Tag: service

Sacred Path Center – Update – Interview with CJ Stone, Board spokesman

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The Sacred Paths Center (SPC)  Board met for their regularly scheduled meeting last night, however all scheduled business was tabled to focus on the financial affairs of the Center. A board quorum was present, and several Board members contributed to the discussion by phone.  The SPC website now has installed a fund-raising thermometer to depict their progress toward the immediate $7500 goal, of which half will be matched by other donations. They are currently at 20% of this goal.

*NOTE.  The Sacred Paths Center is continually updating their website with fund raising progress and new events.  Please check their website for updates on their current situation !

 

 

CJ Stone, Board member, has been delegated spokesman for the Sacred Paths Center. I was able to interview him last night,  Friday July 8th, after the Board meeting.

What is the financial status of the SPC?

CJ Stone, Board Member, spokesman:

The immediate needs to keep the doors temporarily open were covered. The Center needs 7500 dollars to continue to operate through this month. The Board has decided that 12,000 was what we needed by midnight of July 30th or we will close the facility. If we can secure that 12k dollars, we can pay our bills to zero and have a positive balance to keep the center open and by able to steer the Center in a direction that will be financially viable.

What changes would make it viable? Continue reading →

Upper Midwest Pagan Alliance Cleans Up! – Editorial

The highway cleanup on Interstate 35E, sponsored by the Upper Midwest Pagan Alliance (UMPA),  took place Saturday June 4th. The cleanup had been delayed by the storms that swept through the Twin Cities the weekend of May 21st. A cheerful group of seven met,  and after going over safety and procedure concerns, hit the road by 11am.  It was a beautiful summer day!

UMPA sign view headed South on 35E

We split into two teams and also had vehicle support with water, bars, and sandwiches nearby. With no adjacent fast food, the pickings were light with the exception of a few with a taste for “Ice House’ beer making frequent deposits!  By about 2pm the ending overpass was in sight, and it had heated up a bit.  On cue a generous breeze made the remaining cleanup feel much easier. This was the first spring cleanup of this site near Hugo, MN., after the move from Coon Rapids. With three on a side, we had just enough volunteers to cover it in one pass. The site could easily accommodate seventeen volunteers (8 per side,  4 teams working to the middle, and support people) and make the service a less demanding two-hour task. The site feels very rural and we always find something naturally beautiful or interesting along the way.

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Green Burial at Circle Sanctuary

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Spring is the time to celebrate approaching intimacy, and what is more intimate than sharing a loved one’s passing?  The first  ‘green burial’ took place at the cemetery at Circle Sanctuary in Mount Horeb, WI. this past weekend. Selena Fox presided over the ceremony. Many Pagans claim to want a green burial, but what is it like?  I talked with Robert Paxton, a Circle Sanctuary minister, who participated in funeral, as part of a community weekend at Circle Sanctuary.

Describe what the funeral experience was like?

It was very much different from any funeral I had attended. The person who had died was a long-term member of the Madison folk music and dancing scene. The funeral was a genuinely beautiful and touching event. Family and friends, about a dozen, helped with every element from carrying the casket to the gravesite. They sang song and read poetry. They spoke as they were individually moved to about the life of the person who had passed. Typically, the funeral director said, they would lower the casket into the grave, there would be just a few words and the family would step away and head down the hill. Community members were there to help fill in the grave. It didn’t go like that. We placed the casket in the grave, and the family looked over at the pile of dirt and the half-dozen shovels. They picked them up and got to work. The grave was nearly filled when they tired and the community members took over. They were very engaged in the whole process. Once the mound had risen, they took flowers from the earlier memorial service and placed them lovingly on the grave. One of the funeral party, in one of those ‘ah-ha’, deep truth moments, took a night crawler from one of the last shovelfuls of dirt.  He laid it on top of the mound and said, “Here is the first one, get to work!” It was a very loving experience. It was done very clear-eyed, we are committing these remains back to the earth. We will honor her with this last loving and personal act. At the same time they were completely realistic and open about the nature of what had happened. It was the most truthful funeral I had ever experienced.

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Patrick Stewart Remembrance – Saturday, Sept 25th

From Circle Times:

Sgt. Patrick Stewart, was the first Wiccan soldier to be killed in action in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. He was killed along with four other US troops of “Mustang 22” when their helicopter was shot down by enemy fire.

Patrick Stewart

Saturday, September 25, 2010 is the fifth anniversary of their death and will include the dedication of a US Army National Guard Memorial in their honor at the Army National Guard facility near Reno, Nevada at 2 pm PDT:

In addition, a Remembrance Rite will be conducted by Selena Fox & Pagan Continue reading →

Lady Liberty League Celebrates 25 Years Tonight!

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LADY LIBERTY LEAGUE CELEBRATES 25 YEARS OF PAGAN RIGHTS ENDEAVORS

Pagan Liberty ImageOn Wednesday, September 15, 2010, Lady Liberty League will be celebrating its 25th Anniversary with a reception in Washington, DC. The reception is free and open to the public.

It will be held from 7-9 pm at the Universalist National Memorial Church, 1810 16th Street Northwest, Washington, DC

National and regional Pagan Rights activists, spiritual leaders, and practitioners of many traditions will be taking part in this interfaith celebration. Participants include those from Washington, DC, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Wisconsin, US Virgin Islands, and elsewhere.

Founded in 1985, Lady Liberty League (LLL) is a national and global Pagan civil rights and religious freedom organization. LLL is coordinated by Circle Sanctuary, an Ecospirituality center and Shamanic Wiccan church that has been serving Pagans worldwide since 1974.

Continue reading →