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"Episcopagan" Round-UpAs the discussion progresses I'm going to post some links to other commentaries on the issue that I have enjoyed. First off, I'm not the only Pagan who has taken note of this. Chas Clifton ( esteemed Pagan scholar) has also been taking note and getting involved in the discussion. Check out these posts for his ongoing view.
The Salty Vicar (great name btw) brings a "liberal orthodox" view of things and finds that the conservatives are expending far too much energy on the whole affair. The Heretic's Corner (who is also "liberal orthodox") feels that the couple went too far and strayed from what the Christian religion is all about. Meanwhile, Joe Perez tells the "amazing" story of the little neo-pagan Eucharist that could over at the Gay Spirituality & Culture blog. Finally Father Jake (an eccentric and sometimes heretical Episcopal priest) weighs in on the ruckus and is "sickened" by the feeding-fenzy aspect of the whole affair and wonders if us Pagans have problems like this (short answer: yes). At this point from what I have read and from the comments that have been left there are a host of Pagan-related issues for me to touch on. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to sit down and process some of the information I have taken in and give my further thoughts.
Episcopalian-Pagan UpdateIt's funny what one can get wrapped up in. A few conservative Episcopalians have written or given comments on my recent posts on this whole "Druidic" scandal. Let me address a few points. One priest wrote in to correct me on my language: "The group may not be referred to of as "Episcopals" but rather EPISCOPALIANS. Look it up in your dictionary."To which I can only apologise, I was merely being cute. Around the home I often call them "The Pals" for short, which I think is dreadfully clever of me. No intentional offense was meant, and I have great respect for the Episcopalians, many of whom are on my Blogroll. Mea Culpa. Another commented on my previous post that: If money-changers were found in the Temple today, and conservative Bloggers called for them to be booted out, would you still say "Jesus wouldn't treat them (money-changers) that way"?Although my conception of Jesus is most certainly different than his, I have read the Bible and a lot of "progressive" and "liberal" interpretations of Jesus' teachings and I think I have a handle on the gist of the whole Jesus-message. I think this case is "apples and oranges" when trying to compare it to Jesus ejecting the money-changers. The conservative bloggers are in my mind damning on incomplete evidence. There is no evidence that they have been trying to introduce Pagan ritual or gods into the Church, none. The CT Blog in my mind is trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. This Pagan Eucharist ritual for all you and I know was never used. Perhaps it was submitted merely for the purpose of creating discussion, something that they thought due to their Pagan past innocuous. But now it's become something that may ruin their careers. If they are true converts to Christ I can think of no better situation that would drive them back to us Pagans. Lastly, I would like to say that in the end I am a Pagan, so I do have a different outlook on "scandals" like these. I'm sure for many Episcopalians it is quite an emotional issue, but for me the language I have seen some conservative Episcopalians use truly smacks of a witch-hunt and a lack of understanding about what modern Paganism is and what it is not. What could have become a opportunity to think, discuss and learn has in many cases become a chance for some to trot out statements like "The Horned God is the enemy of Christ" no doubt making them feel very righteous, but in the end I doubt it equates them with the Christ who turned over the tables of the money-changers.
Should I Point OutTo the crusading CT Weblog that the Archbishop of Canterbury is also a Druid? Also you can read the response from the Rectors Bishop who is telling people to lay off the "witch-hunt" and let him deal with it.
For My Dead HomiesMacRaven points out a great article in the San Francisco Chronicle about the ongoing "R.I.P." shirts trend.
"The R.I.P. shirts -- airbrushed or featuring scanned photos of lost loved ones -- were just a novelty when they were first created a decade ago. But today they are an everyday ritual of death in many American cities, like choosing a casket or sending flowers. Shirt-making enterprises now thrive in areas where the homicide rates are high, including parts of the Bay Area, New York, Washington, D.C., Miami and Chicago." - SF Chronicle He also points out that urban youth also share a tradition with the ancient Greeks, the pouring out of libations to the dead. "Earl "E.J." Jackson cracked open a Miller High Life and poured a dribble into the gutter before taking a swig. "That's for my dead homies," he said." - SF Chronicle "But those of the middle sort, and they are numerous, wander in the meadow without bodies, having become shadows and vanishing like smoke on contact with anything. They are nourished by the libations we pour and by burnt offerings over their tombs, so that if any one of them lacks a friend or relative above ground, that one ekes out an existence among the dead as a fasting and famished corpse." - The Poet Lucian (courtesy of the fine site Laudator Temporis Acti) The connection with our dead on such a personal and everyday level is a truly "Pagan" idea that has carried over into our modern culture and in some cases modern non-Pagan religion.
The Pagan EucharistWe are pantheists when we study nature, polytheists when we write poetry, monotheists in our morality. - GoetheSo a couple days ago, Christianity Today got its knickers in a twist over the "idol worship" taking place at a the Episcopal Church's Women's Ministries website. The reason? A rite submitted called "A Women?s Eucharist" that dared to cast God with a feminine face and borrowed language from the infamous "Cakes for the Queen of Heaven" line from the book of Jeremiah.
"Come to me, my 'Pals!"
Astarte image by John Singer Sargent
The Episcopal site now under fire from several conservative sites removed the pages much to the snotty pleasure of CT who remarked. "Guess what's no longer linked on the Episcopal Church USA's page for Women's Worship Resources?"Further, CT and the Internet Inquisition have decided to dig into the activities of the rector who posted this ritual in the first place and out her as a Pagan.
Rector Glyn Ruppe-Melnyk
Merely heretical or full-blown Pagan?
The "smoking gun" seems to be her and her husband's involvement in the site for OBOD (The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids). I won't go into the completely ignorant comments about Pagan ritual and the lurid suppositions about what goes on in one ( "The particularly sensitive may want to skip past all this...", "The priest and priestess apparently do this part naked...") and skip to the issue of allegiance to a Pagan faith. First off, they could have been Pagans who converted to a liberal form of Christianity (it happens more often than you think), they could be Celtic Reconstructionists many of whom are Christians with a deep and strong love for their Celtic ancestry (and considering the Episcopal Church's strong tie to Scotland not so surprising for them to "go Anglican"). Finally, they really could be playing both sides of the field and taking the whole "You shall have no other gods before me" line from Exodus literally, placing Jesus and the Christian conception of God first while still worshipping Pagan gods much like Saints. Very much like people in Haiti and Central/South America do when they syncretize their Loa/gods to the Catholic Saints. In any case, all the "concern" strikes me as a bit shallow. They wanted a media spectacle, they wanted to hammer on those liberal Episcopals and Anglicans who dared treat gay people and women like full divinely created humans. They wanted The Windsor Report to kick the Episcopals to the curb instead of them receiving a slap on the wrist, and failing that, they want an old-fashioned witch hunt.
"I'm not a witch. I'm not a witch.
They dressed me up like this.
And this isn't my nose. It's a false one."
Funny, I doubt Christ would treat a "pagan" in such a manner, I truly doubt he would encourage people to dig over this issue and try to get a Rector up on charges or cast out from the Church. But then I'm a dirty Pagan, what do I know?
The Episcopals are Pagans!Chas Clifton beats me to the punch by mentioning a new Christianity Today article warning of the Episcopals "actually promoting the worship of idols specifically condemned in Scripture". Gasp! Choke! We all know that "God" has a penis not a vagina! I mean, Moses SAW his backside and whatnot, so it must be true!
Four times a day?Bartholomew, er, handles the issue of masturbation, sin, "orchitis" and the new "Kinsey" film.
It Isn't EasyThe Alameda Times-Star has interviews with Starhawk and Thorn about being a Witch in our modern world. "What surprises me about myself is that I have friends who have gone more traditional routes -- working nine to five, salaried, worried about tenure, I've had a more secure career as a professional witch." - Starhawk ""The divine is in all things, and I can be connected to that current, or disconnected, Most of us are disconnected -- we sit in front of the television and eat macaroni and cheese. We numb ourselves." - Thorn
BBC and The GoddessIn honor of October, that most pagan of months, the BBC has put up a series of articles relating to Paganism, both modern and ancient. First there is a feature on "The Goddess" which they "go in search of goddesses from many religious cultures and different continents and ask, what does it mean for both women and men to worship a goddess, rather than a male god?" Then its a look at Samhain, the biggest holiday in the modern Pagan calendar. Finally, they look at the history of Christianity and Halloween.
Why Da Vinci?"What The Da Vinci Code has created should interest us, but not because Brown is right about Da Vinci or the infamies of the Catholic Church or powerful secret societies or the real role of Mary Magdalene as apostle and lover to the Christ. The Da Vinci Code is important as an expression of a desire for a spirituality that cannot be had within the confines of the institutionalized church. More simply yet, it is the popular expression of a desire for a kind of meaningfulness to life that is missing for most of us. And certainly, it is the scandalous expression of a willingness to be disobedient to achieve the heretical end of a salvation outside the confines of the church." - Village Voice
Now THIS is funnyThe perfect response to Bush's "Wolf" campaign ad. I might add, that for most pagans (and enviornmentalists) pictures of wolves don't fill us with fear, we are big fans of wolves and think they are really cool.
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