Today’s guest correspondent is Kenneth Heard.
Kenneth Heard is a freelance writer in northeast Arkansas. He worked with the Memphis Commercial Appeal in the early 1990s and covered Terry Riley and the opening of his church then. He was also the Jonesboro, Ark., bureau reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for 20 years until he was laid off in 2017. He and his wife, Holly, live with four cats in Jonesboro, Ark.
JONESBORO- Ark. – Armed with a $300,000 federal grant to build a community garden and feed the hungry, Southern Delta Church of Wicca priest and Aquarian Tabernacle Church High Summoner Terry Riley is finally being accepted in the Arkansas town where he lives.
It’s taken a long while to gain that acceptance.
Riley received the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production grant from the U.S. Natural Recourses Conservation Service this summer to expand gardens he planted near his Lake City, Ark., home to feed the needy.
He’s already farmed on one 20-foot by 80-foot lot, giving away squash, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and other vegetables. Riley said he provided food to 700 people in October.
The grant money, which will be distributed to Riley’s Wiccan church over three years, will allow him to buy more land, plant larger gardens, and eventually provide enough produce to feed 4,000 people.
Southern Delta Church of Wiccan priest Terry Riley blesses visitors at his outdoor temple in Lake City, Ark. Photo Credit: Kenneth Heard
People come to Riley’s Main Street home and church in the eastern Arkansas town of 2,400 to get food. First-time visitors are shy and somewhat fearful – especially if Riley and his church administrators are wearing church robes when distributing food from their pantry.
But the visitors return and they are not forced to attend his church in exchange for the food.
“If we’re a church, aren’t we supposed to feed the hungry?” Riley said. “We don’t make you come to our services if you get food.”
The perception of Riley and his Wiccan church now is a far cry from when Riley first appeared in Arkansas some 30 years ago.
He opened the Magick Moon, a shop in Jonesboro, Ark., in June 1993. Landlords, when discovering Riley was selling occult items, canceled Riley’s lease and evicted him.
At the same time, two teenagers were to be tried in Jonesboro for the slayings of three 8-year-old West Memphis, Ark., boys. Earlier in the year, another teenager was convicted of the killings and prosecutors said the homicides were part of a satanic cult ritual. One of the defendants in the Jonesboro case said off-handedly that he was studying Wicca. The case drew national attention and later was featured in several films about the “West Memphis 3.”
Terry Riley and his daughter, Amberly Jones, stand outside their Lake City, Ark. church. The sign has drawn curious visitors and, in the past, some problems. Photo Credit: Kenneth Heard
That case, combined with the general public’s ignorance and fear of Riley’s religion, caused trouble.
“The first time [news of the case] came out on television, everyone thought we were cutting up babies and making sacrifices,” Riley said.
Riley held a freedom of religion march in August 1993, walking through the streets of Jonesboro among more than 1,000 angry people in an attempt to garner religious tolerance. Police arrested one man for bringing a gun to the march and making threats toward Riley and his members.
Riley soon tried to open another shop in Brookland, Ark., called Dadga’s Caldron but was met with the same opposition and was forced to close yet again. He moved to a rural area of the town just north of Jonesboro and said people would drive by, firing weapons at his home and threatening to “burn the witch.”
Riley’s daughter, Amberly Jones, now 37, said she was bullied at her school by both students and teachers when she attended high school.
Riley moved to Lake City in 2011 and opened his Southern Delta Church of Wiccan at his home. At first, local residents protested.
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Police were summoned for “violations of noise ordinances” when Riley’s congregation held outdoor drumming ceremonies.
But the mayor at the time said Riley’s church made no more noise than that at summer softball games at the city’s park each night and residents slowly began accepting him.
“He’s doing just fine,” current Lake City Mayor Cameron Tate said. “There won’t be acceptance by everybody. It’s just the world we live in. You could say the same thing about Christians.
“Terry and his church members are well respected,” Tate said.
A final symbol of acceptance came, at all times, during Christmas 2016.
The town invited Riley’s church to participate in the annual Christmas parade.
Riley dressed as Father Time and his daughter as Mother Nature on the float. The church placed first that year. Since then, Southern Delta Church of Wicca also won third place in the float contest in 2019 and first place in 2021.
They plan to enter another float this year.
Riley and his church also hope to obtain a $500,000 federal grant to build housing for homeless veterans.
Terry Riley and his daughter, Amberly Jones, show the trophies their Southern Delta Church of Wicca won in previous Christmas parades at Lake City, Ark. Photo Credit: Kenneth Heard
Glenn Garrison, the Southern Delta Church of Wicca garden coordinator, said handing out food at the church is one of the more rewarding things he’s done. “We’ve received so many thank yous,” he said. “And they mean it. It’s been an uphill battle on ice skates with our perception, but I think they see we are helping people.”
Belladonna LaVeau, the Archpriestess and Matriarch of the Aquarian Tabernacle Church in Index, Wash., which oversees Riley’s church, said Riley’s food program is helping with the perception of Wicca.
“Terry is a big personality,” she said of Riley. “But so was John F. Kennedy. When you make big changes like Terry does, you are going to get some opposition.
“But when you help others like he is, you gain respect.”
In a sense, it took gifting to begin garnering acceptance, Riley admits.
“It’s a been a lot better than in 1993,” he said. “Before people threatened us. Now, they smile and just say, ‘Here come the Witches.’”
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