It's a known fact that you can't make all of the people happy all of the time. It's been postulated that you can make all of the people happy some of the time, and some of the people happy all of the time, but in practice, I've generally found that you can't do anything without getting someone hacked off at you. This is especially true in the Pagan Community.

I've already made the point that the Pagan Community is not than just a religious community, but rather a diverse group of social, religious, and political movements. Each movement must walk a fine line between its own values and those of the greater Pagan Community that may, or may not, share them. This places an incredible burden on the individual organizations that attempt to serve and/or promote the growth of the Pagan Community.

Face it-- we don't agree on anything: clothing, family structure, sexual ethics, religious practices, pronunciations, the number, names, and dates of holy days. For every opinion there is an equal and opposite opinion, defended just as fiercely. Compromise is difficult, where it's possible at all, because there's always someone who thinks that compromise is something other people do. Any Pagan organization that lasts long enough will eventually hit a snag where two people or groups clash, each insisting that to compromise a practice is to compromise faith. A standard set of rules or practices isn't possible.

Everyone wants their Pagan Organization to represent their own Pagan Values, which is perfectly natural. The problem is that any organization that sets itself up as a "Pagan Religious Organization" is expected to reflect the religious values of the people it serves. Such a setup means that the group must either fight an endless battle of compromise, or limit the people it serves. Admittedly, there are times and places for both such groups, but an organization wishing to promote the growth of the Pagan Community should at least consider other options.

I think the best option is probably to leave religion out of the organization completely.

Think about it. We have religious organizations. Thousands of them. Covens, Groves, Circles, and other groups with similar names, different names, or no names at all exist all across the world, in wide variety, and in great quantity. (I say "coven" most of the time-- the word is not exclusively Wiccan or religious.) And it's actually a pretty good setup, when you think about it. It's a small group, which means that there aren't as many people to manage, and it allows for personal taste. I've never been a big booster of the consensus method, but even I will admit it can work in a group the size of a coven, if everyone in the coven is comfortable enough with each other. Or, if that's not what you want or need, you can find a group with another organizational structure. And if what you're seeking isn't out there, maybe you can make it yourself.

Your average Christian church can't offer that kind of choice, or, for that matter, the level of participation one can find in a small Pagan group. I could go on for hours about the advantages of the coven model over the church model, but there are limitations to the coven model as well. A church is far more than a religious structure; it is also a social structure. Churches have picnics, sports teams, youth groups, bake sales, concerts, classes, banquets.... these kinds of things are needed by our community if we're ever to have stability or growth. These are things that a coven model can't provide. Unfortunately, a religious organization in the Pagan Community that wants to grow larger than the coven model starts with a serious problem. The Church model won't work for us, because a church has a single religion as its central point. But a social organization designed to promote the Pagan Community has a lot more freedom to operate.

This doesn't mean that religion has to be removed from the equation, or from the activities of the group. In fact, a non-religious organization has more freedom in that department than a religious one.

Allow me to cite an example: Last year's Pagan Pride Day in Washington, D.C., was hosted by the Open Hearth Foundation. The OHF is a non-profit organization that is working towards building a community center in the D.C. area. There were several very powerful events, but they weren't done by the OHF themselves. Instead, local groups Magick Belly #9, ConnectDC, and Gladsheim Kindred did the the presentations. The OHF merely facilitated the affair.

The intelligence in such a setup is multifold. First of all, if someone doesn't like how something was done, the OHF can honestly say that it was simply hosting these events, not leading rituals themselves. Not only does this set-up encourage other groups to work with the OHF, it allows the OHF to offer a many slices of the Pagan Community. It also leaves them in a very good position to defend themselves if someone has a hissy-fit. All they'd have to say is "Look, it wasn't us, and we aren't trying to say that this is Paganism. You got a better idea? Talk to us, and you might be able to do your thing at our next event."

Now if the OHF had set the entire thing up themselves and run every aspect of the event themselves, they would have opened themselves up to attacks from anyone who didn't like any detail. While it wouldn't be true, you can bet there would be some whining snot who would accuse the OHF of trying to use Pagan Pride Day to take control of the D.C. Community. Additionally, since the OHF Board of Governors is made up of people from a wide variety of traditions, they would have had a lot more trouble agreeing on how to do the ritual.

The Richmond Pagan Council, here in Virginia, does something similar with its events. Now, of course, not all organizations will be able to benefit from this example, but the "we're not a church" mind-set has benefits elsewhere. In a Pagan setting, a religious organization opens itself up to a Witch War any time it passes a rule for an event. Even common sense rules that are simply for easier event management, security, safety, or legality, can be criticized as attempts to control what Pagans practice.

To give you an example, I once heard someone protest that a local event, staged in a public park, had in its rules a prohibition on illegal drugs. The complaint was that, in making this rule, the organization was reinforcing some capitalist agenda on drugs and making decisions about what Paganism was. Admittedly, you're going to run into people like this regardless of your organizational structure, but it's easier to defend a rule in a social organization than a religious one.

Now, I'm not saying that a religious organization, or even a large scale religious organization, is an inherently bad idea. It's just that a religious organization is set up to be a point at which all of its members intersect, and in the Pagan Community, we just don't quite intersect like that. A large organization in our community faces fewer challenges if it tries to be an area around which many people can orbit in circles that may not intersect, but at least share a common, if vaguely defined, center. In an organizational setting, there's a fine line between promoting religious principles and building the community. Each organization should decide what its purpose is and draw that line accordingly.

© 2002 by Cather "Catalyst" Steincamp