Wiccans "Win" Right to Perform Marriages Jenny jennyg@compuserve.com Thu Oct 22 12:54:16 1998 Hi everyone,*p*I was checking out the ACLU home page and found the following article that I thought y'all might be interested in.*p************p*ACLU of VA Helps Wiccan Priestess Secure Right to Perform Marriages*p* FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*br* Friday, September 25, 1998*p* NORFOLK, VA. -- The Norfolk Circuit Court today issued a minister's certificate to Wiccan high priestess Rosemary Kooiman, allowing her to perform marriages anywhere in the state of Virginia. The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, which argued on Kooiman's behalf, said the ruling was a victory for religious freedom.*p* "Religious freedom is for everyone, including Wiccans, whose numbers may be relatively small, but whose practices are unequivocally religious and predate Christianity," said Kent Willis, Executive Director of the ACLU of Virginia.*p* Kooiman presides over the Nomadic Chantry of the Gramarye in Maryland, a 50-member congregation associated with the Church of Wicca, which claims approximately 100,000 members. While she is permitted to perform wedding ceremonies in Maryland, Kooiman was previously denied the same certificate by circuit courts in Fairfax County and Alexandria, Virginia.*p* Last May, she sought a permit to conduct weddings in Virginia when a Fairfax County couple who were members of her congregation asked her to officiate at their ceremony. Fairfax County Chief Circuit Court Judge F. Bruce Bach refused to grant the permit, commenting in court in May that he did not believe Wicca was a religion. The ACLU, which did not represent Kooiman until after her appearance before the judge, sought but was denied a rehearing.*p* In briefs to the court, lawyers for the ACLU pointed out that the Church of Wicca is recognized as a religion by the U.S. Military, the IRS, and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, whose jurisdiction includes Virginia.*p* "I know that Wicca is not a mainstream religion, and I have grown to expect misunderstandings about our theology that stem from individual prejudices," Kooiman said. "But until my application to perform marriages was turned down by two separate courts, I had always felt that my right to practice the religion of my choice would be protected by the government.*p* "When officers of the court discriminated against my beliefs," she added, "I began to lose faith in the Constitution. I was deeply hurt by this experience. We practice our religion as conscientiously and responsibly as any other denomination, yet because we are different, we must struggle to be recognized."*p* "Even the most open-minded people forget sometimes that we are a nation of many religions," the ACLU's Willis said, "and that while some religions are less common and organized differently from others, in the eyes of the law they all have the same status."*p* It was not until Kooiman tried the Norfolk Circuit Court that she was finally granted a permit. The ACLU of Virginia said it was prepared to take Kooiman's case to the Virginia Supreme Court had she continued to be turned down by the circuit courts.*p* "The granting of the application in Norfolk hopefully demonstrates that the decisions by the Fairfax and Alexandria courts not to allow Mrs. Kooiman to become a marriage celebrant were aberrations," said Richard Ferris, the Associate Director of the ACLU Virginia, who represented Kooiman. "Otherwise, Thomas Jefferson's principles of religions freedom are in deep trouble in the very state where they were born."*p* Calvin Larson of Larson, Lilenthal and Morris in Reston, Virginia, also represented Kooiman.