Pagan Clergy; Necessary or Not?

Yes, I've been caught listening to another podcast. To know what I am talking about in this post you should listen to the Eclectic Pagan Podcast episode here: Eclectic Pagan Podcast Episode 8- Pagan clergy, are they a necessity? and read Patricia Telesco's article sited in the show found here: Losing My / Your Religion.


My Comments to the Eclectic Pagan Podcasters:

Many times you say that the model proposed by Patricia Telesco is a Christian one. Where in her article does it say anything to that effect?

Quoute from Tom: "Our movement has gotten where it is without a professional clergy."

Tom, where is it? I would have to say that over the past few years the 'movement' has become stagnant. There is more separation between groups right now than I have witnessed over the past five years combined.

Christians revel in the fact that if you take six Pagans and ask them the same question they will have six different answers. In the opinion of the mainstream we are a bunch of whackos who can not make up our mind about what we believe. Instead of embracing the things that we have in common we spend hours bickering and back-biting over all of the things we do not agree about.

Another quote from Tom: "Center to the idea of Wicca is the notion that anybody who is called to can connect directly with the Lord and Lady without an intermediary."

Who is saying that with the birth of professional Pagan clergy there will be a death of the central idea that we are divine and need no other to connect with that essence? This is part of our faith and not something that can be stamped out without redefining our beliefs. This idea would certainly be integrated into a Pagan clergy framework. I think you are too hell bent on restraining any kind of clergy idea within the Christian framework. We are not Christian, therefore we would not use their model to create our clergy system.

Most of us have spent years learning how to think and see differently. This is one of those times where those skills come in handy. Reimagine the idea of clergy and leave the Christianity out of it. You'd be surprised what wonderful possibilities you can come up with.

To quote Patricia: "Organization provides the black and white outlines -- you can still bring your own crayons, and even color outside the lines."

Would it be so awful to have some sort of training standards where people must actually spend years of education learning and earning the title of clergy? Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to present a united face to the public where people are educated in their religion and can present it well? We need accredited institutions in which to gain our spiritual education from. This may never be possible unless we form churches, incorporate, etc. so that someone can pay for it - be it the government through faith based funding (not gonna happen at our present state) or through the community at large through donations.

As for the paid clergy issue: How in the world could someone serve an entire congregation of people, manage the building, etc. full time without some sort of monetary sum? Who will pay their bills if they can not work at another job because they are full time clergy? Who will pay the electric bill for the temple? Who will foot the bill for the ritual supplies?

All in all I think we should not be too quick to throw these ideas away. Patricia is on the right track and I hope that someday those visions come to pass for our sake and our children's.

By the way, I will be sure to mention your show to her when I see her at the end of the month. Who knows, maybe she'll want to come on and comment herself.