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On this page...

• Yule 2009 Meals on Broomsticks Aids Gospel Mission
  
  
• Help a Pagan in the Military
  
  
• UMPA Cleans Up! Adopt a Highway Program Update
  
  
• UMPA Membership Drive
  
  
• Campaign to establish Coldwater National Park
  
  
• Colldsnap Legal Primer
  
  
• Pagan Pride DayS Oct. 3 & 4, 2009 at Sabathani
  
  
• National Day of Prayer for 2009: What if Pagans everywhere set up Maypoles?
  
  
• UMPA Delivers Holiday Meals to the Elderly
  
  
• Protest Desecration of Coldwater Spring
  
  
• UMPA sponsors "Military Support Package" drive
  
  
• First Freedom First! Pagans and Religious Liberty
  
  
• Contact Your Government!
  
  
• Are YOU or your group making news?
  
  
• Got a Project Idea? Post it here, free! 
  
  

Meals on Broomsticks Aids Gospel Mission Again

UMPA organizes aid to Pagan Soldiers

By Nels and Judy
Dec. 27, 2009

UMPA is again receiving active requests from Pagan Soldiers in Iraq, and now in Afghanistan as well. We need activists who believe in aiding active duty Pagan Soldiers to get involved in the management and execution of this program. Without your involvement the need will go unmet. Please contact UMPA http://www.umpaganalliance.com/contact.shtml immediately if you can establish and manage pickup points, secure donations, pack and ship boxes, and help expand this program!

UMPA Membership Drive - We Want YOU!

by "Penny R. Tupy"

It's that time of year again....
The birds are signing. The trees are budding.
The snow is gone (and will, hopefully, stay gone for a long while).
And UMPA is bursting with ideas for the year and wants YOU to come and play.

New this year - your paid membership (still only $15) gets you a free T-shirt featuring commissioned artwork by local artist and community member, Joe Jarvinen. See it here - http://www.umpaganalliance.com/images/SHIRTLG.jpg

Ways you can join:

• Online at - http://www.umpaganalliance.com/joinus.shtml
• At various Pagan stores around the city (add'l $5 to cover stores' expense)

Under discussion and on tap for this year:

• Ongoing service to the Earth with our highway clean up project
• Meals on Broomsticks - delivery to low income and senior high rise in conjunction with the Union Gospel Mission - usually Christmas Day
• Summer Picnic and Drum Jam
• Possible Pagan Radio under discussion
• Continuing support of our military overseas with Pagan Care Packages
• What would you like to do??
  

Plans are in the works for events, vendors, programming, and
entertainment all day on October 3rd and 4th, 2009 at the Sabathani Community Center in Minneapolis.

If you're ready to make Magick, contact: info@tcpaganpride.org

We'll report new developments here as they become available.

 First Freedom First

Roberta Stewart, widow of Sgt. Patrick Stewart, shared her story about the Pentacle Quest lawsuit.

Now, you can see it online.

Secret Santa Program Cancelled

For several years, the Secret Santa program has served local low income Pagan children by fulfilling their wish lists as provided by parents. Children's anonymity is carefully protected. Wiccan, Heathen, and Pagan kids of all "flavors" qualify.

CUUPS-TwinCities has managed this project with the help of other area Pagans and UUs.

In 2007, we developed and tested software, so we could more efficiently serve more families; we developed interactive pages for Santas and parents. Grace from Higher Grounds in Stillwater identified both Santas and recipients in the east Metro area. Also in 2007, UMPA and COG co-sponsored the Secret Santa program with generous donations.

Through this project, dozens of local, low income Pagan children have had their Yuletide wishes fulfilled, and many adults have had the pleasure of being "possessed" by the Jolly Old Spirit of Santa! The Board of CUUPS hoped to expand this program, and developed templates for organizing a larger scale project. We dreamed that Heathens, Wiccans, and other Pagans would build on what we did, referring needy Pagan families, becoming "Santas," and helping with distribution in December.

In 2008, the recession reduced the numbers of Santas and the number of children served. For 2009, the Board of CUUPS-TwinCities had hoped to move this program to a broader-based leadership which can expand the program to meet the growing need. Unfortunately, this did not develop.

We're proud of what we developed. If YOU would like to see Secret Santa in your community, and want a "template" to work from Click here for full Secret Santa details including links to interactive registration forms for parents of children AND for Santas.
 

Who should own Coldwater Spring?

The Department of the Interior will soon decide what government agency will "own" Coldwater Spring and the surrounding land. Concerned citizens can advocate for who they would like to own the land.  The Department of the Interior is close to releasing their ruling, so time is of the essence.

Who best can protect and preserve the Coldwater landscape?

At this time the National Park Service offers the strongest environmental and cultural protections, including federal recognition for Native Americans.

So Friends of Coldwater is asking for:

1) National Park Service ownership of a

2) 50-acre Coldwater Park featuring oak savanna re-vegetation

3) An urban wilderness designated as a Green Museum, a place where the land around this 10,000 year old spring is the museum.

Area Pagans including Susu Jeffreys support turning the site into a National Park, because that offers both recognition to Native Americans and best available environmental protections. When Susu and other Pagans met with the National Park Service officials, it seemed that the latter welcomed the proposal as well.

But time is short and the support of the public is critically important!

Please join the Friends of Coldwater in advocating for:

COLDWATER PARK: A 50-Acre Green Museum

If you agree, please email Dirk Kempthorne, Secretary of the Department of the Interior at webteam@ios.doi.gov and let him know what you think about who owns Coldwater Spring.

Email is preferred, but you can call him at 202-208-7351

And please consider calling or copying your email to:
Congressman Keith Ellison
http://ellison.house.gov/ or 612-522-1212

Senator Amy Klobuchar
http://www.klobuchar.senate.gov/  or 612-727-5220

Friends of Coldwater is a Minnesota Non-Profit Organization h ttp://www.friendsofcoldwater.org

The National Day of Prayer has been "highjacked" by Conservative Christian evangelical leaders -- mostly from "Focus on the Family" -- who operate a "task force" [http://www.ndptf.org/home/index.cfm?flash=1]. They run the bulk of NDP events, and exclude non-Christians from active participation.

"The National Day of Prayer Task Force was a creation of the National Prayer Committee for the expressed purpose of organizing and promoting prayer observances conforming to a Judeo-Christian system of values. People with other theological and philosophical views are, of course, free to organize and participate in activities that are consistent with their own beliefs. This diversity is what Congress intended when it designated the Day of Prayer, not that every faith and creed would be homogenized, but that all who sought to pray for this nation would be encouraged to do so in any way deemed appropriate. It is that broad invitation to the American people that led, in our case, to the creation of the Task Force and the Judeo-Christian principles on which it is based."

Sounds reasonable, right?

In addition, Christian coordinators who attempt to throw an inclusive day of prayer [http://www.inclusiveprayerday.org/] under the NDPTF auspices are barred from running future events.

So JewsOnFirst is calling for citizens to lobby their governors to shun the NDPTF, and either not issue a proclamation, or issue an inclusive statement that doesn't empower such a narrow view of acceptable public prayer (or crib talking points from Focus on the Family).

"The National Day of Prayer has been hijacked! What began in 1952 as President Truman's declaration of a National Prayer Day for all Americans is now excluding and dividing us on religious lines. The "Task Force" excludes Jews, Muslims, Catholics and even mainline Christians from participation in the events it coordinates around the country. Many of those events are staged in government venues with elected officials, in a deliberate affront to the separation of church and state."

You can find contact information for your governor at
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Governors.shtml. You can find a sample telephone script and sample letter and a listing of proclamations already issued on the
inclusive prayer day site http://www.inclusiveprayerday.org/sampleletter.html]

[What would happen if Pagans take part next year? Think of it! 
May Poles EVERYWHERE!!!! cl, ed.]

There are hundreds of practicing Pagans in the armed services in Iraq who can use our support. Earlier this summer UMPA shipped packages weighing nine pounds each to five different groups and locations in the Iraq war zone. And now we're ready to ship more!

Here's how you can be part of this drive:

* Bring requested items to the UMPA meeting for collection.
* Sponsor a package by donating any amount for postage or additional items.
* Spread the word!
* If you cannot deliver to the meeting, contact any board member at
   board@umpaganalliance.com

Don't miss your chance to participate!

Requested Items:

~Pentagrams (those enclosed in circles are safer in combat).

~Basic pagan books, books on candle magic, spell charm books.

~Any item for setting up a basic ritual/altar.

~Stones: any type quartz crystal ~ obsidian points ~ hematite.

~Herbs: mugwort, white sage, sweet grass, mandrake, five finger grass, heather, rue, high john root, sea salt.

~Incense and oils: dragons blood, frankincense, myrrh, red sandlewood, high john, cedar, patchouli, elemental/directional oils.

~Candles: pillars, in jars, tapers wrapped, tea lites, magical colors.

~PERSONAL ITEMS: Toothpaste, Blank greeting cards, Prepaid phone cards, Lip balm, Toilet paper, Razors, Instant coffee, Gum, Breakfast bars, Instant soup, mixes, Deodorant, Sunglasses.

Note: Donated items must be accompanied by $8.95 to cover postage costs. Thanks to the generosity of past givers this is NO LONGER REQUIRED. Yes, you can give SOME items without giving a complete "kit."

Please stick to donating items on the requested list. Items not on the list may be refused at the discretion of the board.

Thank you for your generosity - let's show our Pagan brothers and sisters how much we appreciate their sacrifice!

For more information about the Upper Midwest Pagan Alliance, go to www.umpaganalliance.com 

Do you know of news that especially impacts
the Pagan community and/or Pagan values?

Send these and other newsworthy items to the editor. 

Got a Project Idea?

Post it here, free! If YOU'd like to work with other Pagans to bring some change into manifestation in the material world, this page is for YOU!   Let's work together!