Tag Archives: ordained rabbi

Become Clergy, Connect Humans to the Force, the Source!

Become an ordained minister, Rabbi, or clergy title of your choice. There is a great need currently for faith leaders and spiritual teachers (like Yoda!, like Eckhart Tolle).

The Force exists! As ordained clergy you experience The Force in your life, where it has always been, and you guide others to experience it. Mankind has known of The Force, the Source, the Logos, for literally thousands of years. Even the Bible teaches the Force, calling it the Logos, which in Greek means “unifying creative Force of reason / consciousness”. Philo of Alexandria, a Jewish philosopher who lived right before the time of Christ, taught the Logos, too. Philo was a hero because he went to Rome and talked Caligula out of placing a statue of himself inside the Temple.

Eckhart Tolle is one of our favorite spiritual teachers. He combines esoteric Christianity with Buddhism and all the world’s ancient wisdom teachings. He is truly interfaith and eclectic. Are you? Do others turn to you asking for spiritual guidance, advice? Eckhart Tolle is one of a long line of wisdom teachers going back to the ancient past but also into the future — becaues his teachings are like Yoda’s (!)

Here at the Esoteric Interfaith Church, Inc. we have been ordaining ministers, Rabbis, Chaplains, Priests, etc. for over two decades. You are legal in all 50 states to officiate weddings, can file your taxes as a member of the clergy, and are afforded the clergy – parishioner privilege the same as attorney-client privilege.

Suicide rates are up, especially among teens. The rising generation, Generation Z, is confused and unable to imagine a successful future for themselves. They are told religion is bad, but feel the void of no spirituality in their lives. Older generations are feeling this void, this yearning for existential meaning, also. This desire for spiritual meaning is why Star Wars and other archetypal living myth type movies are so popular.

Our goal has been to place alternative non-denominational clergy into every town in the USA. We have ordained thousands over the years from all walks of life. Once ordained by us, you are instantly eligible to join our free alumni network.

If you have ever felt “the CALL”, called to serve the people around you, now is the time to answer! Read here how to become ordained in three quick steps.

The Ordained Minister, Rabbi or Priest Serves Like Angels at Heaven’s Altar and Connect Couple to Heaven when Officiate a Wedding

officiate marriage same-sex weddingThe Ordained Minister, Rabbi or Priest serve at the “altar” before the Divine, just like Angels do at heaven’s altar. Such clergy also help a couple getting married to connect, to uplink, with the Divine when they properly officiate their marriage / perform a wedding.

Judaism and Christianity both teach that altar servers, be they ordained as a minister or rabbi here on earth are counterparts to “the host of angels that attend to the Heavenly banquet.”

The Greek Bible (New Testament) shows us scenes of angels standing before the altar in heaven, holding a golden incense burner, officiating as a priest or minister. I wonder if angels ever officiate a wedding, perhaps a sacred marriage at the heavenly altar?

Clergy Can Perform a Wedding in a Special Way

An esoteric teaching regarding weddings is if the minister or Rabbi will perform the wedding just right, in accordance with their faith tradition’s mysteries both inner and outer, then the couple standing under the huppah (Judaism) or at the altar or before the clergy-person, are transported to the heavenly altar and the Divine enters into the marriage with them.

Couples want an Ordained Minister or Rabbi, not a secular officiant

This is of course the whole reason people want an ordained minister or Rabbi to perform their wedding in the first place and not just a civic authority, justice of the peace, or someone with no spiritual inclincation.  There is a spiritual element to a marriage, and the vast majority of couples worldwide know this instinctively and seek out clergy to help them connect with the Divine on their special day.

Become Ordained and Officiate Weddings in all 50 States

We have been ordaining ministers, Rabbis, priests and multi-faith interfaith clergy of all kinds for over 25 years. Our ordained clergy perform weddings nearly every day — at least somewhere in the USA.

Religious Seminary Degrees with Online Study Jewish & Christian

Christian-based & Jewish-based Religious Degrees with Online Study

Seminary degree online religious degrees doctorate bachelor

Seminary Degree Graduate Pin

For over 25 years now, the Seminary has offered Interfaith and alternative religious degrees to people who do not fit in to mainstream seminaries due to their alternative religious beliefs. Our people study online. Most of our degrees stem from the Christian heritage of Western Civilization (Europe, USA, Commonwealth Countries) such as the Doctor of Divinity, Doctor of Theology (Th.D.), and Master of Divinity, Master of Theology (Th.M. or M.Th.), PhD in Pastoral Counseling, Ph.D. in Religion, etc. We also have spiritual degrees such as Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Metaphysics and many others. Lesser known are our undergraduate religious degrees, the Bachelors degrees, such as Bachelor of Divinity, Bachelor of Theology also called the Th.B. or B.Th., Bachelor of Religion, etc.

Yesterday, someone inquired about Jewish degrees:

What Bachelor degrees do you offer in Jewish / Judaic fields?

We answered:

The seminary allows you to choose your religious degree title. Jewish Bachelor degrees we have conferred in the past are Bachelor of Arts in Jewish Studies, Bachelor of Hebrew Studies, Bachelor of Hebrew Theology, Doctor of Jewish Theology, Bachelor of Theology in Judaism, Bachelor of Judaic Studies (we have conferred a Ph.D. in Jewish Studies). Those Bachelor degrees come immediately to mind, but you can customize your own degree title.

You may also receive ordination as a Rabbi at no extra cost. Becoming ordained, whether as a Rabbi or Ordained Minister, offers legal protection should you in future accept donations for any spiritual services or spiritual counseling / advising. Ordination means you become clergy enabling you to develop the clergy – client confidentiality relationship such as attorneys and doctors have. You’ve heard of attorney privilege, there is also clergy privilege.

Then we gave him a list of the requirements for the religious Bachelors Degree programs from the Seminary.

For more on the difference between a PhD in Metaphysics degree vs. a Doctor of Divinity degree, read this.

Find the requirements for ALL our degree programs online here.

Writing Your Spiritual History to Become Ordained

Become Ordained Online OrdinationTo become an ordained minister or rabbi via our Interfaith Seminary, all candidates must write their spiritual history. Many who apply for ordination are not sure how to write it, so we email them back and say just hit reply and type up the story of religion and spirituality in your life from childhood to present. Here is what one of our recently ordained ministers came up with.

I was born and raised into the Catholic faith. My earliest childhood memory is actually of a Sunday morning where my mom was explaining to me to be good at church. I asked her what church was and she described the way the church looked with its tall ceilings and columns and I remembered what she was talking about.

 

I went to Catholic school. There was a big difference between going to my family’s church on Sundays and the three days we’d go to church in a school week. Where Sundays were so warm and I loved the priest, school church was cold, boring and it seemed as if I was always in trouble with a nun for taking my eyes off the altar.

 

As I grew older, I had questions. Like how come the Bible says that God told us to put no other Gods before Him, yet we were praying to Jesus’ mother, step father and a whole buffet of saints.

 

When I stopped being afraid of the nuns I started demanding answers to questions like these. But the nuns at my school wouldn’t answer the hard questions. They would make you feel stupid in front of the class for asking.

 

My last straw with the nuns came when I refused to believe that wearing a scapula would automatically send you to heaven if you died while wearing one. My question to the nun that day was what if while Hitler was sleeping, someone slipped a scapula around his neck and then he died without knowing he was wearing it.

 

I caught her off guard and while I believe she should have had an answer, getting stumped by an eighth grader really made her angry. I was sent to the principal who was also a nun and again, no answers were given.

 

In high school we had one nun but she was a different order. Her advice to us in my religion class was to forget everything the Dominican nuns had taught us.

 

That made me mad. I had just spent 8 years duking it out with the nuns for nothing it seemed.

 

That’s when I started to question it all.

 

That’s when I started a slow and downward spiral into the life of Godlessness where I wound up eventually on drugs and sleeping with many women, stealing and none of it bothered me for a second because I had become an immoral and selfish person. All my Catholic education had taught me was how to ignore God.

 

Many years later I married a woman I thought I was destined to marry. We had a child together. I felt complete but something was missing. I filled that emptiness with drinking which led me to cheat on my wife. After she left me and took my precious daughter away, I sank to the lowest point of my life.

 

Through that darkness my mother kept in touch with me and kept saying things like, “Turn to God” which I laughed at. Hearing that kind of advice was ridiculous to me.

 

I felt suicidal.

 

One morning I went for a walk. I was so depressed. I was sick with it. I was reviewing my life choices and I had just had enough.

 

I stood still and looked up into the sky and verbally asked God to take over. I told Him I was tired of screwing everything I ever did up. I begged Him to come and fix me. I started crying and begging and all these deep buried issues started to bubble up and I might have been babbling and choking through tears and sobs but after a few minutes, God showed up. I felt His presence.

 

God fixed me on the spot. I felt hope and had a knowledge that everything was going to be ok. I had been forgiven. God had just made me a brand new man.

 

That’s when I started to see all those times in my life that were the darkest, He was right there with me. God was always there, even though I had totally ignored Him, he never left my side.

 

I started going to a Baptist church near my house.

 

My wife came back.

 

I started reading the Bible.

 

I began seeking God more and more and my life just kept turning around.

 

I still attend a Baptist church, but I believe His love is bigger than even my church could understand.

 

I feel like they get hung up on social issues like homosexuality when adultery would be a better choice in a church full of straight people. Plus, in the Bible, Jesus explains the three type of men who don’t marry women.

 

In Matthew 19 he says…

A.) they’re born that way. (homosexuals)

B.) they’re made that way by others. (eunuchs who were castrated)

C.) they choose to live that way for the Kingdom of Heaven. (celibates)

 

I prayed for God to show me in the Bible where Jesus talked about gay people and I found that passage.

 

To me it’s plain and simple, where churches continue to drive people away with Old Testament lessons, Christ opened his arms to anyone that sought Him.

 

I know in my heart that God wants me to learn more and spread His message of love, and I intend to.

* * * * * * * * * *

We were very happy to ordain him and he is now Rev. Crankshaw.

Become an Ordained Minister in New York City

Captain Arnold ordained chaplain performs a wedding on board a ship in New York City harbor

Captain Arnold ordained chaplain performs a wedding on board a ship in New York City harbor

To officiate a wedding within New York City limits requires the minister / rabbi / clergy-member to register with the New York City Clerk’s Office.   Besides the Certificate of Ordination you receive from us, you need two pieces of additional paperwork to become an ordained minister in NYC — to be able register with the Clerk’s Office. We have been helping ministers / clergy get registered with NYC Clerk’s Office for almost two decades. It’s not easy, but it’s not difficult and at least it’s not expensive.

To register with NYC Clerk’s Office, you need three items, all of which we supply:

1. Your Certificate of Ordination as a minister, rabbi or other clergy title, which you get by applying here.
2. a copy of our official Articles of Incorporation (which we scan and email to you)
3. a letter stating you are in good standing with our church / religious organization.

Item 1, your Certificate of Ordination with a raised seal is sent thru the mail and takes about three days to receive.

Item 2 is sent by email attachment, our church’s Articles of Incorporation. It is two pages long.

Item 3 is the Letter of Good Standing, which we scan and email to you or mail with your Certificate of Ordination.

Within the last year alone we have helped around a dozen people we’ve ordained register with the NYC Clerk’s Office.  Over the years we’ve helped well over a hundred. Two of them offer marriage services on tourist boats in New York City harbor, one of our ordained chaplains does them “by land, sea or air”.   Those boat weddings are very romantic.  If you visit our Practitioners Directory (aka our Minister Directory) you will see Captain Arnold, and his website link full of  colorful photos of his wedding ministry  / wedding chapel activities. That’s him pictured above recently officiating a beautiful Interfaith wedding on a boat.

Get Ordained to Perform a Marriage

Perform a wedding, Become an ordained minister, rabbiPerhaps the most common reason people come to us online for ordination is because they have been asked to perform a marriage.  A relative or close friend, even co-workers nowadays ask someone special in their lives to officiate their wedding. Now with the June wedding season approaching we are ordaining more ministers than usual. Some want to start their own pastoral counseling practice, others want to set up a wedding chapel, but most have been asked to perform a marriage. It used to be the bride and groom couldn’t pick a family member or best friend to officiate their big day. Couples had to find a member of the institutionalized clergy who was willing to marry them. Those were frustrating times, but they are over. Now in all 50 states any person asked to officiate a wedding can become an ordained minister or rabbi. Our non-denominational interfaith seminary ordains people for this reason all the time, about two per week. And ordination is quick and easy — only 3 steps. 1.  Fill out the online application here. 2.  Write a one or two page spiritual history (email format is fine) telling the story of religion and spirituality (they are different) in  your life from childhood to present. 3.  Pay the one-time tuition of $150. There are no annual renewal fees of any kind, ordination is good for your lifetime. (Once you submit the application you will be directed to a PayPal tuition page). All the requirements and minister / rabbi title choices on our Ordination Requirements Page. For legal FAQ’s see here. Some counties and cities require extra paperwork before you can officiate a marriage in their jurisdiction but we help you will all of that.  Our ministers and clergy are officiating weddings all the time in all 50 states. We help ministers with the paperwork so they can perform marriages even inside picky New York City and the very jump-thru-hoops state of Virginia. Ohio, Wisconsin, Nevada and Hawaii just to name a few require extra paperwork and it’s no problem. We have even done it on the fly for someone about to officiate a wedding the very next day.  One time we even had to scan and email the Certificate of Ordination to the new minister in California because the wedding was the next morning and FedEx wouldn’t make it! After the ordination we will even help you fill out the marriage license.  The bride and groom will get the license and bring it to you on the wedding day. You simply fill out the minister portion on the license where it asks who you are ordained by, your minister title, etc.  We help you with all that. Recently we helped a minister fill out the marriage license by using cellphone pictures and text messages! Used to be “in the old days” the minister would call us, then it went to faxing questions, followed by emails and now we can even help you out by texting! If you have any questions feel free to ask below or send us an email at seminary at northernway.org