Our Bond of Faith
As given to the Camps Farthest Out by Glenn Clark in 1956
I. We take as our Source and Center the leadership of Jesus Christ. As the highest expression and most perfect manifestation of our highest conception of the character of God, we give Him our complete allegiance and loyalty as Lord and Savior. We are satisfied to belong to Him and to Him alone. In Him we have our Power, our Peace, our Plenty. In Him we live, move, and have our being.
II. We accept as our law of conduct and the source of our energy the two Great Commandments that He gave us upon which rest all the law and the prophets. The deepest passion of our lives is to learn how to love God with all the strength of our dedicated bodies, all the intelligence of our dedicated minds, all the loyalty of our dedicated hearts, and all the devotion of our dedicated souls. We shall try to practice and, by the contagion of our example, inspire others to practice loving our neighbors as ourselves, regardless of their nationality, race, or creed.
III. Our Constitution of Conduct shall be woven out of The Sermon On The Mount. Through adherence to this Constitution we shall hope to make religion go beyond Science and become an Art, lifting it above Law into Grace, and from a Code into a Contagion.
IV. We recognize that this Way of Life can be learned as a Science and practiced as an Art, but not until it is experienced in the form of Spiritual Rebirth can its full Power be released upon earth. We agree that this Rebirth can not be achieved through creeds, rituals, or laws, but only by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This we do not explain or try to explain. All we pretend to know is that when we are meek in heart, forgiving toward our enemies, with love for our fellowman and with faith in God, and turn and become as a little child, this experience is more likely to be ours.
V. Everything about our union together and our basis for working together shall be as fluid as the sea and as free as the air. Christ and all He represents is central; everything else is marginal. Where and when we find confusion in our concept of Him, we feel assured that when we vision that concept through the lens of The Sermon On The Mount and the Two Great Commandments, and His sacrifice on the Cross, we shall see Him as He really is. In our attempts to get close to Christ some may take the door of mysticism, some the door of sacraments, some the gateway of metaphysics and some the path of social service. The indispensable thing is that no matter what the door we may use, we shall all arrive at the place, where we shall all have the Mind of Christ Jesus.
VI. We shall recognize three circles in our united efforts at spreading the Kingdom of Heaven through the hearts and souls and minds of men. The outer circle which was described in the Gospels as the “multitude” must be fed by parables and simple, practical teachings that those who hear are able to receive. The middle circle is where the teachers and apostles shall be taught through messages that may be more intimate and sacred, knowing that the hearers will not trample that which is holy underfoot. Finally there is the inner circle, the inner family, where we shall share our deepest inmost experiences and highest revelations, and keep much in secret and in silence, to share with God alone.
VII. Finally we come to the specific means by which this Kingdom may be projected into the activities and lives of men. These take the form of projects such as summer camps and winter retreats, establishing healing centers or institutes of prayer, planting of prayer groups and convening groups of business men or Congressmen or ministers for inspiration or training for the larger work. We believe that these projects should be prayerfully visioned, carefully planned and then not committed to a committee to be committed to death, but to some individual in the group who is on fire with zeal and devotion regarding that particular project as a means of bringing the Kingdom into manifestation in that particular way upon this earth.
With this bond of faith to unite us, one in impact but not in compact, with union in Christ and freedom in action, moving as an organism and not as an organization, we hope to unify and strengthen the deeper spiritual forces of the nations and the world that are working to save mankind in this age of crisis.
