A Professional Pagan Clergy
by Jack Maurice Lesage
The Pagan community has a problem with leadership - it is wanted and it is needed. The increasing numbers of seekers has created an environment where there are more and more people looking for spiritual leadership and guidance, and there seems to be a huge gap between the leadership needed and what is actually available.
One of the things that set Pagan religions apart from mainstream religions is our lack of paid professional clergy (from the Greek 'kleros', a 'lot', 'that which is assigned by lot', also meaning 'heritage'). Like our diversity this can both be a strength and a weakness. This issue, left unresolved for almost 60 years in most traditions, causes a great deal of friction in the Pagan community. But I think we should give the issue some reasoned consideration and attempt to reach consensus and if possible, conclusion - which individuals and groups could support or ignore.
Pagan spiritual leadership or clergy if you prefer can be seen as local, regional, national, or even global — but as the arena grows, so should the standards by which we as Pagans judge the experience, competence and credibility necessary to be considered such a leader. When I speak of Pagans leaders I include all levels and variations of priestesses, priests, elders and teachers.
I believe that professional spiritual guidance could provide many benefits to the Pagan community as a whole. Given our extreme diversity, we could avoid the pitfalls that other religions seem to hit when they decide on professional clergy. Paganism is a vast collection of Earth-centered belief systems. We would not need to settle on one specific arrangement for professional clergy; each tradition could choose a variant suited and based on their own requirements.
A lot of people within Paganism argue that the very idea of clergy inherently goes against Paganism and all it stands for. I do not think that to be true for as Pagans we are used to diversity and we accept differences within the community. In fact I would go as far as to say that Pagans rarely hold the same stance on a (if not any) given issue. And something utterly unacceptable in one system may prove mandatory in another.
Specialisation
According to an article, 'The Pros and Cons of Pagan Clergy', ancient tribes followed pagan religions at the dawn of time and the ancients lived intimately with the land and faced survival challenges each day, which probably meant that most members of any given tribe had to do a little bit of everything - no specialisation. They also most likely dealt with Divinity directly. But gradually people found that specialisation did serve a purpose, in fact, it made life easier.
Dealing with Divinity may even have emerged as one of the first professions (yes I do know which profession is the oldest), because people in those years were dependent on perilous hunting, unknown weather patterns and fertility and a shaman would have, for example, been simply too valuable to risk in the hunt. In exchange for services rendered, the tribe may have contributed to the shaman’s support - possibly in the form of food, clothing, weapons, tools, etc.
With organised agriculture, communities developed and gave birth to villages, towns and much later cities and with this human development many of the ancient religions developed a network of temples complete with priests and priestesses to run them. Their training usually took place over many years. Besides ministering to the people’s needs, these skilled and specialised individuals took on other important tasks which varied according to their society.
Throughout history and even now, the amount of spiritual work people do for their community varies greatly. Some prefer to keep their spirituality private and focus on personal and family growth, others develop one particular skill, such as divination, healing or crafting ritual tools, which they use to barter/sell for their other necessities. People may come and ask these individuals for help and that too becomes a major part of their lives. Out of this a few of these people dedicate their entire lives to serving the Gods and their immediate community.
The title of priestess/priest and elder may cover any or all of these categories depending on the tradition. Many Pagans feel that an essential quality of Paganism is that each individual can serve as priestess/priest for his or her own needs, and also serve in that capacity for anyone else who needs it. It is indeed true that we do not require the intervention of ordained clergy to develop spiritually, but in the mundane world, do we not make use of specialists? If my car, for example, has a flat I can fix that myself, however if my car needs rewiring I use an auto electrician. So what would be so different if I, as a Pagan, called upon a Pagan specialist (an ordained priestess/priest or elder) if I were faced with a spiritual crisis? Specialists play a vital role in society and although we may follow the Path of the Ancients we do live in the modern world – a world that at times tends to throw us a rather unexpected and unwelcome curve.
The birth of professional Pagan clergy would certainly not be the death of the central idea that we are all divine and need no other to connect with that essence. This is an integral part of Paganism and this would certainly need to be integrated into a clergy framework.
I think one of the first steps which need to be taken is to broaden our understanding of what constitutes clergy. In Paganism, so it seems to me, it is understood that a priestess/priest is one who conducts Pagan ritual and little more. While people conducting the rites may be the first thing a religious community needs, the needs of the Pagan community go far beyond that.
The Clergy
So how exactly do we define professional clergy? 'Profession' refers to someone’s career and it typically involves payment, as opposed to the amateur who rarely gets paid. When people choose religious service as their life's work, we call that a 'vocation' or a 'calling' to acknowledge its special meaning. Furthermore, professional implies 'formally trained' or 'highly experienced', or both. 'Official' points to recognition by some body, such as a church, coven, umbrella organisation, or even the government and lends additional weight to the professional qualification.
Instituting a professional clergy does pose potential problems.
a. The most obvious of these is power tripping, but we already have that, so a Pagan professional clergy might on rare occasion provide a more public forum for some control freaks to make fools of themselves, but it does not introduce anything new.
b. Loss of individuality also looms in counter-clergy arguments, but this does not really apply to Paganism. We have so many different traditions that no single clerical order could adequately serve all traditions.
c. Disputes over hierarchy might also arise, but again those are nothing new to Paganism, especially between degree'd and egalitarian traditions. Some people would look up to professional clergy based on their credentials, others would not, just as happens with degreed Pagans now.
d. Fears that we would lose the essential intimacy of Paganism, our direct connection with the Divine, also come to nought. If the professional clergy members do not stay in line Pagans will ignore them just as they have been ignoring mainstream clergy. Individuals could still deal with the Divine directly; professional clergy would merely add another dimension, such as a support role.
Clergy’s Role
What can a professional clergy offer the Pagan community?
First, it would offer the community a group of people with skills in areas such as counseling, leadership, conducting of rituals, healing, education, etc, on whom individuals and groups could call at need. Their registration would provide a list of names and locations so that they may be contacted easily. This would allow Pagans to enjoy many of the same spiritual privileges available to mainstream religions; the right to call on a priestess/priest of one’s own faith while dying, or in a hospital, to preside over funerals or weddings and baptisms to provide counseling after the loss of a loved one, to teach children about spirituality and so on.
It would also lend Paganism greater credibility with mainstream organisations, including government, and allow us to present a united front which would make it so much harder for non-Pagans to dismiss our spirituality as inconsequential. As things stand, Pagans face unfair discrimination in areas where a professional clergy would make all the difference, as through them all Pagans would have official representation and recognition.
I find it somewhat strange that people argue so much over this issue when in effect we already have professional clergy in the Pagan community; they just do not enjoy the advantages of official recognition. As things stand now, for example, with the official appointment of designated Religious Marriage Officers (RMOs) for the SAPC, SAPRA, and CNT and their registration with Home Affairs, Pagans in S.A. can preside over legally binding weddings as official clergy, yet the Pagan community still continues to argue over professional and ordained spiritual leaders.
We even have some organisations and individuals that offer seminary-type training for Pagans and some already have their own established parameters for priestesses and priests. So some kind of organised clergy training is already taking place. As Pagans we must also take cognisance that ordained Pagan clergy and seminary training (especially Wiccan) does exist in other countries and we should learn from our brothers and sisters who have managed to overcome many of the pitfalls that, thanks to them, the S.A. Pagan community might never have to face.
The local Pagan community already has many people who devote time and energy to helping other Pagans cope with grief, sort out their lives, learn new crafts, present workshops, act as public representatives, mentoring, etc, and who for all practical purposes already serve as clergy. These people may or may not hold credentials of any kind and most of them receive no payment for their efforts; they simply do what needs to be done. These people are in fact functional clergy.
Two questions regarding Pagan clergy that come up most often are official recognition and payment. Who should set requirements and issue credentials for Pagan clergy? Who would be eligible? Should professional clergy be paid? If so, who should pay them and how much?
I do not think that a so-called universal Pagan clergy is even possible. The Pagan community is far too diverse for that type of consensus. At best, we can hope for a decentralised clergy.
One of the most workable options would offer training and certification for professional Pagan clergy through new or established Pagan churches and representative organisations. Each tradition could set its own requirements and standards for qualification. Applicants could even take credit for knowledge gained elsewhere. Some Pagan bodies might offer honorary credentials to those who already have demonstrated their ability as spiritual guides and who do not need a certification course. Others might offer a general certification with specialisation by denomination within a tradition, or skills: Priestess/Priest of Wicca (Gardnerian, Alexandrian, Dianic, etc) or Eclectic Priestess/Priest (Asatru, Shamanism, Stregheria, etc) or Pagan Priestess/Priest (weddings, counseling, initiations, divination, etc). This would preserve the autonomy and diversity of our many traditions.
Payment
The objection to payment for Pagan clergy largely stems from a strong belief, in many traditions, that money should never be involved in spiritual matters. I certainly acknowledge this as a valuable spiritual principle. However an equally viable principle concerns the conservation and exchange of energy; for everything you receive, you should give something in return, and, what you do returns to you in some form.
A compromise would be to avoid cash transactions and offer gifts of food, other goods or even services. Another solution would be for a Non-Profit Organisation to hire professional Pagan clergy as staff. For instance, a Pagan school might pay for clergy to teach children’s classes in their tradition, to maintain a Pagan library, a group might hire Pagan priests and priestesses to provide counseling, survivor support and related services upon request.
While I do believe in some form of remuneration for services rendered, I would not want to see any kind of fee required for the formal ordination of Pagan clergy. This should not be something that can be bought. It should remain within reach of anyone who feels the calling to serve and has the dedication to go through the training.
A training programme does costs money, but the funds should not be raised from existing structures. Raise the funds from somewhere else; donations, Pagan fairs, the sale of handcrafted goods, oils, candles, soaps, etc. I also think trainees should not have to pay a fee, but should pay for materials used during their training. Keep the door of opportunity open to all.
Of course even if the Pagan community does accept some professional clergy, not all Pagans will acknowledge them, but surely we should have professional Pagan clergy available to those people who do indeed desire or need their services.
A priestess/priest and even elders, should be clergy in every sense of the word. The position carries with it the responsibility for seeing to the spiritual needs of the community and in assisting Pagans through the mundane crises of their lives. Being clergy is more than just leading a ritual. It is sitting at the bedside of someone who has just been diagnosed with an incurable disease, it is helping someone get through the funeral of a loved one, it is helping a suicidal person, it is hugging a child or woman who has been abused, it is trying to get someone into a detox centre, and it is smiling at someone who simply needs a warm and reassuring smile.
I believe that the time has come for us as Pagans to evolve and begin to be a bit more organised in how we will proceed into the future. How and in what form this will take place will depend on the South African Pagan community. A steady first step would perhaps be for us to set our own definition of what it is to be clergy - we need to break free of the mental image we have of clergy in other religions.
Sources for this article include works by: Judy Harrow (HPS, Proteus Coven), 1998; Gwyneth Cathyl-Harrow, M.Sc. (Coven of the Stone and Mirror); Lark (1996); Jon “Athrawon” Edens (2005); and the article “Vested Interest: The Pros and Cons of Pagan Clergy” (author unknown); Ordained Clergy in Hellenion: An Exploration by Drew Campbell (2001);
Beliefnet.com, WitchVox and Wikipedia.
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