Wiccans to Pray at Titusville Meeting
	Marilyn Meyer

"Their invitation to professed witches and Satan-worshipers (is) so far beneath the state in life given them by God our father as to be perverse and evil" said Terry Galvin, who hosts a Saturday afternoon Christian radio show in Titusville. "I hope they (council members) would atone for it and not allow it to take place."

The controversy arose in wake of a letter sent to area churches inviting them to have a representative give the invocation. The list was put together by city staff members using the Yellow Pages and church names submitted by council members. It came after a suggestion last month by Councilwoman Ilene Davis, who everyone said should not have to routinely hear a denominational prayer because not all taxpayers are Christian.

Enter Zaleski - who uses her Palm Bay home as her church - and the Wiccans. [Webmeister's Note: Jacque and Roger DO NOT use their home as their church, the Church is run out of Iron Oak's Educational Center at 324 Poinciana Drive in Melbourne, Florida.] The church's philosophy is akin to that of American Indians'. Members worship a mother goddess and believe the deity resides in all people and nature. During services, Wiccans wear robes and pray around a makeshift altar covered with candles and goblets.

In 1994, the city of Palm Bay charged Zaleski with illegally operating a church in a residential neighborhood. Residents had complained about her backyard services. The city later dropped the matter, but Zaleski fought back, saying her constitutional right to worship as she pleased had been violated. She and her husband the Rev. Roger Coleman, now are suing the city in federal court. A hearing is expected in July in Orlando.

Zaleski could not be reached for comment Monday, but said last year being Pagan "does not mean I'm ungodly. Being a witch means being an herbal woman. "There's no Satan or negative deity in our ideology. We hug; we sing. We like the whole concept of meditation. This is not Dungeons and Dragons."

One person who came to her defense Monday was Titusville Councilman Bob Socks, who said he has been suprised by the amount of intolerance that has surfaced. He said the invocation should be viewed as educational, regardless of who is leading it - be they Buddhist, Hindu, Jew, Christian or Wiccan. "This country was founded on religious freedom and, by God, that's how it is going to be. Everyone has a right. I am a moderate and I say there is room for everybody," he said.

Nonetheless, protest are being planned for tonight's meeting. "We are going to have people outside the City Council chambers praying for God's Blessing," said Pastor Rocky Purvis of Westgate Baptist Church in Titusville. "It will be a loving response. I am not here to throw stones at any member of the City Council or to throw stones at another religious persuasion. But I believe our nation was founded under Christian principals," he said.

From the Tampa Tribune:

The Wiccans are coming to City Hall, and some folks are not happy about it. The Rev. Jacque Zaleski, head of the Palm Bay-based Wiccan Church of the Iron Oak, a Pagan sect, has accepted an invitation from the Titusville City Council to give the invocation tonight before a council meeting. That was enough Monday to cause some to denounce the Wiccans, and not say very nice things about the council either. Last month, Councilwoman Ilene Davis said she did not feel the invocation should routinely be a denominational prayer because no all taxpayers are Christian. So city staff members wrote to area churches inviting a representative. The staff used a list they put together from the Yellow Pages and submissions from the council members.

-A Tribune Wire Service Report

Blessed Be,

Rob Andersen
73662,1621

February 28, 1996
6:01 pm

Channel 6 news here in Orlando covered the story. Some Jackass of a fundie preacher has his troops rallied to "pray against the prayers of the Wiccan" " who is at best a new age cult and at worst a practitioner of Satanism"

The news/reporting was unbiased... unfortunately the Xtian fundie community wasn't. Here's hoping that this rebounds on them and they are shown for what they are.

Personally, I think we ought to call and write the Titusville city council and thank them for including our religion (finally!) and for standing up to the Religious Reich mentality of that ignorant preacher.

TrailStalker
74750,0221

I read your message last night and this morning. I have been composing a reply to it for hours now. I intend to send it to the Email address you indicate. It reads as follows:

Gentlemen,

I am writing to concerning the February 27th article titled "Wiccans to Pray at Titusville Meeting". This letter is in response to certain members of the clergy quoted in your newspaper.

It troubles me that the attitudes displayed by the Inquisition and the trials at Salem still survive today, so close to the dawn of the twenty first century.

I am not surprised mind you, just troubled. Ministers of the church are only humans after all. They cannot be expected to put into practice the divine principles with which they so loudly assail the rest of us mortals.

I would have hoped that they might try on occasion, but I have come to know my fellow men better than to expect that much. It seems they will forever fall short of their calling, even if that calling comes from the Prince of Peace himself. I sincerely hope however that they won't excuse thier failings by claiming the frailty of their "sinful nature".

That said, it behooves me to call to mind the words of other men, gone before us, who made no such excuses.

"We hold these truths to be SELF EVIDENT, that ALL men are endowed by thier creator with certain UNALIENABLE rights...that among these are LIFE, LIBERTY, and the PURSUIT of HAPPINESS"

My dear fellows, there are several others I could quote which express much the same ideals. The Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, The Constitution, the Emanicipation Proclamation, even Lincoln's Gettysburg address all have phrases or words to the same effect.

The Constitution even forbids the establishment of a state religion, a fact that you seem to have overlooked.

It is NOT the privilege of ANYONE in this country to deny any man, women or child the freedom to worship as they choose. Nor is the oppurtunity afforded ANYONE to coerce another person to worship in any manner prescribed by any single man or group of men.

Rather it is the responsibility of ALL Americans to quarantee EVERYONE the freedom to worship as he or she feels is fitting and proper.

Anything less is a sacrilege to the names and memories of the countless numbers of Americans who died, sacrificed or otherwise surrendered thier own rights to quarantee this privilege for ourselves and all those who follow us.

The people of Iron Oak Church have not only the privilege to worship as they see fit, it is thier responsibility to all of us to defend that right from all opposition.

THESE are the principles this country was founded on, sirs. I know this for a fact. My ancestors came to this land for much the same reasons in 1752. My family has fought for and served these ideals for over two hundred years. Neither England, nor France, Spain, nor Germany, Japan nor men like you will ever take from us what God, whom you so reverently refer to, has given us.

If these principles are unacceptable to you, then I suggest you find a less tolerant land to dwell in. There is NO room for intolerance in the county my fathers built.

There never will be.

Blessed Be,

Pentad
104137,2716