive uniformity of collectivism, and the fragmented isolation of individualism. For the work of building Christlike communities, the Trinity teaches us that difference is not a threat to unity but a requirement for love. It provides the theological basis for our mission to be both "Katholic" and "Embracing", as we seek to build a "social body" where every person’s unique divine potential is celebrated within a shared life of service. This model encourages the virtues of empathy and inclusion, peacemaking and openness, as we learn to navigate the "unity and diversity" of our own relationships, and so reflect the harmony of the God who made us. We are not called to become clones of one another, but to be "knit together" in a way that magnifies the Light of Christ through our diverse gifts. Our communal goal is to manifest the same intimacy and mutual respect found in the Trinity, striving to fulfill Christ’s high priestly prayer "that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me" (John 17:21).
LIBERATING:
We protest unjust powers and overcome systemic evils that oppress God's children and destroy God's creation. Within Christarchy, liberation is the active expression of Christ’s reign over a broken world. This dimension of our life together requires us to protest and battle the "powers and principalities": The systemic architectures of greed and exclusion that hinder God's children from becoming "fully alive." We combine this resistance with a commitment to radical mercy, providing a "saving embrace" to the marginalized and advocating for the restoration of a groaning creation. Our perseverance is rooted in the conviction that Christ is the Champion who has already triumphed over the forces of darkness through his Victory over the Cross in Resurrection. We are commissioned for this work by the same Spirit that defined Jesus' own ministry: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free" (Luke 4:18). The concept of Liberating unfolds into three kinds of actions by which we become agents of Christ's transformative peace in the world.
1. Liberating entails that we must protest and battle evil powers and principalities: In the framework of Christarchy, we recognize that evil is not merely an individual moral failing, but a systemic and structural reality. The biblical narrative describes these as "powers and principalities": The spiritual and social forces that inhabit institutions, governments, and economic systems when they turn away from the Light of Christ. To be a liberating community is to engage in a "protest" against any system that treats human beings as commodities or destroys the sanctity of God’s creation. This is not a battle of "flesh and blood," but a spiritual and ethical struggle to reclaim the "rule of life" from the ideologies of greedy consumerism, ethnic supremacy, and environmental exploitation. When we organize our lives around Christ, we inherently challenge the false architectures of this world. We must remain vigilant and courageous, putting on the "whole armor of God" to stand against the atmospheric darkness of our age. This requires a commitment to truth-telling, and a refusal to be complicit in the "bad maps" of power that lead to death. We find our mandate for this resistance in the apostolic warning that "our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12).
2. Liberating entails that we must have mercy on those oppressed and enslaved by evil: While we protest the systems, we must simultaneously extend radical mercy and service to those who are caught in their wake. A liberating community is a sanctuary for the weary, providing a "saving embrace" to those who have been marginalized by systemic injustice. In our Theology for Thriving, we understand that oppression is a form of spiritual and physical dehydration: We are deprived of the Living Water of God's Spirit and this prevents God's children from becoming "fully alive." Therefore, our ethics must be active rather than passive. We seek to dismantle the chains of poverty, addiction, and social exclusion by practicing the Christlike virtues of empathy and compassion, service and creativity. And not only that, we must remember that Jesus prayed for his oppressors too: "Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23.34). We can not all be fully liberated until we liberate the oppressors from being oppressors through forgiveness and accountability, until we are all healed and reconciled. We also extend this mercy to the non-human creation, advocating for the healing of a planet that "groans" under the weight of human greed. To "do justice" is to participate in the restoration of all things to their divine potential, ensuring that every person and every creature can experience the flourishing God intends for them. This work of liberation is not a "political distraction" from our spirituality, but is the full expression of Christlike spirituality manifesting through his social body. We are guided by the prophetic call to action, remembering that "He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8).
3. Liberating entails that we must remember Christ is the Champion who leads us to victory: The ultimate hope of Christarchy is found in "Christus Victor": The conviction that Christ is the Champion who has already struck the decisive blow against the forces of death and evil. On the hard wood of the Cross, Jesus did not just offer a moral example. He engaged in a cosmic "battle" that unmasked the bankruptcy of violent and oppressive systems. By rising from the dead, he demonstrated that God's Light is stronger than the darkness and that the Love of God is the ultimate ruler of history. The Resurrection is our foretaste and assurance that we are on the right side of history as long as we follow Christ, and that no matter how much we sacrifice, Christ assures us it will never be in vain. His victory gives us the power and perseverance to continue the struggle, knowing that the trajectory of the universe does not lead to destruction, but instead "the moral arc of history bends toward justice" (as Martin Luther King Jr. reminds us). Thus, we do not fight as those who are defeated, but as those who are participating in a triumph that is already unfolding. Christ leads us out of the "dark night" of systemic despair and into the vibrant "New Creation" where justice and peace kiss each other. We find our confidence in the reality that Christ has already "disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it" (Colossians 2:15). As we follow our Champion, we become agents of that same victory, working until every dimension of life is reconciled to the God of Love.
INSPIRED:
We overflow with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in spiritual practice, mystical experience, and gifts for ministry. To be inspired is to experience the ontological reality of being filled with God's Ruach: God's breath and energy and personal power and Holy Spirit. This Spirit is the very breath of God that sustains the New Creation, and who is nearer to us than our own heartbeat. In Christarchy, the Holy Spirit acts as the dynamic bridge facilitating theosis, drawing us into the life of the Trinity so we may become by grace what Christ is by nature. This inspiration overflows into mystical experience, where spiritual practices and liturgy become conduits to perceive the "Universal Light" within our disenchanted world. Furthermore, the Spirit empowers the social body of Christ with charismata, or spiritual gifts, providing the essential energy to manifest healing and liberation for the common good. This is an "enthusiastic" life— en-theos, or God-within— where we are re-created as vessels of Divine Life. We trust in this transformative presence, knowing that "God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us" (Romans 5:5). The concept of Inspired overflows into three main kinds of activities in which the Holy Spirit works in our lives:
1. Inspired means that God's Spirit forms Christ's presence within us in theosis: To be "Inspired" is more than a creative spark. It is the ontological reality of being filled with the very breath of God: The Ruach that animated the first creation and now sustains the New Creation. In the Christarchic vision, the Holy Spirit is the bridge that makes theosis, or participation in the divine nature, a living reality. This transformation occurs not through human striving, but through the indwelling of the Spirit which draws us into the eternal life of the Trinity by uniting us to the humanity and divinity of Christ. As St. Athanasius famously wrote, "God became human so that man might become divine," and this process of becoming "fully alive" is the Spirit's primary work within us. This is an "enthusiastic" life in the truest sense— en-theos, or God-within— where the Spirit does not merely point us toward Jesus as a distant figure, but makes him a breathing reality within our own character. This presence allows us to participate in the "Life, Love, and Light" of God in our daily existence, shifting our identity from isolated individuals into members of Christ's social body. We are not just followers of a moral code, but vessels of a Presence that re-creates us from the inside out, recognizing that "it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me" (Galatians 2:20). This "new creation" in us is facilitated entirely by the Spirit’s inspiring work. Historically, this process has been called "theosis" or "deification", which refers to sharing in the life of God (Greek "theos"). Through Christ in us we become by grace what Christ is by nature. And what Christ is by nature is fully Divine and fully human, united in one person.
2. Inspired means that God's Spirit fills us with mystical experience in spiritual practices: The Holy Spirit is the source of our mystical encounter, meeting us in the quiet depths of our spiritual practices and the vibrant rhythms of the liturgy. In a world of consumption often flattened by "disenchantment" and secularism, the Spirit restores our capacity to perceive the "Universal Light" of Christ breaking through the material world. Whether through contemplative meditation, the chanting of the Psalter, or the "sacrament of the present moment", these practices are not mere psychological exercises but conduits for a genuine encounter with the living God. As Evelyn Underhill noted, mysticism is the "art of union with Reality," and it is the Spirit who opens our eyes to see that Reality in every dimension of life. This mystical dimension ensures that our faith is not just a set of intellectual commitments but a vibrant, lived experience of the Holy that "overflows" from within our hearts. This experiential faith provides a "Map" for navigating the "dark nights" of systemic struggle and personal anxiety, offering a peace that transcends understanding even in the midst of the chaos of life. We find that the Spirit acts as our internal guide to Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, trusting the promise that "when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth" (John 16:13), making the presence of God an undeniable reality in our everyday lives.
3. Inspired means that God's Spirit empowers us with spiritual gifts for ministry: Beyond personal interiority, the Holy Spirit empowers the "social body" of Christ with a diversity of spiritual gifts, or charismata, designed for the thriving of the whole community. These gifts— ranging from wisdom and healing to administration and creative prophecy— are the "energy" of Christarchy in action. They are not for individual prestige, but are the means by which the Spirit manifests Christ's "Liberating" and "Healing" work through human hands. For the active participant in Christ, our natural talents and our supernatural empowerments are woven together to serve the common good and overcome systemic evil. We are "body builders" who build up the Body of Christ every time we use God's gifts to help and heal others. This empowerment turns our communities into "thin places" where the "Divine Life" flows freely, allowing us to share all that Christ is with all people in all places. When we operate in these gifts, we are participating in the "Katholic" mission to fulfill all the divine potential of all creation. This collective empowerment is the engine of our mission to create Christlike communities, reminding us that we are called to be conduits of grace in a broken world. We find the theological foundation for this shared ministry in the reminder that "to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good" (1 Corinthians 12:7), ensuring that no one is left out of God's redemptive project.
KATHOLIC:
We pursue Christ's mission to share all of God's grace with all people, in all of creation, until God is all in all in apokatastasis. To be "Katholic" in the Christarchic sense is to embrace a vision of the "whole"— Greek katholikos— recognizing that God’s sovereignty aims for a total, panentheistic saturation of reality. By spelling this word in the original Greek style (with a K) rather than in the Latin style (with a C) we are reminded that Katholic is not just a "brand name" for one of many Christian traditions. Rather it refers to the universal mission of God's people across all times and places and cultures. This mission rejects narrow sectarianism, asserting that grace is a more universal and potent force than the systemic sin it overcomes. It is a theology of radical optimism, where the healing power of the Incarnation reaches every human nature and every atom of the cosmos. Ultimately, this leads us to the horizon of apokatastasis, the ancient hope for the restoration of all things, where no part of creation is lost to the abyss. We are driven by the conviction that "in Christ all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross" (Colossians 1:19-20). The concept of Katholic reminds us to expand our vision of God's grace and mission in three dramatic ways:
1. Katholikos means God desires to be all in all: The word "Katholic," derived from the Greek katholikos, literally means "throughout the whole." It signifies a vision of God’s sovereignty that is truly universal, leaving no corner of the cosmos untouched by Divine Light. In Christarchy, we move beyond narrow tribalism or sectarianism to recognize that God’s ultimate goal is a total, panentheistic saturation of reality. This is not a God who is content with being confined to a small corner of creation, or one group of people, or one day of the week. Rather, the Trinity is the Source from which all things flow and the Goal toward which all things return. By embracing this "whole" perspective, we see every person and every aspect of creation as inherently valuable and destined for divine union. This universal scope humbles our religious ego, and reminds us that our mission is not to "bring" God to a Godless world, but to help every child of God wake up to the Presence that has always been upholding them. We live and work in the hope that God is steadily drawing the entire tapestry of existence back into the Divine Life, moving toward the ultimate end where "God may be all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:28), and every dimension of life is filled with the fullness of Christ.
2. Katholikos means infinite grace overcomes finite sin: To have a "Katholic" heart is to believe that God's grace is more universal and more powerful than the systemic evil and individual sin that mar our world. We reject a "flat" theology that gives equal weight to darkness and light. Instead, we follow the trajectory of the "Saving Embrace" of Christ, which suggests that "where sin increased, grace abounded all the more" (Romans 5:20). This is the logic of the Incarnation: That the Word became flesh to heal all that is human and all that is material. Saint Gregory of Nazianzus reminds us "that which has not been assumed [i.e. taken into God's life] has not been healed". But because Christ assumed our whole nature, he has redeemed all of human nature. This theological conviction fuels our work in social justice, liberation, and healing, as we refuse to believe that any person is "unsaveable" or any system "unfixable." We practice the virtue of openness, looking for the good, true, and beautiful in all cultures and sciences, trusting that the Light of Christ is the primary reality. This optimistic soteriology ensures that our movement is defined by hope rather than fear, resting in the apostolic assurance that "just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all" (Romans 5:18).
3. Katholikos leads to the hope of apokatastasis: The final horizon of the Katholic mission is the hope of apokatastasis: The ancient Christian vision of the "restoration of all things." This is the ultimate "Theology for Thriving" where history is not seen as a dualistic split between the "saved" and the "lost," but as an epic journey toward the final reconciliation of the entire universe. Just as the "Goal of History" is the person of Christ, so the goal of creation is the total victory of Love over death and alienation. While we take the reality of human choice and systemic struggle seriously, we hold to the persistent hope that the "Lord of Life" will not let a single soul or a single atom be lost to the abyss of nothingness. Saint Paul reminds us of this when he says that "Just as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ... The last enemy to be destroyed is death... So that God may be all in all" (1Corinthians 15.22-28). This eschatology of thriving empowers us to work for the "fulfillment of the divine potential of all," knowing that our labor is not in vain. We are participants in a grand cosmic drama where the ending is already guaranteed by Christ's Resurrection, because in Christ the final end of all things has reached into the middle of history when God raised Christ from the dead. And so, we look forward in hope to the prophetic promise of the "time of universal restoration that God announced long ago through his holy prophets" (Acts 3:21). For we will find our ultimate purpose in Christ on the Day when all creation is made new and God’s Love is known by everyone, in every place, at all times.
EMBRACING:
We include all that is good and true and beautiful in Christ from all arts and sciences, cultures and religions. To be Embracing is to practice a radical hospitality of the mind, recognizing that because Christ is the Logos, all that is true, good, and beautiful belongs to Him. In the Christarchic vision, there is no competition between sacred and secular knowledge. We embrace all partial truths— whether discovered through rigorous research, or philosophical inquiry, or personal experience— as reflections of God’s total Truth. This openness extends to the sciences and arts, viewing the natural world as a sacrament, and human creativity as a mirror of the Divine Artist. Furthermore, we seek Christlike perspectives within diverse cultures and religions, identifying "seeds of the Word" that lead humanity toward the Divine. By dismantling our cultural biases, we integrate a "unity in diversity" that enriches our path to thriving. We are guided by the apostolic invitation: "Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things" (Philippians 4:8). Just as the concept of Katholic was about reaching out into the world, so now the concept of Embracing reminds us to incorporate the best the world has to offer into our common life in three ways:
1. We embrace all partial truths as part of God's total Truth: In the Christarchic worldview, we operate from the conviction that there is no competition between "sacred" and "secular" knowledge because all that is genuinely true finds its ultimate source in the Divine Mind. This is an epistemological commitment to the "Universal Light" of Christ, who is the Logos: The underlying logic and reason of the entire cosmos. If we discover a truth about the nature of reality, whether through rigorous philosophical inquiry, historical research, or everyday experience, we recognize it as a reflection of God’s own Truth. This mirrors the ancient Christian concept, first popularized by Justin Martyr and Clement of Alexandria, of God spreading "seeds of the Word" across all culture. These early apologists taught that any person who lives according to reason is, in a sense, a participant in Christ. In this sense, Socrates was an implicit follower of Jesus, just as Saint Paul was an explicit follower, and Gurus, Mystics, Scientists, Thinkers, and Prophets across history may have followed the Way of Jesus without knowing who he is. If this is true— and it is— we do not need to fear new information or diverse viewpoints. Instead, we practice the epistemic virtues of humility and openness, trusting that the Truth has nothing to fear from investigation. By embracing a panentheistic map, we see that the Divine is not a localized object to be defended, but the very atmosphere in which all truth exists. This perspective allows us to integrate various insights into a cohesive vision of thriving, confident that "the true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world" (John 1:9). By pursuing the "whole" truth, we honor the Creator of all, who is in all and through all, and so find our place within the divine intelligence that sustains the universe.
2. We embrace the Christlike insights of sciences and arts: Embracing the insights of sciences and arts is a vital expression of an incarnational and sacramental theology. We believe that the natural world is a "sacrament of the present moment" and that the scientific method is a tool for reading the "book of nature" that God has written. Far from being a threat to faith, the discoveries of biology, physics, and psychology offer us a more profound appreciation for the complexity and beauty of the "Life" that Christ sustains. When science reveals the deep interconnectedness of ecosystems or the wonders of the human brain, it provides us with the "how" of a creation that we already know through the "Who" of the Trinity. Scientific insights can even greatly deepen our awareness of spiritual purpose. For instance, when we learn that all of creation is always in a process of evolving into more complex, conscious, and communicative forms of life, we are reminded that God is with us across the journey of growth and development, guiding the process of our evolution spiritually, creatively, and culturally. Similarly, the arts— music, literature, and visual expression— are ways in which we mirror the creativity of the Great Artist. A beautiful symphony or a poignant poem can be a "thin place" where the Light of Christ breaks through, touching the soul in ways that abstract doctrine cannot. We find the Christlike in any artistic endeavor that promotes empathy, truth-telling, and the flourishing of the human spirit. This world-affirming stance recognizes that "the heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork" (Psalm 19:1). By valuing both the empirical and the imaginative, we cultivate a spirituality that is intellectually robust and aesthetically rich, seeing every breakthrough as a gift from the Spirit.
3. We embrace the Christlike perspectives of cultures and religions: To embrace the Christlike perspectives found in diverse cultures and religions is to fulfill the "Katholic" mission of recognizing God’s grace in every corner of the human family. While we are centered on the person of Jesus as the unique "Archetype of Humanity," we are not closed off from the wisdom found in other spiritual paths or cultural traditions. Instead, we look for "Christlike" echoes: Insights that align with Christ's trajectory of Love, Goodness, and Beauty. As we look for how Christ is already at work in others, we practice spiritual hospitality and the virtue of Peacemaking. This is the essential way Christians have approached the Hebrew Bible: Looking for insights and values and prophecies which are fulfilled and embodied in Jesus, as the continuation and fulfillment of the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of Moses, David, and Isaiah. Just as Saint Paul identified the God the Father as the "Unknown God" in the heart of Athenian philosophy (Acts 17), so also we look for the ways in which the Holy Spirit has been at work in all peoples, at all times, leading them toward the Divine. We find "seeds of God's Word" any time we find Divine Love and Compassion taught as our highest virtues, in any place we see people striving to overcome oppression and establish justice, and from anyone who affirms the "Golden Rule" of doing good to others in the ways we would want them to do good to us. As we search for Christ in the cultures and religions of the world, we recognize that our own understanding of Christ can be deepened and challenged by the perspectives of others, helping us to dismantle our own cultural biases and "bad maps." This doesn't mean a move toward a shallow relativism. Rather, it is a robust commitment to the Truth that is big enough to encompass a "unity in diversity." We seek to participate in the "Saving Embrace" of God that reaches out to all creation, holding onto the promise that "from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the peoples, and in every place incense is offered to my name" (Malachi 1:11). In this way, we build truly inclusive communities.
To walk this path of Christarchy is to finally trade the "bad maps" of a fragmented age for the radiant geography of the Kingdom. We have traced the coordinates of a life that is truly CHRISTLIKE: A journey that begins in the deep interior of the soul and ripples outward until it touches the very edges of the cosmos. This is the "somebody" we have chosen to serve: Not a distant judge or a cold system, but the Living God embodied in Christ who is the Source, Ruler, and Goal of our every breath. By centering our worldview on Christ and grounding our practices in his Spirit, we refuse to settle for a spirituality that is merely private, or an activism that is merely secular. Instead, we embrace the high calling of theosis, allowing our fragmented identities to be healed, reconciled, and inspired into the "social body" of the Risen Lord. We are no longer drifting through the hollow "archies" of power and politics, empire and ego. Instead we are participating in the grand, optimistic restoration of all things: The Tikkun Olam that ends in Apokatastasis. As we move from these words into our lived reality, let us do so as "little christs" who carry the gravity of grace into a world hungry for wholeness. And for this we pray:
May the Lord of Life and Love and Light, the Holy Trinity, known to us in the person of the Incarnate God, Jesus Christ, use all of these writings, readings, and prayers to draw all us into his Divine Light by the power of the Holy Spirit, that we may participate in the Life of God, and share the Love of Christ with everyone we meet, and so become Christlike through our practice Christarchy. Amen.
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