As unfamiliar as our way of doing things might seem, there is a significant amount of historical background and precedent to our theological vision. First and foremost, the Sophianic Tradition: throughout history, there were Christians who upheld that there is a feminine aspect to God and to the spiritual world, usually envisioned as or concentrated on the figure of Sophia, the Wisdom of God.
Those included Jewish Christians who appropriated Philo's cosmic understanding of Wisdom into their theology, early Syriac Christians who spoke of the Holy Spirit as the Divine Mother, Gnostics who wrote of a plethora of divine feminine figures, and even proto-Orthodox theologians like Clement and Origen who recognised the feminine imagery traditionally applied to the Holy Spirit. Then, after suppression of unorthodox voices for centuries, this idea would return among Radical Pietists and Protestant Theosophers (especially the followers of Jacob Boehme and Jane Leade) who once again perceived a Divine Feminine presence at the foundation of reality. Later, Russian Orthodox Sophianists gave us sophisticated philosophical terms in their search to articulate their vision of the Soul of the World.
More recently, diverse esoteric revivalists (like Anna Kingsford and Henry Corbin) wanted to again give voice to the Divine Feminine in a deeply-changing and rapidly-globalising world; and - most recently - the more radical among feminist theologians used their scholarly apparatus to unearth those forgotten possibilities again.
This is our main theological key, if you will - this is our main inheritance. Among other predecessors, four institutions are particularly crucial influences as well:
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the Home Temple Movement, which transmitted to us our apostolic succession, our sacramental and semi-monastic ethos, and our emphasis on the Jewish roots of Christian theology
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the Église Gnostique de France, which is the source of our esoteric lineages, our interest in liturgical creativity, and our comprehensive attitude to the breadth of Esoteric Christian traditions
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the Esoteric Christian Union, which gave us our universalist outlook, our openness to new theological expressions, and our ethos of love as the highest guiding principle of all esoteric pursuits
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the Society of Free Catholics, from which we derive our liberal theological ethos, our inclusivity towards Unitarian positions, and our appreciation for historical forms of Christian expression
There is still much more that could be said about the many influences we have inherited. The important thing is that this is not just a catalogue of interesting alternatives; these were real people who - over the course of Christian history - created real communities and who gave themselves to pursuing real spiritual journeys. They are a “cloud of witnesses” and now we, in whatever capacity we might, take up their heritage and bring new life to the spiritual vistas to which they were so devoted.