OldWays.org
Title
First Congregational Church of the Old Religion. A Wiccan, Pagan religious body
Description
The First Congregational Church of the Old Religion is a congregation of the old Native European religion, also called the Wicca or Witchcraft. Members of the church get together to celebrate the ancient festivals that mark the natural cycles of the year. Some of our religion has been transmitted through oral tradition that is thousands of years old. It is the mission of our church to rediscover the lore and practice that were lost in the persecutions of the middle ages. Some of the rediscovery or recreation was done in the 20th century and some continues to this day. We are creating a new culture that echoes the pagan villages of the past. Members of The Church meet for the ancient festivals days of Imbolc, Beltain, Lughnassad, and Samhain, and also the solar events, solstices and equinoxes. We observe these festival times with feasting, fun, pleasure, and sometimes by going on a weekend retreat together. We practice the Old Ways in our lives, based on love and acceptance of the earth and ourselves as fundamentally good. Click here for a history or myth of the old ways. Click here to read our Wiccan word definitions and usage.
Wicca is a religion and a way of life based on the natural cycles of the Earth, and the natural cycles of human life. We celebrate the events of the natural cycles, such as full and new moons, equinoxes, and solstices, to attune ourselves to the Earth's rhythms. Being in tune with the Earth helps us to feel and rejoice in our physical and spiritual reality as part of the good Earth. Wicca is one of the few nature religions to have survived the spread of christianity. For hundreds of years, christianity and pagan ways coexisted; christianity spread mostly in the cities and paganism continued to flourish in the countryside. Then in the late middle ages the conflict between these two ways exploded into Witch hunts. Practice of the Old Ways was almost eradicated; much lore and history were lost. But the oral tradition persisted despite persecution.
The Old Ways have survived, changed by time and local practices and the genius of those through whom they have come to us. And now at the turn of the twenty-first century, the Old Ways survive and change still. We have a vision of a new culture based on joy and trust, rejecting the fear and shame that permeate American culture. We work to create this culture by changing ourselves, by living daily in a way that demonstrates acceptance of our bodies and our connections with the Earth. We do not try to convert others, trusting them to find their own paths. But we love our path. We believe that the ancient pagan way of life is the natural spiritual path of all beings.
