Veterans Honored at Paganicon

March 18, 2015

Ceremony Begins

Last Sunday, March fifteenth, during the afternoon tea at the conclusion of Paganicon, seven veterans who served in various branches of the armed forces were honored. In a community ceremony of recognition and appreciation, Selena Fox presented the Pagan Military Service Ribbon to Pagans who have served or are serving in the US Armed Forces.

Honored Veterans, Selena Fox at left

Pictured from top, clockwise are Wayne Sears, John Farrow, Herbert Cook Roy, Celeste Proe, Shawn Burns, Debbie Olson, and Tamia Finnegan. They received their pin to the applause of appreciation and support from the over hundred community members present.

The Ribbon pin, created by Circle Sanctuary in 2011, is being presented to Pagan veterans and troops around the country who request it. If you are a veteran please visit the ribbon website to participate in the honoring recognition.

Please congratulate these service members!

Nels Linde

Pagan Leader Passes – Obituary Editorial

February 20, 2013February 20, 20134 Comments

I received word at Pantheacon Sunday morning of a friend’s passing. He was not a famous author, or leader of a tradition, or a major contributor to the intellectual development of Pagan philosophy. For many in the Madison, WI area and the Midwest, Circle Sanctuary, Pagan Spirit Gathering ( PSG ), and hand drumming community, he was their rock.

Dennis Presser
1958-2013

Dennis Presser passed peacefully and unexpectedly of natural causes Saturday, Feb 16th at the age of fifty-four. He is survived by his loving wife of 25 years, Laurie Blue Heron, and his two children; Hunter and Allegra all of Madison, WI.

The details of his long history of service, as a veteran and through his dedication to environmental organizations are elaborated on his official obituary. As an activist conservationist he worked, often in leadership positions, to preserve and improve the outdoors he loved so much as a Pagan, hunter, and trout fisherman.

The loss of Dennis is felt across the breadth of his influence as a force of dedicated service to others. In the Pagan community, he was known as a man of great personal strength, generosity, commitment, and ethical responsibility. He was willing to speak out and act in support of the people, community, and the natural environment he so loved.

Dennis was generous with his time and hands. He was an avid brewer and mead maker, and always a cheery and welcoming host. His easy-going and good-natured disposition made him a natural choice for anyone who needed help. If you were in need, he would do whatever he could to help. He was a man of his word, a commitment from Dennis was one you could count on. In a world of opportunistic ethics, Dennis was one who would stand for his beliefs, whatever the cost. Continue reading →

Who’s at the door? Ex-Offenders – Interview

February 12, 20134 Comments

In the next few years many Pagan groups and communities will be confronting how we receive released and reformed prisoners. How Pagans answer this question will in part define who we are, an important question.

At Paganicon this year, Morninghawk Apollo is offering a workshop/discussion on the topic. He describes it as: “Many new members coming to the Pagan community are former prison inmates who became Pagans while locked up. At many institutions, either Wicca or Asatru is the largest religious group, not counting solitary practitioners. The vast majority of these inmates will be released at the end of their sentences and wish to join the Pagan community. Statistically, if your group hasn’t been approached by an ex-con yet, it will be. Have you considered your response? What reception should we give these Pagans when they are released? Bring your thoughts, fears, and ideas for a lively discussion of this important topic. “

Photo: workinglinks.co.uk

Morninghawk has been offering prison ministry with his wife since 2004. He took a three-year break in the middle, and is back serving two Moose Lake, MN facilities. The Minnesota State Correctional Facility (MCF Moose Lake) is a regular prison and has inmates, called “offenders,” who wear uniform clothing. The Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) is a post-sentence medical treatment facility that houses inmates, called “clients,” who wear whatever they want within reason. Many inmates convicted of certain sexual offenses are civilly committed by the court to the MSOP program after completing their MCF prison sentence. Both are secure facilities, and look like prisons when you drive up.

I talked to Morninghawk about his work:

What are the facilities you minister to?
Morninghawk: At the MCF is a level three medium security facility, meaning many have served their “hard time” at a facility like Stillwater or Oak Park Heights. They are generally on their way to release in the next five years. At MSOP, there is no defined release time. If they graduate from this program, they are transferred to the MSOP program in St.Peter, MN. If they graduate from that program they may be released to society from there. In the seventeen years the program has been running, only one client has been released from St. Peter, just this past year. Both facilities are all men.
Continue reading →

Gifts and Thank You’s – Editorial

December 20, 20123 Comments

Photo: vec.ca

Gifts, they are on most of our minds this time of year. We anguish over giving them and receiving them, who needs one, who might give us one, why we give them. It is residue from that dominant holiday in our culture, at least the anguish is. Most of the gifts we really appreciate are the ones given from the heart, and specific to ourselves and the receiver. There is a strong alternative movement against all the commercialism. Give some cookies, or a hand-made necklace, a poem, hand-made card, or a special artifact of nature. Give something really personal, these things often have more meaning.

Thank you. Our thank you conversations are the flip side of gifts. We always say thank you, but we can’t help but betray what we feel most often. The enlightened honor that old saying, “It’s the thought that counts.” and really endeavor to feel it. It doesn’t matter if we already have two, or don’t need want or like it. It may even feel like an obligation or burden. Why did we not think of them and have a gift? Whatever we feel, as we accept it, we also know most times the giver instinctively senses our reaction, and it falls into a couple of categories. We loved it and appreciate it, we are ambivalent and it is a little awkward, or they sense our subtle dread at the responsibility of accepting it. However it takes place, we complete the gift-thank you ritual and keep moving, it is that busy time of year.

Twin Cities Pagans

How can we avoid the stress of this time of gifts and thank you’s? What got me thinking about this was the ending of the Paganistan weekly. What a gift. JRob took the task of building a network of people, and a place to share personal and community events, applied his love and vision of a better community, and just ran with it. The list, Twin Cities Pagans had been around since year 2000. I found the post when JRob got involved , message # 649, Aug 18^th, 2008:

Blessings All,
I couldn’t find a place which listed the area Pagan events in one calendar, so I asked Robin and he said I could use the calendar from this group to keep track of events. So if you want to keep up on local Pagan events, check this group’s calendar. I’m on a bunch of local groups and I continually add things as I find them.
Oh, and I also updated the links section. But I’m not calling dibs. I hope that other people also feel free to add things.

Many Blessings, Jrob

Continue reading →

Happy Birthday PNC-MN! – Editorial

July 28, 2011July 28, 20112 Comments

The Pagan Newswire Collective – Minnesota Bureau is one year old! Evolving from a meeting at PSG with Jason Pitzl-Waters, and consultations with a local group who had also sent a proposal for a Minnesota bureau, this bureau posted “Community Notes” from TCPagans on July 28^th, 2010. How the PNC idea had gotten to this point is another whole story, but for us who formed this bureau; Heather Biedermann, Cara Schulz, and myself, Nels Linde, it was the start of an ambitious project.

What is this bureau?

The vision we acted upon was of a blog based information source for our community. The concept of ‘news’ is a hard one to define. Is it ‘Dog bites Pagan’, “Pagan bites Dog’, ‘What Pagans think about Dogs’, ‘Pagan wins at Dog Show’, ‘Pagan buys Dog’, ‘Dog bites Pagan in Detroit’, or ‘Pagan bites Pagan’? Well, we believe it is all of these topics and more. Our concept is to cover whatever seems to be the demonstrated interest, issues, and news we find in our community, and also to stretch that interest. As volunteers, with limits on our time, resources, and local experience, our content will also reflect our personal interest (I may have not written about Pagans hunting, if I didn’t hunt). As much as we are defining who and what we are, we also realize the idea of a local information source is ‘news’ to you, our readers. We know that your expectations may not match with our vision, and pay scale (we are all volunteers and have funded the costs, and time involved, in our reporting out of our pockets). We expect as we all grow and learn, these inequities in understanding will be resolved. Continue reading →