The Charity Commission in the United Kingdom will re-classify Druidry / Druidism as a religion. This means that the Druid Network will be able to maintain charity stats that gives it tax breaks.
However, the amount of money the Druid Network will earn will be very small. There are only 350 or so people registered with the Druid Network, the group that holds the charity status, and they’ve paid only £10 for their membership.
Despite the small numbers, the charity commission accepted that promoting Druidry as a religion was in the public interest.
Druids worship spirit rather than deities; the spirit of the earth and spirits of nature.
It took the charity commission four years of debate to decide that there was enough structure to Druidry to provide a beneficial moral framework.
The announcement has met with some concern. Right-wing, prize-winning, journalist for the Daily Mail, Melanie Phillips, was up in arms over this. She hoped this was a joke and added “Stones of Praise here we come.”
Will someone please tell me this is all a joke. Until now, Druids have been regarded indulgently as a curious remnant of Britain’s ancient past, a bunch of eccentrics who annually dress up in strange robes at Stonehenge to celebrate the summer solstice.
Emma Restall Orr, Founder and Trustee of the Druid Network published a reply to this on their site – read it below – but it’s a shame this was published in a PDF rather than a simple blog post that the internet would have found easier to link to and share of Facebook.
PDF: Response to Melanie Philips.
In Pure Spirit
Is this good news? Do you think we’ll see more druid charities following the Druid Network’s success?
The BBC uses the term Druidry. Are you more familiar with the term Druidism? Which is correct? Both?
You can find out more about The Druid Network from their site.
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