Priestess or Priest, these words invoke in Pagans many
images. From the patriarchal constructs of major religions to the loving caring
guides that lead our circles, conduct rituals and open their homes as a
covensted.
Within Pagondom, these roles carry a heavy burden. Priestesses
and Priests are expected to be teacher, guide, organizer, financial planner,
minister, ritual leader and numerous other roles. Without the construct of patriarchal
top down organizational structure, tremendous responsibility and pressure falls
upon those that we loudly proclaim as “not our leaders”.
For most, this path is one of love and compassion in the
face of overwhelming work loads that there is scant opportunity to be trained
for in the community. Each of us does the best we can in our efforts to live a
divine life. Each also, from time to time, stumble upon our path as we attempt
to apply divine principle to logistics, public information, finance, event
planning or mental health issues within our community.
Possibly it is time to abandon our resistance to the word
leadership, remove it from the expectations we have of our Priestesses and Priests
and allow a group of well-trained individuals to take the task of leadership in
specific areas of subject matter expertise.
Over the years it has become very apparent that our
organizational structure within Paganism has caused many an active Priestess/Priest
to burn out. In their role of religious guides they excel, yet we expect so
much more from them. These expectations are overwhelming.
It is time to stop placing the burden of “leadership” on
these individuals and allow them to do what they do best. Such an approach means developing a core
group of leaders in specific disciplines.
From Cherry Hill to Ardentain courses are offered to develop these
skills, its time to take advantage of these opportunities, grow skills and each
of us take part as a collective of leaders in building our tribe.
Community is built upon collective leadership; while none of
us want “a leader” all of us have an obligation to contribute to weaving the
web that can transform our tribe into a well-managed, effective and meaningful
community.
Today I call on you, to become a leader, engage your special
skills in building community, learn a new skill that can be of service to the
community, contribute and allow our Priestess and Priests to return their focus
to spiritual matters and guidance.
8 comments:
Hear, hear! But while we do "loudly proclaim" that we don't have or want leaders, I believe that's actually not true. Some people do want leaders and teachers. They don't want autocrats, dictators, or supervisors. But leadership can be done in so many other ways. Our training as priest/esses is often deficient in the areas of transformational leadership, consensus leadership, and leading from behind, which are all more effective in mentoring others to step into their own strengths. Self-proclaimed leaders are not usually the actual leaders; as in a horse herd, the actual leader/s are the quiet presences that don't proclaim dominance, but to whom the others look for guidance, both because they are wise and because they *don't* try to impose their will on others. The Tao Te Ching is a wonderful source for this type of leadership style, which I think happens in our communities while we are busy saying we don't have leaders.
simply, yes!
I have encountered a bit of this dilemma, and I've come to the conclusion that most pagans, especially those doing solitary work and most leery of leadership, basically just want organizers to facilitate gatherings and events. So yes, I agree with you, Peter and the first commentator. Perhaps I should try my hand at it, now while I have a year of "freedom" to explore different avenues...
I think that there are a variety of solutions out there to some of the burnout problem inherent in our communities. There's a lot of different types of leadership, and I think that working to build skills in the area in which we are called is definitely one strategy to reduce burnout. I say this a lot in my leadership and personal growth workshops, but--when we (leaders) take on doing something that's outside of our skillset, and outside of our calling, we aren't going to do it as well. We'll stumble for sure, and burnout happens that much faster. Ask me to plan an event or run a ritual or promote something on Facebook--sure. Ask me to do the cooking for the event, come up with a detailed financial spreadsheet, or do a lot of pastoral counseling, and I'm going to screw a lot of that up.
What we say in the field of experiential/interactive design is, the solution is inherent within the problem. Once the problem is truthfully identified, the solution becomes inherent, obvious.
In my experience, I haven't met too many of the loud "we don't want leader" Pagan types. Not in person. Mostly I see them spouting off online. I hear other Pagans talk about how Pagans say they don't want leaders, but I don't meet many of them.
What I do meet are Pagans who come to events, and then complain about them but never do anything to help. Or, Pagans who complain online about community or events but then rarely attend. I meet lots of Pagans with great ideas (or not so great ideas, but ideas they think are great) who then do nothing to make them happen.
What I also see are a lot of Pagans who want events, but, who will not (or cannot) pay to support those events, much less pay to support the kind of training that could help the leaders organizing the events to be better at it. For instance, I would love to take pastoral counseling classes at Cherry Hill. People come to me with their crises, because I teach workshops and host rituals. I'm not particularly good at counseling, but I serve a need in the moment. I try to get people to a better resource.
But I'd love more training, and, I can't afford it. Like any other Pagan leader out there--I'd have to pay out of pocket for such training, with no expectation or ability to be able to recoup that cost, unless you count doing Tarot readings.
I'd love to have someone good with bookkeeping as a part of my leadership team. Or some additional folks who could help out with marketing events. More folks interested in learning to take on ritual roles, plan events, teach classes.
There's so many inherent problems, depending on the community. There's often a lack of volunteers, a lack of "do-ers" and people who are willing to step in. I'm grateful to have the volunteers and leaders on my team that I have, and I also feel weary beyond belief at the work it takes even to run the limited events that I do.
I stave off burnout by reducing what I offer in Chicago at least. And a number of other strategies. This is a huge question, a huge issue, and I look forward to more opportunities to explore it.
If I can just stick my nose in here, I would note that we don't have to reinvent the wheel, here.
Many of the skills and leadership techniques that we need in our community (such as event planning, creating budgets, fundraising, communication, etc.) are things that *any* nonprofit organization needs, and there are plenty of resources out there to teach them. I'm personally a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, just as an example.
Some of those resources do need money (see Shauna's point about funding our leaders) but at the least such things tend to be priced for the budgets of do-gooders.
Just my 2 cents. -Florence Edwards-Miller
Very well said. I kind of charged into the role of a Pagan leader, and I did good. But I was not good at what I needed to be good at -- team building, asking for help, and delegating.
Well said but why not look to succesful 501c3 structures? For example at the Temple of the Sacred Gift we (and many others in the Midsouth) have adopted a Board of Directors that handles the business details we have a treasurer also. We have a Spiritual Council that the Clergy reside on so all they do is plan spiritual things. We have a Secretary that makes all the calendar events and appointments for the Clergy. We also have a Think tank board that does nothing but come up with ideas to help us market, and keep our Temple flowing. We have a Dean of our School that sets the standards of our School, and the role of the HPS and HP are to run SABBAT rituals only and to meet and greet new people, to be there for hospital visits, and to teach our classes, oh and to do rites of passages which we all know are alot of work. This frees up the HP and HPS and guess what? People love it. This means they are not less than the Elders or leaders it means they are valuable and important like we teach but not like coven structures ever ever offered. Oh, did I mention our first, second and third degrees all are right away given assignments and taught leadership from the get go? Whether that be helping with children's activites to teaching the youth group, to taking out the trash everyone in our tribe has a duty, responsibility, and joyful service they offer. THIS is what the future is. COven structures are not offering this and never have (i know I ran one for over twenty years) I have learned more and grown more as a Clergy of a Church and have helped more with this new structure than I ever did as a HPS of a coven. TRY THIS MODEL, Cherry hill is just starting to touch at it.
People definitely need to be compensated for their work (if not financially, then in some other way that feeds them) or they can't keep doing it indefinitely.
Regarding seeking additional training for work that Pagan leaders are already doing, one smart strategy is to ask the people who are being served to donate the cost of the training (using Kickstarter or another service). People are more likely to give for a one-time, specific project, especially one that they are already getting some benefits from. Alternatively, a friend or advocate can do the fundraising in lieu of the person who will benefit. (One gets the best results from this strategy if someone feels out the community in advance -- "Would you be willing to donate to this? Would you donate $25? Would you provide matching funds for donations?" etc.
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