Welcome and Many Blessings! I am very honored that you chose to visit my Web site. St.Mary's-by-the-Woods is an independent, semi-eremitical expression of spirituality. I am an ordained minister with the Church of Interfaith Christians.
What is semi-eremiticism? It means being both in the world and not of the world. It means taking time alone to connect with my inner being and seeking the divine within. It also means living an authentic life with real cares and worries, but believing that Universal Divinity is present in all one does.
My work at St.Mary's-by-the-Woods does not seek a congregation nor does it need a building for religious services. That, too, is being semi-eremitical. The whole world, surrounded by the canopy of the sky, is the cathedral in which I worship.
I offer up my prayers to both God and Goddess for in this Divine Unity can be found the only truth which reflects the human condition. To worship a single, patriarchal figure demeans more than half the human race, insults our mothers and sisters and supports a narrow and dissicated image of Divinity.
Over a period of many months, between 2007 and 2009, I came to slowly understand that I no longer understood the Christian message as I had once believed. There was much with the standard theological and historical approach which could not face the test of reason. In addition, certain behaviors among Christian churches and their leaders undermined any rational basis for the belief that such institutions were supernaturally guided by Divinity. As a result, I came to see that I could no longer, in good conscience, continue in public - even through such limited means as writing, blogging or setting up a website - to give my support to the traditional, Christian worldview.
There is much within Christianity that is to be commended. There are many, many beautiful and kind people among Christian congregrations. I feel, however, that Christian churches have over the course of 2,000 years failed in numerous ways to bring their followers to fuller and more spiritually actualized lives. Christianity has failed to follow the teachings of Jesus and has abandoned Divine Revelations for the mundane, the macabre and the mean. Even a cursory examination of Christian church history will evidence the proof of my statement and needs no further explanation.
And so, I have eliminated some links which previously existed on this website and included newer ones. I don't do so to be petty, but simply to reflect a broader manner of thinking about the world which I have incorporated into my life.
Once again, I thank you for visiting. May the Divine Creator bless you
with many graces and be a true light onto your path.
The Rev.Tom Gilbert
