First Legal Church
Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island, was the first public servant to use this metaphor. He said that an authentic Christian church would only be possible if there was “a wall or hedge of separation” between the “desert of the world” and “the garden of the church.” Williams believed that any government involvement in the church would corrupt the church. the original parish churches, or Tituli, the first legal churches in Rome, still function. Most of them were private houses where Christians gathered illegally, and some of these houses, such as in Santi Giovanni e Paolo, are still preserved under the current church buildings. Since the 4th century, the Tituli. One of the crucial battlegrounds for dissolution was Jefferson`s Colony of Virginia, where the Anglican Church had long been the established Church. While working with volunteers to prepare for retirement — waterproofing tent poles, erecting teepees, cleaning and repainting the few buildings on the property, buying enough supplies for a Walmart employee to ask if they were preppers — Shackman and guzman also supported the legal structures of their new organization. They applied for and were granted charitable status (the IRS lists a public charity called “Ayausca Healings” registered as Shackman in Elbe, Washington); They sent a letter to the local prosecutor outlining the church and describing its activities. Most importantly, they struck a deal with the Native American Church in Oklevueha that they said would provide legal cover for their group. There are other groups that go through the same process as ayahuasca healings. Another ayahuasca retreat, SoulQuest, recently received a similar letter for the DEA, proposing to cease operations and launch a petition for a religious exception.
Part of the reason why ayahuasca healings have caused so much concern from the ayahuasca and psychedelic therapy community is that more and more people believe that ayahuasca can have positive spiritual and therapeutic effects: like De Guzman and Shackman, they want to find ways to give more people access to ayahuasca. Since the DEA evaluates religious exemption applications individually, the decision on the legality of ayahuasca healings should not deter the next group from receiving an exemption. But the more groups with dubious motives try to take advantage of this exception, the harder it might be for the next group to prove that their use of ayahuasca as a religious sacrament is truly sincere, both in their hearts and under the law. The oldest collections of canonical legislation are very old apostolic documents known as ecclesiastical orders: for example, the Didache ton dodeka apostolon or “Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles”, which dates from the late first or early 2nd century; the ordinance of the Apostolic Church; the Didascalia or “Doctrine of the Apostles”; apostolic canons and apostolic constitutions. These collections never had any official value, nor did any other collection from that early period. However, the apostolic canons, and thus the apostolic constitutions, had an influence for some time, as later collections would be based on these early sources of canon law. [3] The condition of slaves was most deplorable in ancient ages. According to Roman law and usage, a slave was not considered a human being, but a mobile being over whom the master had absolute absolute control, to the point where he inflicted death. Since the time of Emperor Antoninus Pius (138-61), a master has been punished if he killed his slave for no reason or even practiced excessive cruelty on him (Instit. Just., lib.
I, Tit. 8; Dig., lib. I, Tit. 6, leges 1, 2). Emperor Constantine (306-37) made it murderous to kill a slave with wickedness and described certain types of barbaric punishments by which, when death followed, guilt for murder was incurred (Cod. Eben., lib. IV,. 14). Another relief was to facilitate the liberation or emancipation of slaves. According to several laws of Constantine, the usual formalities could be dispensed with if the manumission took place in the church, before the people and the holy ministers.
The clergy were allowed to grant freedom to their slaves in their last will or even by word of mouth (Cod. Eben., lib. I, Tit. 13, leges 1, 2). Emperor Justinian I (527-65) gave the liberated persons the rank and rights of Roman citizens and abolished the penalty of condemning to servitude (Cod. Only., lib. VII, Tit. 6; Nov., VII, chap. viii; nov.
LVIII, praef. Cap. i, iu). Similar provisions have been found in barbaric codes. According to Burgundian and Visigothic laws, the murder of a slave was punishable; Emancipation in the Church and before the priest was allowed and encouraged. On one point, they were ahead of Roman law; they recognized the legality of marriage between slaves in Lombard law, based on the biblical phrase: “He whom God has united, no one will divide him.” The murder of a slave was severely punished (Council of Elvira, D. 300, Can. v; Epaon Council, 517 AD, Can. xxviv); A fugitive slave who had taken refuge in the church was to be returned to his master only with his promise to forgive the punishment (Council of Orleans, 511, Can.
iii, c. vi, X, lib. III, Tit. 49); Marriage between slaves was recognized as valid (Council of Châlons, 813; Can. xxx; c. i, X, lib. IV, Tit. 9); and even marriage between a free person and a slave was ratified, provided that it was contracted with full knowledge of the facts (Council of Compiègne, 757 AD, can.
viii). The institution of slavery was strongly defended in the Council of Granges (324), which declared: “If, under the pretext of piety, the slave is exhorted to despise his master, to abandon slavery and not to serve with good will and respect, let him be excommunicated.” [19] Canon law in the Western Churches developed continuously after 1054 until the Reformation of the sixteenth century. Although other Reformation churches rejected the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of England retained the concept of canon law and developed its own type, which is accepted in the churches of the Anglican Communion. Even as journalists spread the news of the “first legal ayahuasca church” in the country, people interested in ayahuasca or other psychoactive drugs, as well as people who were dealing with sectarian groups, began to express skepticism about the new church, especially its claim to legality. What de Guzman and Shackman have treated as a single vision, others have seen as a common response to ayahuasca – many people who participate in ayahuasca ceremonies firmly believe that “everyone must experience it” and that their vocation is to help save the world. Many people in the ayahuasca community supported the idea of bringing ayahuasca to the United States, but they weren`t sure that these two bold men, with their dubious claims to legality, would do this job carefully and safely. If they didn`t – if the authorities used this as an excuse to crack down on ayahuasca if someone died in this high-profile retreat – it could not only break the current, relatively tolerant environment, but also reduce the general public`s growing interest in ayahuasca as a safe and therapeutic drug. Because of the discontinuity that has developed in modern times between Church and State, and the exclusively spiritual and pastoral function of ecclesiastical organization, canon law scholars seek to re-establish the vital contact between canon law and theology, biblical exegesis (critical principles of Bible interpretation) and the history of the Church in its contemporary forms. Canonical jurists also seek a link with the empirical social sciences (e.g., sociology, anthropology, and other similar disciplines), which is necessary to understand and control the application of canon law. The study of the history of canon law requires not only legal and historical training, but also an overview of contemporary theological concepts and social relations.
Many sources, such as documents of councils and popes, are often uncritical and can only be found in poorly organized publications, and much of the material exists only in manuscripts and archives; Often, the sources of law contain a dead law (that is, a law that is no longer valid) and say nothing about the living law. What falls and what is not, what is or is not a source of canon law, what law is universal and what is local, and other such issues must be judged differently for different periods. Before Trinity de Guzman discovered ayahuasca, he had immersed himself in the world of business and online marketing, where gurus were people like Harv Eker, whose teachings are to combine mind and money. De Guzman first met DMT in 2011 while working with a life coaching company in San Diego. A mentor introduced him to the drug and he tried to smoke it. “It opened me up so much,” he says. “Once that happened, it was as if the seeds had been planted to experience ayahuasca.” He had to share this with the world.