My church name is Bishop John Columba (Missing), my Cherokee name is Yona Gadadoli which means "Praying Bear" and I am a native Floridian. Although I grew up Southern Baptist, or rather, because I did, I found my way many years ago to the Orthodox Church, where I eventually began my monastic life and was tonsured a Stavrophore monk. Several years later, I was ordained to the priesthood in the American Catholic Church, Diocese of Central Florida, which was subsequently reorganized as the Holy Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church. I was consecrated a bishop in the American Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church, Holy Synod of the Americas which was to be reorganized because the corporation has been dissolved.
Since my ordination, I have served the oft neglected elements of society: the aged and AIDS patients in nursing homes, alcoholics and addicts, and the imprisoned. Until the decline in my health resulted in my being found disabled, I was attending the local community college, studying to be an RN in order to open a Christian residential hospice in this area, which I still hope to be able to do eventually. I have some definite ideas about what such a facility should be. There will be elements of a home environment and the spiritual qualities of monastic life. Since I know that we are all dying, indeed there is no other way out of this life, hospice is not about dying but about learning to live before you die. I shall incorporate a healthy diet, a little gardening, a modicum of prayer and meditation, and the best of modern and alternative medical care into a healing environment. I believe that, while it is commendable to feed, clothe, or house a multitude of people through the work of a "Christian" agency or religious institution, it is of infinitely more importance from the spiritual perspective to bring about a spark of Christ-like love and compassion between two individuals. There will be more hungry, more naked, more homeless, but that spark of Christ-like love and compassion is an Event in Eternity.
My faith has been shaped by my Baptist upbringing which included the strong historical teaching of my mother and the simple faith and Christian "caritas" of my beloved maternal grandmother, which made me firmly committed to Christ, as well as traditional Eastern Orthodox theology, which taught me to see "salvation" as "theosis." However, Bishop Marinus Peters, who ordained me, broke me out of my earlier narrowness both liturgically and pastorally. Furthermore, I have been shaped by Gnosticism, Holy Bishop Ignaty Brianchaninov, Archbishop Anthony Khrapovitsky, Holy Archbishop John Maximovitch, the Dalai Lama, other Tibetan Buddhist monks, Thich Nhat Hanh, Black Elk, others on the "Red Road," Theosophy, and Creation Spirituality. Two touchstones have guided me through many changes and decisions: "Where is the love of Christ here?" and "What would the Master do?"
On November 4, 2000, I was consecrated as a bishop. Effective December 31, 2000, Metropolitan Archbishop Vladimir Sergius II resigned as primate of our jurisdiction. He appointed me to take his place pending the election of a new primate. Subsequently, the remaining bishop of our jurisdiction decided that I should take Vladyka Vladimir's place as the primate.
Subsequently, Vladyka Vladimir advised me that he was also dissolving the North Carolina corporation under which the jurisdiction has operated. Furthermore, it appears that he is not active in any way. On top of this, it appears that there are no active clergy remaining since the only remaining bishop is old and quite ill and the only priest has sought to be received within another jurisdiction. At the point that I found myself in these circumstances, because of the demands of being full time caregiver for my mother, my only active ministry was conducting religious services at Society for Creative Anachronism events when I got the chance to attend. Besides this I have been spiritual director to several people including a bishop in another Orthodox jurisdiction. As a monk it is my duty and calling to pray. Therefore, I pray for others, especially for healing. I have learned to apply the principles taught by Harry Edwards, a British Spiritualist healer.
Subsequently, I helped a bishop relocate to a nearby city here in Florida in order that we could both become more active in ministry. He and another bishop from a different jurisdiction performed a "sub conditione" consecration, elevated me to archbishop, and installed me as primate of the Autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Christian Church, Inc. Unfortunately, we never actually got active. The other bishop seemed always dissatisfied with his living arrangements although he was about to become the owner of his own mobile home in an "over 55" park. Nevertheless, he moved to another place in North Carolina where he shared a house with two other people which arrangement did not last.
Since I was caring for Mom full-time, I had little opportunity to be active in ministry without someone to help. In 2004 my health deteriorated seriously and Mom had to be placed in a nursing home. Subsequently, I have been battling reoccurring cellulitis, reaching a low point last summer. The severity of the infection and the strength of the antibiotics left me with little stamina and frequent exhaustion. However, I have made steady progress since then. More recently, a change of medication for my arthritis and psoriasis has begun to enable me to do more than I had been able to do for some time.
Several years ago, through my desire to learn Reiki, I found a place near here called All World Acres where, in addition to hosting pagan festivals, they had a sweat lodge set up and frequently held sweat lodge rituals. I had long wanted to participate in a sweat lodge although I'm not that fond of heat. I went to my first of many lodges there. Unknown to me prior to the first lodge, the particular leader there followed the practice that lodges were nude. As an Orthodox monk at the time, I had the instant decision to make, "Was I going to get naked like everyone else or was I going to pass up the first and possibly only opportunity to participate in a Native American ritual that I had wanted to find for so long?" I ditched the clothes and have never regretted it since. I have also participated in lodges where a minimum of loose comfortable clothing was worn. That first lodge was a powerfully spiritual experience in which I felt the energies moving through and around the lodge. I also overcame my self-consciousness about my nudity when I realized that only someone whose night vision was better than a cat could see anything when the lodge door was closed.
In subsequent lodges I have been granted visions which have profoundly changed me. While I had known that Brother Raven was my totem animal even before I really understood what a totem animal was, it was in such a vision that he introduced me to my other totem animal, Sister Bear. Although I have been studying about Native American spirituality for years, I had thought until a few years ago that I was just a white guy who felt drawn to Native American things. Following in Mom's footsteps, I am one of the family historians. A few years ago, while trying to add more information to the family tree, I found that my great-great-grandmother Rachael was half-breed Cherokee. Having a German father and a German husband, she managed to avoid "the Trail of Tears." Therefore the silence that saved her from that fate, continued in the family for generations. As I tried to learn more of my Cherokee heritage, I became active in a Cherokee organization that seeks to preserve our culture and train mixed bloods like myself to live it. Last October I was formally received into the Medicine Lodge.
When I was a Southern Baptist and even after I had been received into the Greek Orthodox Church, I used to argue with my sister about reincarnation, maintaining very strongly that there was no such thing. Nevertheless, my first past life memory came way back then, but I refused to acknowledge what it was. While I was active in the Society for Creative Anachronism, I loved to research ancient liturgies and then do them which my bishop allowed in that venue. Having researched the early Irish Liturgy according to the Lorrha Missal, at one SCA event I was celebrating it on a Sunday morning. At one point in the liturgy which was very different than any other Christian liturgy, I was overwhelmed with the memory of having done that liturgy before including seeing my parishioners from about 1000 years earlier. After that event, I apologized to my sister for arguing with her about reincarnation.
With regard to my past life memories in general, I have never gone through anything like hypnotic regression, but rather my memories have come to me either spontaneously, in a dream or in connection with a period of meditation. I have had a number of these flashes of memory when coming out of the meditative state which is part of Harry Edwards' healing meditation practice. Although I am now certain that I have lived many lifetimes, I only have fragments of memories from a few. I was a priest in early Christian Ireland, a married householder in preChristian Ireland or Scotland, an indigenous Anglican priest somewhere in the British Empire in the late 19th Century, a young Native American apprentice (who didn't live to finish his apprenticeship) to the Medicine Man around the time of the coming of Russians to the Pacific Northwest, an Indian Buddhist monk in a Tibetan monastery, and a murder victim in New York City shortly after World War I.
I've been evolving spiritually to the point that I am an Ecclectic Universalist. However, I still follow Jesus as I always shall, but I don't fit any church that I know of. Furthermore, after being my sister's chauffeur to her Wicca 101 class, in June I was one of the fairies for their full moon celebration. On the other hand, I had begun reading on Yahoo group the postings of Bhikku Samahita and even went so far as to formally join his cyber sangha. At that point I added to my daily spiritual practices certain Buddhist practices. This lead to my discovering a special event in my local area. I had a most wondrous weekend attending a Medicine Buddha Retreat. During practice at one point my overly busy mind was quiet for a moment, such a blessed moment. However, more importantly it was clear to me that this needs to be part of my practice for the benefit of others. I am often asked to pray for those who are sick. With regard to my own health issues which include arthritis, I can say that after hours of sitting, I was able to rise although stiffly, yet without pain. However, there were elements of the weekend which have to do with my own past life memories.
An incident that Sunday relates to a spontaneous memory that I had around a year ago. That day a friend at a pagan gathering was giving a workshop on dance. While she danced I watched her hand movements, and remembered being told by my teacher in another lifetime to "study the mudras." I saw my own hands in that past time, that they were dark. I also knew that although I understood my teacher's words, he spoke them in a language that was not my mother tongue. This Medicine Buddha Retreat was given by Tibetan Buddhists. That Sunday, I had the occasion to recall that memory fragment because this involved learning to do mudras. Noticing one gentleman at the retreat who is from India, I realized that my skin color in my memory was identical to his. However, that was not the most striking thing that day. I'm sure that you have had the experience of forgetting a name or a fact when you had the distinct feeling that you knew it, but just couldn't recall it at that moment. "The name is on the tip of my tongue." In Sunday's practice we chanted in Tibetan and read in English. During our chanting of Tibetan, I had the powerful feeling that I was supposed to be understanding it, but that the meaning was just beyond my reach, rather like the "name ... on the tip of my tongue." Furthermore, the practice requires me to learn to do certain mudras which are part of this practice and common to other practices.
As far as deities are concerned, I firmly believe that our Mother/Father God, the Creator, is beyond gender and containing all gender. With regard to "lesser deities" and other spiritual beings, first of all, I believe with my Cherokee ancestors that the world around us is filled with spiritual beings including the spirits of trees, plants and animals as well as those who are in charge of such things as wind and rain. However, I like to use an analogy to better explain how I see this. The realm of spirit is an ocean. I am a drop of salt spray, while the "deities" are the waves. The entire created universe (or universes) is all of the oceans of the planet. However, our Mother/Father God, the Creator, is all the water on the planet in all its forms. I am also fond of the term in Buddhist literature and prayers the "mind-stream" as the "I" that I experience.
Recently, the local CUUPS group's coven had their full moon celebration for Beltaine. After their last full moon celebration, they were seeking recruits to be fairies for this celebration. After another group's Beltaine ritual, I borrowed a pair of wings. Since then, I picked up a couple of items and thrift stores as well as craft materials to make my costume. I put it all together as my own unique fairy costume. I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to play with people's minds. ;-) [In a friendly and beneficial manner like Coyote or Mouse.]
This was so much fun, I reprised the role the next month (with a set of wings that I made for myself) since the coven leading the ritual then said they need fairies for it.
In July I shall begin Wicca 101 for myself. I continue my training in the Medicine Lodge. I have begun training for priesthood of Kuan Yin's Eternal Flame which seemed so natural since compassion has been so important in my life and upbringing.
I seek to learn from all who will teach me and am available to teach whoever would learn from me.