DRUIDS RECOGNIZED AS RELIGION FOR FIRST TIME IN UK

By on Aug 20, 2012 in Current Issues


This just in from Internet News headquarters, where our motto is: If it’s news; it’s news to us.

Dateline Anywhere USA; maybe even Your Town: This just in…the world’s gone mad.

Ok, that’s not so new; but hey lookie there, the Druids are back. From the Associated Press by way of Yahoo News:

Druids have been worshipping the sun and earth for thousands of years in Europe, but now they can say they’re practicing an officially recognized religion.

The ancient pagan tradition best known for gatherings at Stonehenge every summer solstice has been formally classed as a religion under charity law for the first time in Britain, the national charity regulator said Saturday. That means Druids can receive exemptions from taxes on donations — and now have the same status as such mainstream religions as the Church of England.

The move gives an old practice new validity, said Phil Ryder, the chairman of the 350-member Druid Network. “It will go a long way to make Druidry a lot more accessible,” he said…

In a story that could be related…work with me here: Dirk Esslinger, lead community co-ordinator of the Emerging Order of Bards, Ovates & Druid Monks is seen in the picture below after talking with local reporters.

He’s demonstrating how he blows the Abbots Bromley horn to begin their afternoon session of their Emerging Druid version of an old, now outlawed, college football drill called “Bull in the Ring.”

Arch Emergent Druid Esslinger says ”dude, nothing foisters closeness before the evening human sacrifice like running as fast as we can across the circle and smashing head-long into each other.”

Rumor has it that one of the reporters,um, may missed their deadline; if you catch my drift.

Mae govannen bubba.

Further reading