Truly, He is Risen! Greetings to everyone, all of my friends, brothers and Guildsmen who have been so loyal to me and my Guild. I love and care for all of you dearly and you all mean so much to me. It’s an ineffable feeling that I can be speaking to you now, after a nearly seven-month long hiatus. For those of you who are reading this now, I commend you for your patience and you have my greatest respect. This shows your devout loyalty to me, as a Guildsman, as a Christian and as a friend. I know it now and I will always cherish it, even if you decide to part ways after this announcement. I will not hold any judgment on you and will still consider you as my friend, as you have always been.
I started this organization from an idea that I had while I was attending the academy. At first, it was to fundraise money so that young men at the school could afford to wear the required attire. Soon I realized that even if I were able to put a suit on every young man there, they wouldn’t know how to wear it, they wouldn’t know what it meant, and they wouldn’t know how to behave properly in their fine attire. I realized what these boys and young men needed weren’t just the funds to dress the part. Men need fathers. They need loyal, loving, righteous, God-fearing fathers to show them the Christian way. Secondly, they need brothers to stand with them, to fight the good fight by their side so that they know that they’re not alone. Even then, I knew there was more.
After graduating, the thought stuck with me and I believed it to be my passion and calling to tend to the men who too often go unobserved, forgotten and expected to be “fine.” The Guild evolved, the name changed from Gentleman’s Guild to Guild of Gentlemen, the emblem changed, the motto changed, the mission statement and the overall goal of the Guild became clearer and more precise. With these changes, the Guild grew and became more successful, making more but not enough of an impact upon the Western world (Europe and its diaspora).
As I developed and learned more, the Guild developed and I shared more. This was the constant state of the organization that we’ve loved and fought for over the past few years. From one truth to another, the Guild grew and became more effective and efficient.
But for me, there was always something missing. When defining certain aspects of the Guild, I would occasionally run into the fact that I couldn’t define where the morality behind the decisions precisely came from. Yes, it’s Christian and that’s evident to see. But what is Christian? Are Mormons Christian? Are Sedevacantists? Are Lutherans? We might be able to make an argument for all or some of these, but should we? The nature of being Christian is not to be ecumenical. If it were, everything that would be presumably right and “Christian” would be wrong. There is a singular way to define what is Christian and what is not and the conclusion of this hiatus was that it is not my place, nor is it a good idea for myself and the Guild to be backing and promoting this idea. To restore Europe and Christendom, you can’t involve all parties because we do not believe the same thing. The faults of the Presbyterians are not also the faults of the Orthodox, just as an example. Not only is this the logical conclusion, but believing and promoting otherwise can lead souls to damnation. That is not and was not what I intended to do.
As a background, I was born into a Lutheran family. My family was Lutheran for as far back as I knew. “What were they before Luther?” Was a question that I pondered even as a child. I remember that specific question made me feel uneasy because I couldn’t think my way through the problem. It required knowledge which I could only receive from other people at that time in my life. My family became disenfranchised when our pastor was voted out for someone more modern. I stopped attending church and my journey towards Christ took a turn. From the age of thirteen on, I began church-hopping, studying and reading in the attempt to find Christ’s bride. I was alone in my mission, often coming to conclusions that set me apart from everything I had always known and often against what I had believed to be true. Yet, I continued on because I genuinely only wanted to do right by God. To do the right thing was always the only way to live for me, no matter how uncomfortable it would become. The journey home was long, complex and truly an epic. Like the pearl of great price, I found the epitome of truth, the only all-encompassing truth this wicked world has to offer.
Our morals in the Guild are “Christian”, sure, but where do they come from in Christianity? From God! How did God give them to us? Did God Himself write and compile the Bible in His own flesh? Well, the answer to that is “No.”, He divinely inspired it. So how did God give us these moral truths? What did God leave us with? What did Christ give us while He walked as a man on Earth? He gave us the Church. Christ’s Church is still kept in its originality and the fullness of truth can still be found in Orthodoxy.
I realize that this may be way over some of your heads. It was for me as a Protestant! I don’t hold that against you at all and I do not believe that it’s your fault! In that same reasoning, the fault does lie somewhere. It lies with the living and dead heretics who misled us, who misled the west and who brought it to ruin. The idea of a miraculous restoration of the Church occurring in the 1500s and then again in the 1600s and again in the 1700s and so on and so forth is wrong. Christ founded the Church and the Apostles kept it. The traditions, the theology, the liturgy and the liturgical theology, the true Communion and the meaning behind it, the understanding of the Holy Trinity which is our one and only God, the full Holy Bible, the understanding and creation of iconography, all of these things and everything else that the Orthodox Church has to offer are only kept inside of the all-encompassing truth that Christ founded; the Orthodox Church.
I share this with you because my heart is full of love for all of you. I care more about your salvation than I do anything else in this world. Because I believe this to be the truth, I would be dishonest if I didn’t share it. To my closest family and loved ones, I am the most straightforward, the most honest, and I hold back the very least amount. Why? Because I know that they all know that I love them and want the best for all of them. To you, my brothers, I say the same. For roughly a year and a half, I have been seriously pondering this question on a daily basis. I didn’t question what to do out of fear of losing followers or even losing Guildsmen. I questioned and pondered and prayed for so long because I care about you all more than I do my own life. I couldn’t make a decision unless I knew for certain that it was the right decision for you. At that time and now, I take my influence on the Guildsmen and those affected by the Guild as seriously as I do my own fatherhood to my son.
From here on out, the Guild will continue on much the same as it was. The noticeable differences will be in my explanations, my reasonings and my clear religious alignment. There will be changes to the divisions, to the channels and to the operation of the Guild as a whole. As I did before, I will lead the Guild with my heart and mind, with my loyalty to the well-being of the Guildsmen, European culture, its people and its diaspora. The Guild of Gentlemen will live on but greater than before.
As of right now, these will be the noticeable changes:
In the near future we look forward to these changes as well:
Thank you for your patience.
With Fervent Prayer,
Mr. Schulz T.
