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Written by Daniel
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Saturday, 16 January 2010 15:59 |
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Ulfilas Christian Goth International:
Our Mission
Mission Statement
Ulfilas Christian Goth International (UCGI), being Anglican-based, seeks to build bridges between contemporary Gothic culture and the body of Christ, promoting the ingathering, acceptance, and encouragement of these peoples by local congregations.
Principal Ministry
As an Anglican-based, ecumenical organization, our ministry is to Goth-identified persons, their related groups, sympathetic alternative and other “fringe” groups, and to their friends and relatives. Our primary purpose is to build bridges that that help bring persons in these communities and their friends into local congregations. We seek their acceptance, encouragement, and nurture in Christian life and fellowship by the church.
We welcome both lay and ordained members of these communities and their friends, within the Anglican Communion and its partner denominations. In addition, we want to seek out, minister to and edify persons in these communities, as well as their friends, who are currently a part of local congregations.
We also seek to affirm and support persons in these communities and their friends, in whatever place they are in society, regardless of their difference from ourselves or the church’s mainstream. We aspire to build unity and promote peace among all persons outside and within the body of Christ.
Who We Are
We are a ministry primarily but not entirely made up of Gothic-identified persons and their friends. Our message is offered to the ecumenical Church and to the world. We believe that allpeoples deserve unconditional acceptance and dignity in the body of Christ and the larger world.
We are Anglican-based but not exclusively Anglican. Our basic beliefs and traditions are Anglican, but our mission is ecumenical and universal. Also, we accept and minister to anyone who comes to us, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, community identification, ethnic group, nationality, community, or Christian religious beliefs. Persons from other Christian religious traditions are welcome into our fellowship as long as they accept the validity of Anglican faith and practice.
We emphatically advocate an end to human discrimination, especially against persons who identify with the Goth Community and other communities named in the Principal Ministry section previously. We welcome into our fold anyone sincerely willing to join with us.
We strive toward the ecumenical building of a Christ-centered world and society, which are safer places where every person can live and love. Above all, we proclaim the good news that the world and all people in it have been liberated and redeemed by Jesus Christ.
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Written by Daniel
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Saturday, 16 January 2010 15:52 |
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Ulfilas: Apostle to the Goths
Ulfilas as Our Patron
Ulfilas was a missionary to the Goths, a people who lived outside the mainstream “empire.” Therefore, we believe he is a fitting early church father to use as the patron and “hero” for our organization and symbol of our own mission. Of course, we know that there is a vast difference between the original Goth peoples and the modern Goth community. Still, one can argue there is more than a grain of similarity as well. There is no disputing the fact that both groups were and are a fertile mission field for the Christian church.
Interestingly, that same church ultimately branded Ulfilas as a heretic. As a result, he will probably never be in danger of getting a “St.” in front of his name. This sad omission continues despite the ground-breaking and laudable work he did for our Lord. This same Jesus Christ said something like “the last shall be first” in His “imperial” court.
After all, those branded heretic are also outcasts, like many Goth and other alternative community members nowadays. So Ulfilas’ heretic status is really something else he has in common with these groups. Like many outcast persons, he lived most of his early life as a slave. His first churches were persecuted. He was continually reviled by his opponents. It seems that, after he died, and the Goths entered the Europe’s mainstream, the church hierarchy tried to expunge his memory. Failing at this, they possibly made up lies to “whitewash” his life. In other words, postmortem he got “punked.”
Currently, Ulfilas remains just an “ordinary saint” like most of the rest of us. In spite of all this, it is likely that somewhere, someday, he will indeed have the last laugh.
Ulfilas: General Biography
Ulfilas, or in Gothic Wulfila (also Orphila), was born around 310 CE and died in 383. A bishop, missionary, and Bible translator, he identified himself as a Goth and lived in the Roman Empire during the peak of the Arian controversy. At that time, the Goths were a “barbarian” Germanic tribe, which had earlier invaded the empire then settled in and around what is now Bulgaria in Eastern Europe. Ulfilas’ parents were of non-Gothic Anatolian origin but had been enslaved by Goths. During his enslavement, Ulfilas converted to Christianity.
There are significant differences between the biographies of Ulfilas presented by orthodox Christian writers and his fellow Arians. Arian sources depict Ulfilas as an Arian from childhood. He was then consecrated as a bishop by Eusebius of Nicomedia around 340 and was sent to evangelize among the Goths across the Danube. He did so for seven years during the 340s. His mission was favored for political reasons by Emperor Constantius II (ruled 337-361) in Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey), then the capital of the empire. Ulfilas preached a Christianity based on Arian theology, which eventually set the Goths apart from their orthodox Christian neighbors.
Arianism was the theological teaching of Arius (ca. 250–336), a Christian priest, who was pronounced a heretic after his death. Constantius II was an ardent Arian. Arius lived and taught in Alexandria, Egypt. The most controversial of his beliefs was that Jesus was not of one substance with the Father and there had been a time before Jesus existed. This teaching conflicted with other christological positions held by Church theologians, and it is still believed to be untrue by mainstream Christianity.
In 348, Ulfilas obtained permission from Constantius II to migrate with his flock of converts to Moesia, to escape religious persecution by a Gothic chief. They settled near Nicopolis and Istrum in what is now northern Bulgaria. There, Ulfilas translated the Bible from Greek into the Gothic language. For this, he devised the Gothic alphabet.
When the Germanic peoples entered the empire and founded successor kingdoms in the western part, most had been Christians for more than a century because of Ulfilas.
The accounts of Ulfilas’ life by orthodox Christians differ in several details, but the general picture is similar. According to them, Ulfilas was also an orthodox Christian for most of his early life. He was only converted to Arianism somewhere around 360, and then only because of political pressure from the pro-Arian ecclesiastical and governmental powers emanating from Constantinople.
Modern scholars depend more heavily on the Arian accounts than the orthodox Christian. For example, the Goth writer Auxentius of Duostorum (Life of Ulfilas), Ulfilas’ foster son and pupil, was clearly the closest to him and so presumably had access to more reliable information. The non-Arian accounts differ too widely among themselves to present a unified case. Debate continues as to the best reconstruction of the details of Ulfilas' life. However, most contemporary church historians agree on the major events.
Sources: Wikipedia entries for “Ulfilas” and “Arianism.”
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Written by Daniel
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Saturday, 16 January 2010 15:51 |
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Our Logo: The Triquetra
The triquetra is a tripartite design comprised of three interlocked vesicae piscis made up of three interlocking semi-circles. It can be found alone, inscribed within a circle, or more often as in our logo, intersected by a circle within the design.
It has been found on rune stones in Northern Europe and on early Germanic coins. It presumably had pagan religious meaning, and it bears a resemblance to the Valknut, a symbol associated with the Norse god Odin. It is interesting to note that the ancient Goths were a Germanic ethnic group. The triquetra later became widely used, in varying but similar forms, by the Medieval Celtic peoples.
Historically, this symbol has been most commonly used in the Christian church as a symbol of the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This appropriation was particularly easy because the triquetra conveniently incorporated three shapes, each of which was interpreted as the Christian Ιχθυς symbol (ichthus, meaning “fish”).
Notably, the Ulfilas of history was not Trinitarian in his beliefs. We use this logo without apologies to him, but in deep appreciation of the rich irony.
In Wiccan and Neo-pagan beliefs, the triquetra symbolizes the triple goddess (maid, mother, and crone) or one of the triple goddesses, for example, The Morrigan. The triquetra can also represent the three basic parts of a human being: mind, body, and soul. The ancient Celts used it to stand for the three domains of earth according to their legends--earth, sea, and sky.
The triquetra also appears in the U.S. television series Charmed, probably as a less threatening alternative to the pentacle (five-pointed star, the preferred emblem of witches, real and imaginary). In the series, the triquetra represents the “power of three, acting as one,” which in turn represents the three sisters.
So, we are reclaiming the symbol as a Christian one and at the same time using it as a bridge point between historic Christianity and modern Wiccan\Neo-pagan beliefs, and possibly even as a way of recalling the ancient Goths.
Source: Wikipedia entry for “triquetra.”
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