Controversial minister works with group that includes witches
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, October 17, 2000
Dirk Ficca, the Presbyterian minister who said at a conference sponsored by the Presbyterian Church (USA) that other religions are valid paths to God, works for an interfaith organization that welcomes witches and would not use the word “God” in a major policy statement on global ethics.
Ficca is executive director of the Council for the Parliament of the World’s Religions, which is headquartered in Chicago.
The Parliament is a religious catchall that has welcomed representatives of traditional faiths as well as shamanists, Wiccans, goddess-worshipers, polytheists and self-described pagans. Paganism is an umbrella term used for a spectrum of religious beliefs and practices including Wiccan, Druid, Celtic, Egyptian, Norse and other mythic and earth-based traditions.
The Parliament recently issued a document titled “Towards a Global Ethic” that was crafted from the language of humanism but did not include any reference to God because participants could not agree which name should be used.
The Parliament does use multiple references in some of its foundational documents, including a statement that “…we center our lives in an Ultimate Reality, which our traditions call by various names (the Absolute, Allah, Brahman, Dharmakaya, God, Great Spirit, the One, Waheguru), drawing hope and strength therefrom, in trust and vision, in word and silence, in service and solidarity.”
One of the greatest controversies within the Parliament has been its inclusion of self-described pagan religions, including groups that practice witchraft. At its major gatherings in Chicago in 1993 and South Africa in 1999, the Parliament permitted presentations by a number of pagan groups.
In 1993, Brandy Williams presented a paper on “Wiccan Devotionals.” She told the Parliament, “By allowing the Covenant of the Goddess, the oldest and largest Wiccan religious organization in the world, to contribute to and participate in the Parliament, you are gifting us with an opportunity to share our theology, philosophy and practices in the hopes of opening doorways to future understanding and cooperation.”
In 1999, EarthSpirit, Covenant of the Goddess, and Circle Sanctuary – three of the largest pagan organizations in the country – were numbered among the Parliament’s 125 co-sponsoring groups. The 1999 Parliament also had representatives of Zoroastrianism, Aumism, The Way of Adidam, Avator Adi da Samraj and Brahma Kumaris.
The Parliament may be losing some of its steam. About 8,000 people attended the 1993 international gathering. The turnout in South Africa was 4,000.
Most are representatives of traditional faiths.
The Parliament’s “Towards a Global Ethic” has been endorsed by a number of well-known people from traditional faiths, including Syngman Rhee, moderator of the PCUSA; Theodore M. Hesburgh, former president of Notre Dame; and theologian Hans Kung.
Other religions represented by endorsers were: Badhai, Brahma Kumaris, Buddhism, Mahaayana, Zen, Theravada, Native Religions, Hinduism, Jainism, Judaism, Islam, Neo Pagans, Sikhs, Taoism, Theosophists, Zoroastrians.