Wiccan priestess studies at Presbyterian seminary
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, October 28, 2003
It’s Halloween time again in the Presbyterian Church (USA) – or, at least, in one of its affiliated seminaries.
Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Va., has admitted “to a nondegree” status a student who, sources say, describes herself as a Wiccan priestess.
John Carroll, dean of the faculty, when asked about that report would not repeat the words “Wiccan priestess,” but confirmed that “we have admitted to nondegree status [a student] about whom I have heard” such reports.
Carroll said the student, whom he did not identify, is one of about 25 nondegree students in the seminary. The Union administration has the authority to admit nondegree students. The seminary’s admissions committee must approve students admitted into its degree programs.
Union is one of 10 seminaries affiliated with the PCUSA, although they are all independently governed. Two other seminaries have covenant relationships with the denomination.
Wicca is a pagan religion that combines a number of elements, including earth worship, diversity, radical feminism, shamanism and Druidry. It is thoroughly anti-Christian.
Wiccans, a synonym for witches, have had a history of popping up in the PCUSA and causing controversy.
In 1990, the Presbytery of Long Island sponsored a presentation by a self-proclaimed witch, prompting the session of Central Presbyterian Church in Huntington, N.Y., to cut off its per-capita contributions. The presbytery responded with punitive action against Central, which, in turn, filed a complaint against the presbytery.
That complaint went all the way to the highest court of the denomination and resulted in a ruling that declared that sessions can neither be coerced nor punished for refusing to remit per-capita requests from presbyteries, synods and the General Assembly. That 1991 ruling by the General Assembly Judicial Commission was affirmed by that same church court in July.
Dirk Ficca of Chicago, who works with an inter-faith group that includes Wiccans, lit the fuse that set off another explosion in the denomination when he asked, at a PCUSA-sponsored peacemaking conference in 2001, “What’s the big deal about Jesus?” The organization that Ficca works with believes that there are many paths to God and that Jesus is not the sovereign Lord of all.
Elenora Giddings Ivory, the director of the PCUSA’s lobbying arm in Washington, is a long-time director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a well-heeled organization ($12 million in assets) that is aligned with groups promoting Wicca, atheism, humanism, secularism and skepticism.
In April 2001, 33 Presbyterian ministers – women and men – joined other mainline Protestants, Wiccans, Unitarian-Universalists and others in denouncing President George Bush’s faith-based initiatives to bring the witness of the church into areas experiencing social upheaval.
The headquarters of the PCUSA took on the issue of witches lightheartedly to observe Halloween in 2002. Staff members dressed up in witches’ garb and other costumes. The PCUSA published news about the event and photos of staff members in their costumes, including Jerry Van Marter, director of the PCUSA news service, as a wizard.
After The Layman Online ran a story about the playful witchcraft, the PCUSA yanked its Halloween promotion off its Web site. Later, it erected a firewall on its site to prevent public access to Web postings for staff members.