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Reciprocity, One of the Three Graces of Cornerstone

2/24/2014

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Hospitality, also known as Reciprocity is not just a duty. True Reciprocity is a spiritual practice. Like prayer or meditation, Reciprocity connects us with a deeper truth and compassion that transcends our selves. That our sense of individualism is an illusion that cuts us off from what is true and sacred in our lives. It is the illusion of separation from one another.

Neither is Reciprocity something to be proclaimed aloud; it must be lived in our daily lives, every day. Hospitality is both a spiritual discipline and an expression of personal spiritual health. If you are feeling angry, hurt, or alienated you cannot offer a warm welcome to someone else. Likewise, if you are at peace and filled with abundant joy, then Reciprocity
 flows naturally from the very depths of your being.

What is true of an individual, must also true of their community. A spiritual community in which people do not genuinely love one another is not likely to exude warmth. 
A spiritual community that is insular and disconnected from the rest of the community cannot offer spiritual Reciprocity. Reciprocity is love in action.

I have found that, for me, the Divine is most often found within the practices of Reciprocity, making room for others in my life, making room in my own heart, for the stranger within and among us.

When we speak of Reciprocity we are also addressing issues of inclusion vs. exclusion. Our entire culture excludes so many people. If you are wheelchair-bound, for example, you are excluded because there are places you can't go. If you are very young, or very old, you are excluded. Women are excluded, as are minorities and those who practice a religions different from the societal majority.

Encountering and interacting with those who are different from ourselves is important, because it stretches us. When we create a life surrounded by people just like ourselves, we lead a very narrow life. A spirituality centered in such a life will drift into complacency. It allows us to settle for easy answers based solely on personal experiences. 

So, Reciprocity has an inescapable moral dimension. It is not mere social grace; it is a spiritual and ethical issue. It is an issue that gets to the very core of what it means to be human.

But we must also take our spiritual practice of Reciprocity beyond the safety of our own religious communities. Our practice must extend to opening our hearts to strangers throughout our lives and to those who’s beliefs challenge our own.

The real challenge comes when we encounter people who *appear* to be different from ourselves. People we perceive as different test our spiritual development, and they help us develop spiritually. We need to practice openness to people who make us uncomfortable: people a lot older or younger; people who are a different ethnicity; people who are gay, straight, conservative, or liberal; people who are mentally ill. The stranger among us.

When we welcome the uncomfortable, we grow. We come to realize that there is more that binds us than divides us. We are not all that separate after all.

We begin to discover that the best reason to reach out isn't just to help another person, to make them more comfortable, to make ourselves feel whole, or to be more spiritual. Reaching out frees us from the prison of the self. Practicing Reciprocity, reaching out with love, frees us from individualism and narcissism. It helps us have greater love and acceptance for our fellow man and, by extension, our own selves.

With love comes understanding, and with understanding comes love. Ultimately, love and understanding are one. Reciprocity is compassion, love, understanding, and the freedom from the illusion of separateness. It is knowing you are never alone, and never will be alone again, because we are all, ultimately, one.

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Accountability, Compensation and the Anti-Establishment Mindset

2/21/2014

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 In most nonprofit religious institutions the organization has justifiable concerns regarding the misuse of charitable funds and protecting the common good. Nonprofits are largely self-regulated entities, offering an opening for abuse at the hands of unscrupulous individuals.

In Pagan institutions, we tend to be even more suspicious of the use of our funds. The Pagan movement grew out of the anti-establishment movement. "Establishment" to these activists was not simply the people of the older generation, but the existing power structure in society; the dominant groups in society and their customs or institutions; institutional authority; and those who formed the “ruling class.” In other words, those who had control of the money. Is it any wonder then, that Pagan communities today share an inherent distrust of money, or those organizations, individuals, or leaders who ask for it in return for their goods and services?

Yet, there is a growing movement among the Pagan community to change that mindset, particularly among the newer generations of Pagans. It is understood that there is a desire among our leaders to give the appearance of protecting the common good and that many factors have combined to create pressures on our leaders to provide accountability, especially in the area of compensation. We feel this is a good thing. Accountability is absolutely necessary. However, we also feel that the time, energy, knowledge and experience of our leaders is valuable and that too many of our elders, leaders and organizations are not being fairly compensated for their work.

This has been true of religious organizations from all denominations, not just Pagan ones, as much as any other. To alleviate concerns about leaders or organizations not being honest about the use of funds there has to be accountability, and there are ways to do that. Some other organizations have already done this work for us, we don't have to reinvent the wheel.

In response, the Commission on Accountability and Policy for Religious Organizations, sponsored by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, issued “Enhancing Accountability for the Religious and Broader Nonprofit Sector.”

“Enhancing Accountability” offers six recommendations for religious and charitable organizations. They are:

  • Regardless of the provisions of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) and related regulations, the governing bodies of nonprofit organizations should ensure that the compensation (including benefits) paid to leaders is clearly reasonable under the circumstances.

  • Nonprofit organizations should adopt appropriately robust policies that provide clear and practical guidance for establishing reasonable compensation for leaders, properly address conflicts of interest and guide them in avoiding making excess benefit transactions.

  • When a nonprofit engages a compensation consultant to assist in obtaining appropriate data as to comparability for executive compensation, the members of the body should exercise prudence and diligence that the data is for similarly situated organizations.

  • Nonprofits should require that total compensation of their top paid leader is disclosed to or approved by the governing body of the organization.

  • One or more independent organizations should conduct compensation surveys of the largest exempt religious organizations.

There you have it! A universally acceptable way to create policies for the compensation of the leaders of your organization. Its time to stop treating money like the bad guy. We won't have a good relationship with money until we learn how to treat money like the tool it is. It can be used for good or it can be used for bad, the difference is in who's hands it is wielded. The responsibility for accountability is ours.





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Pantheacon Update

2/19/2014

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We are back in the office after an amazing soft launch at Pantheacon. There is so much to say and, hopefully, we will not leave anything important out.

First of all, we would love to thank Jason Pitzl-Waters for his gracious coverage of Cornerstone in The Wild Hunt. We are very humbled for the mention and feel blessed for the opportunity to be included alongside Pantheon Foundation, who is doing amazing work in the field of Pagan nonprofits.

Next, we want to say that there was tremendous support for the discussion of Pagan nonprofit organizations, institutions, and leadership this year. It is very apparent that the Pagan community is ready and willing to jump into this work and we couldn't be happier to hear it! This year and those to come will be a time of change for Pagan community as we move further away from some of the roots of our movement, including the anti-establishment and anti-organization movements of our forefathers. As a child of hippie parents, I'm of two hearts and minds on this at times, I know it must be done but my idealist upbringing sometimes wishes it did not have to be so.

Additionally, to all the wonderful and enchanting people we met and spent time with this weekend, you have given us much to think about and have reinforced many of the ideas we have begun to work on. You will begin to notice some new materials posted on the site as the next few weeks progress. We've begun putting some of your ideas and suggestions into action already.

Finally, we are recruiting for our committees. This includes our education, service, interfaith and congregation committees but also includes some of our lesser known committees. We will post a full list of committees we are recruiting for later this week here on the blog and on our facebook page. If you think you are qualified, and are interested in joining the committee, please, please, please send a succinct resume to us at cornerstonepagans@outlook.com indicating which committee is of greatest interest to you.

Blessings to you all!






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Pantheacon Launch

2/12/2014

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Pantheacon festival is happening this weekend and many of our administrative launch team will be in attendance. We hope to see several of you there in our hospitality room #947 right next to the elevators.

We will be having several exciting events in the room this year, including an amazing auction and a Valentine's Day basket sale. Come checkout all the wonderful goodies we have available.

Additionally, three of our courses from the Congregation Facilitator's Certificate will be presented at the convention this year for credit. So, please attend during the dinner hour, if you are able, and get some of your credits completed free of charge.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:
Friday
5:15-6:45: “Group Dynamics for Neopagan Leaders”
11:00: Dessert reception/”What is Cornerstone?”

Saturday
5:15-6:45: “Strategic Planning for Neopagan Leadership”
11:00: Dessert reception /”What is Cornerstone?”

Sunday
5:15-6:45: “Creating Lasting Legacies in Neopagan Groups”
11:00: Dessert reception/”What is Cornerstone?”

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Fundraising Drives

2/12/2014

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Our Capitol Campaign fundraiser just opened yesterday with a goal of $50,000! We think we can top that easily. Funds raised during this campaign will help us build physical Pagan spiritual worship centers, do national and international Interfaith work, educate our community leaders about Paganism, and serve our communities through charitable work. http://www.gofundme.com/6o3meg

T-shirts sales also benefit our community education programs by funding our training videos, materials, books and paying for our educators to travel and work with law enforcement in providing diversity and anti-discrimination training. https://www.bonfirefunds.com/cornerstone-pagan-fellowship


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North Valley Foundation is Live!

2/12/2014

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We are now live with North Valley Foundation. This means we can accept donations of real estate, stocks, bonds, etc. They will manage this fund for us and we don't have to worry about legal issues, they take care of all of that in-house for us.

It also makes us eligible for grants to do community service projects like the interfaith initiatives, community education and service projects we've been talking about through Annie B's. All wonderful stuff that takes us just one more step towards being a mainstream world religion.

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    Author

    Jessie Olson, our President, has been a Pagan for over 20 years and a leader in the Pagan community for the last 12 years. She holds a Masters degree in Psychology and lives in Northern California with her life-partner, Craig.

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