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United Pagan Church of Australia
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Important Updates!
Athame's not Prohibited Weapons in NSW
Read more...
Have Your Say! Should UPCoA change its name?
Click here to have your say on what name we should use!
Marriage Celebrants update
Read the reply from the Australian Attorney General.
FUNERAL WISHES: Our Senior High Priest has obtained a small quantity (20) of a book titled “Please Remember - A Comprehensive Guide to My Passing Wishes”. This A5 size book allows you to record all of your personal information and funeral arrangements, including eulogy notes, pallbearers, special religious requirements, and more. Recommended Retail Price is shown as $14.95. Selling price: $5.00 including postage to Australia. If you would like to obtain a copy of this book please contact us using the feedback form. An online order form will be added to this site in the next few days.
Hurry, limited quantity available!
The United Pagan Church of Australia (UPCoA) is a totally independent and Australian managed organisation, established to act as an umbrella organisation for the purpose of bringing together various Pagan religious based organisations to have a unified voice for all Australian Pagans. The UPCoA aims to have the responsibility of acting as a religious representative of the Australian Pagan community in dealings with federal, state and local government agencies, the community as a whole, and other organisations and institutions. HOWEVER, UPCoA understands and accepts that it is but one of a number of Pagan orientated groups providing representation, some of which are religious based and some are not. UPCoA does not wish to become the sole or only peak representative body and is happy to work with other organisations that represent the Pagan community/ UPCoA is recognised by the Australian Taxation Office as a religious organisation and is endorsed as a charitible institution for the purposes of the advancement of religion.
Despite the similarity in name, the UPCoA is not a chartered group or otherwise officially connected with the USA based United Pagan Church, although we do have a loose ‘understanding of co-operation’ with them because of the similarity in our names. Under no circumstances should anyone promote or accept that the UPCoA is controlled or governed by any other organisation!
Whilst the UPCoA will act to help promote the activities of all member organisations, it does not exercise any control over the internal matters of any member organisation, except for those groups purposely started as bracnhes of the UPCoA. One of our primary aims is to gain recognition by the Attorney Generals Department so member organisations can enjoy the benefits of religious marriage celebrants, and whilst the AGD has requirements concerning the control that an umbrella group exercises over its member “congregations”, UPCoA aims to exercise only the minimum amount of control necessary, allowing groups to maintain their own identity and management. If you want to know more about this subject please click here to visit the Religious Celebrants page.
Today it is common to see people from many different relgions working and living side by side, tolerant of each other, and yet many people that follow a Pagan religion are still treated with bias and prejudice everyday. Many Pagans worship in private, scared to let others know that they are Pagan for fear of the reaction from people that only know what Hollywood has told them, which is, obviously, a version that has been written to sell movies rather than convey a true historical message of fact.
Paganism is the oldest religion known to humanity, far older than any of the "mainstream" religions such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam. In fact, many of the traditions followed to this day originated as Pagan traditions or celebrations, or have been adapted from ancient Pagan practices. Many misinformed people create false fears by promoting Pagans as "Satanists", or Pagan beliefs as "Satanic". The reality is that Satan is a deity of the Judeo-Christian religion and is not part of any true Pagan belief. Claiming that a Pagan worships Satan would be like saying that a Christian worships Zeus - it is impossible to worship a deity that simply doesn't exist within the religion!
But, church is a Christian word! (isn’t it??)
For those that view our name as reflecting Christian titles (i.e. Church), this term is in fact far from a purely Christian word. One definition of the word “church” is “the body of people who share a faith or a religious organisation”. Surely this can be applied as much to Pagans as any other religion? If you remain unconvinced, the following may help change your view:
“Church” comes from the Old English and German word pronounced “kirche”. In Scotland, it was “kirk”.
The following entries are from the Oxford Universal English Dictionary:
Church [Old English cirice, circe; Middle English chereche, chiriche, chirche; whence churche, cherche, etc.: -Greek Kuriakon...]
Church comes from the Anglo-Saxon root word “circe”, and stems from the Greek name of the goddess “Circe”, the daughter of “Helios”, the Roman Sun-god adopted from Greek mythology. Linked to this goddess in Celtic pagan worship is the name “Kirce”. From her name comes the word “kirch” which pertained to the building dedicated to pagan Celtic worship and rituals. The Greek word “kuriakon” was used for the building or “house of Kurios (Lord)”.
The actual original Greek word used in the Christian religious texts was “ecclesia”, not church.
This Greek word appears in the New Testament approximately 115 times. That’s just in this one grammatical form. It appears also in other forms, and in every instance, except three, it is wrongly translated as “church” in the King James Version. Those three exceptions are found in Acts 19:32, 39, 41. In these instances the translators rendered it “assembly” instead of “church”. But, the Greek word is exactly the same as the other 112 entries where it was changed to “church” wrongly. So, in reality, it is the Christians that have chosen to use an ancient Pagan term rather than Pagans using a purely Christian term!
For those finding it hard to believe that anything Christian could have a Pagan origin, this is not the only Pagan term that is widely accepted in Christianity. Consider the following list as just a few examples of common terms, titles, celebrations or events that have some kind of Pagan origin or influence:
Olympic Games, Christmas, Easter, Halloween, May Day, Sunday, harvest festivals, Priest, Pontifex Maximus (i.e. the Pope).
Want to know more? Read our article on “Pagan origins of common terms”.
However, no matter what we say there will always be those that simply do not accept that the word church should be associated with any Pagan group. UPCoA recognises their right to hold this view, and that this opinion is just as valid as the alternate view presented above. In the end, each person must decide for themselves whether or not they can accept the use of the word church.
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Since 19th July 2007
