Members of Mother Grove Goddess Temple will celebrate at 7 p.m. Saturday with A Breath of Appalachian Spring: A Ritual in Celebration of the Spring Equinox, in the parish hall of the Episcopal Cathedral of All Souls in Biltmore Village.
Saturday’s event is open to all faith traditions, said Byron Ballard, wiccan priestess and a member of the temple. Mother Grove “isn’t a wiccan group, though some of us are wiccans,” she said.
“Mother Grove is an outgrowth of the work of several people in the goddess/earth religions community,” Ballard said. “Its goal is to create a permanent sanctuary, where people of all faith traditions may openly and safely celebrate the divine feminine, the goddess.”
All Souls has been known for some years as the most liberal of the Episcopal churches in Asheville. It has blessed gay unions for some years and its clergy have been leaders in the effort to regard same-sex relationships as acceptable to Christians. A number of groups have met in the parish hall including the Circle of Mercy, a new congregation affiliated with the UCC. The Asheville Citizen-Times is a Gannett newspaper fallen on hard times and increasingly left-wing and shrill. Its editorials support Obamacare which 3/5th of the people in Western NC oppose.
I feel like throwing up. Every time I think I can stay at my local, reasonably orthodox church, I see another story like this. The HoB says we need to start a new wave of Evangelism but we allow this, disgusting behavior in the name of some sort of inclusion.
By the way, is the wiccan priestess’s name Jezebel and is the rector’s name Solomon?
We continued to be surprised and shocked.
[i]….”God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don’t you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel: “Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me”? And what was God’s answer to him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.” [/i] Romans 11:2-5
oops…I posted this passage in the article on atheism… thinking it was this article. Sorry, I was not paying careful attention. My point is this; for so many among us it doesn’t seem to matter to what or to whom you bend the knee. What could folks at the Cathedral be thinking? Jesus welcomed the worship of many gods? To house it IS to promote it.
[blockquote]The Asheville Citizen-Times is a Gannett newspaper fallen on hard times and increasingly left-wing and shrill.[/blockquote]
Perhaps Frank Gannett violently rolling in his grave is the cause of the recent spate of big earthquakes.
I think the headline assigned here is a bit misleading — upon seeing it, I first thought that the wiccan celebration would be in the church itself. I’m not exactly thrilled that it will be in the parish hall, but that’s a damned sight better than in the church. It might have been wiser to clarify in the headline that it would be in the parish *hall*.
#7: I think the moneychangers were in the outer court of the Temple. Seriously, what we can best learn from this, I think, is what might be headed to an Episcopal church near you in the near future. Otherwise almost nothing these people might do would really surprise me.
Look for the following, circa 2011: “We are tired of being called wiccans and priestesses,” said Reverend Katrina Whatshername. “From now on, call us witches. Those other terms are hateful, and do not show the proper spirit of diversity and inclusion.”
#7–That seems a distinction wothout a real difference. If they did human sacrifices or committed infanticide in the parish hall instead of the church, it would still be murder.