A BID to set up the UK’s first official Wiccan temple in Reddish is living on a prayer after the Government refused to recognise the building as a genuine place of worship.
Sandra Davis, high priestess at the Crystal Cauldron, on Gorton Road, is appealing the decision she claims is discriminatory.
She applied to have her business - a shop and meeting room - recognised as a temple but this week the General Register Office, part of the Home Office, refused.
A rejection letter, which has left the congregation outraged, stated that Wicca, a form of Paganism, is incompatible with the ancient Places of Worship Act 1855.
Sandra, 61, of Bridgehall, said: "I feel discriminated against and that the Government has insulted my religion. There is an enormous Wiccan community and our congregation is bigger than many ‘normal’ churches. We see ourselves as one big extended family. A lot of the Christian holidays including Christmas were adopted from the Pagan calendar and it was the first religion in Britain. It would have been the first Wiccan temple in the UK so we are all gutted. We want to be recognised as a legitimate religion, I won’t give up."
The Home Office argues that the religion does not involve worship of a supreme being so is not legitimate, a point which Sandra strongly refutes.
She says not only do members prey to the Lord and Lordess - who they view as supreme beings - but the congregation meets every Sunday to do so and is even setting up a Sunday school for children.
If temple status was given Sandra, a Wiccan for 45 years, plans to become part of the religion’s clergy within a year and then preside over funerals, christenings and hand fastings (weddings).
Congregation member Andrea Vickers-Cross added: "We have freedom to worship who we please and everyone in the congregation is very dedicated.
"Also we don’t go door to door to seek converts like other religions we let people come to us."
A Home Office spokesman said: "When considering an application to register a building for worship and marriage we are bound by the requirements of the Places of Worship Act 1855. Our decision not to register any building as a place of religious worship under the 1855 Act does not, in itself, affect in any way the right to use the building as they so wish."
Showing comments 1 to 3 and replies | View All
Cerridwen(Wigan), Wigan (20/06/2008 at 20:29)
Cerridwen..HPS Triple Moon Coven Wigan
Dr. Christa Landon, Pagan Institute, Minneapolis, MN, USA (23/06/2008 at 19:56)
Wicca holds that the Lord and Lady are united in love just as fully as Christianity claims that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are united. As in many forms of Hinduism, the "polytheism" is better understood as "polynominalism," many names for a Transcendent Unity.
Therefore, the law of 1855 is not truly a barrier to the UK's RECOGNITION that worship is being carried on by this non-conforming congregation.
"The Spirit bloweth as it listeth," and if the Established religion/s fear the growth of Hinduism, Taoism, Wicca, and other forms of Paganism, they need to look to their own sins, rather than persecute others.
In America, every religion is equal under the law and must compete for the minds and financial support of its members. This is why America is the MOST religious western nation.
For more information on Pagan Theology and Pagan Studies, see www.paganinstitute.org
Blessed Be!
Dr. Christa Landon,
Director of the Pagan Institute
Dr. Christa Landon, Pagan Institute, Minneapolis, MN, USA (23/06/2008 at 20:29)
In America, because each religion is legally equal, and must support itself financially, all compete in the free marketplace of ideas. As a result, America is the most religious nation in the West.
"The Spirit bloweth where it listeth," and the rising numbers of practitioners of Hinduism, Taoism, Wicca, and other forms of Paganism can no more be suppressed by law than were the non-conforming Calvinists, Catholics, Unitarians, Universalists, and Quakers of past centuries. If this raises anxiety in the Established church, that energy would be better applied to repentence and renewal among themselves,rather than lobbying to use the power of law to suppress the competition.
As to the issue of "a supreme Being":
Since the Enlightenment, many non-conformists have argued that the Trinity is actually crypto-polytheism, rather than the radical monotheism of Judaism and Islam. Is drawing the line at "monotheism" really is the best interest of Trinitarians?
Pagan Theology recognizes that the Lord and Lady (masculine and feminine aspects of Divinity)are united into one Transcendent Whole. If the Christian Trinity passes the monotheism test, then logically, the Wiccan Union of the God and Goddess symbolized by the Great Rite should also be accepted. (For more on Deep Pagan Theology, see www.paganinstitute.org)
Blessed Be!
Rev. Dr. Christa Landon
Director, The Pagan Institute