What should the educational and training requirements be for an ordained Pagan minister who competes in the same Sunday morning time slot with ordained Christian ministers?
I am watching the videos for a Coursera-Yale offering called " constitutional law " and wondering how it applies to running a 501(c)(3) organization for a specific, minority religious interest here in So Cal. This, in light of recent ( closed ) conversations with a separate yet similar organization, and considering the responses thereof.
For many years, prior to the internet, and certainly this continues to be the case, So Cal has had a reputation of being a bit on the edge of innovation; sometimes what we innovate is ingenious, and more often than not, laughable and ridiculous. But, it's our nature to try something new, and risk being the object of unintentional, international comedy of " life in Cali ".
Now, we are onto the subject of Ordination for a Pagan organization which honors the ancient Goddess religions ( mainly, yet not limited to honoring the Goddess Fortuna ) and is Unitarian in nature; embracing mainstream Paganism, reconstructionism as equally as it does Wicca and offering Sunday worship during the same time slot as Christian church worship.
There is a huge gap between the requirements for ordained ministers of Christian worship and those of Pagan worship. Let's begin with the idea that a Doctorate in Divinity is often required for Christian ordination. Conversely, many Pagan organizations have no formal educational requirements whatsoever, and look solely to the organization for training.
Let's also take a look at the concept that " preaching the gospel " to a congregation does not require ordainment; it's simply an expression of freedom of speech. Ordainment comes into play when legal documents are handled by clergy; the documents I've most often come into contact with, in my private practice, are marriage licenses which require an authorized clergy person's signature.
To be honest, although I hold more than one professional license to practice here in California, I've no more than a bachelor of science and, if Temple of Fortuna dot com chooses for its ministers to be able to compete, degree-for-degree with the Sunday time slot, it's possible that I would not qualify for my own organization's ordainment without additional degrees. Frankly, I don't have a doctorate in divinity and I don't know any Pagan minister who does. The question is: should we?
Cherry Hill Seminary has noticed this gap, and taken steps to try and market a hodge-podge of classes aiming toward a Wiccan-inspired upper level education. On a glance, I believe it's an admirable venture, yet does the curriculum, faculty and organization really compare to an accredited Christian seminary Doctorate of Divinity? Maybe it will someday, yet I feel that inviting in mainstream Christian ministers to compare programs may help more than just hoping, trying, dreaming.
Bringing Pagan worship to Sunday mornings may invite scrutiny of the educational and training path of our ministers. Will it hold up in comparison to Christian ministers, or will this adventure of Sunday morning Pagan worship become just one more laughable idea that came from So Cal?
Should we require more education from our Pagan ministers?
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