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The Druid Network (TDN), based in the United Kingdom, will be attending the Inter Faith Network’s Annual General Meeting for the first time. TDN was admitted into the government-funded IFN UK in the fall of 2014 along with the Pagan Federation.
TDN trustee and treasurer Neil Pitchford said, “I have the honour of being the first Druid to attend after I was chosen to be TDN’s first representative.”
The Inter Faith Network was founded in 1987 and serves to “to advance public knowledge and mutual understanding of the teachings, traditions and practices of the different faith communities in Britain and to promote good relations between people of different faiths in this country.” Originally, the IFN rejected both Pagan organizations but at last year’s annual meeting, the decision was reversed. This year’s meeting, taking place on Oct. 14, will be the first one since the groups were admitted.
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Starhawk announced that fans can still pre-order a limited edition copy of her upcoming book City of Refuge: The Sequel to The Fifth Sacred Thing. Originally the limited edition copies were only available as a perk though her Kickstarter campaign. However, Starhawk has opened that offer up to pre-orders. Readers can also order signed copies.
City of Refuge picks up where The Fifth Sacred Thing left off. As noted on her site, the book “answers the timely question: how do we build a new world when people are broken by the old?” Starhawk is self-publishing the book supported by her Kickstarter campaign, which raised over $80,000. The book’s cover art, created by Jessica Perlstein, is now complete along with editing and other final details. Starhawk said that she expects the first group of books to be shipped in Dec. 2015.
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The Parliament of the World Religions (PWR) is now only three days away. Many of our organizations, as well as individual Pagans, Heathens and Polytheists, are currently packing up and beginning the trip to Salt Lake City, Utah. Already on the ground and in the city is Wiccan Priest and longtime Covenant of the Goddess member Don Frew, who is attending a lesser known interfaith function – the United Religions Initiative’s Global Council meeting.
The United Religions Initiative (URI) is a completely separate organization from PWR. URI’s purpose is to “promote enduring, daily interfaith cooperation, to end religiously motivated violence and to create cultures of peace, justice and healing for the Earth and all living beings.” This year, the organization decided to hold its annual Council meeting over the five days leading up to the Parliament, as many of their own members were already scheduled to be in Salt Lake City.
Frew, who is serving on the Council for a fourth term, has said that the meeting is moving along well and has been productive. Frew said that he will publish a full report on both CoG’s Interfaith blog. However, you may have to wait a bit for that report, because just as the URI meeting wraps up, the Parliament gets underway.
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Today, in some parts of the U.S., locals are celebrating Indigenous People’s Day. Long heralded as Columbus Day, this second Monday in October is now slowly transitioning to something entirely new. Columbus Day, as a national recognized holiday, has been a source of deep contention and intense debate for a very long time. As outlined in the linked Washington Post article, “Activists described the change as the first step in a larger effort to reclaim a more accurate telling of history.” The celebration of Columbus day “ignores a violent past that led to hundreds of years of disease, colonial rule and genocidal extermination.”
The push to change the holiday began to gain ground in 1990 and momentum is now quickly gaining. The Columbus holiday is slowly being abandoned throughout various regions of the country with the hopes of its eventual elimination entirely at the national level. The Associated Press reported that this year at least 9 different cities are now officially marking this second Monday as Indigenous People’s Day and others are looking to follow that trend. Current cities listed include St. Paul, Seattle, Portland, Albuquerque; Olympia, Washington, and Minneapolis.
In Other News:
- The deadline is fast approaching on the Pagan Women of Color Media Project. This project, launched in August by Michigan resident Mistress Belladonna, seeks to celebrate Pagan women of color. She is collecting “images of real women of Pagan faiths so that other women who find themselves on these paths can look and say, ‘Hey, there is someone like me.’ ” The images will eventually be published in a book form. The deadline is Nov. 7. More information is available on the site.
- Storm Faerywolf has announced the publication of his first book through Llewellyn. In a blog post, he said, “I’m pleased to be able to share with you all the beginnings of the manifestations of one of my long-term goals. I have wanted to publish a book about my take on Faery tradition for many years and that is finally about to happen.” The book is temporarily titled “Betwixt and Between: Exploring the Faery Tradition of Witchcraft” and will explore the BlueRose tradition. Storm did not provide a release date but said that he’d post updates on the blog.
- And, in other publishing news, Foremothers’ of the of the Women’s Spirituality Movement: Elders and Visionaries will be released on Nov. 1. It is an anthology edited by Miriam Robbins Dexter and Vicki Noble.
- It’s that time of the year again: Witches Balls, public Samhain rituals and, of course, the Spiral Dance. This year marks the 36th annual Reclaiming Spiral Dance. The traditional event is a ritual to “to honor [the] beloved dead and to dance the spiral of rebirth.” It is also Reclaiming’s biggest fundraiser. Organizers write, “We support our community by coming together as a community in this dance.” They welcome everyone to the Kezar Pavilion in San Francisco Oct. 31 at 6 pm. Tickets can be purchased on line.
- Don’t forget! The Wild Hunt will be live tweeting from the Parliament throughout the weekend, Thursday Oct 15 to Monday, Oct 19. We will be using the hashtag #PagansPWR. Follow us @thewildhunt
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That’s it for now. Have a great day! And, don’t forget to support the Wild Hunt.
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