I heard from an old friend, Kerr Culuhain, today regarding a new organization that he's involved in. I'll let him tell you about it in his own words
Officers of Avalon started as an e-group for police officers and expanded to include other people working in the field with cops. It was the brainchild of Officer Tricia Mullensky (Lady Kiara) of the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth Police Department, who started the e-group in 1999. Gradually other Pagan officers like me joined. I'm the current spokesperson for Officers of Avalon.
We've had a tremendous response to our announcement of our evolution into an organisation representing the Pagans working emergency response professions. We've heard from people in Australia, Canada, Ireland, the UK and the USA. At the moment, Officers of Avalon has two levels of membership:
Full Members:
Current Police Officers - Reserves- Specials -Aux.
Retired Police Officers
Firefighters
Retired Firefighters
Paramedics
EMTs
EMS Dispatchers (Police- Fire- EMS)
Corrections Officers
Associate Members:
Anyone who is interested in the above, or is a Doctor, Registered Nurse, etc.
Persons who wish to belong to EMS or become a Law Enforcement Officer.
Also Security Guards Etc.
Our e-group is free and will remain so. We are discussing membership fees to cover other membership services at the moment.
Officers of Avalon wants to show the world that we follow a valid and respectable spiritual path. We want to show the people of the free world that some of the people who are defending that freedom are Pagans like us. We want to establish a support network for those Pagans within the emergency services who do not yet feel that they can safely make their Pagan beliefs public.
One of the reasons that we are doing this is to challenge the so far unchallenged radical Christian element within the police and emergency services that are disseminating information calculated to scare people into the pews and, at the same time, prolong the discrimination that we have been on the receiving end of for decades. They're doing this by presenting themselves as "experts" trying to protect the public. We're not taking this nonsense any longer. We have a unique opportunity and position to take advantage of here. We've had enough. We take the first step in three weeks when I will be a presenter at the National Youth Gang Symposium in Orlando: I will be educating 1,400 police officers about youth involved in Wicca and Neo-Pagan religions.
Our web site , www.officersofavalon.org, is up and running. Please write to us to join. Our e-mail addresses are:
info@officersofavalon.org
webmistress@officersofavalon.org
Our mail address is:
Officers of Avalon, PO Box 79005, Dartmouth, MA, 02747
Please help us get the word out to other Pagan emergency personnel. We won't be able to contact the Pagan emergency personnel out there by writing to police chiefs and the CEOs of organisations: Many of these are Christian and won't pass this information one. Any support that you can offer will be appreciated.
Bright Blessings
Kerr Cuhulain, author
(aka Detective Charles A Ennis, Vancouver Police Department, Youth Services Unit)
Kerr is the author of the best book, The Law Enforcement Guide to Wicca, for shattering stereotypes people hold about Wicca. Kerr's latest book Wiccan Warrior came out in March 2000. It sold out in two weeks and was reprinted in a big panic by surprised Llewellyn staff. It went on to win the 2001 Coalition of Visionary Retailers award for best personal/biographical book at the International New Age Trade Show. It is now published in three languages: English, Portuguese (in Brazil) and French. His next book, Full Contact Magick, comes out this September. Two more books, one a safety book for field workers and the other, Blue Magick, an account of what it has been like to be a Pagan cop, are presently sitting on his agent's desk. Kerr has also been writing investigative articles for Law & Order Magazine.