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- From: torin@netcom.com (Darren/Torin/Who ever...)
- Subject: Church of All Worlds FAQ Part 3/7
- Message-ID: <torinCnrtKJ.I7H@netcom.com>
- Followup-To: alt.religion.all-worlds
- Summary: This posting contains a general outline about the Church of
- All Worlds, a neo-pagan church and alt.religion.all-worlds.
- It is *not* for all religions. It should be read by anyone
- who wishes to post to alt.religion.all-worlds.
- Reply-To: c-a-w@netcom.com
- Organization: Church of All Worlds
- Date: Tue, 5 Apr 1994 05:21:55 GMT
- Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU
- Expires: Wed, 4 May 1994 05:00:00 GMT
- Lines: 66
- Xref: bloom-beacon.mit.edu alt.religion.all-worlds:678 alt.answers:2337 news.answers:17684
-
- Archive-name: church_all_worlds/part3
- Alt-religion-all-worlds-archive-name: FAQ-part3
- Last-modified: Thu, 24 Mar 1994
-
- II. ***WHAT*** IS THE CHURCH OF ALL WORLDS???
-
- A. OVERVIEW
-
- The Church of All Worlds ISN'T a bunch of folks who read
- Robert Heinlein's book _Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land_ and wanted
- to play act. It wasn't started by Heinlein, nor did he belong to
- or benefit from it, except perhaps in the form of new fans. The
- Church does draw some of its form and philosophy from SISL and
- tends to attract future oriented people who enjoy reading
- speculative fiction, never-the-less, it definitely ISN'T a
- trekky type grok-flock (but some of us have tendencies towards
- being trekkies).
-
- From Otter Zell:
- --0z--
- The Church of All Worlds is Neo-Pagan, implying an
- eclectic reconstruction of ancient Nature religions, and
- combining archetypes of many cultures with other mystic,
- environmental and spiritual disciplines.. Indeed, we were the
- ones who first proposed, in 1967, that the term "Pagan" be
- adopted to apply to the newly-emerging movement of Nature-based
- and revivalist pre-Christian religions, including Witchcraft as
- European shamanism, but also including Egyptian, Greek, Norse,
- Druidic, Hindu, and various indigenous tribal traditions, such
- as Polynesian, Native American, African, etc.
-
- But we in CAW are not trying merely to recreate a
- Paradise Lost; we are actively involved in helping to save the
- present world as well as working to actualize a visionary
- future. With roots deep in the Earth and branches reaching
- towards the stars, we evoke and create myths not only of a
- Golden Age long past, but of one yet to come.
-
- CAW presently has about three dozen regional "Nests",
- which is what we call our local congregations, or Circles.
- These are indeed member groups, as are the several subsidiary
- "branch" organizations that we have created and chartered to
- focus on particular areas of concern. These branches include:
- Nemeton --- fundraising, marketing and publishing; Forever
- Forests --- treeplanting and environmental action; Ecosophical
- Research Association (ERA) --- research and exploration into
- origins and actualizations of myths and legends; Lifeways ---
- education and personal development; Peaceful Order of the Earth
- Mother (POEM) --- dedicated to children and child nurturing;
- Holy Order of Mother Earth (HOME) --- developing magical and
- ritual structures and techniques.
-
- CAW is worldwide, including seven Nests in Australia,
- where we are the first legally-recognized Pagan religion (as we
- were the first in the US). A third of our Nests are in
- California, reflecting the greatest concentration of our
- members. We have individual members in many other countries
- throughout the world.
-
- We have created a new Tribalism, where we relate to each
- other as members of a tribe, with interconnecting clans and
- families. And in turn, our tribe is one of the Nations of Earth
- Religions, bound together by our common love and reverence for
- our Mother, the Living Earth.
- --0z--
-
-