Okay, I have to admit that I am not a fan of anything that appends the word "Pride" to a cause, a celebration, or a parade. This particular "Pagan Pride Day" occurred in Nanaimo last weekend. Nanimo is located in Vancouver Island, and otherwise looks like a nice place to visit.
Except for this:
If you click on the poster, you might notice the image of a cross (following the "N" in the word "Pagan").
I guess the cross is there to attract christian pagans, pagan christians, christopagans, or some other oppressed group that our progressive church has not yet won over. I wonder if they will borrow a page from T.E.c. road signs and use "The Pagan Church Welcomes You" as a motto.
They do appear to be a welcoming "church." You can even join them and drink the witches' brew available at the Temple of the Green Cauldron in Nanimo. As they say,
"This is a great time to come out, meet and greet and ask questions. Bring along your tarot, runes or whatever you like for a witches show and tell!"Sorry that I missed it.
A browse through the temple's web pages will either raise a smile or a groan as you read,
"The Temple of The Green Cauldron is authorized by the Province of British Columbia through our parent organization the Congregationalist Wiccan Association of British Columbia, to perform legal marriages."I had to read more...
"Temple marriages and handfastings are religious ceremonies in the Wiccan faith, and are performed by ordained Clergy."Handfasting? Is that just during Lent?
"The Temple of The Green Cauldron supports the right of all loving couples to be legally wed, in accordance with the laws of Canada, regardless of gender or sexual orientation."This is beginning to sound very familiar.
"Please book well in advance and request additional information from info at greencauldron.orgThey must have read the tea leaves because they knew what my next question would be,
There is no fee charged for handfastings, but a minimum donation of $50 is encouraged.
Travel expenses from Nanaimo and return are the responsibility of the couple."
"The CWABC on Polyamorous MarriageWe have some clergy in T.E.c. who would love this! I wonder how much it would cost to ship a couple of our consenting Episcopal bishops to Vancouver Island for some CPE?
The CWABC, as a Wiccan religious organization, supports as an article of faith, as stated in the Charge of the Goddess, that “all acts of love and pleasure” are the Goddess’ rituals.
To us this means that any form of love or sexuality that is non-abusive, and non-coercive, between consenting adults, is acceptable and even desirable. This includes, but is not limited to, relationships that are heterosexual or homosexual, relationships that are monogamous or polyamorous, and relationships that are alternative or conventional.
Our clergy can, and will, perform any kind of Pagan-oriented or Pagan-multifaith marriage ceremony within the bounds of the law. However, the law currently forbids legally recognized clergy from presiding over any ceremony that bears any sort of resemblance to a wedding between more than two partners. For this reason, and only this reason, our religious representatives, as recognized by the Province of British Columbia, cannot perform polyamorous handfastings, or even handfastings between two people when one of the parties involved is still legally married to someone else.Can't they come up with an incantation to get that law changed?
If we are approached to perform such a ceremony, we will refer the interested parties to clergy within our Church, or to qualified individuals within the Pagan community, who do not have legal marrying credentials from the Province of British Columbia."Sounds a bit like the same sex blessing advice being handed out by certain Episcopal priests and bishops as a "generous pastoral response" to same sex couples. The unspoken promise of T.E.c. is similar, "We will find a way to bless whatever it is you want blessed."
I have faith that this false teaching, like those forthcoming false liturgies for same sex blessings in the Episcopal church, will ultimately fail. The further we stray from the faith of our fathers, the more similarities we find between us and the pagan religions. I seem to recall a whole lot of O.T. stories about what happens when we start worshipping sacred poles and such. I pray that people will open their hearts to Jesus and close their ears to the wiccan's call.
Oops, I have to run and feed Pyewacket...
I just wonder if tarot cards can tell them what I think about the cross on that poster?
Posts
A more prosaic explanation of the cross is that it was chosen for purely visual reasons. Look at the left and right sides of the page. Each symbol on the left is balanced by a roughly similar symbol on the right. The symbol opposite the cross is what I will call, in my ignorance, a double bladed ax. The cross is the only symbol I can think of which has very roughly the same form: a vertical section, and two horizontal arms near the top.
ReplyDeleteAccording to their standards, 'Intergenerational' (alias pedophilia) is not OK, but bestiality could be just fine if the animal is an 'adult' and seems willing. They did not specify adult human.
ReplyDeleteThe Holy Bible is evidently not even on their radar as a guide or constraint to thoughts, heart attitudes and behavior.
They do not have a clue what spirits they are of.
Did you find out if they admit to being pro-abortion, alias choice? Sounds like they would consider abortion but a small and necessary sacrifice for all that unconstrained intoxicating (addictive) adult pleasure. If you worship the Baals (god of sexual pleasure), you will always end up worshipping Molech (god of death and child sacrifice).
I will not even go to their site.
Tregonsee,
ReplyDeleteOnly the Earth Mother Godess knows why they put the cross there.
Whitestone,
ReplyDeleteAs far as I can tell, Wiccans can be pro-choice, pro-life, or undecided.
Perhaps, they were reaching out to the DioPA's Druid contingent.
ReplyDeleteAndy,
ReplyDeleteI didn't check to see if the Melnyks were there.
With regard to the cross question; The symbol predates the modern Christian era and was once often claimed by many forms of faith including as was list many of our Druidic as well as Irish and Scottish culture which we see as what is often called "the Old Religion" the New religion being the synthesis of the old practices and that of semi modern practices seen in the church of England and Scotland as such the shared heritage rather then individual identification of a specific church or religious doctrine this would included First Nation, Greek,Indo-China sects to name but a few related Pagan originated movements; while use of the Cross is often disagreeable by many fundamentalist christian movement which by the way have canon and text to the line of thou shall not suffer a Witch or other anti pagan rhetoric which is in contradiction to the golden rule thou shall not kill and we should all be nice to our neighbors... bit of a contradiction but ok... as such the many Pagan folk who are reclaiming and rejoining their culture and traditions see the sign as part of the larger interconnected world of live and get along...
ReplyDeleteMHO
Elder Headworth
Worldtree Community
Nanaimo BC Canada
I would have thought both Neopagans and Episcopalians would get on better than this article indicates. I mean, neither really believe in anything.
ReplyDelete