Church and School of Wicca

Church and School of Wicca
The Church and School of Wicca
Formation 1968
Type New Religious Movement
Headquarters Hinton, West Virginia, USA.
Founders Gavin and Yvonne Frost

The Church and School of Wicca was founded by Gavin Frost and Yvonne Frost in 1968. It was the first federally recognized Church of the religion known as Wicca in the United States. It is well known for its correspondence courses on the Frosts' unique interpretation of Wicca. The Church and School are located in Hinton, West Virginia.

Contents

Curriculum

The School's curriculum includes classes on a variety of subjects associated both with Wicca as a religion and with occult and metaphysical studies and practices in general. These classes begin with an "Essential Witchcraft" course, which lasts "a year and a day". Other topics include: Advanced Celtic Witchcraft and Shamanism, Astral Travel, Astrology, Graphology, Mystical Awareness, a Natural Wicca Survey Course, Practical Sorcery, Prediction, Psychic and Herbal Healing, and Tantric Yoga[1]. Much of the course of study is available to the student on video.

Charters

The Church and School chartered several other churches and groups[2]. In the early years of the Church, ordination to individuals and sometimes even charters to churches had at times been offered solely on the basis of the Church's correspondence courses. However, due to a few incidents of fraudulent use of Church credentials, misconduct by these individuals, and/or the use of course material to defame the Church and the religion of Wicca, along with public controversy about these instances, this practice was abandoned as of 1976. In some cases, charters have been revoked.

Legal issues

The Church and School's founders played a heavy role in gaining federal recognition of Witchcraft as a religion in 1972, making it the first federally recognized Church of Wicca in the United States. They won an appeals court case in 1985 stating that Wicca, as a religion equal to any other, could have churches that did not have to share their revenue with the IRS. Both these cases brought The Church and School of Wicca into the national spotlight.

In Dettmer v. Landon, 799 F.2d 929 (4th Cir. 1986), a prisoner named Herbert Daniel Dettmer who was following the correspondence course of the Church and School of Wicca, was denied access to knives which he said were necessary to his religious practice as a Wiccan. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia decided in Dettmer's favor, finding that Wicca was a religion, rejecting the argument put forward by the Department of Correction that it was merely a "conglomeration" of occult practices. This decision was appealed to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, and was argued before the appellate court in April of 1986, which ruled that although Wicca was a religion, it was not a violation of the First Amendment to deny a prisoner access to potential weapons.

References

Notes

  1. ^ Church & School of Wicca official website
  2. ^ Controversial.com Website

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Wicca — This article is about the duotheistic religion. For other uses, see Wicca (disambiguation). This pentacle, worn as a pendant, depicts a pentagram, or five pointed star, used as a symbol of Wicca by many adherents. Wicca (pronounced  …   Wikipedia

  • Church of All Worlds — Dearinth – The official sigil of the Church of All Worlds, Inc. Part of a series of articles on …   Wikipedia

  • Homosexuality and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — Part of a series on LGBT topics and Christianity Christianity and homosexuality Christianity and transgenderism History of Christianity and homosexuality The Bible and homosexuality Queer theology Blessing of same sex unions Ordination of LGBT… …   Wikipedia

  • List of Charmed family and friends — This is a list of all the Charmed Ones family and friends that have recurring roles on the television series Charmed . Characters from the Charmed books are not included, as the books are not considered to follow in continuity with the… …   Wikipedia

  • The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power — Time Cover page in Time s issue: The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power Writer Richard Behar Categories Investigative journalism …   Wikipedia

  • Christian debate on persecution and toleration — This article gives a historical overview of Christian positions on Persecution of Christians and the History of persecutions by Christians, and more generically on religious persecution and toleration. Christian theologians like Augustine of… …   Wikipedia

  • Cults and new religious movements in literature and popular culture — New religious movements and cults can appear as themes or subjects in literature and popular culture, while notable representatives of such groups have produced, for their own part, a large body of literary works. Contents 1 Terminology 2… …   Wikipedia

  • Gavin Frost — Infobox clergy name = Gavin Frost image size = caption = birth date = 1930 birth place = Aldridge, Staffordshire, England death date = death place = church = Church and School of Wicca other names = education = writings = The Magical Power of… …   Wikipedia

  • List of Neopagan movements — Symbols of several neopagan faiths: Slavic • Celtic • Germanic Greek • neopagan pentagram • Roman Wicca • Egyptian • Semitic Neopaganism, or contemporary paganism, encompasses a wide …   Wikipedia

  • Circle of Oak and Mistletoe — Circulus Quercus et Visco Location Adelaide, Online …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”