{"id":151,"date":"2012-02-01T15:34:05","date_gmt":"2012-02-01T15:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/agora\/?p=151"},"modified":"2013-06-03T12:49:36","modified_gmt":"2013-06-03T12:49:36","slug":"the-future-of-pagan-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/agora\/2012\/02\/the-future-of-pagan-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"The Future of Pagan Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>***Disclaimer: I would like to state that this is entirely my opinion and doesn\u2019t reflect the opinions of anyone else. I am not referring to anyone but wish to have an open and honest discourse about the subject. Please let me know why you agree or disagree with me civilly! I would sincerely\u00a0 love to hear it.***<\/p>\n<p>A few months back I stumbled upon a fascinating article on the future of Pagan clergy and a possible direction that it could take over at Penton called \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.penton.co.za\/?p=1391\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Paganism: No longer a religion of clergy<\/a>\u201d by Erebos. The article\u00a0espoused what I considered some revolutionary ideas in regards to differences between what being a lay clergy and full time clergy could potentially be.<\/p>\n<p>The article suggests that full-time Pagan clergy\u00a0hypothetically should be:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>Clergy serve both the gods      and the communities in which they practice.<\/li>\n<li>Clergy are those who have      advanced spiritual training, commitment, service and experience.<\/li>\n<li>Clergy are the spiritual      leaders, teachers and interpreters of their traditions and faith.<\/li>\n<li>Clergy are those who find      that their particular talents and temperaments incline them to assist,      nurture and guide the religious and spiritual practice of others.<\/li>\n<li>Clergy administers and runs,      on a day-to-day basis temple\/coven\/hearth\/grove\/organizations, etc.      business.<\/li>\n<li>Clergy provide a central      point for communication and crisis intervention.<\/li>\n<li>Clergy act as the public face      of the tradition or belief system; they invite interfaith dialogue and      information sharing.<\/li>\n<li>Clergy guide those who are      inspired to find their own path to the Divine.<\/li>\n<li>Clergy work with the Gods      directly, but they do not act as permanent intermediaries, but more like      guides to help others until they know their way around.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>I think and feel that this is a very good representation of what full-time Pagan clergy should be. I know that others may feel that some requirements should be added or taken away, but in general I believe that this represents a good solid foundation for full-time Pagan clergy to model themselves after.<\/p>\n<p>A few months later,\u00a0I got into a discussion with Lady Charissa of North Georgia Solitaries (and several others) about Pagan leadership and ministerial duties over a couple of articles she shared. One of those articles was Sunfell\u2019s (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sunfell.com\/pagan.htm\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">article link)<\/a> which has been around since the early 2000\u2019s.\u00a0 This means the concept and desire for change has been prevalent in the Pagan collective (sub)consciousness for over a decade now. From my own experiences, I do not think much has changed from the standard model of Pagan leadership. But why hasn\u2019t it? One reason for this seems to be the diversity of the Pagan religious community. We are a varied bunch and I think at times that this can be both a great strength and a hindrance in some circumstances. Due to this diversity I think the Pagan community is slow to change. Much like ripples in water it takes time for them to expand after the initial cause has taken place. Another reason is Pagans tend to balk at organization and structure. The distaste with their current organized religion is a something that led many Pagans to the religion in the first place. However, I think that the concepts of\u00a0 organization and structure as manifestations of the Goddess (Form) in our lives\u00a0 is something that we as Pagans can get behind. As our religion grows to face the issues that we will and are currently facing\u00a0 we will need to be able to process needed changes in order to\u00a0 grow, adapt, and evolve. I believe that structure and organization are tools that will allow us to do so. Finally, I suspect Pagans desire to analyze and understand the mysteries and questions of life (such as \u2018Does God have a wife?\u2019) causes them to want to dissect and evaluate any changes\u00a0 as well.\u00a0 This attempt to garner a greater knowledge and understanding of the change can potentially delay and disrupt transitions.<\/p>\n<p>After some personal reflections on the subject, I came to a conclusion about the model that is currently in place and why I disliked it. This model provides a \u201cone size fits all approach\u201d to modern Pagan leadership and seems to ignore the diversity amongst the practitioners and leaders of the religion. Typically, in my experience, this is based off of the degree system that many traditions practice. The degree systems flaw is that it\u2019s a very binary system. You either are or you\u2019re not. Relying on this type of leadership model causes those that possess leadership skills and abilities but not a degree\u00a0 role to potentially be diminished and down played.Beyond the black and white degree system are many shades of grey which can be valuable commodities that lay unused and untapped.<\/p>\n<p>So where do we as Pagans begin? During my conversation on this subject a concept image of a Venn diagram got lodged in my mind.\u00a0 I sketched this image out, and shared it with my pagan friends and teachers to get feedback. After a <strong><em>lot<\/em><\/strong> of discussion and revisions this is the image that I had produced.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/124\/2012\/02\/PLM.png\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-210\" title=\"PLM\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/124\/2012\/02\/PLM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"624\" height=\"595\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The benefit of a model such as this one is that it plays to an individual\u2019s strengths and aptitudes.\u00a0 It would also help alleviate the \u201cone size fits all\u201d mentality. There are many Pagans within the community who would fit this leadership model but who do not quite fit into the traditional model that is currently being used. A secondary or separate system of training, evaluation, and recognition (not a degree system per se, but more of a certification) exclusive to that of the current model would provide opportunity and recognition for those Pagans who wish to serve their community. By implementing a model such as this one, we allow for the growth of the religion while providing a greater and improved foundation, and leaders with wider range of skills for generations to come.<\/p>\n<p>As 2012 is turning out to be a year of massive change for many people and communities, we should all strive to ask ourselves how we can be better members of our community and religion. What can I do to help? What changes can I make within my own life to bring about a better Pagan community? Do I have a skill or the desire to learn a skill that will benefit the community and Paganism? How can I assist my religious leaders? How can I better serve the Gods? I am sure that there are other questions we can ask ourselves to these ends. We\u00a0 would be wise to keep the thoughts about what changes\u00a0 that we desire in our minds and in our conversations. We should tell our leaders what we would like to see\u00a0 from them. We should use this chance to open up an honest dialogue with the leaders and strive to help them make these changes. We can and should work together to help create the future for our religion we all want. After all, now is the perfect time for that talk and action to begin as Imbolc is a time for new beginnings.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>***Disclaimer: I would like to state that this is entirely my opinion and doesn\u2019t reflect the opinions of anyone else. I am not referring to anyone but wish to have an open and honest discourse about the subject. Please let me know why you agree or disagree with me civilly! I would sincerely\u00a0 love to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":543,"featured_media":210,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[606,16],"tags":[52,25,26],"class_list":["post-151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pagan-community","category-top-posts","tag-leadership","tag-pagan","tag-paganism"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Future of Pagan Leadership<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"***Disclaimer: I would like to state that this is entirely my opinion and doesn\u2019t reflect the opinions of anyone else. 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