404 explanations

Why your page wouldn't load according to various religions and denominations (read carefully as it initially looks like a normal 404 page). I especially liked this one:

Unitarian explanation: All links are equal, so if this link doesn't work for you, feel free to experiment with other links that might bring you joy and fulfillment.

To which could be added various Pagan explanations:

• Fluffy bunny: the fairies ate it
• Animist: You must be at one with the link before it will reveal itself
• Heathen: Sorry, we offered it to the wights as a libation
• Wiccan: Sorry you can't see it because it's a third-degree secret
  

Pagan weddings

While we're on the subject of marriage, I would like to see Pagan weddings given legal recognition in England and Wales, and in the USA.

Pagan handfastings already have legal recognition in Scotland.

In 2007, a woman named Cassandra M set up a petition on the Prime Minister's petitions website to make handfasting legal (now closed). The response was that they had reviewed the Marriage Act previously but were unable to come up with anything sensible so it was dropped. Furthermore, they said,

Traditional Pagan ceremonies are held in the open air. All outdoor ceremonies in the UK need an additional legal ceremony for the marriage to be recognised by law.

Well, Pagan ceremonies don't have to be held in the open air - even if we don't own many buildings, we can always hire them. Perhaps we need to re-open this issue with a slightly different wording of the petition.

I wonder if Hindu, Muslim and Sikh weddings are legally recognised under the current provisions for "Marriage solemnized in a registered building without the presence of a registrar, by the authorised person in whose presence the marriage is solemnized" which seems somewhat ambiguous - can Hindu, Muslim and Sikh celebrants be an "authorised person"? Why couldn't a Pagan become an "authorised person"?

Also, both Pagans and Unitarians would like the right to perform same-sex weddings.

Support gay marriage

A clear and concise video explaining why opposition to gay marriage limits the rights of religious minorities who want to perform gay marriages:



Via the Wild Hunt.

Dune kitteh sez...

The spice must flow:

What would a Pagan "clergy" look like?

Earlier I reflected on Gus di Zerega's arguments against having Pagan clergy.

A friend commented that if we're going to have clergy, maybe we should look to similar religions to Paganism(s) for role models.

Good point - but what religions are similar to Paganism? The nearest (as far as I can see) are Unitarian Universalism and Quakers (the Religious Society of Friends). Also, I would argue, liberal Judaism.

Well, out of those three, Quakers don't have clergy. The other two, however, do something very significant: the congregation selects the minister / rabbi. If you look at traditions where that doesn't happen, it's a recipe for trouble. Somebody gets a nice "bells and smells" thing going, and then the evangelical wing gets wind of it and sends in a bully-boy to stop it all turning too Catholic. OK, so people can vote with their feet, but what if that was the only high church game in town? Whereas, if the congregation selects the minister, they get to choose someone with a similar theological outlook and value system. In Wicca, the founder of the coven usually gets to be High Priest/ess; but there's usually more than one coven in town, so if you don't like the values of Coven A, there's usually Coven B and C just down the road; so you can vote with your feet (or found your own coven if you have enough experience); but that relies on the various covens having different values for seekers to choose from. In Heathenry and Druidry, which tends to have larger groups, there is usually only one group in a particular place.

So, we all need to be more up-front with seekers about what our values are. I think this is why there are so many solitary practitioners; I hear so many people say that they didn't like the ethos of the groups they tried. Sure, your coven/grove/hearth is LGBT-friendly - but do you mention same-sex love in your rituals? Sure, your group is consensual - but do you have a consensually-agreed-on set of guidelines that the whole group has worked out, which you can refer to when one ego tries to dominate? Sure, you're not authoritarian - but do you make people copy out the Book of Shadows?

Gus also worried about using the word "clergy" for our spiritual leaders. I agree that this word is probably not quite the one we want, as it doesn't encompass or imply witch, priestess, shaman, etc. How about gytha and gothi for Heathens, druid for Druids (I dislike the word druidess), priest and priestess for Wiccans - oh wait, we're already using those. I suppose we need a collective term for all of these that can be readily understood by the rest of the world.

The power of the "clergy" should be balanced by having a strong and well-informed committee or other body to which they are accountable (this mostly works fine for synagogues and UU churches).

In a Pagan setting, there should not be sermons; only talks and discussions. A Pagan ritual shows the way; it doesn't tell you the way, but leaves you to work it out for yourself. Similarly, a UU minister does not give a sermon; she or he gives an address, which the congregation are free to ignore, shred or take on board as they see fit. Some churches have a discussion instead of or after the address. In our coven, we use a talking stick for discussions; this works well to ensure everyone gets space and time to be heard.

The relationship of Pagan leaders to Pagan groups should be one of service offered to the community (not imposing orthodoxy); and rather than carping and complaining, people should be ready to take on leadership roles. Of course the passing-on of the mantle can only occur if the existing leadership empowers and encourages their successors; so all our interactions and training should be about empowering others and not keeping them as mere neophytes. (I've always said that I'd rather empower people because it's less effort than not doing so, quite apart from the ethical considerations).

Another good plan is to have an annual general meeting of your hearth/grove/coven where any issues can be brought out into the open. This can be opened and closed with some simple ritual act, such as grounding and centering, and is probably best facilitated using a talking stick; but I have found this very helpful in the past.

Stations

A series of posts reflecting on the Stations of the Cross and their contemporary meaning for the LGBT community, by a gay Christian blogger.

Early Christians did something very radical: They turned a symbol of torture and state power into a symbol of personal and social liberation.

This has happened many times in the LGBT community: Matthew Shepard's brutal murder launched a nationwide discussion regarding hate crimes; the AIDS crisis in the 1980's gave our community a powerful voice for change and liberation...

• Station Eight: Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem
• Station Seven: Jesus Falls a Second Time
• Station Six: Veronica Wipes Jesus' Face
• Station Five: Simon Helps Jesus Carry His Cross
• Station Four: Jesus Sees His Mother
• Station Three: Jesus Falls For the First Time
• Station Two: Jesus Takes Up His Cross
• Station One: Jesus is Brought Before Pilate

Iowa and Vermont

Hooray!  Iowa has legalised same-sex marriage.  This is significant because it's not on the more liberal coast but inland.  Iowa joins Massachusetts and Connecticut in granting marriage equality to same-sex couples.

The state of Vermont is on the way there, but sadly the bill is being opposed by the state governor.

Hopefully this will now give the same-sex marriage campaigners a boost in California, where Proposition 8 is already being challenged as illegal.

Homophobia - just say NO.

"Saying 'NO!' to homophobia is one of the healthiest steps any one of us can take, yet when our whole self-definition is based on negation, we miss something vital. We know who we're not, but we still don't have answers to the same basic questions, 'Who are we?' 'What does it mean to love as we do?'" -- John R Stowe

And in case you weren't heard the first time, say it again.

We can campaign for fairer laws – 86 member states of the United Nations still criminalise consensual same sex among adults. Among these, 7 have the death penalty for homosexuality. In addition, there are 6 provinces or territorial units which also imprison people for homosexuality. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people still do not receive completely equal treatment under British law.

We can challenge homophobic attitudes whenever we hear them. We can support campaigns like Stonewall (the gay rights lobby group) and IDAHO. IDAHO is the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia. May 17th was chosen because it marks the anniversary of the day in 1990 when the World Health Organisation removed homosexuality from its list of mental diseases.

And then say YES to positive LGBTQ identity:

• Spirit Matters IV:Ten Queer Spiritual Roles by Tom Moon
  
• The Homosexual Agenda and The Protocols of the Elders of Sodom by Hal Duncan
  

The Dog Delusion

Oh hai! I buhlieved in goggies befaw I read this book. Now I iz nawt so shure...

Hat-tip to Monkey Mind

Pagan clergy?

Gus di Zerega argues that Pagan clergy is not a good idea.

His first argument is that power corrupts, and a Pagan clergy could become corrupt.

Ye-e-es... Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and all that - but it won't if we don't give Pagan clergy absolute power.

I think it is worthwhile having people properly trained and accredited in counselling skills and having a good overview of Pagan understandings of birth, life, death, and rebirth, ethics and the nature of reality (so they can do chaplaincy work in prisons, hospitals, universities etc). But that does not mean that they thereby gain authority over other Pagans, or authority to speak for other Pagans. If they did, then I would be opposed to having clergy.

A lot of people want to take part in Pagan rituals and spirituality, but not to become a dedicated priest or priestess. Unless we are going to turn these people away, we will need people who are skilled facilitators of ritual and who have an understanding of group dynamics.

There are many different models of clergy, and I think we would do well to examine them all before dismissing the whole concept.

His second argument is that the connotations of clergy (and all the words that are linked to it) are not the same as the terms for Pagan spiritual leaders: priestess, priest, high priestess, high priest, Witch Queen, Magus, healer, medium, shaman, and diviner. Furthermore, he writes:

The critical question is where we will strike a workable balance between what we are now and what society as a whole finds comfortable. In negotiating this cultural dance we should never forget that Western society is based on beliefs that are fundamentally anti-Pagan. The secular world sees nature as mundane, composed in most cases of resources valued for their use to us. Human beings are the acme of existence, and science someday might give us power over the world. Even more important for this present discussion, Western Christian spirituality focuses on the sacred as only or almost entirely transcendent, the world as fallen, radically distrusts individual experience of the sacred, and regards the only truly reliable spiritual knowledge as coming from revealed written words, even if there is no agreement on what they actually say. Moreover, Catholics partially excepted, people continually need to be reminded about the sacred through sermons rather than participating in and reconnecting with the sacred through rituals.

Now that is a much better argument than the first one, and I agree that the style of Pagan ritual (and therefore the functions of the ritualists) is radically different from that of other traditions.

However, the training offered at Cherry Hill looks very Pagan and not at all conforming to mainline Protestant expectations.

His third argument is that the reason we seem to need some kind of official 'clergy' status is because church and state are still not as separate as they should be. He argues that we already have access to prisons, hospitals, and so on, and that we already do public ritual, so we don't need clergy for that. Also, he writes:

[F]or me the term 'laity' is as dangerous a term as 'clergy.' It suggests a sharp distinction between two groups rather than the complex blends we have as Pagans. We are focusing on divine immanence, not transcendence. This means we believe the sacred can be accessed everywhere when approached properly. Therefore the complex areas of life where spirituality and the mundane come together are even more an issue for Pagans than Christians. For this very reason, I think it would be a mistake creating the clergy/laity distinction.

Again, this argument is more convincing than the first. But perhaps we do need a collective name for the various different roles that people perform in ritual and beyond it.

On the other hand, as Chip O'Brien says in his comment on the third article:

I don't want to ask my office worker friend to marry my partner and me. I don't want to search for a priestess and wonder whether she's run this ceremony before, whether she's studied our traditions or just another New Age opportunist out to suck our community dry. Ultimately, I don't want to remain as we are now: bereft of role models, utterly lost when we fall into depression and spiritual questioning because there's no one we can talk to except our peers, who don't know any more than we do. This isn't about surrendering my personal power so someone else can provide my answers on a plate-- it's the fact that I don't have all the time and resources I'd need to be comfortable with myself as my only spiritual authority. In rough times, even the best of us may need some help hearing the gods again.

I think this last point is very important - I have recently been through a spiritually fallow period, and was greatly helped by having other Pagans to discuss my issues with; but I think I would have benefited from having someone to talk it through with who really understood all the issues and the theology. A full-time priest or priestess would have been helpful; but are we willing to contribute the funds to support full-time practitioners? I think most people, suspicious that clergy would be trying to wield authority over others, would not be prepared to contribute in any case.

Free Burmese political prisoners

These are the faces of Burma's political prisoners. Their crime: peacefully calling for democracy. Please sign the Avaaz petition calling for their release and that of Aung San Suu Kyi

great comic moments

Not the Nine O'Clock News - Songs of Praise

"Last week, which was Harvest Festival, there was myself, the verger, and a can of baked beans - but this week we're on the telly, so I see the church is full..."

Not the Nine O'Clock News - Monty Python worshippers

"Where two or three are gathered together, there shall they recite the parrot sketch"

(here's the background to this one for those unfamiliar with what it is sending up)

Not The Nine O'Clock News - Gerald the gorilla

"He bloody does eat daffodils"

The Apostles' Creed (Not the Nine O'Clock News)

I believe in flying saucers, the Loch Ness monster....

Gay Christian

"God just wants you to have a rotten life" - a wonderful send-up of the tortuous logic of trying to reconcile fundamentalist attitudes with LGBT sexuality

Christian attitudes to Nature

(see also Christians: a spotter's guide)

The Gnostics believed that the world was created by the demiurge and that matter was a trap for our souls which yearn to return to the Divine source.  Grade: E.  Fail.

In contrast to the this, the Orthodox Church believed that nature was good (one of the reasons why they opposed Gnosticism), and actually continued the Jewish custom of aligning its festivals to coincide with the seasons in the Mediterranean.  For example, the date of Easter is the first Sunday after the first full Moon after the Spring Equinox.  They also have nature-related festivals like the blessing of the waters at Epiphany; they love trees; saints like St Seraphim of Sarov who liked to hang out with bears; and their patriarch recently declared polluting the environment to be a sin.  On the downside, the Russian Orthodox Church is currently suppressing a Pagan religion, and seems rather too uncritical of the current government in Russia, which has a very poor environmental record.  They also don't understand that Pagans regard the Divine as immanent in Nature.   Grade: B.  Pass

The Roman Catholic Church tends to view "creation" as being fallen and damaged because of the Fall; but on the plus side they have St Francis of Assisi (patron saint of animals and the environment; author of Brother Sun, Sister Moon).  On the down side,  they disapproved of Teilhard de Chardin, biologist and theologian, and the last Pope excommunicated Matthew Fox who came up with creation spirituality.  Grade: C. Pass.  Could try harder.

Unitarians, UUs and Liberal Quakers, many of whom are pantheists, are often environmental activists.  No talk of dominion or even stewardship here.  Many regard the Divine as immanent in Nature (not too much talk about "creation" and the "Creator" here either). Many embrace process theology. Grade: A.  Distinction.

Protestant attitudes vary from the downright Gnostic all the way to "we are stewards of the world" (which still implies that it somehow belongs to us).  Grade: D.  Fail.

Dominionists, as the name implies, believe that we have dominion over "creation" (and the Rapture's coming soon anyway)  so we can exploit and destroy the environment if we want. They're also deeply misogynistic and homophobic.  Grade: F.  Monumental Fail.