Tumblr image with many sources
As you all know i am Shawnus Merlin Belarion 3rd* High Priest of the Coven of the Catta. I started my path 33 years ago and about 7 years later attained this level of initiation. There are three others at the level of 3rd* HPTs and HPSs who are active in our coven.
I and others are also registered online as a minister in the Universal Life Church which does not mean much to Federal, State or County governments, but i still encourage everyone who is part of a “fringe religion” as society thinks we are to become a minister through them and to support their cause.
Our coven has a Handfasting ritual and i can Handfast anyone who asks. But that is a Witch ritual, not a legal marriage. There are two pagan friends of mine who May decide to get legally married some day and i have offered for me and Lady Alsace or Lady Ember to do this for them. In fact I Myself will be handfasted to Lady Ember by Lady Alsace hopefully on May Day. Yea!
But I also want the right to legally marry people in the Bible Belt state of Pennsylvania. But according to the ULC on the Pennsylvania Laws and you can search there for your state’s laws. A witch priest in Florida tells me that all one has to be is a Notary Public to perform legal marriages there. But alas PA’s laws are antiquarian. I am encouraged by Selena Fox at Circle and others who convinced the Veteran’s Administration to allow our witch fallen warriors be allowed to decorate their tombstones with the witch pentagram, so that is a kink in the door, at least on the Federal level.
Here in the great U S of A there is always a fight between Federal and States rights, which is a good thing regarding balance of power, but often many conservative states pass laws which are not quite like the writers of the Constitution dictates, especially in the separation of Church and State.
As you all know there has been a long fight throughout our history for the rights of various races, women’s voting and freedom of choice rights, the present fight for LGBT rights, and the rights for access to medical marijuana. Now there needs to be a fight for those of us in Witchcraft to fight for our religious freedom, and Many Many freedoms have been won over the last decade at least.
So i started at my County level and had voice and email exchanges for three days with a very nice, helpful and informative lady there in the right department. There is a notice posted on the Courthouse door, and i tried to paste it in here and then save this draft and WV completely wiped my post off their server. So i will just say it said, to quote, that legal marriages could be performed by Justices of the Peace or Judges or Ministers “of a regularly established church or congregation” which means from those three Religions of the Book. There is a license for Amish, Mennonites and Quakers, but i am not one of them. I am a Witch and we Do have Our Religion!
I am reminded of back in 1972 when there was still a draft for the Vietnam War and my lottery number was 26 so i was Definitely going to be drafted and sent as a piece of meat to that conflict. I told them i would go as a Medic but not kill human beings with a gun or knife. I applied for Contentious Objector status as a Buddhist but the sergeant at the draft board told me that only applied for the Amish, Mennonites or Quakers aka Christians.
So now i feel driven by righteous indignation to go to the State level. I am starting off posting this blog and will reblog it to my BSSS blog where a total of 250 a day will see it. Then i will contact Jason at The Wild Hunt to see if he will link my post. Then I will contact the good people at Witchvox to see if they will post it. Ultimately i need feedback from other witches in PA and even other states in the USA to see how to proceed. I will also contact the ACLU whom i used to belong to (even though i do not agree with Every fight they take up, but most) and have now reestablished my membership in, not that one needs to do that for them to help your cause. I will see if they want to file suit in court at the capital just down the road to see if we can make some progress. Yes We, Not Me. I mean All witches in this state and country.If this goes to court and there is a snowball’s chance in PA redneck Bible belt hell that it may come up to docket, you may in a year or so see us on TV with local news coverage and we will wave our Pentagram flag like the LGBT rainbow flag and have our five minutes of fame, not for me, but for us and our Religion and our Constitution and the Goddess Darned right for witches to be legal clergy in PA with all the other religions.
Hell in a town south of here the KKK are allowed to stage marches and the police protect their rights to do so. Read the USA Constitution and Bill of Rights.
If it takes the rest of my life i swear to the Goddess i will pursue this the best i can with my age and health and my fellow witches support. So Mote It Be.
I would appreciate any positive or negative feedback or ideas which are helpful but any witch baiting trolls will have their comments rejected.
Thank you all for listening to my rant, and may the Goddess Bless Us All. BB. SMB 3*
Addendum 1 February 2014 – Jason at TWH says he will post a link to this at his Community Notes the next time that comes out, and i have sent it to WV for review by them to see if it is worthy of a post there though they say they have hundreds of such notes to catch up with, so thanks to all of you.
Both images from multiple Tumblr blogs
Addendum 5 Feb 2014 I have been contacted by a Rev Ellen of the Hearthside Haven in Connecticut and she is offering us some advice, yea.
Addendum 6 Feb 2014 – Jason at TWH posted about our fight at http://wildhunt.org/2014/02/pagan-community-notes-pagan-tea-time-cherry-hill-seminary-handfastings-in-pa-and-more.html but instead of referring to the About page I have asked him to link it to this post.
Addendum 7 Feb 2014 I have been contacted by a Lady Emrys of the Covenant of the Goddess branch in nearby Philadelphia Pa who is offering some advice, Yea.
Addendum 7 Feb 2014 per Lady Emrys I have contacted the Lady Liberty League which is part of Selena Fox’s Circle Santuary.
Addendum – 19 Feb 2014 – filling out paperwork for recognition by COG but don’t have the money right now.
Addendum 19 Feb 2014 – meeting with all documents in hand with the registrar at the county courthouse tomorrow morning.
Addendum 21 Feb 2014 – i drove up to the county courthouse, wearing my pentagram minister’s ULC badge (LOL) and talked with WW whom i had emailed before and she gave me a copy of the notice on the courthouse door and the State laws she referred to that that archivist of the PA legislature could not find, go figure. Now i am back to pursuing this at the State level and have emailed and called my local ACLU and await their return call to see if we have a case of religious discrimination against the Cult, i mean Religion of Witchcraft. Tomorrow i will scan n manipulate those docs and post in the main page here.
Addendum 21 Feb 2014 here is what i got at the Perry County Courthouse. Still waiting for the ACLU to call me but as their email said they have a Lot of cases put before them.
Here is what is posted on the Perry County Courthouse door regarding who can and cannot marry in the state of PA, kindly photocopied for me by the Registrar there
Here is the poorly photocopied State law regarding who can legally marry in the state of PA, kindly photocopied for me by the Registrar there.
Note that the bottom line is “a minister, priest or rabbi from an established church or congregation aka a Protestant Christian, a Catholic Christian, of a Judaic Rabbi. Hell it does not even include an Imman of Islam. So it sure as hell is not going to recognize a Witch HPT/HPS. If the ACLU Ever returns my call i hope this clause will be cause for a case in the PA supreme court to give at least Moslems, Buddhists, Hindus and yes Witches the recognization that YES WE ARE PRIESTS AND PRIESTESSES OF A RELIGION OLDER THAN JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM. So Mote It Be.
Addendum 22 February 2014 – A very nice lady from the ACLU contacted me by phone and I told her our story from beginning to now (and boy was she a fast typer) and she is going to put that before their legal team to see if we have a case. Then minutes later she said Anyone can marry someone in PA as long as the County Registrar of Deeds accepts it and if she does not then that is illegal. So like a tennis ball going from State to County to State to County over and over we are back to the County having an issue with witches marrying people. So the ACLU, knowing Who is watching, does not email they talk and fax and mail letters, so i am mailing her all these documents i have so far minus the personal emails between me and the Registrar. Anyone want me to marry them and we can test the waters and if rejected then bring suit? LOL.
Addendum 28 Feb 2014 – I went to a local attorney who i dealt with when buying the HH, to get my Will legally done (good news, what i have is fine as long as dated and signed and no witness or notarization needed in PA) and to combine two tracts of land to save on taxes. Now as he was going over my Will which says things like “my Wiccan BOS goes to so and so etc” I came out as a HPT and he was fine with it, no prejudice and very open and even interested. So i whipped out out new COC business cards and told him the story about my fight at the County Courthouse about a stone’s throw away and Lo and Behold He is The Attorney who handles such issues for the County and we talked and he said as long as i was a minister of an established religion that meets regularly, and i am, and we are, then he sees no problem with our clergy having the right to legally marry people in this County and even in the entire State!!! And he is going to go over there and explain all this to the Registrar of Deeds who as i said before has been Very nice and Very helpful but unsure of whether this is legal or not in the eyes of the State. And he is doing this Free of charge!!!
Addendum 6 March 2014 – To quote Charlton Heston from the 10 Commandments – “Victory is Mine Sayeth the (Horned) Lord” – The lawyer i went to to last week to do my Will (dont need a lawyer or notary or even witness in PA so free) and to combine my deeds on tracts of land to reduce my taxes, is also The Lawyer for this county. He told me last week, after explaining what Wicca is in my Will etc, and he was fascinated, think he is a Freemason but feels like it, honest, open minded, etc. Well he told me he sees no reason why a Witch Priest of Priestess should not have the right to legally marry and the county legally certify such marriages according to PA law. In the past week he talked to the Registrar of Deeds at the county, which BTW besides being a private lawyer is also The Lawyer for the county, so free of charge to me but paid by the taxpayers, and he had a “talk” with her and she now agrees that YES WITCH PRIESTS AND PRIESTESS OF AN ESTABLISHED CONGREGATION (COVEN) WHO MEET REGULARLY (SABBATS) DO HAVE THE LEGAL RIGHT TO MARRY PEOPLE NOT ONLY IN THIS COUNTY BUT ALL OVER PENNSYLVANIA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Amen and Hallelujah and Blessed Be and Thank the God/ess we live in a Democracy with the US Constitution which guarantees Freedom of Speech and Religion and Church is Separate from State. Another battle won….. I do this for you all my kitties, not for me, for you, so when i am dead u will have this. Next – Incorporation of the COC and tax-exempt non-profit status. Thank you Hannah. Thank you COG. Thank you ACLU who were ready to step in. Thank you our Gods who put the energy in me to fight this good fight. This is my gift to the witches of the third degree of the COC in PA.
Addendum 10 March 2014 – The nice lady who i had talked with at the ACLU called to say they did not need to take up this case because they have done so X3 already in PA and have won. So I told her the story of how it was worked out on the local County level, which is the way it should be anyway, and how the lawyer for the county had talked with the Registrar and the County has already changed their policy at least regarding HPTs and HPSs of “a congregation which meets regularly”. Then she said “well i hope you go on to marry many many people” and i said TY and what a great job they do there. FINIS.
Dr Santee kicking back after a long days work
Rev (LOL) Shawnus kicking back after a long 2 months work
Coven of the Catta 
Reblogged this on Blau Stern Schwarz Schlonge.
Keep fighting! Witchcraft is one of the biggest growing religions in the Western world and it needs to be recognised as such. Allowing witches to perform legal marriages is an import step out of the shadows.
Thank you for your encouragement. My next step is to contact Jason at TWH with whom i have talked before, the the fine people at WV, then the ACLU lawyers in the area to see if i have a case. I am sure this has been brought up before by other obscure religions so i am sure there is some precedent for some ruling before. I swear i will do the most i can to publicize this cause and hope someone can give me some help. The same goes with Druid or Asatru etc priests and priestesses. did u read the comment by Talia from Romania how they need a million signatures to form an “established church” LOL
Reblogged this on The Haunted Palace and commented:
This is a very passionate article about an important issue. Modern witches still face many cultural and legal prejudices – Shawnus, a 3* high priest is currently engaging the Christian biased state laws of Pennsylvania for the right to perform legal marriages as an ordained witch.
I have reblogged this, hope you don’t mind.
Not at all dear. But i thought you were just a ghostly writer ;)
I am – but you may have noticed I also have a penchant for witches. Admittedly usually in the historical context, but hey, I can do contemporary issues too ;0)
Maybe you were one of those witches who were hanged or burned in the past, and now you are their “ghost writer” telling their stories……. seriously.
Thank you so much Lenora as i know this is not something you would normally blog about. I appreciate the support of my friends in the UK. Blessings. Shawnus
Hi!
In this country, civil marriage and religious marriage is completely separated (even though in other areas we don’t have complete separation of religion and state). So neither Christian nor Witch priests can marry people and thus automatically effect a civil marriage. People go to the registrar’s office for the civil marriage and have a religious marriage on top (or not), usually afterwards.
That said, if in your country and in your state *any* minister, priest, reverend can marry people (i.e. the Christians can), you should be able to, too. I wish you that the Wild Hunt will cover your story. I wish you that ACLU and/or other similar organizations will support you until your rights (I guess 1st, and probably also 14th, i.e. equal protection for you just as for the Christians) are awarded.
Thank you Hannah. If i may ask in what country do you live?
Yes, of course you may. This is Germany. (And yes, the pertinent law is on the German federal level; Germany has a federal structure, but is much more centralized than the USA.)
That’s the problem here, though it is a balance of power. We are supposedly a Federation also, but the States pass their own laws and then Fed vs State laws are debated in the Supreme Court, or by elections changing the Fed or State laws. We have a very balanced system, and that is good, but it also slows down any change. That’s why the President has to declare executive orders sometimes, especially now when the Fed congress and our State’s congress do nothing in passing laws but just fight when a news camera shows up. Thanks for your feedback and BB.
First, don’t go by the ULC’s website. Do your own research of the applicable statutes, chapter and verse! Then you are armed with specifics if you are denied equal rights. What are the exact statutes that regulate ministers. Do they specifically say Christian, Jewish and Muslim? Or is the wording a “regular congregation”? If your coven meets for Sabbats on a regular basis (regular for Pagans & Wiccans), then you qualify. Go apply! If you are denied then you go to the ACLU. I’m sure they don’t want to take your case until you’ve tried and been denied. And go into the clerks office armed with a copy of the statutes. And above all document everything step by step. Who did you talk to, when, where. If there is a denied application, make them put the denial in writing. This is called building your case. A state cannot go against the US Constitution. A state can only have the power to do anything that the US Constitution doesn’t cover. PA cannot deny equal treatment under the law. So the wording is imperative. Do not go by the clerk saying that is the regulation. Ask by what statute is this covered? Regulations are only statutes in application. They are often missinterpreted. I have been involved in different situations that I have employed these principles and they work!
Blessed Be!
Thank you Rev Ellen. I did email the lady at the courthouse and she sent me a file i tried to publish on my post but just published the gist of it word for word. She said those were State rules not County rules but that it Had been debated there before amongst the country elected officials. they specifically say no online ordinations. Now the ULC says in Some counties it is legal and i await their response to my question of which ones. I am an initiated priest and my elder priestess of 85+ years was hesitant in signing federal papers for tax exempt status and as she does card readings which is illegal in PA even though she only asks for a donation she wants to stay under the radar, so i did not push the matter. We Do meet regularly at my place or her place for rituals and have done so for years after Lady Phoebe died so in all have been doing this for 33 years and before that the coven before me back to 1967. Oh believe me i have kept copies of All email communications from and to the County Office. I Did ask her which State agency i should contact but did not receive any information, which is documented also. I will have to research the State Laws. It will be published thru TWH and WV soon and my next step is the ACLU for sure, but i am waiting for people like you to advice me on our next step forward. If you want a copy of what is posted on the County Courthouse door email me at shawnuscoc@gmail.com which is my public addy and which i only check maybe twice a day and if this is developing farther i will then give you my private addy. BTW in which religion are you a Reverent?
I am the ordained priestess of the pagan kinship Hearthside Haven in Connecticut. We are 501c3 recognized by the IRS and registered with the state as a religious organization. Check out the information on the IRS’s website http://www.irs.gov/Charities-&-Non-Profits/Charitable-Organizations and Pennsylvania’s non profit incorporation registration http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/corporation_bureau/12457/pennsylvania_nonprofit_corporations/571889 . Did you research the statutes yet. They are online and easily accessible just Google Pennsylvania statutes. Then use the search tool and look up marriage. Check out the information in the results.
OK i found your VW listings and your FB but i am not on FB and BTW there is a link at WV to your website which is defunct. Yes i have ALL the docs on the federal level regarding non-profit, but like i said my priestess won’t sign them and the only documentation i have is old school just my name in my BOS under my teacher’s name. I found the statues page for PA but is not easily searched as marriage just brings up All the statues ever passed on marriage so will have to investigate that farther. Thank you for all your info as you are the first person to offer us any real help and you are a Witch too which makes it better. Like i said if you email me at shawnuscoc@gmail.com i can send you that courthouse posting but this conversation is best kept online so others can see and learn from it too so keep talking here. BB. Lee / SMB
Rev Ellen – when you hit your individual link to your coven i found it, but when you hit “go to website” at WV that goes to a dead site so that needs to be edited w the correct url. I am going out to shovel snow then will investigate the state laws farther, have narrowed it down to 5 bills i think. BB
Thanks for that heads up. I fixed it. We changed websites and I thought I got all the updates, but there’s always those stragglers that get missed.
I found this. It is in the consolidated statutes. Click on the link for Chapter 15 section 1503. I think the wording is appropriate. It is open to Pagan organizations and ministers.
Nope none of those work either with the words or without or the numbers separate or together. just in from shoveling basically 4 inches of snow cone material. am back at it again.
Greetings and Merry Meet. I am affiliated with Covenant of the Goddess and would like to talk to you about the barriers you have come up against. COG is an organization that exists for exactly this reason – to ensure equal rights for Witches. We have several members in Pennsylvania that have successfully acted as ministers in legal weddings, and I myself was married by a Wiccan minister in PA. Shoot me an email and let’s see if there is anything we can do to help. If you want more information about COG, you can find us on FB and at http://www.cog.org.
ladyemrys@inannaswell.org
Thank you Lady Emrys. I found your website also. The issue is is this a County by County rule or a State rule? According to the county it is a state rule, and i have emailed the keeper of the archives of the Legislature with no response, no surprise there. I am getting more and more info that it must be the county rule, which will be easy to fight. I am also cc’ing this response via my private addy. BB. Shawnus
Addendum 5 Feb 2014 I have been contacted by a Rev Ellen of the Hearthside Haven in Connecticut and she is offering us some advice, yea.
Addendum 6 Feb 2014 – Jason at TWH posted about our fight at http://wildhunt.org/2014/02/pagan-community-notes-pagan-tea-time-cherry-hill-seminary-handfastings-in-pa-and-more.html but instead of referring to the About page I have asked him to link it to this post.
Addendum 7 Feb 2014 I have been contacted by a Lady Emrys of the Covenant of the Goddess branch in nearby Philadelphia Pa who is offering some advice, Yea.
Addendum 7 Feb 2014 per Lady Emrys I have contacted the Lady Liberty League which is part of Selena Fox’s Circle Sanctuary.
Sean, does your state have secular “ministers” who get some ordination from someplace – not ULC but similar – and set up a marrying business? That is, they offer to help design custom wedding ceremonies and then perform the marriage. We have a fair number here in NC. Their ordinations do come from various organizations. I just wonder if there are organizations out there you can find via the Web that will recognize all the spiritual experience you have and ordain you for a modest amount, and the ordination will be more acceptable because it won’t be ULC per se.
Hey Anna – I am not sure as one witch who contacted me and i asked her questions has not responded. Another who responded from the COG has not responded either but i went to the COG site and downloaded their applications so they would recognize me as clergy thru them, and i am filling those out now. The people at Lady Liberty have not responded either, but then it is the weekend. The State records archivist was clueless and referred me to my Rep who of course would just refer me back to her. The County said their last word that they chose to not allow marriages except by ministers “within established groups” and i am not going to pretend to be a Quaker, Amish or Mennonite. So i am filling out the paperwork for the COG and guess that is my only route forward and then i will have to take all that paperwork to the Courthouse and then most likely have to go before the County Commissioners when they meet and argue my case and if they say no again then i will have to bring in the ACLU. If u want more info i cannot put on the blog just email me. BTW i put together a COC Facebook page and sent you and invite. I am under Lee Shawnus there. Yes there are wide variances in the rules state by state and county by county. BB dear.
Jeez, Shawnus, not sure why I wrote “Sean.” My apologies!
Addendum 5 Feb 2014 I have been contacted by a Rev Ellen of the Hearthside Haven in Connecticut and she is offering us some advice, yea.
Addendum 6 Feb 2014 – Jason at TWH posted about our fight at http://wildhunt.org/2014/02/pagan-community-notes-pagan-tea-time-cherry-hill-seminary-handfastings-in-pa-and-more.html but instead of referring to the About page I have asked him to link it to this post.
Addendum 7 Feb 2014 I have been contacted by a Lady Emrys of the Covenant of the Goddess branch in nearby Philadelphia Pa who is offering some advice, Yea.
Addendum 7 Feb 2014 per Lady Emrys I have contacted the Lady Liberty League which is part of Selena Fox’s Circle Santuary.
Addendum – 19 Feb 2014 – filling out paperwork for recognition by COG but don’t have the money right now.
Addendum 19 Feb 2014 – meeting with all documents in hand with the registrar at the county courthouse tomorrow morning.
Would you/your coven need donations to cover for (part of) the costs of all that paperwork involved?
No i am good to go and we are non profit and i have never taken a dollar from anyone for our teachings or anything, in fact it has probably personally cost me thousands of dollars over the decades, but TY for yr concern n offer. BB
Addendum 21 Feb 2014 – i drove up to the county courthouse, wearing my pentagram minister’s ULC badge (LOL) and talked with WW whom i had emailed before and she gave me a copy of the notice on the courthouse door and the State laws she referred to that that archivist of the PA legislature could not find, go figure. Now i am back to pursuing this at the State level and have emailed and called my local ACLU and await their return call to see if we have a case of religious discrimination against the Cult, i mean Religion of Witchcraft. Tomorrow i will scan n manipulate those docs and post in the main page here.
See latest Addendum in post and scanned County and State Laws – Note that the bottom line is “a minister, priest or rabbi from an established church or congregation aka a Protestant Christian, a Catholic Christian, of a Judaic Rabbi. Hell it does not even include an Imman of Islam. So it sure as hell is not going to recognize a Witch HPT/HPS. If the ACLU Ever returns my call i hope this clause will be cause for a case in the PA supreme court to give at least Moslems, Buddhists, Hindus and yes Witches the recognization that YES WE ARE PRIESTS AND PRIESTESSES OF A RELIGION OLDER THAN JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM. So Mote It Be.
Hi!
I’m not a lawyer, especially not an US or PA lawyer, nor a civil rights one.
However, sifting through the statute texts, by the way seeing that PA explicitly restricts marriage to “one man and one woman” (23 Pa.C.S.A. § 1102), I didn’t find a definition restricting “church or congregation” to Christian or Judaic only (or defining religion, church, congregation at all). I’d assume, it can be interpreted (and needs to be, to be compliant with the Federal Constitution’s 1th and 14th Amendments) to include any religious groups, and thus, “minister, priest or rabbi” also need to be interpreted to include people whose function is essentially the same or similar to that of a minister/priest in the structure of their religion.
I think that definitely would include Wicca HPs (3rd degree definitely, not sure about 2nd).
So while the language of the statute is not lucky (given that it has most recently been touched close by in 2009), I’d think the statute itself wouldn’t even need to be overturned, but perhaps there would need to be a case against the registry/court over the validity/recognition of the returned marriage certificate. Possibly they’d quibble rather over who defines who is actually a “priest” (in the sense of 23 Pa.C.S.A. § 1503) in Witchcraft; in centralized Christian churches, there’re clear, hierarchical, centralized procedures. Witchcraft is quite non-hierarchical, even in its initiatory forms. But then, if for example the COG, which *is* an established organization, certifies that you’re a priestess, this point should be done with.
Just my thoughts, hope they’re not completely off the way.
In the COC one has to be a third to even take on probationers or initiate or start a coven, so they would have to be a third to marry and we have a handful of those. I just snail mailed all the docs to the lady at the ACLU i talked with for their legal team to review. But it seems, once again, that it is the interpretation of the county to allow xian ministers and priests and rabbis, but not buddhist of hindu or wiccan priests/priestesses to marry, but they do allow amish, mennonite and quakers to marry, so it is definitely in my opinion the county who is denying us our legal rights under the US constitution by interpreting the State laws that way. i think they have had too many ULC people try to marry and put down their male xian county commissioners foot on that one because my contact there said “they have debated this before”. If you want to email me at shawnuscoc@gmail.com i will send u the documents but not the private emails. BB and thanks for your help. SMB
No need to send docs. Thanks for the offer though.
Btw, needed to google the ULC reference and then found that according to Wikipedia, lower courts in PA are split whether ULC-ordained ministers may solemnize marriages. There seems to be precedent valid for Bucks county (O’Neill v Bucks County) approving marriages solemnized by ULC ministers. If in some counties, even ULC ministers with about no pre-ordination requirements may solemnize, this should a fortiori be possible for initiatory Wiccan priest(esse)s. (And everywhere, of course, not only in those some counties.)
thanks for looking that up. can u send me that link? like i said it is now in the hands of the ACLU if they will find this case to be religious discrimination and i think they will. Yes i am a ULC minister but daffy duck can be a ULC minister. What i am going by is that i am a third degree high priest for 33 years in a coven that has been in PA since 1967 so that is the angle i am going from, not the ULC, not being recognized by the Covenant of the Goddess, but recognized as a priest w our priestesses of a “established religious organization” so mote it be.
I understand fully that you won’t go the ULC route but that this is about recognition of the validity of your being a 3rd degree HP. I thought the ULC case could perhaps only be a standard for comparison, as in “if even they can solemnize in some counties, someone ordained according to much stricter standards should rather be able to, too” (building a bridge to outsiders by using the term “ordained” for the 3rd degree initiation).
The Wikipedia pages are https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Life_Church#Authority_to_solemnize_marriage with a perhaps more general, offline reference in note 15, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_status_of_the_Universal_Life_Church#Pennsylvania which contains a link to the full text (PDF) of O’Neill v Bucks County; the direct link to that is http://www.ulccaselaw.com/legalPDF/Bucks-county-valid-ulc-marriage.pdf
To me, the language of the O’Neill court opinion was a good and convincing read.
Well the ULC is one street cred, and i was thinking of getting recognition from COG but that would cost around $140 which i cannot afford. I will check out those wiki links tomorrow and print them out and send them to the ACLU who i think will take on our case against the County of Perry. TY so much for your info.
Addendum 28 Feb 2014 – I went to a local attorney who i dealt with when buying the HH, to get my Will legally done (good news, what i have is fine as long as dated and signed and no witness or notarization needed in PA) and to combine two tracts of land to save on taxes. Now as he was going over my Will which says things like “my Wiccan BOS goes to so and so etc” I came out as a HPT and he was fine with it, no prejudice and very open and even interested. So i whipped out out new COC business cards and told him the story about my fight at the County Courthouse about a stone’s throw away and Lo and Behold He is The Attorney who handles such issues for the County and we talked and he said as long as i was a minister of an established religion that meets regularly, and i am, and we are, then he sees no problem with our clergy having the right to legally marry people in this County and even in the entire State!!! And he is going to go over there and explain all this to the Registrar of Deeds who as i said before has been Very nice and Very helpful but unsure of whether this is legal or not in the eyes of the State. And he is doing this Free of charge!!!
This sounds very very great, and I wish it to you that this works out and gets this finally settled. And that there’ll be no need to get some paperwork from the COG or something like that. Cool that that attorney is there and doing this, and for free on top.
Yea i was like “thank u jesus, i mean diana” when he said that. he is in private practice but also is hired by the county to settle such matters, so he would not require a fee to do that, and i think he took a liking to me intelligent interesting mano y mano. he was going to be a doctor instead of a lawyer at first so was also fascinated when i explained my DBS which makes lumps on my head kinda like the guy in Hell Boy, lol. COG was very helpful but i just dont have the cash pouring money into heating this winter. I intentionally made my next appt w him later next week so he had time to address this issue over at the courthouse. Serendipity.
Addendum 6 March 2014 – To quote Charlton Heston from the 10 Commandments – “Victory is Mine Sayeth the (Horned) Lord” – The lawyer i went to to last week to do my Will (dont need a lawyer or notary or even witness in PA so free) and to combine my deeds on tracts of land to reduce my taxes, is also The Lawyer for this county. He told me last week, after explaining what Wicca is in my Will etc, and he was fascinated, think he is a Freemason but feels like it, honest, open minded, etc. Well he told me he sees no reason why a Witch Priest of Priestess should not have the right to legally marry and the county legally certify such marriages according to PA law. In the past week he talked to the Registrar of Deeds at the county, which BTW besides being a private lawyer is also The Lawyer for the county, so free of charge to me but paid by the taxpayers, and he had a “talk” with her and she now agrees that YES WITCH PRIESTS AND PRIESTESS OF AN ESTABLISHED CONGREGATION (COVEN) WHO MEET REGULARLY (SABBATS) DO HAVE THE LEGAL RIGHT TO MARRY PEOPLE NOT ONLY IN THIS COUNTY BUT ALL OVER PENNSYLVANIA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Amen and Hallelujah and Blessed Be and Thank the God/ess we live in a Democracy with the US Constitution which guarantees Freedom of Speech and Religion and Church is Separate from State. Another battle won….. I do this for you all my kitties, not for me, for you, so when i am dead u will have this. Next – Incorporation of the COC and tax-exempt non-profit status. Thank you Hannah. Thank you COG. Thank you ACLU who were ready to step in. Thank you our Gods who put the energy in me to fight this good fight. This is my gift to the witches of the third degree of the COC in PA.
Addendum 10 March 2014 – The nice lady who i had talked with at the ACLU called to say they did not need to take up this case because they have done so X3 already in PA and have won. So I told her the story of how it was worked out on the local County level, which is the way it should be anyway, and how the lawyer for the county had talked with the Registrar and the County has already changed their policy at least regarding HPTs and HPSs of “a congregation which meets regularly”. Then she said “well i hope you go on to marry many many people” and i said TY and what a great job they do there. FINIS.
I’m looking for someone to preside over my wedding I have put an obscure amount of time into trying to figure this out I live in butler pa can you help me?
william – i answered u thru gmail w no response, not sure if u r a bot or a real person. if no response by gmail then u will be considered spam. bb.
Well this colony Was founded by William Penn who was very tolerant of alternative forms of Christianity and welcomed all heretics and even treated the Indians fairly fairly. This is hope and like i said the ACLU said this has been fount out in court already X 3. Blessed Be and Blessed Handfasting and Legal Marriages to come.
I’m very happy to see your success in the state I was born and raised in. It gives me some hope for the state of PA yet.
So in what State do you live now? contact the COG and your local county purveyor of deeds and your local ACLU to see what the laws are. Contacting the state archives in my state was totally useless. The county purveyor of deeds has a book of the state laws and can just photocopy it for you since the state archivist could not find it, yea, right. blessings and good luck.
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