From The Director

 

Yesterday I received a call from our USC partner, Jonathan Leader.  Jonathan is the S.C. State Archaeologist and director of the S.C. Institute for Archaeology & Anthropology at the University of South Carolina.  It seems that the Department of Anthropology was receiving more calls than it could handle during spring advisement, about the Sacred Lands and Spiritual Landscapes spring symposium.

 

We are well aware that many of you have been watching Cherry Hill Seminary for years, from the wings, that is.  Some watch to see if we are what we say we are, a solid educational institution.  Some watch to see if we will draw their personal (e.g., coven) members away or teach something with which you disagree.  Others have waited to see if we could make it.

 

Guess what?  As the song says, we're still standing, and we are stronger than ever.  No, we are not yet endowed.  We are not yet accredited.  But you will not find a stronger program of Pagan and earth-based religious/ministry studies anywhere in the world.

 

We are very proud to be the best at what we do.  The enthusiasm with which a major 200-year-old university has partnered with us to present Sacred Lands speaks volumes.  USC students are attending the symposium for credit, alongside our own CHS students.  There is talk of papers being published later.  Best of all, the symposium has drawn a deliciously diverse mix of bright thinkers.   

 

If you are still watching from the sidelines, maybe this spring is the time for you  to dip your toe in the water.  If you can't travel to South Carolina, take a look at the summer courses that just opened up.  Join The Hypatia Society.  Join the conversations

on Facebook and Google+.  Because Cherry Hill Seminary is here to stay, for all of our futures. 

Important Dates
 
For Students
Mar 25 Summer registration begins
Apr 7 Fndtns 3 classes end
Apr 21 Spring classes end
May 13 Summer registration ends
May 20 Summer classes begin

Full calendar

For Faculty
Mar 24 Foundations 2 grades due
Apr 21 Foundations 3 grades due
May 9 Fall course proposals due
May 12 Spring grades due 
Celebrating Hypatia's Life

March 15 is gaining wider acceptance as Hypatia of Alexandria's birthday, though we are only told by the sources of antiquity that she was born in March.  At CHS we treasure her strong stance for independent thinking, sound scholarship and gender equality.

Between now and May 1 supporters of Cherry Hill Seminary are holding various social events to observe Hypatia Day and raise funds by inviting friends to join The Hypatia Society. 

If you did not hold an Agora movie party last year, we still have DVDs to loan you and all the tools you could imagine for holding a successful event in your home.  Or just invite your friends over for birthday cake and drumming, storytelling and dancing.  Tell us about your own creative approach and be sure to let us know the results in order to qualify for prizes.

Spring Symposium is Blooming

Looks like we'll have a full house for Sacred Lands and Spiritual Landscapes, although it's not too late to register.  So far, we have more than 50 participants registered from 16 different states and one country overseas!

Here's a taste of the papers to be presented:

"Traveling the Land Within" 
    Wendy Griffin, Cherry Hill Seminary

"Spiritual Landscapes: An ecofeminist process philosophy view" 
Lisa M. Christie, California Institute of Integral Studies

"Into the Sacred Woods: The inner and outer value of a Pagan sense of place" 
Elinor Predota, Newcastle University

"Born Again Pagans: An industrial band discovers 'sea, hill, and wood'" 
Hayes Hampton , University of South Carolina, Sumter

"Betwixt and Between the I-and-Thou: Imaginal dialogue and the psychic cartography proposal" 
Jeffrey Albaugh 

Respondent -Chas Clifton

"Britain's Pagan Heritage"  
Ronald Hutton, Bristol University

"The Tour as Pilgrimage: The seduction of Avalon" 
Christina Beard-Moose, Cherry Hill Seminary and Suffolk County Community College

"Song of the Chattahoochee:  On being a southern (Pagan) Witch in Atlanta's urban landscape" 
Sara Amis, University of Georgia

"Rock-Candy Cairns: How the Irish and Scots-Irish diasporas produced Pagans in Old Appalachia"