Christian Fellowship Organization
Edward Lewis Hodges, a physician in San Diego, California,
claimed to be the earthy representative of the Secret Order of
the Christian Brotherhood and School of Christian Initiation.
Similar to what has been elsewhere termed the Great White
Brotherhood, the Secret Order of the Christian Brotherhood
was seen as consisting of those evolved beings who in ages past
had so spiritualized their bodies and perfected their understanding
that they had been given the keys to the Kingdom
Universal. Their present task is to guide the Earth. As an initiate,
Hodges was given the orders teachings and told to propagate
them. He founded the Christian Fellowship Organization
as an instrument for the order and in 1938 published their
teachings in a book, The Teachings of the Secret Order of the Christian
Brotherhood.
The order taught a means of achieving liberation through
the restoration and spiritualization of the body. Jesus headed
the order during his earthly ministry and taught the means of
spiritualization. The great secret of life was God, expressed
through Jesus, the mortal man. We must look beyond Jesus to
the Christ within. Christ within the human form is the saving
potential. The first step on the path of initiation is realizing
oneness with the Christ within.
The organization taught a process of liberation from death
through spiritualization of the body. Students were asked to
place themselves under the cultural condition of the Christian
brotherhood, by invoking its presence. They were also given
a set of affirmations (positive prayers) to bring about conditions
of health, prosperity, and spiritualization. Eventually, the individual
should be able to take his or her body to heavenly worlds
and return as he or she sees fit.
The organization functioned into the 1950s, but appears to
have become defunct.
Sources
Hodges, Edward Lewi. Be Healed. . . A Remedy That Never
Fails. San Diego Christian Fellowship Organization, 1949.
. Teachings of the Secret Order of the Christian Brotherhood.
Santa Barbara J. F. Rowney Press, 1938.
. Wealth and Riches by Divine Right. San Diego Christian
Fellowship Organization, 1945.
