Monday August 30 (tomorrow) is the BIG Sacred Paths Center Fund Raiser. There will be a silent auction, followed by a not-so-silent auction for the most popular items. Buy a bowl and fil it with delicious offerings (chili, soup, and other delectable items). There will be a drawing for the Emerald Goddess (if you have not yet bought your ticket, you can do that at the event, but you don’t need to wait). There’s also a new PNC article about this: https://pncminnesota.wordpress.com/2010/08/26/community-center-looks-to-raise-funds-answer-questions/
Category: News
Community Center Looks to Raise Funds, Answer Questions
Sacred Paths Center holds fundraiser on Monday to beef up depleted operating reserves. Seeks to clear up non-profit status amid heated questioning from energy healing community member.
Monday, August 30, 5-9pm at Sacred Paths Center, 777 Raymond Ave, St. Paul, MN 55114
Sacred Paths Center, the only non-profit community center of its kind in the country, is hosting a No Need To Panic fundraiser this Monday. The center hopes to raise $5000 so they can replace operating reserves that were eaten away during the slow time of summer. The SPC says this allows them to keep room rentals affordable and offer free space to important community events. It also goes to things like site maintenance and launching new projects.
Emerald and matrix statue to be raffled off at the No Need to panic fundraiser for the Sacred Paths Center
Organizers of the fundraiser said last year’s event was so successful, they are doing it again. A silent auction, a live auction, and a drawing for an emerald and matrix Goddess statue valued at $2000 are just some of the ways that event attendees can help support the center. The Bowl Buy is also back. Hungry bidders can purchase a bowl and eat their fill of homemade chili, soups, and pasta.
As news of the fundraiser circulated through the local community, questions also arose. The questions, made on Facebook and on the Twin Cities Pagans Yahoo! group, focused on the center advertising itself as a 501(c)3 and if donations made at last year’s event were tax deductible. At times, the questions and the responses, became heated.
Meet Harmony Tribe
A “Meet Harmony Tribe” (HT) event was held at Sacred Harvest Festival on Wednesday Aug. 11th. Present for most of the meeting were the members of the HT board, referred to as the “council”, as well as several past and present members, and 3-5 folks interested in Harmony Tribe. Introductions were offered by the Board and those present. Elected chair, (now “president” in the new bylaws) Benjamin Davis summarized what he believes some of the accomplishments of Harmony Tribe were this year. He elaborated regarding the state non profit incorporation filing and new bylaws adoption, by amendment, by the HT board. The sweeping and fundamental changes were made, Benjamin stated, “to protect Harmony Tribe members from potential liability”. Other incorporation questions were deferred until the end of the presentation. 
Each Board member reviewed their defined duties in turn, and prospective members asked about the process of getting involved. Examples were given of individuals that contributed through committees or other methods to Harmony Tribe. It was clarified that a person does not have to be a member to work on a committee. A prospective member asked about communication and response difficulties with Harmony Tribe over the past year. Registration Director Sean Nilsen assured the meeting that, “All communication issues have been resolved and any information prospective members need to find is on the Harmony Tribe website. ” When asked how prospective new members find out about meetings, locations, times, etc., it was explained non-members must directly contact HT via the website, rely on posted past minutes ( May is the last meeting minutes currently posted online), or join Harmony Tribe to receive current meeting minutes via the membership email list. Continue reading
Paganism Featured on Prominent Religious Website
Via the Wild Hunt:
Patheos.com, a web site dedicated to religious and spiritual dialog, has been running a special series this Summer looking at the future of religion. Each week focuses on a different religious tradition or movement, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholicism, Islam, and several others. This week the focus is on modern Paganism.
Jason Pitzl-Waters spoke with spoke with Star Foster, Patheos.com’s Pagan Portal Manager, who stressed to him how important it is for our communities to consider our collective future(s).
“The Future of Pagan religions is even more fascinating because we’ve never conformed to the future laid out for us. We were saying we would remain a fringe, occult community and now one of the cast members of the most popular cartoon show for the past 20 years has become Wiccan. We were insistent about transmitting information orally or by handcopying and now the internet has made Paganism an open-source community. You can find our classics at your local library. We’re growing and diversifying yet the concept of our future is very hazy to most of us. There are people who have been active in the community for decades who have no idea just how diverse we have become or how much we have grown. It’s safe to say that there are millions of us worldwide. Even if we only number 2 million, that’s still huge compared to 10 years ago. How many of us will there be 10 years from now? How will we respond to and accommodate that growth? How do we enter the mainstream without out losing our dynamic, autonomous qualities?”
Star Foster and Patheos.com have assembled an impressive line-up of modern Pagans from a wide array of faiths, traditions, and perspectives to give their input on the subject. This week will see contributions from scholars like Helen Berger and Sarah Pike, renowned Pagan journalist Margot Adler (check out The Wild Hunt interview), author Christopher Knowles, mystic and ritualist T. Thorn Coyle, and several prominent clergy and leaders, including M. Horatius Picinus, Pontifex Maximus of Nova Roma.
Ms Foster noted that being granted equal standing with the other major world religions on such a well-respected and high traffic website doesn’t happen every day.
For an entire week, the focus of a major religion website will be on US. Wow. I don’t think this has happened before. It’s really kind of mind-blowing when I think about it. We’re being given equal time with Catholics, Mormons, Buddhists and Evangelicals.
Along with reading these extremely interesting and thought-provoking articles, Star Foster invites you to get involved in this special week:
I’m only one person though, and I could really use your help. If you like what we are doing here and you’d like to see us continue to promote thoughtful writers from diverse Pagan backgrounds I’d love it if you would make a small donation of time.
All this week I will be posting links to Facebook and Twitter, and towards the middle of the week I’ll be sending out a new newsletter for the Pagan portal. If you could share my Facebook posts, retweet my tweets and encourage people to sign up for the newsletter this week it would really help to make this series a smashing success, and ensure more interesting Pagan series to come!
Ken Ra Grandfathering
Over a hundred people gathered on Saturday Aug 14th at Sacred Harvest Festival to honor Ken Ra and his years of passing knowledge. The event was hosted by Linda Green and an informal circle was cast using the songs “Air Moves Me”, the “Lady’s, Lord’s, and an Ancestor’s Bransle”.
Ken Ra and Liz
Over a Hundred People Attended, 42 drove down especially for this event!
Pagan Newswire Collective - Minnesota Bureau 