I kind of love it when holidays overlap in interesting ways. We end up in this funny place where we are forced to notice which holiday we’re more anchored to. Sometimes it means we have to sit with some uncomfortable feelings about the confluence of events. And more interestingly, especially for Unitarian Universalists, it’s an opportunity to truly live into our shared value of pluralism.
Like many values, I think pluralism is easy to consider as a concept but is frequently uncomfortable when it finally shows up in all its messy, tangled glory. Like when Earth Day weekend is also Easter weekend, and a Pagan is in the pulpit. In the United States, our larger culture teaches that there is one right and true way to do pretty much everything. We live in a cultural binary system of right and wrong, positive and negative, light and dark, winning and losing. Pluralism forces us to confront that binary approach with something different: that more than one thing can be true and correct at the same time. And, by allowing space for that reality, we must also create space for the truth that not everything is for us, and that that is okay.
In addition to being a Commissioned Lay Minister for the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick, I am and have been full time Pagan clergy for many years now. I was ordained back in 2003. This means that the bulk of my days and work are spent on supporting the Pagan community. I write, teach, lead ceremonies, organize events, offer pastoral counseling…all the things one normally associates with ministry. When I talk to UUs, I try to share some of the good ideas and useful wisdom from Pagan traditions that can apply to everyone. Lived pluralism is one thing we do pretty well, largely because we’ve had to in order to survive. This confluence of Easter and Earth Day presents a unique opportunity to explore interdependence and spiritual polyculture, and what that means for a tradition that seeks to fully embrace pluralism.
It’s useful to understand that the Pagan religions are wildly theologically diverse, with practices that match that diversity. The truth is that if we weren’t all minority religions that need the strength found in numbers, many of our traditions would probably not be in contact with each other. The scale of difference I’m talking about here is analogous to using the word “Christian” to describe Christianity and its various permutations, but also to lump Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, and Atheism all under that umbrella as well. This is part of why when you ask a Pagan a question about Pagan religious practice there’s never just one answer. The religions that fall under the banner of Paganism include animists who believe all the world is sacred and sentient; revivalists who are rebuilding the pre-Christian religions of the ancient world like those found in Africa, Latin America, Greece, Ireland, and Norway, and who often have deeply reverent and devoted practices to the gods of those religions; atheo-Pagans who find meaning in the cycle of the seasons and in trying to live in best alignment with them but do not worship deities; Goddess worshipers who have fully rejected the idea of patriarchy in every form including religious ones; and so much more. I could give an entire sermon just trying to offer an overview of the different religions we use the word Pagan to classify.
So how do we do this? When your religious community includes beliefs and practices you do not share, how do you grow connections and handle being in spaces that are not for you and your practice?
Many years ago, one of the wonderful teachers I’ve had along my faith journey introduced the concept of ambassadorship to me. She proposed regarding the Pagan diaspora as a vast Parliament of Nations wherein the goal is cooperation and appreciation across cultural divides. It’s probably one of the single most useful perspectives I’ve come across. An ambassador is not just a good representative of their culture. They are a living bridge to others. Ambassadors, when the political process is done correctly, are selected because they have qualities that will allow them to thrive and build relationships outside their parent culture. As religious ambassadors, we should be seeking to do the same – to understand the cultures outside our own and find ways to connect to them.
In Pagan spaces, I am an ambassador for my specific faith path of Heathenry – a religion based on the pre-Christian practices, mythology, and folklore of ancient Scandinavia. And, as an ambassador of that faith, I seek out opportunities to learn about and find appreciation of traditions that are not mine. By seeing and honoring the potency and beauty of other paths, I open the door to relationships with the adherents of those paths. Many times, I find that the illumination of other traditions enhances the illumination I find in my own faith. And, with every opportunity to be in spaces that are not for me, I become more comfortable and able to find the beauty in those spaces.
One of the organizations I serve is the Sacred Space Foundation. As a board member of the foundation, I help organize and run a large esoteric conference – the Sacred Space Conference – in the DC area every year. The most recent conference drew a little over 500 people. At the conference, there were quite a few offerings by very popular teachers of Celtic polytheism – the revival religions of the pre-Christian Celtic world. Welsh polytheism is not my path, but at Sacred Space Conference I made a point of attending ceremonies that are not in honor of gods I serve or traditions I practice. I did this in order to be a good ambassador. I did it in order to better understand and appreciate my Celtic polytheist friends and community members.
So I did not have a big transcendental experience at the ceremony for the Welsh Goddess Cerridwen. It was beautiful, but it was not for me. It was for the other Celtic revivalists in the room. You know what I did enjoy, though? I could feel the other people in the room having meaningful experiences and it was beautiful to be present when someone different from me was encountering the numinous in the way that works best for them. I learned a little more about how Welsh polytheistic rituals can look. I learned a bit about how creativity and music are approached within that religious structure. I do not consider attending that ritual to have been a waste of my time. It was enriching and nourishing in ways that help me be a better ambassador, that help me live my value of pluralism.
I encounter this space of ambassadorship within UU services regularly. Not everything that happens on a Sunday is for me. In those moments, the questions I’m asking myself are “what am I learning right now? What is beautiful in this moment? What is this teaching me about other members of my community? How can I better relate to them based on what I’m learning?” I can appreciate the intent behind the sharing of something. I can learn from the complexity of context, and of how that context supports greater understanding.
This includes points of discomfort. Like many Pagans, I have very mixed feelings about Christianity. Particularly as a member of a revivalist tradition, I’m all too well aware that the violence and destruction of the Christian conversion is why my people have to rebuild a religion from shreds and fragments. And, also, I am an ambassador. So when my congregation offers its Christmas Eve service, I attend and participate. I enjoy the illumination that other members of my community are experiencing. I am reminded that beauty and meaning exist in forms that are not for me, but are no less valid due to being for others. I support the service because my congregation has made space for my traditions before, and I take joy in giving that same gift to the people who have been so generous with me.
Today, on a pluralist Sunday where the return of life and hope after death and darkness is celebrated, and at the same time when we remember to honor our sacred Earth and the interdependent web of life of which we are a part, we are reminded that more than one thing can be true at the same time. We are reminded that a holiday or service or ceremony can be not for us, and also have value; and also be worth witnessing and supporting. This is the rich diversity of pluralism. Inspiration and connection rise from more than one deep well of wisdom and it’s okay if you don’t much care for the taste of the water from one of the wells. Keeping the water flowing is the important part. Tenderly supporting and caring for these sources is a sacred part of true community care.
The world is hard right now and the destructive power of division is being wielded against us. Whether we realize it or not, that discontent affects our communities. In our times together, we must choose the path of the ambassador. We must consciously choose and live the value of pluralism. We must choose to see the beauty and wisdom in each other’s traditions while allowing those traditions to not be for us.
This, too, is part of the interdependent web of life: infinite variety is how an ecosystem thrives. On Earth Day, we honor our connection to the green and growing world and seek to live in greater harmony with nature. On Easter, we honor the triumph of life and hope after shadow and despair. Today, I invite you to remember that we are part of nature, too. Our polyculture of spirit is simply one of many manifestations of the variety of the web of life. As the world turns round to springtime once more, the triumph of hope and illumination shines on the vast web of life of which we are a part. These are not separate systems. They are connected. They share the light. May we carry this illumination and connection as well. May we shine in our infinite variety.
And so we say,
Amen, àṣẹ, and blessèd be.
This sermon was offered at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Rockville on Sunday, April 20th, 2025.
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