The next step in the hierarchy is to become either a "Disciple" (one who has a commitment such as a job outside the Church) or a "Messenger," one who devotes all his energies to the Process. Messengers can make the change of status from "Outer Processean" to "Inner Processean." Some of the 15 "Inner Processeans" who are living in the headquarters of the Boston chapter are married and have young children.

Above the position of "Inner Processean Messenger" is that of "Prophet," one who is preparing to be ordained as a Superior. The Superiors are divided according to function: "Priests" are responsible for the administration of the chapter; "Evangelists" evangelize; the "Matriarch" sees to the spiritual well-being of the chapter. Above them all, concerned not only with running the chapter but also with running and deciding the policy of the Church as a whole, is the "High Master."

ALL OF those below the status of Superior are expected to go out on streets to tell passersby about the Process, sell books, and solicit contributions; this work is called "donating." Aside from the personal incomes of individual Processeans, the Process and its activities are supported by the profits from the sale of food in the coffee house, sale of books, the $1.50 admission fee to a Friday night "telepathy developing circle," and by contributions.

"Donating" has the appearance of institutionalized begging to some of the people who encounter the Process, including, at times, the police. But Church members consider "donating" as much a process of giving (of giving the people they talk to an increased awareness through the beliefs of the Church), as an act of receiving. "We go out into the streets to preach and to learn how to give.... If we are giving, then we receive also. If we weren't giving, we wouldn't be receiving."

Along with their coffee-house, the Process maintains a "free store" to provide clothing and other needed materials to people in need who seek help from the Church; they also maintain a soup kitchen that feeds lunch, by their estimate, to 60 or 70 people a week.

FATHER Christian is polite, soft-spoken man with long, light-blonde hair and a slight beard. He's the High Master of the Boston chapter of the Church of the Final Judgment. He has been part of the Process almost since Robert DeGrimston conceived it. When the Process first came to Boston, Christian was one of those who brought it; at that time, his face was a familiar one in the Square, where he spent much of his time "donating."

Christian describes the three gods in the Pantheon of his Church, the "three great gods of the universe," as separate and very distinct deities who

unite in Christ as a single god. Jehovah is the "wrathful god of vengeance and retribution" who is very Puritanical; Christian's example of a Jehovaian person is Charles DeGaulle. Lucifer (traditionally a fallen angel associated, but not to be confused with, Satan) is "the bringer of light"; he represents "things we strive for." and indulgence. The Hare Krishna movement is "very Luciferian," and politics are "Lucifer's field." Satan is the god of doom and desolation, a god who embodies things "we're most afraid of," things low and bestial and also things high and spiritual. Sex criminals and the Hell's Angels are very Satanic, and so are high religious mystics.

Qualities of each of these three gods are manifested in all human beings. One aim of the Process is to make people recognize, and accept without suppressing, all the qualities of the gods in themselves.

THE religion of the Process is, in many ways, a transcendental one. Processeans see their Church as both a Christian and "more than a Christian Church." Christ is an emissary of Jehovah, Lucifer, and Satan; he is both "separate" from and "involved" with the three gods, a "link between man and God." He is, they believe, in the world now, and He will reveal Himself before the Final Judgment.

Processeans see Christ, in the New Testament, demonstrating how to bring the opposing qualities in man together, showing "the unity and reconciliation of opposites." Father Christian is very clear about the message Jesus was giving to men in the New Testament: "Christ wasn't against vice-he was against pretensive virtue."

Animals are respected by the Church. One of the Process books, The Ultimate Sin, is a tract against animal vivisection. One reason for this emphasis is that animals are examples of the complete reconciliation of opposites (which helps explain the presence of the two dogs at the Sabbath Assembly). As one member of the Church explains, "Dogs are much more high-level beings than we are...They're pure.... Animals don't have conflicts of choice. They do as they're supposed to. They're not conflicted."

"We believe totally," emphasizes Father Christian, "in the New Testament, especially Matthew 5:44 ['But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.']" At the center of the Process belief is the "Law of the Universe," manifest in Christ's belief that "as you give, so shall you receive." It is, for them, a law reflected everywhere. Those who have difficulties in life are only receiving what they have put into life; those who kill must expect to be killed. Along with this law of universal reward and retribution goes their belief in reincarnation. Those who don't get back all that they have given in one life will get their reward or penalty in another life. "Whatever you put out you will get back... It always comes back."

The major purpose of the Process is to serve God by helping people to save themselves from the conflicts society imposes on them-to help people "rise above the conflicts within them." In helping people to reach this transcendent state, Processeans try to accept people for what they are, to recognize the conventions and institutions that impose upon them, and to make people face the impositions of life. Trying to escape institutions "only solidifies our fear," So the object of the Process is to become aware of institutions, and in becoming aware of them to become free from them; this is the way to increase the "scope" of awareness of what people are. Then, when the "purifying presence of fire" comes, those who are aware will be saved.

On first contact with members of the Process, many people suspect that the Church is an organization of Satanists. The fact that Satan and Lucifer are two of the "three great gods" of the Processean universe helps people to confirm that suspicion. Aside from their belief in recognizing the qualities that they assign to these two gods, and aside from their use of the Satanic goat of Mendes in their Church symbolism, there is hardly anything suggested in the activities of the Process to link them with the much publicized Satanic cults. If anything, they suggest the opposite; scrupulously polite and gentle with everyone they talk to, Processeans seem more inclined toward the qualities most people associate with Christ than toward those we associated with Satan.