What is Great Spirit Community Church?

What is GSCC?

(By C. Kent Shanholtzer)

What does that stand for?

GSCC stands for Great Spirit Community Church.

What denomination is that?

GSCC is not a subset of any other church. We are a unique religious organization.

What religion are you?

The practices, beliefs, and world view of various GSCC members is not restricted to any one religion.

Are you Christians?

That depends entirely on the definition of "christian" being applied. That label has many, many meanings to many different people. Frankly, from a historical perspective, people calling themselves christians have practiced such a wide range of lifestyles and held such diverse philosophies and beliefs that the careful investigators will ask something more specific.

Uh, yah, but are you basically Christians?

Talk to me about it in person. When you have a lot of time.

So what are you, then? What do you believe and do?

GSCC is a unique religious organization. We are a group of spiritual practitioners or believers, spiritually interested (or curious or doubtful-but-willing-to-be-reasoning-about-it), enlightenment oriented, inter-supportive, friendly, often casual people. Our members come from a variety of philosophies, backgrounds, trainings, and traditions. We do not require a specific set of beliefs be adhered to in order to attend our meetings or activities. We do seek to improve our understanding of worlds physical, mental, ethereal, spiritual, emotional, developmental, etc. The best way to improve your understanding of what we are is to attend some of our meetings and activities and to speak at length with some of our members. Understand, however, that each person (with the exception of the Board of Directors) speaks mainly of their own point of view, itself a unique position. Up front, I can list a few of the significant traditions which ally to inspire us as a group, and which are well-respected by some or many of us:

 Primordial Christianity.                   Neopaganism
 Zen Arts, Taoism, Oriental mysticisms      Discordianism
 Shamanism / American Native Ritualism      Guerilla Ontology
 Celtic Christianity                        Creation Spirituality
 Science                                    Process Theology
 Kabala Mysticism                           Medieval Christian Mysticism
 Norse Mysticism                            Military/Martial Expressionism
 Essentialism / Jungian Mysticism           High Magick
 Bokononism                                 Etc.

Personal practices: Presumably, this is the largely unseen bulk of the work done by people in a religious group of almost any kind. It's about being spiritual/enlightened beings in our daily lives and endeavors. It's highly personal and variable, even secret in some cases. It's why we need to get together -- to share experiences and to train for new ones.

General gatherings: Recent events of geographic dispersal have put general gatherings into hibernation. When numbers in the Champaign, IL locale were higher, our general gatherings included the Sunday potluck, a concept inspired by early christians, who were working from the Judaic tradition of Sabbath. We get together, eat, consider our relative places in the universe, and discuss what we will. Here we also share information about our activities, compare points of view (sometimes widely differentiated), have demonstrations and presentations of belief/opinion/inspiration/instruction, and generally encourage each other. There are other general meetings/gatherings, such as campouts, study sessions and seminars, at which anyone in the group is welcome.

Orders: There are several orders within the church which pursue more specialized realms of thought/practice/belief. Detailed descriptions of each and their activities and philosophies are available.

The Order of Balance concentrates on shamanic systems of reality selection, how they relate and are related to each other, and community service.

The Grey Sentinels work with ZenChristian concepts and practice martial arts and Eastern and christian mysticism.

Llan Dobhran seeks to develop a new liturgy of celebration out of the interpenetration of pagan and christian traditions.

The New Eden Society seeks to engender enlightenment and work in harmony with the earth to improve the future for all.

Past projects have included:

The New Eden Society's organic garden. We joined efforts to grow our favorite crops and share in the proceeds.

Llan Dobhran's wheel of the the year, working together to develop a series of rituals for the feasts at the eight spokes of the year.

Camping trips to Muscoutin State recreation area - weather permitting.

Clan Black Wolf, a household of the SCA, has had several activities including the Jubilee Olde English Faire in June.

"The monastery". We are raising/saving funds to create our own retreat center and semicommunal living zone, which will host many activities spiritual, artistic, agricultural, and practical.

Information:
e-mail: gscc@prairienet.org

URL: http://www.prairienet.org/gscc/gsccqa.htm