Editing Church of Satan (section)

===After LaVey===
[[File:Karla LaVey.jpg|thumb|[[Karla LaVey]] during a "Black X-Mass" celebration in 2012|left|270x270px]]
After Anton Szandor LaVey's death on October 29, 1997, the role of High Priest was empty for some time. On November 7, 1997<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oocities.org/athens/olympus/6666/obit5.html |title='Black Pope' of Satanic Church dies aged 67 |agency=Reuters |location=San Francisco |date=November 7, 1997 |first=Andrew |last=Quinn}}</ref> [[Karla LaVey]] made a press release about continuing the church with fellow high priestess [[Blanche Barton]]. Barton eventually received ownership of the organization, which she held for 4 years. Karla LaVey ultimately left the Church of Satan and founded [[First Satanic Church]]. On October 16, 2001, the Black House, the original home of the Church, was demolished after a fundraising effort failed to raise enough to buy it.<ref name=ft.135>{{cite web |last1= Gilmore |first1=Peter H. |title="Yes, We Have No Occultism." |url=https://www.churchofsatan.com/yes-we-have-no-occultism/ |accessdate=8 January 2024}}</ref> (In 1992, LaVey had sold the house to a real estate developer to raise money to  settle a divorce but the developer allowed LaVey to continue to live in the house for free.)<ref name=JPLS2023:sect.4-Rise/>

[[Image:Peter H Gilmore by David Shankbone.jpg|thumb|High Priest [[Peter H. Gilmore]]]]
{{Wikinews|Satanism: An interview with Church of Satan High Priest Peter Gilmore}}
In 2001, Blanche ceded her position to longtime members Peter H. Gilmore and [[Peggy Nadramia]], the current High Priest and High Priestess and publishers of ''[[The Black Flame (magazine)|The Black Flame]]'', the official magazine of The Church of Satan, who managed an active CoS group in New York. The Central Office of the Church of Satan has also moved from San Francisco to New York City's [[Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan|Hell's Kitchen]] neighborhood, where the couple resides. The Church of Satan does not recognize any other organizations as holding legitimate claim to Satanism and its practice, though it does recognize that one need not be a member of the Church of Satan to be a Satanist.

In October 2004, the [[Royal Navy]] officially recognised its first registered Satanist, 24-year-old Chris Cranmer, as a technician aboard {{HMS|Cumberland|F85|6}}.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3948329.stm |title=UK &#124; Navy approves first ever Satanist |publisher=BBC News |date=2004-10-24 |access-date=2009-06-07}}</ref>