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Lesson Overview: For this lesson, we want you to go out and make a two year commitment to the peace corps. KIDDING!!! Sheesh. Right now, you are students of the Second Circle. People who have completed the course work of the Second Circle are called Members of the Second Circle. Have you ever had a Membership that asked something from you? Money, time, your body at their meetings? Well, Membership in the Second Circle asks for something from you, too - but we won't check to make sure you're doing it (anecdote). What the Second Circle asks of it's members is that they give a minimum of 20 hours a year to their community. Either the greater community or the immediate community of Wicca. And how do you do these hours?? You find a need and you fill it.
This "forced" philanthropy grows if you ever go into the Third Circle, becoming several hours a week. (can you tell I do most of mine by providing free information??) Now, I can't make you volunteer. I can't stand over your shoulder and make sure that you do. And, well, maybe you don't have time and you need to find an alternate method of serving your community. That's fine.
~ Kat MacMorgan
Part One:
There are some service agencies that are NOT good to volunteer for. Give an example of a destructive service agency and what their goals are. What could such agencies change to be better for the communities they serve? Write a letter to one such service agency. Express your sentiment. You needn't mail it unless you want to. (The point is to cement YOUR beliefs, not form a campaign)
Christ's Missionaries
P.O. Box 1624
Olympia, WA 98501
253-383-1844
To Whom it May Concern;
The reason I am writing to you is in regard to your outreach program to feed the hungry people in Africa. It seems that you feed the hungry in Africa, yet ignore the hungry here in Washington, in the US. Why is that?
Why not feed our hungry, clothe our poor and give shelter to our families that have no where to go? Do you think that by somehow attempting to fix the problems of the impoverished in another country that it will somehow fix the problems here in the US? I'm sorry, but it doesn't work that way.
It would be far better for your program to concentrate on the problems here in Washington, though you may not see it, there are poor, hungry families that live in the "Dark Ages". They need our help as well, and for your agency to deny them that help is very Un-Christian-like.
Concentrate here first, and worry about those other countries later. We need all the help we can get right here.
Respectfully yours,
Ravenna Angelline
Part Two:
Locate a service agency or something that needs to be done in your community. Describe how you feel that filling a need relates to Wicca and why you would like to do this service.
A service that I would like to see in my area is a special home for pregnant young women with no where to go. I know that there are a lot of such places now, but the problem with them is that most of them are Christian slanted, and have a tendency to dump a lot of unneeded guilt on those young women.
I would love to be able to open up a home that offers little or no rent housing, free child care and child care training. Free food, rides to doctor appointments, the store or whatever and the needed support for young mothers to finish their educations or find jobs.
My goal is to one day offer such a service without any religious guilt, a place where girls up to the age of 21 and with children under 5 years of age (longer on a case by case basis) can stay and be a part of a family.
Filling this need relates to my practice of Wicca, because I want to offer a service where their is no guilt attached to having children. A lot of Christian services tend to place a lot of guilt on these young women because they made a few mistakes and decided to learn from them. Having babies is not a sin, and these services need to stop drilling that concept into these young women's heads.
Part Three:
Volunteer. (start small, say, 5 hours) Write a brief essay about your experience and how it made you feel. Would you recommend the agency or organization or not? Why?
My community service was helping out a Bremerton Wiccan man named Crowing Wolf. Crowing Wolf is the Assistant Director of an Outreach program called "Stand-up for Kids", which is a program for homeless teens.
Crowing Wolf found a growing number of these teens (all over 18, too) were Wiccan, or seriously interested in studying Wicca, and wished to give them each gifts for the Winter Solstice. He asked for help from other pagans in the area, and so far, I alone answered his plea for help.
It isn't much, but I have put together a simple set of basic items for a Wiccan tool set. Not your regular run of the mill "Teen Witch Kit" in a box, but I like to call it my "Traveling Witch Kit". Each set includes miniaturized tools (athamé, wand, chalice, altar pentacle) inside a box that makes it easy for these teens to keep their tools with them where ever they may go.
But, this isn't all. I plan on volunteering more with helping these homeless teens find shelter, food and needed resources to survive. Hopefully, getting them reunited with family, or even helping their families find homes and jobs.
I feel really good to be able to help make these teens' winter celebrations a little brighter, and it helps give them some hope for a brighter futer
I would recommend this agency because they provide such a needed resource, right here in my own area (though Bremerton is an hour drive away, it's still worth it!) and the idea of helping to make a difference in someone else's life makes me feel really good inside.
