(RNS) — As the first millennial and nonbinary archdruid of the national pagan nonprofit church, Ár nDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship, the Rev. Jan Avende is looking forward to advancing the organization’s educational initiatives and technological capabilities, among other endeavors.
Avende, a Columbus, Ohio, resident, was installed as the group’s leader on May 25 in a formal ceremony in Ohio. They are looking forward to bringing their fresh perspective to the role, they told RNS.
“There has been a lot of status quo, a lot of the same,” Avende, 38, said, adding that it has given ADF great stability. However, the organization is “at a tipping point.”
“The world is way more diverse than anyone initially (expected) … and we as a modern polytheist, neopagan tradition need to be where people are.”
ADF was founded in 1983 by Isaac Bonewits, growing out of the fledgling pagan movement, which centers its theology partly on nature reverence. Bonewits and his colleagues first imagined the organization, according to its website, to be “a network of independent scholars interested in legitimate research about the ancient Druids and their Indo-European colleagues.” Education was central to its purpose.
The Rev. Jean Pagano. (Courtesy photo)
Modern Druidry is one of several noncentralized pagan religions, like Wicca, practiced worldwide today.
As the organization grew, ADF evolved into a pagan church with nonprofit status, offering membership, ordination and community. It’s still a volunteer-run organization, but a few of its leaders, including the archdruid, receive a small monthly stipend.
The outgoing archdruid, the Rev. Jean Pagano, was the organization’s eighth member and became its leader in 2016. He was elected to three consecutive three-year terms, ending this year.
Pagano said he recognized a growing need for organizational evolution, and among his accomplishments were updating meeting processes and launching a project to overhaul ADF’s website. However, he’s most well-known for expanding the organization’s visibility worldwide. Before his leadership, ADF was mostly a North American tradition, Avende said. Today, it has 1,024 members and 47 groves — the Druid name for smaller spiritual congregations — in 22 countries and on six continents. Membership has increased by almost …