Pagan Leaders Summit Report
I had a chance to attend the Pagan Leaders Summit in Bloomington, IN over the weekend of 3/2 to 3/4/01. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet with people I have only corresponded with by email or heard about.
I came away from the summit with great hope for the future! We demonstrated that we could work together even though we came from different traditions. It turned out that we all share common concerns for the future, the problem of discrimination for members of our religions, the question of professionalism for Pagan Clergy and Leadership and the problem of funding of our religions among many others. A full list of the issues that came up can be found on the PEN (Pagan Education Network) web site at http://www.bloomington.in.us/~pen/summit.html.
By the end of the weekend, we had developed a list of people willing to work on many of the problems. I’ll be working on training Pagan Clergy, specifically Druid Clergy for the near future, and bringing more professionalism into the leadership of Pagan Organizations.
We also proved that our organizations can come together to present a beautiful interfaith ritual. The ritual on Saturday evening was facilitated by myself, Moose & Owl, from Ozark Avalon, and Susan Granquest from the Irminsul Ættir, an Ásatrú church.
I’ll also be organizing a local meeting of the leaders of Pagan groups in this area, similar to what was done in Bloomington, to find out their concerns and areas they are willing to help in. The date hasn’t been set yet, but it will be sometime this summer. If you are interested in helping with the planning, please email me at sellison@twcny.rr.com.
I’ve included some pictures that I took at the summit below. You can click on any of the photos to see a large version.
This was the centerpiece for our large group meetings.
Cairrill Adaire, Selena Fox and Sparky T. Rabbit.
This was the altar used in the Saturday night ritual.
Selena Fox and Susan Granquest
Owl, Cairrill & Moose
