Wiccans Win Right
to Hold Home Services

Michael Cabbage
The following was typed in by Baird Stafford. We of Iron Oak are deeply indebted to Baird for his effort. Thanks, Baird!
Baird's Note: As promised, local news coverage of yesterday's hearings. I saw only the late news last night, having been elsewhere for broadcasts at both noon and the dinner hour: the fact that Iron Oak had won was mentioned only in tags or thirty-second sound bites on three of the four local television stations which had been covering the story at that time -- although I understand coverage on earlier airings was more extensive. The PZ Board was not kind enough to enunciate their verdict in time for Prime Time release.

That verdict, by the way, was unanimous - and reached after a maximum of three to five minutes of discussion (once they had cleared the air of procedural questions). It also required, in my opinion, a great deal of courage. The Board consists entirely of political appointees, some of whose patrons stalked out in a huff after the vote was taken. Speculation among local Pagans is that some of them may have to reconsider any local political ambitions they may previously have entertained.

Below is the article from the issue of Florida Today for 22 November 1994 (the first time I've felt easy about this date since I was a junior in high school). Copyright Florida Today. It is posted here without the permission of Florida Today.

Ending months of what some have called religious persecution, Palm Bay officials Monday agreed to let two pagan ministers continue to worship in the back yard of their home.

The Revs. Jacque Zaleski and Roger Coleman, a married couple who head the Wiccan Church of the Iron Oak, were found not in violation of a city ordinance that requires churches in residential areas to obtain a special zoning permit.

The unanimous ruling was made by the Code Enforcement Board, and left the ministers jubilant.

"I got my $20,000 worth," Zaleski said of the legal bills she has rolled up fighting the city's attempt to prevent her from worshiping.

Said Coleman: "For us to hang on to our beliefs, we've got to continue to fight for them. We've got to learn to respect each other."

Zaleski and Coleman were cited Aug. 6 for holding a religious celebration in the back yard of their Palm Bay home after neighbors complained.

Throughout the hearing's three days of testimony, city officials maintained the problem was not religious but a simple zoning violation. City Attorney Nick Tsamoutales repeated that position Monday.

"Everybody knows this is an issue that doesn't have anything to do with religion," Tsamoutales said. "It has to do with improper use of property."

In reaching its decision, the board accepted the argument of Zaleski and Coleman that the couple's northeast Palm Bay home did not meet the zoning ordinance's legal definition of a church.

The city code specifies that for a building to be a church, the practice of religion must be its primary use. Board member Diane White said the Wiccans were not in violation because their home is primarily a residence. They rent office space in Melbourne for the church's principal location.

Despite the ruling, Zaleski said she intends to file a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging she and her husband were singled out for harassment because of their unorthodox religious beliefs.