Jeffrey Albaugh President, Board of Directors

The tide of the year has shifted, the light waxes, and I find my presidency of the Cherry Hill Seminary Board of Directors is now in full swing. As this new board hoists anchor and sets sail, let me say how honored and delighted I am to serve as humble ship's captain.  

CHS is a collective dream and labor of love, something in which we believe, and that we are in the process of bringing into existence. When I refer to "we" in these statements, I am not just talking about the board members, the incredible array of instructors and other committed faculty members, or our students. I am talking about all of us as Pagans: the polytheists and atheists, the Witches, Wiccans, Druids, deconstructionists, Reconstructionists, and all the rest, for whom CHS is a dream that is slowly coming into being. It is my hope to see that dream become further sound and seaworthy in the upcoming year, as we continue in our efforts to outreach and educate Pagans as to our purpose, increase CHS enrollment, and set the sails toward the long-term goal of accreditation.

It is my pleasure to announce our new Artist in Residence, Lauren Raine. Lauren is a visionary painter, mixed media sculptor, and choreographer, although I know her best from her beautiful and moving theatrical and ritual masks.  Lauren's work can be found on her personal website.

Our Pagan communities on both sides of the Atlantic have suffered losses in the past few weeks.  Eduardo "Eddy" Gutiérrez (aka Hyperion), rootworker, podcaster, priest, and community leader, died on January 14, 2014 at the age of 38.  Additional details can be located at The Wild Hunt.  I very much admired Eddy's work with gay men's spirituality in the Los Angeles area. He will be very much missed.

Jonas Trinkunas, one of the leaders of the old Baltic religion of Romuva in Lithuania, passed on January 20, 2014.  The Trinkunas family asks that his spirit be honored by lighting a candle or writing a few memorial words. Video and pictures of the funeral can be found at Delfi News. I do not speak the Lithuanian language, but the images in these pictures speak eloquently and reverently.

On a lighter note, I am pleased to share that CHS is co-sponsoring the Pagan Scholars' Den at PantheaCon this year, along with the Conference on Current Pagan Studies, the Pagan History Project, and The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies. If you are traveling out to California for this event, please drop into the Den and say hello!  Better yet, join us Saturday evening for the Cherry Hill Seminary Open House.

Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit.