CUUPS Bulletin - September 2008

In 2003, Gaia Community, an Earth-centered UU Congregation near Kansas City experimented with a "Pagan Traditions of the World" format to our rituals, with several cycles of rituals from different traditions: British Traditional Wicca, Hellenic Paganism, Druidry, and Kemetic (Egyptian) Paganism, among others. The Egyptian Chapter introduced us to an ancient/modern concept of a "God Auction", whereby temples of a city would collect donations of food and goods to discern who would be the patron of the city. That temple (and its deity) was then given a place of prominence for the coming year, as well as having additional responsibilities to distribute that wealth and food to the needy.

After the first auction (which was a vigorous success as a fundraiser for the community), we made some additions/changes to the format to better reflect the eclectic tastes of our community: Since 2004, all four contenders will come from different pantheons, owing to the diverse nature of our members' beliefs; Final-four contenders from the previous year may not make an appearance in the current year's auction, to give other candidates a fair chance; Three or four rounds of questions will take place, with an opportunity to make donations after each question (tiebreaker rounds are possible if time permits and the outcome is close); Each contender generally provides a gift of some sort to their highest individual bidder; in addition, there is a basket of donated goods for the highest overall monetary donor;

Since 2006, a "penny auction" has been held in the spring to narrow a field of candidates down to the final four contenders; only coins are accepted for this "pre-selection", but any denomination is acceptable. After much back-and forth wrangling in the penny auction (which often was more of a quarter-and-dollar-coin auction), the four candidates for 2007 were: Apollo, Brigid, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and Freya with Brigid winning. This year the candidates were Artemis, the Green Man, Persephone and Thor. The final four candidates vied long and hard through five rounds of questions and raised more than $2800 for the community (and a minor mountain of food), but in the end, Thor was chosen by general acclaim as the community's next patron, starting later this summer.

Down in Texas, Pleasant Valley UU Church adopted this program in 2007, where it's called their "Patron Auction." The first year with the program featured Artemis, Isis and Kali as the candidates with Kali getting the final nod. This year Athena, Epona and Gaia were the candidates and Athena was chosen as their congregational Patron for the coming year. One of the advantages of approaching this as patron selection, is that it can include non-dieties - thus opening this program concept up to more mainstream UU congregations. For instance, this could involve historical UU figures or even ideas like from our UU Principles.