Rites, Rituals, Holidays and Ceremonies

(click on each rite and ritual to learn more)

Consecration: a ritual completed typically by the leading minister as a form of cleansing and blessing objects used within the sanctuary.

Walking With Fire: an optional outdoor ceremony where one “burns away” any and all of their encumbrances, whether these be burdens they feel they are carrying, wrong-doings they have committed, etc. which takes place just before the sunrise. This burning away is completed by walking over heated coals and calling out whatever they are encumbered by as they are observed by their fellow congregants. 

Amalgamation Ceremony: is an optional ceremony where one pledges themselves to The Covenant (in its entirety), meaning they will follow the Nine Virtues and the Seventeen Applications completely, pledging their morals will align with these sacred vows. Upon the unification, one may also choose a different name that the members of the sanctuary will refer to them by.

Sologamy (a.k.a. the Self-Marriage Ceremony): an optional ceremony overseen by a minister where a person gets married to themselves. This is completed through the likes of our baptisms and weddings as there is a final baptism at the end, with the exception that the sologamous-to-be (the one being married to themselves) does not have to wear white and are encouraged to treat the ceremony as they would their dream wedding.

Weddings: meant to join participants (those being married) in a spiritual and everlasting union. As Shoghi Effendi said, marriage is "A most sacred and binding tie that should lead to a profound friendship of spirit which will endure" into the afterlife, if there is there one. Though we Interconnectionists believe marriage is not central to the purpose of life, nor do we view divorce as a sin, we still place a heavy and sacred importance upon this spiritual, mental, physical and emotional unification.

Reverse Weddings: also known as "Divorce Parties" or perhaps by their better known name, Conscious Uncoupling. Interconnectionists realize not all marriages work out, and rather than frown on this, we believe we need to celebrate a couple's desire to be "no more".

Funeral and Burial Rites: we believe in honoring the dead through cremation in addition to the creation of a "symbolic grave" which will feature a coffin of important items to the deceased, an engraved head stone, and an above-ground altar at the base of the stone.

Adoption and Chosen Family Ceremony: a way to show families entering into an adoption, or choosing to make each other a family even if it's not legally binding, that their love for each other knows no bounds.

The 18th Birthday: marks the time an individual is entering adulthood as determined by Westernized standards.

The "Send-Off" Ceremony: This ceremony is often used for any journey someone will undertake that requires them to leave their home, a transition that is most likely going to be permanent. This may be high school graduates who are leaving for university and will live in a dorm, congregants who are moving away and will have to leave behind their current local sanctuary, or for someone getting married who will have to move out of their family home, or any other reason that would welcome a send-off ceremony.

The 20th Birthday: marks the time when Interconnectionists view an individual as an adult.

First Menstruation: a sacred ceremony dedicated to the normalization, honoring, and discussions of [generally] monthly bleeding.

Solstices and Equinoxes: as the Interconnection Fellowship does not wish to deny or celebrate the holidays of other religions, it chooses instead to celebrate the solstices and equinoxes. These can be considered holidays of the sanctuary, as they are celebrated in similar fashions to the ways in which other religions celebrate their holidays. There are two solstices (winter and summer) and two equinoxes (spring and fall).

Thrinóntas Day: translated from Greek to Grieving Day, this day—also known as Fourth Thursday, Mourning Day, or Thanksgiving Day—is a day centered around honoring the Earth, plants, animals, and above all, the Native Americans who aided the pilgrims only to be brutally slain as a result. 

Ascensionem Ceremonia: this is Latin meaning "the ascension ceremony". Often times this ceremony is referred to as "ascending" or merely "the ascension". This is a ceremony used for when adherents become majors, and when majors become either monstrators or ministers, or when monstrators become praemonstrators, or a minister becomes the next praeminister.

©️2020, The Interconnection Fellowship