Re: Wiccans "Win" Right to Perform Marriages Infiniti Thu Oct 22 13:12:12 1998 Dearie, I got this in my mail weeks ago... Maybe I should send you some of this stuff, help keep you up to date a bit better.*p*I think this is a good step, and generally in the right direction. Amazingly, that is all I have to say about this. <G>*p*Michael*p*Jenny wrote,*br*: Hi everyone,*br*:*br*: I was checking out the ACLU home page and found the *br*: following article that I thought y'all might be interested *br*: in.*br*:*br*: ***********br*:*br*: ACLU of VA Helps Wiccan Priestess Secure Right to Perform *br*: Marriages*br*:*br*: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*br*: Friday, September 25, 1998*br*:*br*: NORFOLK, VA. -- The Norfolk Circuit Court today issued *br*: a minister's certificate to Wiccan high priestess Rosemary *br*: Kooiman, allowing her to perform marriages anywhere in the *br*: state of Virginia. The American Civil Liberties Union of *br*: Virginia, which argued on Kooiman's behalf, said the ruling *br*: was a victory for religious freedom.*br*:*br*: "Religious freedom is for everyone, including *br*: Wiccans, whose numbers may be relatively small, but whose *br*: practices are unequivocally religious and predate *br*: Christianity," said Kent Willis, Executive Director of *br*: the ACLU of Virginia.*br*:*br*: Kooiman presides over the Nomadic Chantry of the *br*: Gramarye in Maryland, a 50-member congregation associated *br*: with the Church of Wicca, which claims approximately 100,000 *br*: members. While she is permitted to perform wedding *br*: ceremonies in Maryland, Kooiman was previously denied the *br*: same certificate by circuit courts in Fairfax County and *br*: Alexandria, Virginia.*br*:*br*: Last May, she sought a permit to conduct weddings in *br*: Virginia when a Fairfax County couple who were members of *br*: her congregation asked her to officiate at their ceremony. *br*: Fairfax County Chief Circuit Court Judge F. Bruce Bach *br*: refused to grant the permit, commenting in court in May *br*: that he did not believe Wicca was a religion. The ACLU, *br*: which did not represent Kooiman until after her appearance *br*: before the judge, sought but was denied a rehearing.*br*:*br*: In briefs to the court, lawyers for the ACLU pointed *br*: out that the Church of Wicca is recognized as a religion by *br*: the U.S. Military, the IRS, and the Fourth Circuit Court of *br*: Appeals, whose jurisdiction includes Virginia.*br*:*br*: "I know that Wicca is not a mainstream religion, *br*: and I have grown to expect misunderstandings about our *br*: theology that stem from individual prejudices," Kooiman *br*: said. "But until my application to perform marriages *br*: was turned down by two separate courts, I had always felt *br*: that my right to practice the religion of my choice would be *br*: protected by the government.*br*:*br*: "When officers of the court discriminated against *br*: my beliefs," she added, "I began to lose faith in *br*: the Constitution. I was deeply hurt by this experience. We *br*: practice our religion as conscientiously and responsibly as *br*: any other denomination, yet because we are different, we *br*: must struggle to be recognized."*br*:*br*: "Even the most open-minded people forget sometimes *br*: that we are a nation of many religions," the ACLU's *br*: Willis said, "and that while some religions are less *br*: common and organized differently from others, in the eyes of *br*: the law they all have the same status."*br*:*br*: It was not until Kooiman tried the Norfolk Circuit *br*: Court that she was finally granted a permit. The ACLU of *br*: Virginia said it was prepared to take Kooiman's case to the *br*: Virginia Supreme Court had she continued to be turned down *br*: by the circuit courts.*br*:*br*: "The granting of the application in Norfolk *br*: hopefully demonstrates that the decisions by the Fairfax and *br*: Alexandria courts not to allow Mrs. Kooiman to become a *br*: marriage celebrant were aberrations," said Richard *br*: Ferris, the Associate Director of the ACLU Virginia, who *br*: represented Kooiman. "Otherwise, Thomas Jefferson's *br*: principles of religions freedom are in deep trouble in the *br*: very state where they were born."*br*:*br*: Calvin Larson of Larson, Lilenthal and Morris in *br*: Reston, Virginia, also represented Kooiman.*br* Wiccans "Win" Right to Perform Marriages Jenny 107 Thu Oct 22 12:54:16 1998