Intersections: New Thought, Anglicanism, and Other Traditions
Sunshine Cathedral (Fort Lauderdale)
By Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins
People often refer to Sunshine Cathedral as a hybrid. They will say the message is “therapeutic”, the atmosphere is “loving”, the mission is to facilitate positive change in the world, and the liturgy is “uplifting.” Perhaps those realities are reflected in Sunshine Cathedral’s affirmation: “Sunshine Cathedral is a different kind of church where the past is past and the future has infinite possibilities.”
Some will say Sunshine Cathedral is New Thought Anglican, some will say it’s Science of Mind meets Methodism. Some call it a Positive Thinking church, others High Church Universalist, still others will say it is New Thought with Ritual and evangelical passion. Some will call it Catholic Light and Liberal. One leader in the congregation has said, “If the Episcopal Church and the Unity Church had a baby, it would be the Sunshine Cathedral.” Another lay leader calls SC the “happy Church.”
Catholics, Protestants, Eastern Orthodox, Pentecostals, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Humanists, 12 Steppers, and even a Wiccan or two have all found a home at Sunshine Cathedral, and people from many traditions have mentioned there is a moment in almost every service that reminds them of their former traditions while offering a new experience as well.
I am the Senior Minister of Sunshine Cathedral and I bring a blended/hybrid background and worldview to my role. A confirmed Episcopalian, certified Reiki Master, and Kriya Yoga initiate with seminary degrees from Protestant seminaries (Union Theological Seminary and the Episcopal Divinity School), I am also ordained in Metropolitan Community Churches (founded by an ex-Pentecostal minister, Troy Perry); I am ordained as an independent/Old Catholic priest (by my SC pastoral predecessor, Pentecostal minister/Old Catholic Bishop/MCCer/New Thoughter Rt. Rev. Grant Lynn Ford), and I am an ordained Divine Science minister (Divine Science, a New Thought philosophy, was founded by Quaker Malinda Cramer and almost simultaneously by Presbyterian Nona Brooks). Between my predecessor (Bishop Ford) and me, Sunshine Cathedral has been led for over 3 decades by Liturgical New Thoughters! No wonder there are so many different experiences of our wonderful Cathedral!
We are a “different kind of church.” Our spirituality is “progressive, positive, and practical.”
It turns out that our New Thought/Anglican/Ecumenical style is not without precedent (though surely our presentation of it is somewhat unique).
*Divine Science minister W. John Murray was a Catholic priest before becoming a Divine Scientist.
*David Alkins was an Episcopal priest who became the dean of Brooks Divinity School (a Divine Science ministerial school).
*F. Bernadette Turner was a psychologist and an Episcopalian who became a Divine Science minister and then later in life was ordained a Deacon and Priest in the Episcopal Church.
*Unity co-founder Myrtle Fillmore had a parent who was Episcopalian.
*Healer Agnes Sanford was the daughter of Presbyterian missionaries who married an Episcopal priest. Her theology, prayer techniques, and healing methods were very compatible with (often indistinguishable from) New Thought; she also experienced glossalia (praying in tongues)...she has been claimed by Protestants, Charismatics, and New Thoughters!
*Divine Scientist Emmet Fox grew up Catholic.
*Jospeh Murphy was a psychologist and a Catholic priest before becoming a Religious Science and a Divine Science minister.
*Mystic Emanuel Swedenborg was a Lutheran whose allegorical interpretation of scripture still influences New Thought Christians.
*Religious Science founder Ernest Holmes was a Congregationalist before studying Christian Science, getting ordained in Divine Science, and starting the Religious Science/Science of Mind movement.
*Fenwicke Holmes (Ernest's brother) was a Congregationalist minister who became a Divine Science minister and was instrumental in the early days of the Seicho-No-ie movement
*Church of Truth founder Albert Grier was a Universalist minister for decades before embracing New Thought.
*Norman Vincent Peale was a Methodist turned Dutch Reformed minister who embraced and taught many of the New Thought principles extolled by Ernest Holmes, Emmet Fox, and the Fillmores.
*Herman A. Spruit was a German born "Old Catholic" with Dutch ancestory. His family became Methodist and he later returned to Old Catholicism, becoming consecrated a bishop in the Liberal (Old) Catholic tradition and starting his own mystical (theosophy influenced) Old Catholic denomination (Apostolic Catholic Church of Antioch...sometimes referred to as New Thought or New Age Catholic).
*Franciscan (Roman Catholic) priest Robert Rohr presents a mystical Christianity that is very compatible with New Thought adherents.
*Episcopal Bishop John Spong for years has been a popular guest of Unity churches.
*Leo Booth is a Unity minister who was previously an Anglican priest.
The openness, the freedom to investigate and experiment, the personal connection to mystery and wonder, the self-empowerment and optimism, and the bonds of a community devoted to both mind and heart, thinking and feeling, liberation and love is what a mixture of the mainline traditions and “new thought” can offer. Indeed, it is what one is likely to find at Sunshine Cathedral.
An article explaining the relatedness of New Thought and Anglican spiritualities was written in 2003 (see below) by Educational Psychologist Deb Whitehouse (who was married to an Academic Philosopher and New Thought practitioner/scholar Alan Anderson). Whitehouse was an Episcopalian who found her way to New Thought. When reading her historical perspective, Sunshine Cathedral will make even more sense to those who call it their spiritual home.
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