Large Pagan Churches

I personally think that embracing the structural paradigm of "churchdom" will ultimately lead to the downfall of Paganism. This is a pretty harsh statement, I know. And so you may be asking why? Why would this happen? 

Because it ultimately puts the power and responsibility for one's spiritual path into the hands of an elite priesthood. 

How many times do Pagans joke about C & E Christians? (You know, the folks who only who up at Christmas and Easter.) How many B. S. Pagans do you know? (Beltane/Samhain) How many BIG 8 witches do you know? (Only celebrate the 8 sabbats and don't do anything else.) 

As people get more and more removed from being personally involved with their own spiritual path, the less impact and meaning it has in their everyday life. When I was growing up, I noticed that there were a lot of people who went to church every week and still did some pretty unchristian-like things outside of church time. There was also another group of folks who thought that as long as they were saved, it didn't make any difference what they actually DID in real life. (Rock calls these folks "the bought and paid for".)  I was turned off by these attitudes. I thought that it was important how you actually lived your life - every single day. But I think that big churches promote a spirituality that it is passive - where priests deliver the information and the parishioners are the receptacles. 

Heck, the ideas of hell and Satan grew out of the church as it saw a need to control people in order to meet the power needs of those within the church structure. Passive, non-questioning (and even frightened) adherents are much easier to manipulate and control. So people become passive in their religion, the religious leaders control the followers, and presto-chango, whole legions of the disaffected, the disenfranchised and the disavowed who become apathetic to religion. Some stop practicing their religion except for the outward forms of it. Some even leave. 

Do Pagans really want to revert and go back down that path? 

The traditional witches coven has always been thirteen. Any more than that, they hive off. (Hiving off is when a coven gets too big it splits. Kinda like when a bee collective gets too large and so they split into two groups.)  I think that there is a really practical reason for this. You can't have too many people in a group or else they become passive receptors and instead of active participants. In my experience I think that even thirteen is too many -  I prefer something around eight or nine. Thirteen is more of an upper limit. 

You know, I think that spiritually has a direct correlation to connectedness. How connected am I if all I do is show up to rituals eight times a year with 70 other people? The witch tradition has always had the idea of the grand covening - bringing together more than one coven to celebrate certain Sabbats. For networking in the larger community, I think that it is a good idea. I certainly am not implying that groups should be stagnate and isolated, but instead that religious practices become more meaningful when done in a close knit, active group - or even alone. (How's that for having to take ultimate responsibility!) 

In fact, if we are going to have large Pagan churches, I think that they should exist as collectives of smaller practicing groups and solitaries. They should supplement Pagan spiritual practice, not supplant it. 

As far as finding a political voice, I think that the Pagan community has plenty of political action/social justice groups to belong to that were formed specifically for that purpose. But these groups are not churches, nor do they claim to be meeting the individual spiritual needs of Pagans/witches. I do think they meet the need of having a positive, political voice for the broad spectrum of Pagans. 

I have always thought that the Paganism and witchcraft revivals of today are truly religious and spiritual grassroots movements. I think that is were we belong - rooted to the ground and centered in active spirituality.