The Aquarian Tabernacle Church (ATC) is "the first Wiccan church with full legal status and recognition by the governments of three nations" (the USA, Canada, and Australia) and was founded as a coven by Pete "Pathfinder" Davis, the current archpriest, in 1979. The current Archpriestes is Deborah K. Hudson. Rev. Barbara Lauderdale is the Director of Institutional Pastoral Care Services. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
The church is based on English Traditional Wicca but the purpose is to provide services to the larger Pagan(or Neopagan) community such as open worship, festivals, and a lending library. The policy of open attendance assists this goal. Festivals include Hekatee's Sickle Festival (Samhain) and Spring Mysteries (a recreation of the Eleusinian Mysteries). Raymond Buckland (2002) wrote that "the ATC has grown by leaps and bounds to become one of the most respected Wiccan institutions in the country, if not the world." Paganism (from Latin paganus, meaning a country dweller or civilian) is a blanket term which has come to connote a broad set of spiritual or religious beliefs and practices of natural or polytheistic religions, as opposed to the Abrahamic monotheistic religions. ... Neopaganism (sometimes Neo-Paganism, meaning New Paganism) is a heterogeneous group of religions which attempt to revive ancient, mainly European pre-Christian religions. ... For other uses, see Hecate (disambiguation). ... Samhain (IPA: ) is the word for November in Irish, and in Scottish Gaelic is spelt Samhuinn. ... The Eleusinian Mysteries were annual initiation ceremonies for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Greece. ... Raymond Buckland was the first person in the United States to openly admit to being a practitioner of Wicca. ...
Their world headquarters are located in Index, Washington. Index is a town located in Snohomish County, Washington. ...
Source
Buckland, Raymond (2002). The Witch Book: The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft, Wicca and Neo-Paganism. ISBN 1578591147. Cited on the ATC website.
The ATC was "the right idea at the right time," and in a few years grew into the first Wiccan church with full legal status and recognition by the governments of three nations.
The ATC now has many affiliated groups sharing the benefits and protections of the ATC recognition "umbrella" through its unique group exemption from the U.S. Treasury.
The AquarianTabernacleChurch is not a building, it is the people who participate.
ATC is based on English Traditional Wicca, with a focus of serving the larger Pagan communities by providing open worship opportunities to the public, education, interfaith liaison, and in general, providing the infrastructure available to the followers of most faiths, but previously just not available to Wiccans and Pagans.
The "Tab," where the church facilities are located, is about 50 miles from downtown Seattle, in the Cascade mountains of Washington, on the banks of the Skykomish river, one of the nation’s last "wild rivers".
While every member is considered a priestess or priest, to be ATC clergy, one must attend a 4 year college level seminary program culminating in the award of a Bachelor of Ministry degree from our own Woolston-Steen Theological Seminary, with recognized religious education status by the Higher Education Coordinating Board of state of Washington.
Feeds |
Contact