Pagan Community Notes

Pagan Community Notes: March in Portland, DRUID app, Parliament of the World’s Religions and more

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PORTLAND, Ore. — With protests continuing over the weekend, members of Solar Cross Temple participated in Saturday’s march for justice. As noted by author, activist, and Solar Cross member T. Thorn Coyle, “The march theme was ‘Advancing Justice and Equality for All Through the Strength to Love, and it was sponsored by the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform” and co-sponsored by other groups such as the Portland NAACP, the Muslim Educational Trust, and Portland Copwatch. Solar Cross was joined by other Pagan individuals and organizations including Reclaiming, Feri Tradition, and the Brothers of the Unnamed Path. Coyle said, “This was only one of five events happening in Portland that day.

Living

Sidewalk shrine by homeless family sends a powerful message

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PORTLAND, Ore. – Stumbling across a spontaneous shrine is a common experience in the United States. It may be a cross on the side of the road marking the place where a loved one died in a car accident, or a photos, card, and flowers stuck in the links of a fence where a recently passed celebrity lived. Throughout history, humans have created these shrines to remember and reconnect with the dead. On Sunday, Alley Valkyrie passed a sidewalk shrine that was very similar, yet very different, than most spontaneously created shrines.

Pagan Community Notes

Pagan Community Notes: Denton CUUPS, Convocation, Asatru Folk Assembly, and more

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DENTON, Tex.– Eight months after a fire damaged its building, Denton Unitarian Universalist Fellowship came together in a newly constructed space to celebrate and recommit to its mission. As we reported in December, the Denton church was repeatedly vandalized by a single teenager, who eventually set fire to the building. At the time, Rev. Pam Wat said, “The damage from the fire is significant, but not overwhelming.” Since that point, members were invited to hold their services in the First Christian Church, located across the street. As noted by Denton CUUPS chapter coordinator John Beckett, “They displayed the best of Christianity.”

Pagan Community Notes

Pagan Community Notes: Hindsley and Leffert, Scott Symonds, “Why Black Lives Matter too” launch, and more!

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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Two members of Indiana’s Heathen community were arrested last week on child molestation charges. David Hindsley and Nicole Leffert are being held “on felony charges including child molesting and conspiracy to commit child molesting.” Local news reports state that neighbors overheard the couple talking about “sex acts with children” and contacted the Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Department. After an investigation, the arrests were made on the evening of May 10.

Paganism

Column: “Death, She Speaks Through the Birds”

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I. The Other

“I don’t practice what I preach because I’m not the kind of person I’m preaching to.” – Rev. Ivan Stang

Sitting on my patio, I looked up from the clay in my hands and was suddenly and immediately awestruck by the silence. For a moment, the entire street symphony was quiet: the birds, the cars, the workers on the Broadway Bridge, the pedestrians, it was though the volume had been suddenly turned down for dramatic effect. I looked around and down towards the street, surprised by the silence, and it was at that moment a truck came roaring by out of nowhere, hit the loose pothole right outside my building, and set off the car alarm for the fourth time that day. I looked down towards the car from my third-floor balcony, enraged.