Pagan Community Notes

Pagan Community Notes: Cleda Dawson, HUAR and COE, Heather Carr and more

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As news of Deborah Maynard’s upcoming invocation at the Iowa State Legislature spread, so did the fact that Maynard will be the third Pagan Priestess to offer such a prayer before a state body. As we noted on Wednesday, Cleda Dawson was the first in 1999 and Selena Fox was second.in 2009,

At the time of our report, neither the video recording of Dawson’s or Fox’ invocation was available online. While Circle Sanctuary is still working on acquiring a copy of the 2009 Wisconsin invocation, a clip of Dawson’s invocation has since been uploaded to YouTube. On April 2, a local Pagan, who works in the “legislative media,” was able to track down a VHS copy and transfer it into a digital format. .

News

Wiccan Priestess to Give Invocation Before Iowa Legislature

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DES MOINES, Iowa. — Wiccan priestess Deborah Maynard has been invited to give the opening invocation to the Iowa House of Representatives on April 9. Priestess Maynard is a Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagan (CUUPs) leader at the People’s Church Unitarian Universalist in Cedar Rapids. This will be only the third time that a Pagan has been asked to give an invocation at a state legislature. The first time was when Cleda Dawson offered the opening prayer before the Oregon state senate on May 10, 1999. Text of the invocation can be found here.