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	Shop or Temple - witch is it?
	Shop or Temple - witch is it?

Shop or Temple - witch is it?
Alex Scapens
18/ 6/2008

A BID to set up the UK’s first official Wiccan temple in Reddish is living on a prayer after the Government refused to recognise the building as a genuine place of worship.

Sandra Davis, high priestess at the Crystal Cauldron, on Gorton Road, is appealing the decision she claims is discriminatory.

She applied to have her business - a shop and meeting room - recognised as a temple but this week the General Register Office, part of the Home Office, refused.

A rejection letter, which has left the congregation outraged, stated that Wicca, a form of Paganism, is incompatible with the ancient Places of Worship Act 1855.

Sandra, 61, of Bridgehall, said: "I feel discriminated against and that the Government has insulted my religion. There is an enormous Wiccan community and our congregation is bigger than many ‘normal’ churches. We see ourselves as one big extended family. A lot of the Christian holidays including Christmas were adopted from the Pagan calendar and it was the first religion in Britain. It would have been the first Wiccan temple in the UK so we are all gutted. We want to be recognised as a legitimate religion, I won’t give up."

The Home Office argues that the religion does not involve worship of a supreme being so is not legitimate, a point which Sandra strongly refutes.

She says not only do members prey to the Lord and Lordess - who they view as supreme beings - but the congregation meets every Sunday to do so and is even setting up a Sunday school for children.

If temple status was given Sandra, a Wiccan for 45 years, plans to become part of the religion’s clergy within a year and then preside over funerals, christenings and hand fastings (weddings).

Congregation member Andrea Vickers-Cross added: "We have freedom to worship who we please and everyone in the congregation is very dedicated.

"Also we don’t go door to door to seek converts like other religions we let people come to us."

A Home Office spokesman said: "When considering an application to register a building for worship and marriage we are bound by the requirements of the Places of Worship Act 1855. Our decision not to register any building as a place of religious worship under the 1855 Act does not, in itself, affect in any way the right to use the building as they so wish."

Bump here when I glow!!!

Vox_Draconis · Sun Jun 22, 2008 @ 01:24pm · 0 Comments


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