Druidry becomes an official religion in England

[damhbard]

Hi there! I wrote a personal blog about this last week and the blog, and replies (including some from the TDN officers at the forefront of the charity campaign) might be useful reading.

http://damh.wordpress.com/2010/10/08/the-circus-at-the-edge-of-the-forest/

[wolf560]

As Oscar Wilde once said, ‘There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about!’

Well said my friend..!!!

[Merlyn]

might be useful reading

He he... yes,
"Spirituality becomes religion"

Luv & light

[oaktree]

I have never regarded druidry as a religion (rightly or wrongly - I don't know what the official "line" is on what is/is not a religion). The Druid Network is an organization that has been given charitable status. I think perhaps the article refers to them alone? I hope OBOD stays as it is.

BB

Oaktree

[Frog]

Oaktree
If you are able, I would listen to the OBOD podcast (I think it's 42) where Damh interviews someone from the TDN.

From what I took from the very interesting interview, Druidry is still whatever you perceive it to be - a belief system that sits with your own religious beliefs, or a religion in its own right (and there are large separate threads on that nugget). Charitable status was given to the TDN based on the information that it supplied to the Charity Commission, which they have now included into their rules so that if another Pagan/Druid organisation (say The Cheesepuffologists* to use a trivial example) could also gain charitable status if their constitution matched the TDN.
The complication (as I see it) is that the TDN, like the Pagan Federation, provide an umbrella to a number of pagan organisations - some of which do not have strict constitutions that would meet the Charity Commission rules (such as OBOD I believe).

It is a very complicated point of law (which is why it took four years) but to me highlighted that outside of rules regarding financial benefits, no-one has managed to define what a religion actually is.

[oaktree]

Thanks frog

will do.

BB

Oaktree

[Frog]

Realised I forgot about defining Cheesepuffology...

"Invented" by Stephan Pastis in the comic strip Pearls Before Swine, Rat defines it as such:
"No matter what you do in life you are eventually forgotten and die, so you might as well sit on your butt and scarf Cheespuffs"

[wolf560]

I guess I have always had a problem with "organized religions" but never considered what I was doing to be anything more than a "personal belief".

I am a Druid and very proud of the amount of effort that I have put into this calling of mine.
If there is anything that helps this venture out in any way I am completely for it since in the past it has not been so easy to find out things I needed to know (Yes, before the internet.... it was not easy at all...)

I know a few of the people that started the TDN project many years ago and the main thing they wanted was simply a way of offering help to as many aspiring Druids as they could.

It looks as though they succeeded and I am very proud of them considering the effort they put into the project and especially the sacrifices they made to keep it going.

If we go with the basic definition from Dictionary.com "a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, esp. when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, ..." then I have to say we may never agree... and that (IMHO) is the crux of our ever=present struggle to find common ground.