Our Story
Spirit songs, weddings and other rites of passage, large and seemingly small...; Santa Cruz Passages is all about portals;
The rites of passage in a human life encompass Births, Deaths & Marriages, as well as ‘little’ births, ‘little deaths’ and ‘little’ marriages {all of us experience them all}; we are wedded and we graduate, from and to any number of 'Loves' in a lifetime.
Fanfare or single candle, it behooves us to remember why we pause;
"No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our life are made, Destiny is made known silently." ~ Agnes De Mille
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RE UNIVERSAL LIFE CHURCH
Practice & Ministry:
Corrina was ordained as a Universal Life Church (ULC) minister in 1991, initially at the request of a young couple who wished to be married (on Mount Tamalpais; 'The Sleeping Maiden'), specifically by her, having come to regard her as a spiritual mentor. ULC, it turned out, was a route by which a legal/appropriate credential could be obtained without any compromise to sovereignty in regard to Path & Practice.
The ULC’s ordinations are issued in the belief that all people are inherently ordained, by virtue of being inspired - spark-of-life - into form and that the ULC is merely recognizing this fact. Upon learning of this 'doctrine', the Path was clear since, two years before, Corrina had had an unprecedented clairaudient experience, in the course of an epic personal journey, the undertaking of which had demanded great personal courage.
One late afternoon she took herself off to the place she loved to go as a young girl; out from urban space, across farmland and down to the pond almost hidden by tall rushes. She sat for a long time at the water's edge. There in the dusk without preliminary came the voice;
"Well done my beloved servant, in whom I am well pleased."*
With pounding heart, she took in what she had just heard spoken and the astonishing realization, which distilled as the utterance reverberated...; Oh my goodness; we are ALL 'servants' to this Divine spark, this miracle of life, this Spirit, All That Is...;
'God' Yes; God if you will, but the 'God' word tends to come with too much baggage...
She sat for a long time as the light faded from the scene and the sweet darkness of the night sky enveloped her. It was truly an Phenomenal moment and a seminal event in her young life.
Having grown up in an extended family network of (Scots/Irish) lay preachers, the territory was not unfamiliar. How and ever, as her Mother was wont to say, by the time she was born the recognized Preachers did not include women, though once a Woman, no less than a Man, her Mother wanted her to know, could and would 'Speak the Word'...
Which brings us back to Molly Ivin's edict that all human institutions ossify after a decade or so, and should therefore be summarily dissolved for Life's Sake!
The founder of ULC, the late Rev. Kirby Hensley, created the ULC in 1959 of the firm opinion that everyone has a right to their internally directed Path, without (necessarily) recourse to organized religion.. He fought for his convictions in the courts, eventually getting ULC established as its own denomination (as 'non-denominational'), and regularly preached his beliefs across the country until his death in 1999.
Hensley echoes A.S. Neill, bold and visionary founder of Summerhill School (founded 1929) in England. Neill's core philosophy, practiced in the school setting and afforded to children from first to senior year, was "Freedom, not Licence"; "Members of the community are free to do as they please, so long as their actions do not cause any harm to others."
The ULC's stated beliefs are as follows:
Objective: Eternal Progression.
Goal: A Fuller Life for Everyone.
Slogan: To Live and Help Live.
Maxim: "We Are One."
"The ULC has no traditional doctrine, believing as an organization merely in doing "that which is right" ~Each individual has the privilege and responsibility to determine what is right for him or her as long as it does not infringe on the rights of others. The Church (in effect) does not stand between the member and his or her belief system." [Wikipedia]
Among notable ULC Ministers are: all The Beetles; John, Ringo, Paul & George, Richard Branson, Barbara Streisand, Mae West, Doris Day..