Feb 4 2016

Dear Boston Parks Chief Ranger Greg Tinkham:

I can almost agree to the wording of your permit conditions, but for a slight amendment.

You said we may not undertake activities which “may” violate the substance restrictions of municipal,

state or federal jurisdictions. Your statement bears slight modification.

You see, we plan to bring a variety of fully lawful cannabis products to the relevant sites at the relevant

times, all of which “may” violate the relevant statutes, but none of which does violate them.

Allow me to explain:

HEMP, KANEH, KANEH BOS, CALAMUS

First of all, all US and State cannabis bans leave totally un-banned a type of cannabis known as “hemp”

via the words “mature stalks,” as well as fibers and other materials garnered from such mature stalks.

It is my understanding that the DEA, which purports to have the authority to define the difference

between hemp and banned sorts of cannabis, has been challenged as to whether it even does have any

such authority delegated to it by Congress. Whether or not any such authority exists, there are still vast

arrays of cannabis products still fully lawful under even the strictest interpretation of the law. For

example, our hempen hooded cowls, our hemp twine rosaries (with beads made from cross sections of

lawfully-grown medicinal cannabis stalk scrap), our hemp seed oil and raw seed (called “Kaneh Bar” in

Biblical Hebrew) are all fully lawful and are sold in stores and on Amazon, see ATTACHMENT 1.

With regard to our ashes, some of them will be made from fully lawful “Kaneh Aleh”, or inert hemp,

while others will be also inert but come from “calamus”, a type of Biblical KNH BSM (see “RELIGION”

below) which is not cannabis at all, but which is a natural cannabis blocker instead.

Let this be an educational experience: the English word “hemp” is derived from the Biblical plant

medicine word “KNH BSM”. KNH BSM was the aromatic resins collected from the KNH plant in the Bible.

KNH was the Bible’s staple textile crop, so much that it forms the root of the English word “canon”,

meaning “standard”. In fact, in the Bible, the king’s hemp staff was the realm’s standard unit of

measurement, or ruler. He who wielded it was the “khan”, or king.

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Etymologically, the word morphed roughly as follows:

KNH (kaneh) -- proto-Hebrew

• khaneh / chaneh -- modern Hebrew

• canopy / kanopy -- Greek

• chanvre -- French

• canvas -- Dutch

• hanf / hampf -- German

• hemp -- English

So, no, we will be bringing a variety of KNH products which “may” break the law, but which do not do so.

RELIGION

As mentioned in our application and above, we are an Originalist church, meaning we practice by

following instructions in the original Biblical languages in which they were written.

We therefore pray with a wide variety of KNH BSM types and forms. For example, in the Book of

Exodus, Chapter 30 verse 23, the recipe for the holy Anointing Oil specifies some 6 lbs of KNH BSM is to

be dissolved in olive oil with other spices. In the 3rd century BC, when Greeks occupied the Holy Land,

the Old Testament was forcibly translated into Greek, and the word KNH BSM was bizarrely translated

as “calamus” (a cannabis-blocking drug). For that reason, calamus is a type of KNH BSM, by some

standards, and we often include it in such services. In this sense, as a type of KNH BSM (a classification

of substances known to cause unusual reactions in Park Police), calamus “may” well be unlawful

violation of applicable statute, but “is” not unlawful.

Likewise, standard lawful prayer incense, following the Biblical recipe, is so close to cannabis that it

“may” be unlawful (since Biblical law forbade it from being burned without cannabis Anointing Oil

covering the brazier), but “is” not unlawful. Likewise, a wide variety of Anointing Oils are commercially

available on Amazon and other online shopping venues, utterly unmolested by law enforcement,

presumed fully lawful despite being made by an ancient recipe calling for “KNH BSM”, a plant medicine

resembling modern cannabis in all its Biblical depictions, and shown clearly in the Biblical KNH BSM art

decorating the stained glass of Boston’s Holy Cross Cathedral, as well as that of Washington DC’s

National Basilica (see ATTACHMENTS 2 & 3, respectively). In this sense, we always have KNH BSM and

cannabis oil (including hemp seed oil) with us, and “may” be breaking the law, but “are” not doing so.

As far as we know, they may even be cannabis oils of the normally prohibited sort in the Amazon-

purchased Anointing Oils, natively, but for anyone to bother testing it or nosing into it is offensive.

Likewise, the Anointing Oil used by the Grand Canyon South Rim National Park Catholic Chapel clergy is

as likely as any Anointing Oil to follow the real recipe, for the dioceses seem unwilling to deny it -- but

no one has bothered them, and we expect the same protection of our practice, faith for faith, oil for oil,

Park for Park.

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Which brings to bear the matter of the Constitution. When the US Supreme Court in 2004 ruled that a

Church using ayahuasca (normally considered a banned hallucinogen) was NOT in violation of the

federal controlled substances act, despite prima facie non-compliance, as a matter of Constitutional

primacy. In their case, ayahuasca “may” have been unlawful, but was not.

Pay careful attention to the Court’s metric of whether or not ayahuasca could be allowed: it was

deemed not a compelling interest to stop its religious use, due to its lack of popularity and abuse, due

to rarity. But your Park Service’s regulations allow the Grand Canyon Chapel to serve wine, a harmful,

widely-abused drug, to underage (16-20 y.o.) drivers, not only unsupervised by any law enforcement,

but not even by any clergy or other monitors, under an honor system. To grant that to a wine church,

but not to users of a less popular, less harmful sacrament, is a clear violation of the Establishment

clause of the US Constitution. Any advice from your counsel to the contrary is so wrong, you should

seek the aid of your Union prior to following what is best described as a bad order to break your oath

to uphold the Constitution.

In a nutshell, there is the matter of uber-lawful hemp KNH, the matter of KNH which is not cannabis but

which is similar, there is the matter of related Biblical items which are closely related to cannabis but

fully lawful, and there is the matter of a Constitutional freedom application disparity by the Park Service,

between our Church and Grand Canyon South Rim’s Catholic Church, which is so over-obvious as to

offend the sensibilities of a 10 year-old.

So yes, we “may”, but “will not” break any laws. Your police are strongly advised not to go picking

through standard objects, unguents, powders, stones and sticks of Biblical worship, seeking a micron of

banned cannabis in utterly ridiculous circumstances.

NOTE: On or about July 22 2015, Park Police in Providence RI, at the sacred Well where religious

freedom was first founded (spreading outward first to the whole US< then to the whole world as other

countries copied US Constitutional rights) seized inert ashes from the Church, after having repeatedly

allowed their possession on other occasions. Please be advised that US personnel “may” not violate

basic fundamental rights enumerated in the Constitution, and that the seizure, inspection or testing of

inert ashes, on Ash Wednesday of all days, would not likely be viewed well in the eyes of Almighty God,

who commanded us to make “the aroma soothing to the Lord” so He could end violence and sickness.

We hope you meditate upon your oath while gazing at the stained glass Biblical cannabis art visible in

Boston’s Holy Cross Cathedral, if you don’t have time to visit similar art in Washington DC’s National

Basilica. Please enjoy the sample of images provided in ATTACHMENTS 2 and 3, respectively in the

meanwhile.

Blessed Be,

Alan Gordon, Canon

The Healing Church

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ATTACHMENT 1

PARTIAL LIST OF CANNABIS, KNH, KNH BSM, CALAMUS, AND RELATED ITEMS WHICH ARE FULLY LAWFUL

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ATTACHMENT 1 CONTINUED

• Anointing Oil

• Incense

• Olive oil

• Common cinnamon (Cassia, or KDDH)

• Ceylonese, or “true” cinnamon (KNMN BSM)

• Cardamom (KDDH)

• Myrrh (MRD)

• Moringa oil (flowing MRD)

• Calamus

• Cannabis (KNH, KNH BR and KNH BSM)

o Oil

o Seed oil

o Seed (KNH BR)

o Mature stalks

• Sweet cane

• Sweet flag

• Frankincense

• Stachte

• Onyx

• Nard

• Gum resin

• Crucifix

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ATTACHMENT 1 CONTINUED

• Mary figurine

• Sacred Vessels and Censer

• Candle

• Holy Land soil

ATTACHMENT 2 -- BIBLICAL KNH BSM STAINED GLASS BASILICA ART IN BOSTON AND WASH

DC, BELOW, NEXT PAGE

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ATTACHMENT 2: Samples of Biblical cannabis-themed art in Boston’s Holy Cross Cathedral

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ATTACHMENT 3: Biblical cannabis-themed art in Washington DC’s National Basilica Shrine

(Note: the middle image above depicts a for-comparsion cannabis flower not shown in the Basilica)