For Release: June 1, 2013

COLUMBIA – Cherry Hill Seminary has received a generous gift of $10,000 to endow a scholarship for graduate students. The anonymous donor has made the gift a matching challenge to others who support Cherry Hill Seminary’s mission of quality education and practical training in leadership, ministry, and personal growth in Pagan and Nature-Based spiritualities. Interest from the endowment will provide an annual scholarship to a master’s intensive, two of which are required in order to complete a Master of Divinity degree.

“Not only are we grateful for the foresight of this donor, who has demonstrated such admirable commitment, but we also applaud those who have already taken advantage of this opportunity to, in effect, double their own gift by responding to the matching challenge,” said Dr. Todd Berntson, President of Cherry Hill Seminary.

Executive Director Holli Emore noted that the donor was inspired to give by the recent Sacred Lands and Spiritual Landscapes held in collaboration with the University of South Carolina. “We have worked so hard for the past several years to shape our program into one with strong academic integrity as well as meaningful impact for the community of Pagan and nature-based spiritualities,” said Emore. This endowment is both an affirmation of that hard work, and a signal to others who might be ready to join the effort.”

Nearly $3,000 in gifts to the endowment have already been received; Cherry Hill Seminary has until July 1, 2013 to raise the full $10,000 match.

Those who wish to make a gift may do so online or mail their check to Cherry Hill Seminary, P.O. Box 5405, Columbia, SC 29250-5405.

Pledges may be made online here or by emailing your message to CHS @ cherryhillseminary.org. All donors will be acknowledged online unless they request otherwise.

Those interested in a future scholarship may write Cherry Hill Seminary for more information, or watch future newsletters for announcement of an invitation to apply. Donors may make a pledge to pay any time before December 31, 2013.

For more information, contact Holli Emore at Cherry Hill Seminary at CHS @ cherryhillseminary.org.

Interview with Holli Emore: Saturday, April 20, 2013

Why is the history of witchcraft or any kind of paganism important to contemporary practitioners?

For two reasons. The first is that modern witchcraft and pagansim were based on claims about the past, specifically with regards to the survival of a tradition. The second, because they both represent the revival of an ancient tradition or traditions, they must look to ancient ideas and images for at least part of their inspiration.

Will you say more about this statement from your 2010 article for The Pomegranate?
“Religions have, of course, very commonly divided into sects over the interpretation of texts, but the latter are normally the sacred writings of the religious tradition concerned. Modern Paganism lacks such scriptures, and instead different publications on the historic past are coming to fill their space.”

It really is very unusual and a little unnerving to find books by professional historians treated with the same interest by practitioners of a religion as is normally given to the alleged words of deities or of prophets. It is also very flattering; but we perhaps need to place less stress on the past and more on virtues of religion as people actually live it.

In the same article you state that you had hoped Triumph readers, especially practitioners outside the academy, would delve into the sources you had cited, e.g., 19th- and 20th-century writers like Forrest Reid. How might rising scholars and independent scholars contribute in a meaningful way to this stream of research?

There is a quite wonderful mine of material for modern Pagans in the literature of the past 200 years. It includes writers, some very well known, and some not, who both had an intensely affectionate relationship with ancient paganism themselves and directly helped to inspire modern Paganism. These works are in publication and in English and so very accessible to English-speaking readers outside of the academy. They provide both wonderful poetry and prose for use in ritual and in one’s own sense of religion, and also a sense of direct kinship with ancestors who can beyond doubt be claimed as part of the history of modern Paganism.

You spoke of the need for society to “let us do our work,” e.g., preventing politics or the trends of academia to overrule actual research. What is lost when this happens, or what has been lost when this has occurred in your career?

The healthiest situation for both the producers and the consumers of research is one in which all parties recognize that the past can often be interpreted in different ways; and that a range of different interpretations is a healthy situation, especially in a modern society made up of individuals, rather than a regrettable situation. In my address, I drew attention to the example of the bog body called Lindow Man, in the British Museum, which had been interpreted as proof of the existence of human sacrifice in ancient Britain. I played a significant part, myself, in a discussion which succeeded in achieving a recognition that the interpretation of human sacrifice was only one of a number that could be applied to the body.

Will you explain for our readers why you said, “We are the only society that both believes in witchcraft and doesn’t believe in it, and I’d like to keep it that way.”

My actual statement was, We are the only society in history which has both believed strongly in witchcraft, and spontaneously ceased to believe in it. I would like it to continue officially to disbelieve in witchcraft, because people who call themselves witches can only really be safe in a society which doesn’t believe in them. By this I am not suggesting that modern witches should stay in the broom closet. What I am suggesting is that they will have a far easier time out of the closet if they define what they are doing as a religion rather than trying to convince people that they possess actual magical powers.

You have shown an extraordinary sensitivity to the reactivity to your work of contemporary Pagans. Cherry Hill Seminary – as a seminary – is in a unique position of educating people who then may function as bridges between the academy and the average Pagan. What advice would you give those who study your work and then disseminate, really sort of pre-digest it, for the non-academic Pagan?

I would advise Pagans to become less worried about history altogether and more concerned with achieving living relationships with their deities and providing wonderful experiences in ritual for their fellow humans.

For Immediate Release

April 17, 2013

Contact: Holli Emore, 888-503-4131, CHS@cherryhillseminary.org

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Cherry Hill Seminary is saddened by the violence of Monday’s bombing at the Boston Marathon.

Trustee Aline “Macha” O’Brien stated, “Our hearts go out to those directly affected by the explosions, as well as to everyone else who was there, to all the runners of the world, and to the good people of Boston. The pain of such terrible loss crosses all boundaries and unites us in our resolve not to be intimidated by such cowardly acts.”

“Although our students study and train to minister effectively in times of crisis,” said Executive Director Holli Emore, “we hope for a future in which fear no longer erodes the bonds of community.”

“We who honor and walk the sacred path of the Earth and all of Her children mourn the tragic events surrounding the bombing in Boston. We feel the violence done to the Earth and to her children as well as to the possibility of peace and well-being that belongs to all of the Earth. We extend our own community’s work for healing, peace, justice and support to the Boston community and all who were harmed in anyway by this attack,” said Bob Patrick, Chair, Department of Ministry, Advocacy and Leadership.

And from Valentine McKay-Riddell, Chair, Department of Pagan Community Education, “If we stand together for peace, patience, understanding, and support of both the victims and even the perpetrators (because even the most vicious acts of violence are usually catalyzed by deep suffering on some level, and Goddess knows there’s been far too much of that lately!), we will eventually midwife the birth of a new and more compassionate world.”

The students, faculty and staff extend sincere condolences to the survivors and to the families and loved ones of those killed in the attack.

Cherry Hill Seminary is the leading provider of education and practical training in leadership, ministry, and personal growth in Pagan and Nature-Based spiritualities.

For further information contact Cherry Hill Seminary at 888-503-4131 or CHS@cherryhilllseminary.org