How Moon Path Circle Fits into the Big Picture

     
Moon Path Circle, Inc., is one of several spin-offs from Moon Path CUUPS, originally to do offsite projects.

Moon Path Circle is organized as a church and is not connected to the UUs other than having overlapping members.

Moon Path sponsors the Tequesta Drum Circle, does charitable outreach, does a scholarship program, does Pee Wee Pagans, and ordains some people they know well who are already Pagan clergy. Most likely, these people already have credentials from somewhere else.

Moon Path welcomes new clergy as "Elders in Communion." This phrase is lifted from the Florida Marriage Statute (Title XLIII, Chapter 741.07). Our clergy are bound by affection, association, and loyalty. This means that we like each other, we get together once in a while, and we don't gnaw each others arms off. The vision is that we will gather together a group of ethical clergy within the Pagan community who are worthy of respect. We don't tell them what to believe, but we do care about behavior. Each Beltaine we review everyone's status for continued good standing.

In contrast, UU ordained clergy are welcomed into their UU fellowship after completing much soul searching, much discernment by other UU clergy, a Master's Degree from an accredited college, completion of a chaplaincy program, and more. It is not far from the truth to say that fellowshipped UU ministers have a rather strong union. (See www.uuma.org)
 
Moon Path uses the Roman Catholic business model in that it has a Council of six who set policy and annually re-elect either themselves or their replacements.