User:WikiDan61/Gabriel of Sedona

Anthony J. Delevin (born July 5, 1946, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) (also known as Gabriel of Sedona, Gabriel of Urantia, TaliasVan of Tora and simply TaliasVan) is a New Age spiritual leader and musician. He is the founder of the Global Community Communications Alliance in Prescott, Arizona, and of the musical genre he has dubbed "CosmoPop".

Early life
Delevin was born on July 5, 1946, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He studied theology at Duquesne University, and at the time was involved with the Catholic Charismatic Movement. He left his theology studies for full-time street ministry serving alcoholics, drug addicts, and the homeless, opening a halfway house known as Sonlight Ministries on 4th Avenue in Tucson, Arizona. Over the course of many years, Delevin spent time in several different monasteries.

Musical career
Delevin started singing at age 6 and performing at age 8 on street corners of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At age 12, he sang with harmony groups and performed rhythm and blues, or soul music, influenced by the African American culture in his neighborhood at the time. At age 15, he initiated his first band “The Fuzzes,” an R&B band.

Delevin began professionally recording in the early 1960s, first with the Snyder Recording Company in Cleveland, Ohio and then at Gateway Studios in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with Joni Wilson and the Debonairs. He performed and sang lead with T. J. & the Night Kaps, and sang at many night Clubs in Pittsburgh including the Holiday House.

At age 24, he began writing spiritual music and compositions and spent 11 years performing spiritual concerts. He did opening acts for Christian rock bands Petra, Resurrection Band, and Servant at the University of Arizona. In 1985, after years of service in youth ministry organizations across the USA and in his own Son Light Ministries in the 4th Avenue area of Tucson, Arizona, Delevin went back to Pittsburgh to record Unicorn Love at Aircraft Studios. After its release, he was featured in the South Pittsburgh Reporter for bringing higher-consciousness music to the American public. He then travelled to Los Angeles to market Unicorn Love, dubbing the music "CosmoPop", and "New Age Vocal" (vocal music being rare in the New Age music of the era). Delevin chose the term "CosmoPop" to differentiate his music from other contemporary Christian music. The name reflects Delevin's belief that he created the music in another universe, from which his soul originates. Delevin had trouble marketing his new musical genre. He formed a nonprofit record label, Global Change Music, to record and showcase his new CosmoPop brand of music.

Delevin formed the Bright & Morning Star Band to perform his CosmoPop music.

Global Community Communications Alliance
= Global Community Communications Alliance= Global Community Communications Alliance, a church and religious organization originally founded in 1989 in Prescott, Arizona by Anthony J. Delevin (publicly known as Gabriel of Urantia) and Niánn Emerson Chase (born Nancy Chase). Organized as an IRS section 501(c)(3) church consisting of a Board of Directors, Elders and Ordained Ministers. Gabriel and Niánn together hold the "Mandate of the Bright and Morning Star".

The foundational teachings of the church, “a new millennium church,” are based on revelatory concepts, a new thought theology with elements from The Urantia Book, as well as The Cosmic Family volumes. Global Community Communications Alliance is the first URANTIA Book church in the country and world—The URANTIA Book published in 1955 being the beginning of the Fifth Epochal Revelation to humankind, and The Cosmic Family volumes (brought through by Gabriel of Urantia) are believed to be the continuation of the Fifth Epochal Revelation (the other nine-tenths). Their sacred texts teach the concepts of “One God” through “ascension science” –the fusion of science and spirituality. Other religious texts such as the Holy Bible, the Koran, the Torah, the Bhagavad Gita, the Book of Mormon, the writings of Bahá'u'lláh, and the Tao Te Ching are also considered to bring truths to our world’s peoples.

Resident religious order “[m]embers come from diversified backgrounds such as ministry, medicine, law, music, art, media, construction, architecture, and global communication. Their common thread is the desire for a life of integrity, simplicity, and harmony, as they work to align themselves with the divine patterns of life on earth.”

Since its creation GCCA has founded other supporting organizations, and many outreach ministries including Spirit Steps Tours, Global Change Multi-Media, Future Studios, The Alternative Voice, and Global Community Communications Schools. GCCA has operated Avalon Organic Gardens & EcoVillage as a C.S.A. (Community Supported Agriculture) farm for more than twenty years. “They [not only] embrace a spiritual and natural approach to living off the land and growing food for sustainability and health” but also widely share this approach with others.

International interest in the group began in 1996, when it was first featured on an Italian television show. Since that time, they have been featured in many news articles in the United States and other countries, including the EcoVillage Network of the Americas and two Japanese periodicals, Trinity Magazine and Star People Magazine.

Along with The Cosmic Family volumes, the church founders Gabriel and Niánn, have authored and published many books and articles including The Divine New Order, the autobiography of Gabriel of Urantia, Teachings on Healing, The Best of the Film Industry, and numerous articles in many periodicals, including Communities Magazine (Summer 2008, Fall 2008, Fall 2009, Winter 2009, and Winter 2010).

Gabriel was born on July 5, 1946, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He studied theology at Duquesne University, and at the time was involved with the Catholic Charismatic Movement. He left his theology studies for full-time street ministry serving alcoholics, drug addicts, and the homeless, opening a halfway house known as Sonlight Ministries on 4th Avenue in Tucson, Arizona. Over the course of many years, Gabriel spent time in several different monasteries. Gabriel began his music career singing as a youth on street corners and professionally in the 1960s. In 1985, he recorded the first new age vocal album, which made succeeding New Age Vocal Music commercial. He declined a contract offer from a major record label because he was not willing to change his spiritual lyrics. To date, he has released 18 singles, five full length albums, three music videos, and an award winning live concert DVD.

Niánn Emerson Chase grew up on four different Native American reservations in the southwestern United States. After earning her Bachelor’s Degree in Literature/English and Education, she returned to the San Carlos Apache Reservation in Arizona where she lived and taught for fifteen years before co-founding GCCA.

History and vision
Avalon Gardens was started in 1994 in northern Arizona, USA. In 2007 the ecovillage moved to the Potreros Ranch in Tumacacori, neighboring the Mission San José de Tumacácori (Tumacacori Mission), started by Father Eusebio Kino in 1691. The ecovillage incorporates some of the traditional agricultural practices employed by the Tumacacori ranchers and farmers in former decades as well as newer permaculture methods. They plan to extend their facilities and housing to accommodate visiting and resident WWOOFers, students, and workshop participants.

Organic gardening
Avalon Gardens has a year-round organic food production system that involves greenhouses, garden beds and forest gardening, drip irrigation, soil composting and development, food preservation, and seed saving. Avalon Gardens locally participates in the community-supported agriculture (CSA) program, being the first established in the state of Arizona. Their “Hands In The Soil” mornings are organized for public participation in organic gardening at the ecovillage, and workshops and tours are held regularly for public education and training. The gardens also supplies vegetables to the Food For Ascension Café, an organic vegan-vegetarian and slow food movement restaurant in Tucson.

Water harvesting
Water harvesting is important to the ecovillage because they are located in desert climate. At the ecovillage, rainwater is collected from house rooftops and water-catchment tanks. Thousands of gallons of run-off rainwater are redirected and stored to water high-water use trees, their food forest, gardens, and pastures. Through a greywater system, water is harvested from washing machines, indoor and outdoor showers, and house sinks and basins. This water is used to water flower beds, trees, and plants around the homes.

Rainwater harvesting has become significant in view of the realization that water has become scarce and it is becoming a critical problem globally. In big cities large residencies are required to have a rainwater harvesting system. For the present, drains are being constructed with conventional materials such as brick and stonemasonry and R.C.C. side drains. Rain water is made to flow through these drains to a centralized water storage tank. Water from this tank is designated for nondomestic and gardening purposes. The water storage tank is of brick masonry or R.C.C. The drains for the flow of rainwater and the tank for the storage of rainwater can be constructed using Ferrocement technology. Ferrocement drains are machine-made, precast products about 2.4 to 5 meters long with covers and perforations of the same length at about 25 mm thick. The surfaces of these drains are known to be strong and not easily eroded by the flow of water. The bottom and sides of the water storage tanks consist of ferrocement plates with space frames. These plates are about 25 mm thick, waterproof, strong, durable, and low-maintenance.

Energy-efficient building
The ecovillage uses sustainable, renewable, and recycled building materials in their building and construction projects. Paper and cardboard products are reused by blending them into a fiber pulp that is mixed with cement, poured into molds, and dried. This reused paper-cement mix is called papercrete, and the blocks are used as building material for walls, benches, flower beds, and other types of structures. Some of the sustainable dwellings at Avalon Gardens include earth domes, monolithic domes, yurts, and Eco-friendly houses.

Sustainable transport & sharing resources
To reduce their ecological footprint, noise and air pollution, ecovillage residents carpool, group-transit, bike, walk, and use other means of sustainable transport. Assigned shoppers buy food and supplies in bulk, and designated shuttle drivers make daily pickups and deliveries for over 100 residents.

Ecovillage residents share resources like vehicles, washing machines, and household appliances to make the most and best use of them. One of their facilities is a community kitchen and dining room where most of the meals are prepared and served for the entire community. Bio-friendly cleaning products and personal care products are also used to avoid water and environmental contamination.

List of agricultural and sustainable ractices

 * meat, dairy, and egg dietary needs provided by on-ranch animals
 * composting
 * food forest gardening
 * greywater and rainwater harvesting
 * eco & "green" building practices in construction, including papercrete
 * use of solar power and wind power
 * sustainable transport

History
CosmoPop's originator, TaliasVan, started singing at age 6 and performing at age 8 on street corners of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At age 12, he sang with harmony groups and performed rhythm and blues, or soul music, influenced by the African American culture in his neighborhood at the time. At age 15, he initiated his first band “The Fuzzes,” an R&B band.

TaliasVan began professionally recording in the early 1960s, first with the Snyder recording company in Cleveland, Ohio and then at Gateway Studios in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with Joni Wilson and the Debonairs. He performed and sang lead with T. J. & the Night Kaps, and sang at many night Clubs in Pittsburgh including the Holiday House.

At age 24, he began writing spiritual music and compositions and spent 11 years performing spiritual concerts. He did opening acts for Christian rock bands Petra, Resurrection Band, and Servant at the University of Arizona. After years of service in youth ministry organizations across the USA and in his own Son Light Ministries in the 4th Avenue area of Tucson, Arizona TaliasVan went back to Pittsburgh to record Unicorn Love. After its release, he was featured in the South Pittsburgh Reporter for bringing higher-consciousness music to the American public.

In his late thirties in Pittsburgh, TaliasVan joined a Catholic black gospel choir, belonging to the St. Benedict the Moor Catholic Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania—when he went back home to record his first vinyl album Unicorn Love in 1985 at Aircraft Studios in Dormont, Pennsylvania. He then went to Los Angeles to market his commercial spiritual vocal album, which was the beginning of CosmoPop music. While he was there, he was chosen as lead vocalist with the one-hundred-voice black gospel choir of St. Brigid Catholic Church in Los Angeles, California.

As TaliasVan's personal life changed so did his musical style, first called “Luminary.” The music no longer followed the contemporary Christian sound of the time, so he coined the term “New Age Vocal” to describe his Unicorn Love album, which was the first New Age Vocal album, after which others followed. He believed it was the first New Age Vocal album, because he was in Hollywood and Windham Hill rejected his album, saying “New Age music can’t be vocal.” He also noted that in West Hollywood at a New Age music store which his friend managed there were no New Age Vocal albums.

TaliasVan did not want to identify his work with contemporary Christian music, because he felt he was beyond that consciousness, and thought the only choice at that time was New Age Vocal, but it was the beginning of CosmoPop sound and the first CosmoPop music album.

TaliasVan has expressed that because CosmoPop is a new style of music, he has had a difficult time marketing it. In 1986 he met songwriter Al Kasha, winner of 2 Academy Awards for Best Song of the Year for Motion Pictures “We Will Never Love This Way Again” and “The Morning After”. Al Kasha said Unicorn Love was “a wonderful album.” Later, in 1988 he was acknowledged as the pioneer of “New Age Vocal,” which he developed to add lyrical and vocal expression to the spiritual thoughts of instrumental New Age music. He formed a nonprofit record label, Global Change Music, to record and showcase his new CosmoPop brand of music.

Style & Composition
The musical instruments TaliasVan & The Bright & Morning Star Band use to create CosmoPop music include saxophones, trumpets, flutes, keyboards, drums, percussion, bass, and rhythm guitar, as well as lead and harmonizing vocals.

CosmoPop music combines at least two different musical genres, with the more compositionally-complex songs incorporating three to four genres. Many of these songs include mantras of various kinds, even in his country western work, which he calls CosmoCountry. CosmoPop music expresses a variety of feelings, sounds, moods, and dimensions within one song or album. Some critics describe CosmoPop music as a unique and new form of music “that can take your consciousness from this planet to another planet—even another universe—in just one song.” TaliasVan believes that he originated CosmoPop music in another universe, from which his soul originates, (he teaches there are also five hundred million others called starseed) which he believes to be the Pleiades. He chose the name CosmoPop because it means “universally popular” and has nothing to do with pop music.

Others have described CosmoPop music as “spiritually charming” with “uplifting positive lyrics presented as a tool for positive global change.” TaliasVan has been described as an “artist’s artist,” and CosmoPop music as “message music,” “multidimensional,” “Conscious Pop,” and “music of the future for minds of the future.”  CosmoDance, the style of dance associated with CosmoPop music, has been described as movement “inspired and guided by the spirit within” in response to the music.

Local & National Influence
The musical venue Future Studios hosted early concerts by The Bright & Morning Star Band featuring CosmoPop music. The venue was locally known for presenting artists from different countries like Argentina, the Middle East, and Africa and was recognized for contributing to the cultural, artistic, and musical scenes of Arizona. CosmoPop music appeals to local audiences in Arizona for the spiritual content of its lyrics, and The Bright & Morning Star Band won the Verde Valley Newspaper’s Reader’s Choice Awards in 2005 for “Best Local Musicians.”

The Bright & Morning Star Band’s first “Sacred Global CosmoPop Concert” was held in 2004, and later aired on Oasis TV in two parts. One of their first outdoor concerts featuring CosmoPop music was held in summer 2005 in Flagstaff, Arizona at Wheeler Park. Also in 2005 The Bright & Morning Star Band held a CosmoPop concert in Mount Shasta, California, which was the first of a series of CosmoPop Benefit Concerts to promote the idea of “Music and Business without Greed.” The concerts were recognized nationwide to contribute to the enhancement of social service organizations.

Awards & Recognition
In August 1998, "The Morning Song" a CosmoPop song, was chosen by the magazine and network New Age Voice to be included on their “International Promo.”

In January 19, 1999, KKUP in Cupertino, California, 91.5 FM, interviewed TaliasVan on its "Changes Radio" program. DJ Elizabeth Gips and TaliasVan discussed the fourth-dimensional aspects of his CosmoPop music and the need for individual and global change. In February 7, 1999, KDHX 88.1 FM radio in St. Louis, Missouri featured TaliasVan & The Bright & Morning Star Band's Holy City CD in a broadcast on DJ Gabriel's Tin Pan Alley program. He discussed with DJ Gabriel the "universally popular" sounds of CosmoPop music. His CosmoPop song, "The Freedom Song"—written for Nigerian freedom fighter Ken Saro-Wiwa—was listed in the March 1999 Top 20 of the country of Romania.

The CosmoPop song "Wake Up America," from the Holy City CD was featured on KFLX (Flagstaff, Arizona) during an interview with TaliasVan regarding his Wake-Up America, Wake-Up-World, Radical Unity Tour. The song received recognition for being a response of peace instead of arms to the 9/11/2001 attack on the Twin Towers in New York City.

In 2005, The Bright & Morning Star Band received The Aurora Awards Gold Award for Best Live Concert, for their Sacred Global CosmoPop Concert in professional company with Disney and Fox media, who were recognized and awarded in their respective categories.

CosmoWorship
TaliasVan's Bright & Morning Star Choir and Orchestra performs CosmoWorship music, which like CosmoPop, is music written to reflect the “face of God” and connect listeners to higher Interuniversal realities and cosmic truths. Critics have described CosmoWorship music as a “growing and boldly harmonic creative phenomena.”

The Bright & Morning Star Choir and Orchestra began performing CosmoWorship music in 1995. Since then the choir has performed throughout Arizona, making live, radio, television, and worldwide webcast appearances. The choir is locally known for their charitable work during the holiday season. They have sung traditional carols and his original compositions for the St. Andrew’s Children’s Clinic in Nogales, the Santa Rita Care Center in Green Valley, and at the Tubac Plaza Main Stage in Tubac, Arizona. TaliasVan’s CosmoPop music CD, The God Child Came Christmas Album, features some songs performed and supplemented by The Bright & Morning Star Choir and Orchestra. The CDs CosmoWorhip I and CosmoWorship II contain CosmoWorship songs sung and performed by the 40-voice Bright & Morning Star Choir and Orchestra. TaliasVan believes that music has tremendous power to heal and this is a main motivator behind his music ministry which brings the sacred to popular music.

Spiritual Purpose
CosmoPop music uses popular culture forms to show the face of God and spur “a spiritual quantum leap on a mass scale” to bring people back to a personal relationship with their Creator and change world consciousness. All CosmoPop music has a “spiritual bent”  and its lyrical messages seek to bring hope and answers to life’s problems. CosmoPop music is part of the language to relieve the suffering of the world. He believes that God can bring forth a spiritual solution and create a Spiritualution(SM) movement. TaliasVan has said the essence of CosmoPop music inspires and restores the spiritual value in living.

Night Clubs
1964–1968 Forerunner to CosmoPop sound: played in night clubs throughout Pittsburgh and surrounding cities:
 * The Pin Up on Liberty Avenue downtown


 * The Fox in Shady Side


 * The IBBA (Italian Brotherhood Beneficial Association) on Liberty Avenue


 * The Caravan, Squirrel Hill


 * Bon Ange, Route 51


 * The Kaleidoscope, Monroeville


 * Van Braam Lounge, uptown


 * Holiday House, Monroeville


 * Toot’s Lounge, Braddock

Singles
1964 recorded 18 singles at Snyder Recording Company, Cleveland, Ohio with his band The Fuzzes with manager Ken Julian.

1965 at the time, he was briefly managed by the manager of the Del Vikings, Joe Averback, who took the song “Stiff Leg” to Mercury Records in New York. They called the manager and said they wanted to sign TaliasVan but they wanted him to sing Beatle-mania, which was new to America, because the Beatles had not been to America yet. He refused, saying that he was a rhythm & blues singer.

1966 Jive-Doo-Ley-Bop (Gateway Studios, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)

1966 Come Into My Heart  (Gateway Studios, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)

1966 This Boy Got Class  (Gateway Studios, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)

Discography of Albums
1985 Unicorn Love (called then New Age Vocal)

1997 Holy City (CosmoPop, CosmoFolk & CosmoRock)

1997 CosmoWorship I

1999 Sedona Sunrise 3-Song CosmoPop & DVD set

2000 CosmoPop Millennium

2005 The God Child Came ( Cosmo Christmas )

2007 3-Song Introduction to CosmoCountry

2008 CosmoPop Variety

2008 Energy Master ( CosmoMystic )

2010 CosmoWorship II

2013 Tenache 3-Song CosmoNative

Filmography
1999 Sedona Sunrise 3-Song CosmoPop & DVD set

2005 Sacred Global CosmoPop Concert

2006 Sedona Sunrise Music Video