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09/24/2004: "Paganism and Methodism mix in Austin"
Every now and then, a story comes along that simply leaves one speechless. Such is the story from Austin about the Wiccan and the Methodists:
It's almost 9 a.m. at Trinity United Methodist Church on Sunday, and Tom Davis, a Wiccan, is looking for the sun. In a few moments, he will cast the circle, pointing to each direction and invoking the four elements: earth, air, fire and water. He starts by facing east.
"By the earth that is her body," Davis declares as light pours through a stained-glass window behind him. "By the air that is her breath. By the fire of her bright spirit. By the waters of her living womb."
For the congregation of the church, at 600 E. 50th St., a witch leading worship isn't scandalous. It isn't even that unusual.
Trinity members have hosted American Indian shamans, Buddhist priests and other faith leaders, including Wiccans, before. They even practice their own pagan-inspired rituals at services.
"It's not my way or hell," said Trinity member Linda Eldredge. "All are welcome here. Everybody's got something to offer."
But for Davis and the Live Oak Local Council of the Covenant of the Goddess he represents, Sunday marked an important, albeit small, step toward inclusion as new members of Austin Area Interreligious Ministries, an interfaith group that voted this year to accept Wiccans.
Demythologizing Wicca at Trinity isn't Davis' greatest challenge. But Trinity's pastor, the Rev. Sid Hall, said Wiccans' participation in the interfaith community may "open up the dialogue to see how Christianity has walked a very tight line with both diminishing pagan roots and Celtic roots and yet incorporating (them) when it was convenient."
Of course, it's not real surprising that Trinity UMC would find this kind of "worship" acceptable, given their support of "creation spirituality," some of the principles of which include:
6. Everyone and everything expresses divinity. All humans are all children of God; therefore, we have Divine blood in our veins and the Divine breath in our lungs; and the basic work of God is Compassion.
7. Divinity is as much Mother as Father, as much Child as Parent, as much Godhead [mystery] as God [history], as much beyond all beings as in all beings.
8. We experience the Divine in all things and all things are in the Divine. This mystical experience supplants the experience of the Divine as separate and unattainable.
Gnosticism, Wicca, creation spirituality–it's all part of the noxious brew that is religiosity at one Methodist church in Austin.
(Thanks to CaNN for the link.)
