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| History of Summerland Grove |
Our Humble Beginnings... |
Summerland Grove Pagan Church is a motley collection of individuals and groups who came together in Nature/Goddess Worship to help unite our local Pagan Community. Our slogan..."Celebrating Diversity in the Pagan Community". We all met and came together around Mayday 1994, during a festival and handfasting. After the handfasting, we all sat around and talked. At the end of our evening together we had become close friends. It was decided that we did not care much for unquestioned authority in covens and it was our wish to create our own rebellious little coven, with no leaders.
For several months we held meetings twice a week in order to come up with some sort of foundation for the coven, some way of working in a truly democratic style. There were many debates and a few outright arguments, but we finally managed to complete our task. During that time, we also performed our rituals together, with each person taking their turn at writing and performing. Soon, those of us who felt inexperienced or shy came out of the closet a little more, and those of us who are attention hounds, backed off. We were finding our balance, and as a result, a true family, Summerland Grove, was being born.
The name Summerland Grove fit us like a glove. Most of us believed that at some point in our afterlife we would find ourselves in the "Summerland" (A Pagan Heaven). Because we were not all Wiccans, Grove seemed more appropriate than Coven. Our symbol became a Sun rising between two "trees" of a Grove, with a pentacle at the top, inside of the Sun. The two "trees" are actually runic symbols for Mayday, the day we all got together and the rising Sun symbolizes a new beginning as a leaderless coven. For most of us it was our first experience working with a coven.
With the ties that bind getting stronger, we decided to become a legal church. For some of us, this was a dream that was long overdue in the making. We wanted to go public to help bring everyone in our Community together and to be a source of information and networking for those who chose to stay hidden in the closet. Some of us have been public and proud for over a decade, while others were still new to the whole concept of covens. We all knew what it felt like to be "the only one out there" and we wanted to change that. Many covens are very selective about who they allow into their group, which we feel is only right, since a coven is truly a chosen family. But we also knew how it felt to be excluded and we were determined to help. We feel that as a Church, we can make the solitaires and others feel like they are a part of a group without the commitment that a coven requires.
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Our Beliefs... |
Summerland Grove is a Church made up of solitaires and covens working and worshipping together. We believe that unity is not only possible, but practical. We also believe that everyone is different and it is this diversity that makes Paganism the wonderful path that it is. Therefore we strive to celebrate this diversity in our church and our community. We also strive to teach and learn from one another, so that we may be better educated and perhaps more constructive as Pagans. We celebrate the Old Gods, those of Nature and Mythology, as well as looking towards the Gods of the future.
Being an open and diverse church, we do not conform anyone to any one set beliefs, nor do we discriminate against others because of their race, origin, religion, or sexual preference. We ask only that you respect the beliefs and opinions of others and that you respect Nature in all Her life-affirming beauty.
We attempt to celebrate the Eight Sabbats as a church, but leave the Esbats up to the solitaires and covens to perform as they wish. For the Eight Sabbats of the Year, we have produced a Wheel of the Year that we follow so that members of the Church will be aware of our purpose for celebrating that Sabbat. We attempted to make it as general as possible and did not use any names for the God and Goddess, as well as putting it in story form so that the general idea of the Wheel can be remembered. Each solitaire or coven is free to practice their own beliefs so long as they keep in mind the Wiccan Rede, "An it Harm None, Do As You Will".
We also hold special meetings and outings, as well as monthly meetings for the Church. We encourage members to get involved with other Pagan and environmental groups in our area so that we can all work together as a whole. We attend festivals and meetings of other groups, as well as try to support them in their activities. We see the Pagan Community as an extended family. Every family has the bold, the timid, the beautiful, and the nuts. This is very true in the Pagan family as well. We may not always get along, but as with most families, we know that this is home and we still care about and look out for one another.
Our membership currently consists of several solitaires and covens. Membership in Summerland Grove can be either alone or with a group or coven. Our ranking system within the church is known as The Realm System. The five realms, Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Spirit, are given the respective titles of Seekers, Students, Dedicants, Priesthood and Clergy. Members may get instruction in this training program in order to become a Priest or Priestess and/or to become legal Clergy. We also have instruction on forming and establishing your own tradition, coven or church. We feel that the Pagan Community needs more legal Pagan Clergy in order to perform rites of passage, comfort the sick or dying, and to counsel others of our faith. But we also feel that there should be training involved in a variety of areas before this can be accomplished.
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