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In recent years Paganism has become better known and accepted as a religious movement, resulting in outreach and a mutual effort at understanding between Pagans and members of other religious communities.
Christians these days are more open to each other’s viewpoints and to dialogue with non-Christian religions. The influx of immigrants from non-European countries has encouraged religious tolerance, making our acceptance easier than it might otherwise have been. There are now numerous Hindu-Canadians, who believe in many gods, and quite a few Buddhists, who technically do not believe in any gods, both of which make our religious outlook seem less strange.
We Pagans do have a unique problem in that we hark back to religious ideas that historically the Christian church felt it had to suppress and supplant, and we are also confused with Satanists who, at least in the original version, were rebels within Christianity. But Pagans get a fairly good press these days. A lot of people know at least a little bit about us. And, except for some of the more fundamentalist or evangelical, most Christians now consider us harmless. Further, some are willing to include us in multi-religious bodies.
The Ontario Inter-Faith Council includes the Wiccan Church of Canada. The Canadian Multi-faith calendar includes Wicca.
The Pagan Federation of Britain, our senior affiliate, has gained official recognition of Paganism by the UK’s Interfaith Network and by the British government.
“Wicca was accepted into the Interfaith Council of Washington State; a few years later, a Wiccan . . . was unanimously elected, and later re-elected, to be president of this Interfaith Council . . . (which was) a first . . . for Wicca.” (Pete Pathfinder, in Nov.-Dec. l997 Green Egg, an American Pagan magazine now defunct.)
Another development that helps make Paganism “respectable” has taken place within the Unitarian Church, which is noted for its openness. Many of their congregations now have a branch of the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS), where church members and others can explore Paganism in a church environment.
May we all continue to learn from each other and enlarge the concept of spirituality.