Stanley Dundee

Steward's Sacrament

Note: This document is an exercise in theological engineering and is meant not as dogma but as a policy proposal, for consideration, reflection, and discussion.

That which is sacred shall be shared and worshipped in service. The sacred shall be dedicated to care for all, and all are called to the care of the sacred. The sacred shall include the shared blessings of the bountiful earth: the living things; the soil and the rocks; the water and the air; and the heavens above. The sacred shall include blessed works: the places and the actions which conduce to the creation and sharing of shelter; food; worship; teaching and study; aid in childbirth; care in illness, injury, and infirmity; ease in dying; consensual sexual congress; celebration; and memorial.

That which is profane shall be undertaken with alert care in awareness of the harms that may arise out of incautious practice. The profane shall include infliction of bodily harm; depletion of natural resources; discharge of harmful substances to soil, water, and air; money in all its forms; recording and transmission of human communication by any artificial means; and the coercion or compulsion by any social power of weaker by stronger.

That which is accursed shall be provisionally determined as such after public enquiry and deliberation. A steward must use all legal means towards alleviation of accursedness. Accursedness may include war, famine, plague, and other natural and man-made disasters. Accursedness may be provisonally determined in cases of infliction of bodily harm, misuse of blessed works, and the coercion or compulsion by any social power of weaker by stronger.

The stewardship of each blessed work is enjoined to the elaboration of sacraments. Elaboration of sacraments shall include ongoing enquiry, deliberation, and provisional determination of sacred, profane, and accursed in fulfilment of the Steward's creed. Elaboration of sacraments shall proceed in a public setting and all enquiry, deliberation, and provisional determination shall be published and unrestricted.