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Coven
Creation Handbook
This
page is to help you design a UEW accepted Charter for a coven. It will
be minimally helpful for non-UEW Covens.
A coven is an archaic term used to mean a
bunch of Witches. In Modern Wicca, the word coven is used to mean any group
of people of three or more that practices their faith together at least
twice a year. Most covens meet much more often, usually 2-3 times a month.
The creation of a coven/coven charter within the Church of Universal Eclectic
Wicca has a few basic guidelines:
-
The coven must have
a minimum of three people, twice a year. Couples practicing Wicca as a
unit are generally considered "Solitary Practioners" or "Solitaries" (sing:Solitary).
Membership may flucuate, but should not dip below three people regularly.
-
If the coven does not
meet physically, membership within the coven must be clearly delinated
by entry requirements and a method of regular contact must be established.
(For an example, visit Coven
of The Far Flung Net)
-
The coven must have
distinct rules for membership that include how entry into the coven is
gained, expectations of members and reasons for and methods of expulsion
from said coven. These should be made clear to all members, and these methods
should be mentioned in the charter. Optimally, the leader of a coven and
any members will sign a copy of the charter, affirming they've been made
aware of the contents.
-
EVERY COVEN MUST HAVE
A CHARTER. The charter of the coven shall firmly and clearly express the
goals and purpose of the coven, the fact that it is a coven of the Tradition
of Universal Eclectic Wicca, what septs it belongs to, if any, and the
type of Coven under AUEWC that it is. (More info: Types
of Covens, Sept Creation Handbook.)
-
If a septed coven, methods
for dealing with persons interested in learning Wicca outside of the sept
must be clearly deliniated within the charter.
-
At least one member
of the coven should have regular contact with CUEW headquarters, the method
for this contact and the contact person should be within the charter.
-
It is not required that
a Charter be on file with CUEW/AUEWC, however, filing a charter with CUEW/AUEWC
assures that your group will be counted fairly in AUEWC polls, and, unless
your charter is grossly outside the realm of CUEW, will result in the coven
having a copy of their charter with the CUEW embossed seal upon it.
-
The leader of a coven
may be elected (ideal) or otherwise chosen. The process for this method
shall also be within the charter.
-
Every coven must have
a unique name. If a coven distinctly changes membership, a roman numeral
can be used to indicate that it is a group of different people (ie:Black
Water Coven, Black Water Coven II) Likewise, a coven started by the same
people may have the same name, but with a modifier. (ie:MacMorgan Covenstead,
PA and MacMorgan Covenstead, NY; Bell Coven, Bell Coven Mothercoven, Bell
Tower Coven)
A charter should be
under two pages in length, but still carry the pertinent info above. A
rough example of a charter, for the fictious "Coven of David Bowie Worshippers" is below. This example (AND IT IS ONLY AN
EXAMPLE) gives the type of language used in
most coven charters.
Charter
of The Coven of David Bowie Worshipper
The Coven of David Bowie Worshippers (CDBW) is a non-septed hierarchical
coven of the tradition of Universal Eclectic Wicca.
Membership within the coven is open to anyone who can run a 50 meter spoon
race in under sixty seconds while humming Fame, or any UEW solitary who
can provide a letter of recommendation from another coven.
Coven members will be expected to be present at all meetings, which will
be held at the home of Starling Meadowlark, the coven leader, Thelemaddams
Apartments, 1313 Mockingbird Lane, building A-C, apartment 93, Crowley,
DE. Missing two meetings in a row, or three meetings without giving
appropriate warning to Starling, will result in expulsion, as will revealing
the contents of his refridgerator to his mother.
If expelled from the coven, you will not be allowed to attend any more
meetings, and your 10% off card at Pagans-R-We will be discontinued. In
addition, you will cease to be given a present on your birthday by Randy's
mother.
This coven meets once a month to celebrate the waning quarter of the moon,
our goals as a coven are to increase our knowledge of Wicca, and of David
Bowie, and we also provide a 14 step program for recovering raw Troll House
Cookie Dough addicts. We seek to become more in tune with our inner doughboy
by a lengthy dissertation on the wonders of white chocolate macadamia nut
cookies from Ms. Feeled's. In addition to Wicca, we will practice visualization,
scrying, giving each other makeovers and basic HTML design.
Leadership in the coven is determined by the Gross Domestic Product of
the country that each member's great-great grandfather is from, with the
one with the highest GDP being leader, in the event that two great-great
grandfathers are from the same place, leadership will be determined by
a secret ballot.
Contact with the home office of CUEW is maintained by second circle lay
minister Random (Randy) R. Pagans, proprientor of Pagans-R-We. Randy can
be reached by phone: (213)276-9393, by email, RandyR@PagansRWe.com, or
by CB radio where his handle is "RudeBuddy."
As you can see, in
this very silly example, a coven charter can be as complicated or as simple
as you desire it to be. Copies submitted to CUEW should be under 2 pages
in length, however.
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