SACERDOTAL AND CEREMONIAL POLICY
board of directors
Universal Pantheist Society
WHEREAS, "Pantheists" are those who derive their fundamental religious and philosophical experiences through their personal relationship with the Universe, and to whom religion and philosophy is seen as a system of reverent behavior toward the earth rather than subscription to any particular creed or belief; and
WHEREAS, just as the Universal Pantheist Society disavows any kind of dogma in belief, so it recognizes that the imposition of any formalized ritual is likewise antithetical to the Pantheist spirit; and
WHEREAS, history has shown that religious ritual has been a source of divisiveness among adherents of what may otherwise be a common religious and philosophical inspiration; and
WHEREAS, the Universal Pantheist Society, which is attempting to resurrect an ancient faith and philosophy in a modern context, seeks to avoid any source of separation or divisiveness between and among Pantheists; and
WHEREAS, too many people, rather than learning and experiencing directly from the source in their own individual way, too easily get caught up in someone else's rituals or ceremonies which they think will either do it for them or that the rituals are the experience; and
WHEREAS, too many religious societies have fallen into the trap of governance and control by priestly authority out of touch with the needs and desires of ordinary people; and
WHEREAS, by legal necessity and by virtue of its articles of incorporation and bylaws the governance and control of the affairs of the Universal Pantheist Society is vested in its Board of Directors; and
WHEREAS, Pantheist worship can be celebrated through an array of means ranging from simple communion with nature to the more formal arts; and
WHEREAS, as Jose Arguelles points out, "Ritual has traditionally been the means of maintaining human activity in conscious accordance with the laws of nature. The purpose of ritual is to make a man a more conscious agent of cosmic forces.... It is the binding agent of culture and articulates for man - through man - his place in nature and the nature of his place, so that there is a harmonious reciprocity between the culture and its environment, making of the two a seamless whole,"
THEREFORE, THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE UNIVERSAL PANTHEIST SOCIETY ADOPTS THE FOLLOWING POLICY CONCERNING SACERDOTAL AND CEREMONIAL AFFAIRS:
I. No special rite or ceremony is necessary for membership in the Universal Pantheist Society. Persons joining the society may undertake any ritual enactment, private or public, which they may desire to confirm their membership, or if it is their desire, none at all. The Society recognizes as members those who submit to the Society a prescribed application form stating their name and address. The submission of a list of Pantheist activities the person engages in and a statement in response to the question "What does it mean to you to be a Pantheist?" is optional. Members of the Society shall be given a Membership Certificate stating their membership in the Society.
II. The Universal Pantheist Society shall give to no person any priestly authority over any other member of the Universal Pantheist Society in the performance of any celebration or ritual. The Society recognizes that members may choose any person desired to officiate or witness a particular celebration or ritual.
III. The Universal Pantheist Society supports and encourages the enactment of creative demonstrations of devotion toward the Earth and the Universe. The Universal Pantheist Society supports celebratory activities which are meaningful to people as individuals, families, and communities, and which may operate in legitimacy, if not always in absolute conformity, with State and global society, and the Ecosphere.
IV. The Universal Pantheist Society shall not define or fix the content of any rituals performed by members in any way, including tradition, but believes that rituals are best designed and carried out by the parties involved and their families and friends. In making this pronouncement, the Universal Pantheist Society is aware of the public and official nature of many such rituals, particularly those with civil and legal complications such as marriage and death ceremonies. Therefore, the Society avers that such ceremonies, whether held in public or private, need to be conducted in ways which are legally binding and appropriately designed for personal or social commitment and reverence, including joy or sorrow, movement or rest, seriousness or humor, and other appropriate physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual attitudes.
V. The Universal Pantheist Society encourages members who create or develop celebrations which are meaningful to them to send their ideas to the Society for sharing with other Pantheists through such publications of the Universal Pantheist Society as its newsletter, Pantheist Vision and "Celebrating Pantheism," a booklet to be produced by the Society to provide examples and ideas for celebrating Pantheist holidays, events, and ideas.
VI. Upon request of any member, the Society may assist the member in preparing a certificate or declaration to confirm, corroborate, or ratify any particular ceremony or celebration. Such certificates may contain the name of the Universal Pantheist Society where appropriate.
VII. Recognizing the validity of celebrations conducted by individuals for their own selves, the Universal Pantheist Society gives no institutional approval or endorsement of a member's celebrations or rituals unless written permission specific to that particular celebration has been given to the member by the Universal Pantheist Society at his or her request.
VIII. The Society disapproves any celebration, service, or ritual which is non-spontaneous, cultist, focused on supernatural or occult subjects, or oriented toward a single leader with a dominant personality.
IX. Pantheists commonly seek out natural places, objects, phenomena, organisms, and events for celebration. These include, but are not limited to, geological, hydrological, oceanographic, meteorological, and astronomical features and events, living organisms and biogeochemical cycles, the procession of the equinoxes and solstices, and other natural phenomena. Recognizing that some cultures have conducted celebrations inimical to the welfare of the natural phenomena celebrated, the Society disapproves celebrations which cause harm to the natural phenomena celebrated.
X. In every human society critical life events such as birth, christening, puberty, betrothal, marriage, divorce, death, and other events are celebrated by a ritual enactment. Similarly, in many cultures certain rites of confirmation or commitment to friends, family, associates, institutions, and to country and the Earth are essential components of life. The Universal Pantheist Society certifies and authorizes its members to solemnize such life-events and commitments, insofar as legal authority requires such authorization, to be performed in accordance with international, national and state law, where applicable.
XI. The Society disapproves ceremonial behavior or events which are not affirming of life in the natural order of things, including, but not limited to, any form of physical or emotional violence, occult subjects, or reference to any supernatural influence or topic.
XII. Particularly in the case of marriage, because the institution conveys a special status with sweeping effects in law not limited to those of an ordinary civil contract, the Universal Pantheist Society notes that members who solemnize marriages must observe not only the form and ceremonies as regulated by the civil authority where the marriage is celebrated and the law of the country in which the parties are domiciled at the time of marriage, but must also recognize the civil, religious, and ethical responsibility required of the marital relation. Nothing in this policy implies any sort of preference for or disapproval of either a marriage relationship or the practice of "living together" with or without the benefit of a legal or contractual understanding. The Universal Pantheist Society recognizes that the marital relation is one which the Society, as a religious institution, may bless and the State make legal.
XIII. Mankind is totally a constituent part of the natural order in life and in death, because all of Nature is a unity. Each human, as well as each other living entity, is a temporary form which the eternally fluctuating universe has taken. Death is a return to the Whole which has birthed and sustained us; it may be felt to be a comfort rather than a terrifying prospect. When a human being's body ceases to function as a living entity, it is entirely appropriate that it be recycled to its basic elements in the natural world, rather than artificially and expensively delaying this return. This end can be accomplished either by cremation or by burial, as well as through organ donation. The Universal Pantheist Society supports funeral practices which recognize the fundamental unity of life and death, the value of ecological cycling, and appropriate ceremonies to consecrate and celebrate the lives of the deceased.
WHEREAS, just as the Universal Pantheist Society disavows any kind of dogma in belief, so it recognizes that the imposition of any formalized ritual is likewise antithetical to the Pantheist spirit; and
WHEREAS, history has shown that religious ritual has been a source of divisiveness among adherents of what may otherwise be a common religious and philosophical inspiration; and
WHEREAS, the Universal Pantheist Society, which is attempting to resurrect an ancient faith and philosophy in a modern context, seeks to avoid any source of separation or divisiveness between and among Pantheists; and
WHEREAS, too many people, rather than learning and experiencing directly from the source in their own individual way, too easily get caught up in someone else's rituals or ceremonies which they think will either do it for them or that the rituals are the experience; and
WHEREAS, too many religious societies have fallen into the trap of governance and control by priestly authority out of touch with the needs and desires of ordinary people; and
WHEREAS, by legal necessity and by virtue of its articles of incorporation and bylaws the governance and control of the affairs of the Universal Pantheist Society is vested in its Board of Directors; and
WHEREAS, Pantheist worship can be celebrated through an array of means ranging from simple communion with nature to the more formal arts; and
WHEREAS, as Jose Arguelles points out, "Ritual has traditionally been the means of maintaining human activity in conscious accordance with the laws of nature. The purpose of ritual is to make a man a more conscious agent of cosmic forces.... It is the binding agent of culture and articulates for man - through man - his place in nature and the nature of his place, so that there is a harmonious reciprocity between the culture and its environment, making of the two a seamless whole,"
THEREFORE, THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE UNIVERSAL PANTHEIST SOCIETY ADOPTS THE FOLLOWING POLICY CONCERNING SACERDOTAL AND CEREMONIAL AFFAIRS:
I. No special rite or ceremony is necessary for membership in the Universal Pantheist Society. Persons joining the society may undertake any ritual enactment, private or public, which they may desire to confirm their membership, or if it is their desire, none at all. The Society recognizes as members those who submit to the Society a prescribed application form stating their name and address. The submission of a list of Pantheist activities the person engages in and a statement in response to the question "What does it mean to you to be a Pantheist?" is optional. Members of the Society shall be given a Membership Certificate stating their membership in the Society.
II. The Universal Pantheist Society shall give to no person any priestly authority over any other member of the Universal Pantheist Society in the performance of any celebration or ritual. The Society recognizes that members may choose any person desired to officiate or witness a particular celebration or ritual.
III. The Universal Pantheist Society supports and encourages the enactment of creative demonstrations of devotion toward the Earth and the Universe. The Universal Pantheist Society supports celebratory activities which are meaningful to people as individuals, families, and communities, and which may operate in legitimacy, if not always in absolute conformity, with State and global society, and the Ecosphere.
IV. The Universal Pantheist Society shall not define or fix the content of any rituals performed by members in any way, including tradition, but believes that rituals are best designed and carried out by the parties involved and their families and friends. In making this pronouncement, the Universal Pantheist Society is aware of the public and official nature of many such rituals, particularly those with civil and legal complications such as marriage and death ceremonies. Therefore, the Society avers that such ceremonies, whether held in public or private, need to be conducted in ways which are legally binding and appropriately designed for personal or social commitment and reverence, including joy or sorrow, movement or rest, seriousness or humor, and other appropriate physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual attitudes.
V. The Universal Pantheist Society encourages members who create or develop celebrations which are meaningful to them to send their ideas to the Society for sharing with other Pantheists through such publications of the Universal Pantheist Society as its newsletter, Pantheist Vision and "Celebrating Pantheism," a booklet to be produced by the Society to provide examples and ideas for celebrating Pantheist holidays, events, and ideas.
VI. Upon request of any member, the Society may assist the member in preparing a certificate or declaration to confirm, corroborate, or ratify any particular ceremony or celebration. Such certificates may contain the name of the Universal Pantheist Society where appropriate.
VII. Recognizing the validity of celebrations conducted by individuals for their own selves, the Universal Pantheist Society gives no institutional approval or endorsement of a member's celebrations or rituals unless written permission specific to that particular celebration has been given to the member by the Universal Pantheist Society at his or her request.
VIII. The Society disapproves any celebration, service, or ritual which is non-spontaneous, cultist, focused on supernatural or occult subjects, or oriented toward a single leader with a dominant personality.
IX. Pantheists commonly seek out natural places, objects, phenomena, organisms, and events for celebration. These include, but are not limited to, geological, hydrological, oceanographic, meteorological, and astronomical features and events, living organisms and biogeochemical cycles, the procession of the equinoxes and solstices, and other natural phenomena. Recognizing that some cultures have conducted celebrations inimical to the welfare of the natural phenomena celebrated, the Society disapproves celebrations which cause harm to the natural phenomena celebrated.
X. In every human society critical life events such as birth, christening, puberty, betrothal, marriage, divorce, death, and other events are celebrated by a ritual enactment. Similarly, in many cultures certain rites of confirmation or commitment to friends, family, associates, institutions, and to country and the Earth are essential components of life. The Universal Pantheist Society certifies and authorizes its members to solemnize such life-events and commitments, insofar as legal authority requires such authorization, to be performed in accordance with international, national and state law, where applicable.
XI. The Society disapproves ceremonial behavior or events which are not affirming of life in the natural order of things, including, but not limited to, any form of physical or emotional violence, occult subjects, or reference to any supernatural influence or topic.
XII. Particularly in the case of marriage, because the institution conveys a special status with sweeping effects in law not limited to those of an ordinary civil contract, the Universal Pantheist Society notes that members who solemnize marriages must observe not only the form and ceremonies as regulated by the civil authority where the marriage is celebrated and the law of the country in which the parties are domiciled at the time of marriage, but must also recognize the civil, religious, and ethical responsibility required of the marital relation. Nothing in this policy implies any sort of preference for or disapproval of either a marriage relationship or the practice of "living together" with or without the benefit of a legal or contractual understanding. The Universal Pantheist Society recognizes that the marital relation is one which the Society, as a religious institution, may bless and the State make legal.
XIII. Mankind is totally a constituent part of the natural order in life and in death, because all of Nature is a unity. Each human, as well as each other living entity, is a temporary form which the eternally fluctuating universe has taken. Death is a return to the Whole which has birthed and sustained us; it may be felt to be a comfort rather than a terrifying prospect. When a human being's body ceases to function as a living entity, it is entirely appropriate that it be recycled to its basic elements in the natural world, rather than artificially and expensively delaying this return. This end can be accomplished either by cremation or by burial, as well as through organ donation. The Universal Pantheist Society supports funeral practices which recognize the fundamental unity of life and death, the value of ecological cycling, and appropriate ceremonies to consecrate and celebrate the lives of the deceased.