Sacramental Whine

Welcome to Episode 78! In this episode, I have the honor of speaking with Brian Ashmankas.

Brian is a native of central Massachusetts. He is a former politician and former Roman Catholic seminarian for the Diocese of Worcester. He has two master's degrees, one in political science and the other in theology. He was dismissed from sponsorship by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester in December 2019 after sharing with his bishop that he has a well-discerned call to be a married Catholic priest in Worcester. He is currently an aspirant for ordination with the Good Shepherd Companions, an Ecumenical Catholic Ordinariate formed from the joining of the Ecumenical Catholic Diocese of America and the St. Barnabas Mission with roots in the Married Priests Now movement started by Emmanuel Milingo. He is recently the founder and facilitator of the "Community of the Hyphenated." This group meets weekly on Zoom to share and listen to each others' spiritual insights and stories and aims at self-reflection, self-betterment, learning from others' experiences, camaraderie, and ultimately social and ecclesiological transformation – building a new world and church in the shell of the old.

Links:

Convergent Streams: The Premier ISM Magazine.

This podcast is hosted by David Oliver Kling and produced by The Community of Saint George - a Young Rite jurisdiction.

Welcome to Episode 77.

In this episode, I, David Oliver Kling, will be talking about what is a chaplain? I have been working as a full-time hospice chaplain since December of 2013 and prior to my work in hospice, I completed 4 units of Clinical Pastoral Education as a chaplain resident at St. Mary's Medical Center in Huntington, West Virginia.

What is a Chaplain?

• Good advice for anyone interested in chaplaincy would be to suspend your sectarianism.
• Does being a Chaplain mean I'll have to do things I don't want to do?
• Chaplaincy brings up all of our personal issues and creates its own anxieties.
• Do Chaplains reject academic insight and knowledge?
• A Chaplain is someone who reflects theologically and who uses their theological reflection to inform and empower their care for others.
• How does a Chaplain do an assessment?

Links:

Convergent Streams: The Premier ISM Magazine.

This podcast is hosted by David Oliver Kling and is produced by the Community of Saint George (a Young Rite jurisdiction).

Welcome to Episode 76!

In this episode, I have the honor of interviewing Deacon Karen Gordon.

Deacon Karen Gordon is a student for the priesthood in the United American Catholic Church. She is a veteran of the US Navy having served from 1984 until 1989. She has worked for the University of Tennessee at Memphis in the office of the Dean of Students, she has worked in public affairs at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. She has done an impressive amount of volunteer work and she holds an associate of arts from Anne Arundel Community College and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Maryland in Interactive Electronic Publications. She is currently a Master of Divinity student with Nations University. I'm happy to have her on the podcast!

If you would like to be a guest on the podcast please reach out to me. If you are involved in the Independent Sacramental Movement or if you have something to offer the movement, I want to hear from you.

Welcome to episode 75!

In this episode, I welcome back Father Jerry Maynard. Back in episode 73 I had Father Jerry on the podcast, and we were going to talk about something he is passionate about, but I changed the script on him, and we talked about a question presented on the Sacramental Whine Facebook group. I wanted to have Father Jerry back on so we could go over the topic he wanted to discuss with me about. I gladly welcome Father Jerry Maynard back onto the podcast. Incidentally, if you are connected to the Independent Sacramental Movement or have something to say that would be of benefit to those within this movement please contact me about the possibility of you being a guest on the podcast.

We talk a lot about Social Justice!

Books of Interest:

Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.

The Tao of Thomas Aquinas; Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times.

A Theology of Liberation.

Where to find Fr. Jerry:

His YouTube Channel.

His Website.

His Facebook page.

His Twitter page.

Medium page.

Sponsor:

Convergent Streams: The Premier ISM Magazine.

This podcast is hosted by David Oliver Kling and produced by The Community of Saint George - a Young Rite jurisdiction.

Welcome to Episode 74!

In this episode, I have the honor of interviewing Dr. Richard Paszkiewicz.

Dr. J. Richard Paszkiewicz (in ecclesia The Most Venerable Sunyananda Dharmacarya) is a priest, psychotherapist, martial artist, healer, chef, writer, and academic.

In addition to being ordained in the Independent Sacramental Movement, Dr. Paszkiewicz is a fully authorized Buddhist teacher, who has been given teaching authority in the Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese Zen schools. He has studied and taught Buddhism throughout the world, lectured at numerous colleges and universities, and has appeared in and written for various media outlets, in addition to serving as an official delegate to numerous notable Buddhist events, including the first White House Buddhist Leader's Conference, and the United Nation's World Day of Vesak.

Dr. Paszkiewicz is a registered yoga teacher with the Yoga Alliance, and has trained in the Bhakti Yoga tradition in West Bengal, India where he lived as a Brahmacari and personal assistant to a preeminent guru.

Academically, Dr. Paszkiewicz has earned a host of degrees, and completed a clinical residency in pastoral counseling at the University of Kansas Hospital, and has subsequently earned dual board certification both as a Pastoral Counselor and as a Clinical Chaplain.

Currently, in private practice as a counselor, consultant, and coach, Dr. Paszkiewicz has served as a chaplain in a variety of settings, from health care facilities to law enforcement agencies. He is the founding Convener of the Kaw River Valley Chapter of the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy, where he also serves on the national Certification and Ethics committees.

Links:

Convergent Streams: The Premier ISM Magazine.

This podcast is hosted by David Oliver Kling and produced by the Community of Saint George - a Young Rite jurisdiction.

Episode 73!

In this episode, I am joined by the Rev. Jerry Maynard as we address a question proposed by Bryan Bombardier on the Sacramental Whine Facebook group. Bryan posted:

A thought from the cheap seats on the past few podcast episodes:

"I have listened to the podcast for a while now and really appreciate the hard work. The past few episodes have created cognitive dissonance for me though.

A major message that I heard was "the ISM is not doing a good job forming priests." Point taken. The answers presented to this problem lately have a major theme. They seem to wish to model the ISM after the Roman church. Seminary education, standardized educational competency, uniform preparation, homogeny of thought, etc. Of course, I understand this isn't the only intent but it is the overwhelming impression that I received.

For a group that strives to create Vatican-free Catholicism, this seems like a very Vatican-like method. I was just thinking that forming priests as they did for the first 1500 years of the church isn't a bad idea either. Maybe focusing on bishops and their indiscretion with regard to handing out ordinations is more important than the standardization of the process. At the same time, this idea was definitely covered. It's probably a "both-and" kind of situation.

Any thoughts? Again, easy to say from the peanut gallery..."

Father Jerry and I discuss Bryan's post with additional commentary by Subdeacon Tim Olivieri, Stephen Gallagher, and Swami Prakashananda Saraswati.

Links:

Convergent Streams: The Premier ISM Magazine.

This podcast is hosted by David Oliver Kling and produced by the Community of Saint George - a Young Rite jurisdiction.

Welcome to Episode 72!

In this episode, I have the honor of speaking with the Reverend James Ishmael Ford.

The Reverend James Ishmael Ford has walked the​ spiritual path for more than fifty years. He's danced with Sufis, studied with Gnostics, lived in a Buddhist monastery and was ordained a Zen priest. Later he was also ordained as a Unitarian Universalist minister and preached from the high pulpits in old New England churches. He was a co-founder of the Boundless Way Zen network and was its first school abbot. Today he is guiding teacher of the Empty Moon Zen Sangha and leads the Anaheim Zen sangha hosted by the UU Church in Anaheim. James served as a UU parish minister for twenty-five years. He is minister-emeritus of the First Unitarian Church of Providence. Today he serves as a consulting minister with the Unitarian Universalist Church in Anaheim and is an adjunct professor at the University of the West.

In addition to his role as a Zen priest and Unitarian Universalist Minister James also holds ordinations within the independent sacramental movement as well as several initiations within Inayat Khan Universalist Sufism.

He has blogged as Monkey Mind for more than a decade and is the featured speaker at the Empty Moon Zen YouTube channel.

Links:

Convergent Streams: The Premier ISM Magazine.

This podcast is hosted by David Oliver Kling and is produced by The Community of Saint George - a Young Rite jurisdiction.

Welcome to Episode 71!

In this episode, I take a moment to reflect on recent events in the United States surrounding the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement. Included are statements from three different ISM communities:

Apostolic Catholic Church in America.

Advocates of St. Sebastian.

Reformed Catholic Church via LGBTQ Organizations Unite to Combat Racial Violence.

The community of Saint George – A Young Rite jurisdiction.

Links:

Convergent Streams: The Premier ISM Magazine.

This podcast is hosted by David Oliver Kling and produced by The Community of Saint George - A Young Rite jurisdiction.

Welcome to Episode 70!

In this episode, I have the honor of welcoming back Bishop Gregory Godsey. He is the first on the podcast back in episode 19 and I am glad he is back! Gregory is the presiding bishop of the Old Catholic Churches International and the editor in chief of Convergent Streams: The Premier ISM Magazine.

In this episode, we talk about the "train-wrecks" within the Independent Sacramental Movement!

Links:

Convergent Streams: The Premier ISM Magazine.

This podcast is hosted by David Oliver Kling and is produced by The Community of Saint George (A Young Rite Jurisdiction).

Episode 69!

In this episode, I have the honor of welcoming back to the podcast an old friend, Jason Spadafore. I interviewed him back in episode 15 and I wanted to have him back to see what sorts of mischief we could come up with. Jason writes under the pen name "Agostino Taumaturgo." He has been a student of Christian spirituality and esotericism for almost 30 years, specializing in theology and what he calls "Catholic Occultism." Jason now writes, teaches, and lectures on spirituality, magic, and manifestation within a Christian paradigm. I'm glad to have Bishop Jason back on the podcast!

We talk about several things including the Roman Catholic Traditionalist Movement and Vatican II.

Links:

Convergent Streams: The Premier ISM Magazine.

This podcast is hosted by David Oliver Kling and is produced by the Community of Saint George a Young Rite Jurisdiction.