Establishing Pagan temples/churches/spaces

[David19]

I was reading Fiamma's thread asking if anyone has there own Pagan space to worship, and I wanted to ask this, would anyone here like to establish there own Pagan place of worship (whether it's a temple/church/whatever), as in actually owning the land, being able to do what you wanted with it, etc, and maybe having something close as to what they hand in ancient times.

Or does anyone have any plans to try and establish something like this.

I personally would love to see more established, offline Pagan groups and temples around, places where you could go and worship or pay your respects to the gods, etc.

I think it'd also be cool if it led to more established Pagan priesthoods (I don't mean one priesthood for all Pagans, as Paganism encompasses a wide variety of different religions), like having an established Hellenic priesthood that might be a priest full time, caring for the temples, doing whatever the priests used to do, etc.

Maybe I'm just aiming too high, but I'd really like something similar to happen.

What about you?.

[Lolair]

There are many examples of successful pagan temples and churches across North America: the Aquarian Tabernacle Church, the Wiccan Church of Canada, the Congretionalists Wiccan Association in British Columbia, as well as many smaller individual churches in different towns. There is also the odd group that has bought large parcels of land such as Serena Fox's Circle Sanctuary, but one would have to have a lot of money and no career in order to set something similar up.

It's a viable idea David, as long as you're willing to put in the time, effort, networking and money for it ;). For me, my place of worship is the woods beyond my house, or the ocean shore... if I could drag other pagans out to these places for rituals I'd be pretty happy.

[Dawa Lhamo]

Actually, one of the big reasons why I picked KC to move to is the proximity of Camp Gaea (http://www.campgaea.org/). I wanted to get involved in the camp and in the Heartland Pagan Festival (http://kchsa.org/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php) held there. It really is an awesome place. It was several people together who made the land purchase--and several people's volunteer efforts who make continued maintenance--possible. And we've had it for, what, maybe 15 years now? Seems like it must be longer than that. ^_^ Anyway, if I was going to say that I had a church--as in a single physical place of worship--that would be it. ^_^

[Ivy Artemisia]

This is going to sound pretty silly. But my office used to be in a weird bulding in a nice area up in the foothills. The office was previously used as a real estate office, and had some small offices, and two rooms that would be great for meeting rooms, and a large main room.

I thought it would be perfect for a Pagan community center. The main room could be for ritual, another room for the sales of ritual supplies, the big meeting room so that groups could hold thier meetings there, or classes. The little bitty offices with sliding glass doors- perfect for a few offices for regular clergy. The small back room could have been used for readings. It even had a kitchen. The only downside was that there was no real outdoor space. It was across the street from a small park, though. :)

We would have altars and regular classes and always a clergy person around for counseling, or educating.

Yeah. I've thought about it a little bit. Now, if I can only win the lotto... ;) The lease on it was 6k or so a month.

[~Elise~]

have plans--but no money... for now MY home is the space.

[Xentor]

I have plans in the making. Currently we're looking for a good piece of land and trying to come up with how to organise everything we need.

We want to set up a place of worship, gathering and education. We're coming up with ways to have volunteers help us build in exchange for a free stay. We're looking to turn a piece of land into a nature reserve, acquire hunting licenses, work the land, build a hostel, a school, a temple, etc. We need lawyers and mayors and politicians and teachers...

all in due time. :)