Things That Aren't. Things That Can Be. Things That Have Been.

It was indeed sad news to learn that attempts have been made in the Springfield Pagan community to bring people together before, and all of those attempts have failed.  It's also just as sad that even in the 21st century, some people have not grasped the concept of common community respect for other organizations.

Sad, but not disheartening.  NASA's first attempts at launching a rocket into space didn't quite work out either. So one must ask themself, "why did these attempts fail?"  In the majority of instances failure comes when one organization or group or person creates something and then expects all of the other related organizations to come join something when the leaders, the rules, the policies and procedures are already in place - a call to "conform" to a preset ideal of one's own design.  The whole organization is programmed for failure by design.  There are people who like to run things; people who like to be in power - to exert control, to "make the rules" and then expect everyone around them to passively join in and feed their egos.  Our church is not only not like that, but we reject that kind of practice in the strongest of terms.

There are also people that feel the need to be a part of everything around them. They join most all of the groups in town, they get their hands into the inner workings of the groups, they always have an opinion, set themselves up as defacto "authorities" on paths, causes, what is right and wrong, what is acceptable in the community, et al.  They also get very angry at anyone who comes along to try to heal the fractures between the groups, not because healing fractures is a bad thing, but because they don't have a hand in it.  They do not want the organziation to succeed because that would mean it happened without them being involved - a crushing blow to their ego if there ever was one.  Behind them will be a long trail of failed attempts at creating organizations, and dare I say, possibly even some very questionable if not illegal practices.  These people are not hard to identify. They make themselves known quite easily and usually leave a lot of hurting people in their wake who readily testify to the damage these people have caused in the past.  Our church not only tries to identify these people, but we will tactfully, yet politely, decline their participation.

The Corporate Board has created a starting framework from which the Church Board can begin working.  The framework is a temporary set of policies and procedures in place that will allow the Board to start acting as a legal entity while building their own structure, policies and procedures for the church.  The church as a whole will be made up of a Board consisting of representatives from any organization that wishes to be represented, and an equitable number of Solitary Practitioners who have developed a practice of their own design. No one Organization, Group or Individual will set the rules nor write the church policies and procedures. Everyone gets together and does that together.  In this way, everyone is coming into the group with equal input, equal say, and equal influence over how the church develops as an entity.  The church evolves and matures as a direct result of those who choose to participate, not as a preconstructed entity to which all the other organizations and practitioners are invited.  Once the Church Board has completed drafting and adopting their Bylaws, the starting framework set up by the Corporate  Board becomes obsolete.

At some point the church will be an established, self sufficient entity entirely capable of supporting itself and maintaining its own 501(c)3 status as Church, and it shall be separated from the parent organization and will stand alone.  In the meantime, the Corporate Board is there in an advisory role, as well as to fulfill the legal requirements for ordination and licensing, tax status documentation, and Not For Profit status for the church.
These are things which must be undertaken by the church and the appropriate programs and courses of study will need to be developed by the Church and approved by the Corporate Board before the Church can assume the legal liability for them required by the government. The concept is that of a parent birthing and raising a child until he matures and is able to stand on his own as an adult.  At that point the parents are no longer responsible for the child - the child is a self-sustaining adult.  This is the Corporate Board's interim goal for the church.

The Corporate Board's initial goal is to see the Church Board fully seated and up and running by January 1, 2011.  We would like to see the Bylaws written and adopted by June 1, 2011.  We would also like to see a fully functioning membership by Jan 1, 2012.  These are the short term goals.

In the long-term, the Church should plan for, at some point, purchasing its own land and/or building. This is not going to happen anytime soon, and in fact, may take a decade or more to achieve.  Ultimately we would hope to see an established Pagan church in the community with its own Sanctuary built on its own land.  This is something that has to be carefully planned for, and it will take a great deal of time for that plan to come to fruition, unless of course the church finds a wealthy benefactor in the interim.

Erin asked me an interesting  question, to which I'll admit I answered with a bit too much enthusiastic hope. After thinking about her question however, I have come to a more realistic answer.  Her question was, what would I consider a success - what goal, having reached, would I consider to have proven our efforts a success. My first response was that we could involve at least 60% of the Springfield Pagan community.  A bit TOO enthusiastic for reality...I do apologize for my exuberant "standard."   In reality, we have already been successful. We already have representatives from 3 Pagan/Wiccan Organizations on the Board, and several inquiries from Solitary Practitioners. I get emails every day from people wanting more information and membership applications. We had an initial organizational meeting at which 12 people showed up and many filled out membership applications.  That's a very successful start.  Growing the church is of course an ongoing goal, but even in our infancy we have shown that there IS interest, and there ARE people willing to set aside their differences and come together for a single purpose.  I am sure we will have detractors as well, for whatever reason.

To diverge on point just a bit, it was brought to my attention that there are Practitioners in the area who require the utmost of privacy concerning their membership, in whatever capacity, in the Pagan community. There are Solitary Practitioners who practice in secret not wanting parents, relatives, friends or employers to know of their involvement in their craft.  The Corporate Board has already assumed a stance against "outing" anyone to the public. That's one reason why access to Middleworld Woods will be restricted to members only, and even then, we have in place a no cameras policy, and while we know that cellphones have cameras these days, we will enforce a policy on Middleworld Woods property that no pictures of any kind be taken of anyone without their express written consent.  We also have a policy in place that the exact location of Middleworld Woods will never be published in any form to the general public.  All members should enjoy the freedom of practicing their craft in private without fear of being "exposed" to anyone other than those of their own choosing.

We look forward to meeting many new friends this evening at the Witches Meetup, and don't forget the Druidry classes beginning tomorrow night. See our previous post for information on those events.  Have a great day!