| Where did we come from and how did we get started? |
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| The first year of a newborn pagansoc. |
| It all started in June 2001when our founder (Claire) was talking to a friend (a member of another University religious society) about a flyer for an interfaith debate. She casually mentioned that there was no provision for Paganism or Alternative spirituality. The friend turned to her and explained 'thats because Paganism isnt a religion, its a cult'. Claire decided the world needed educating (and that Pagans coming to a new University should not have to be met with such attitudes) so contacted the Union about starting a new society! A week later she randomly (in the pub of course) met Yvonne who was in the process of establisning herself as the Pagan Contact for the University Chaplaincy...and then there were two! So the campaign commenced, posters were put up all over the university. For several weeks Claire continuously recieved E-mails about 'the poster in the loo' and a band of four or five of us prepared for the freshers fair. Which was a resounding success, we made friends with the Islam society and the Hindu Society, set up positive links with the Chaplaincy, spent much time educating people, but most importantly managed to sign up the 30 members necessary to apply for official recognition by the union. About a month later we were approved by the student council and became an official University of Bristol Union Society. We would like to acknowledge the fantastic support given by the Union staff and sabbaticals, they made our quest so much easier for us, even when they surely thought we were all a bit wierd, and asked cautious questions like 'you won't be practicing witchcraft in the union will you?' !! So what did we do then? In our first term we met once a fortnight, we had three speakers that term: Yvonne spoke about Paganism and food, Iain talked about basic ritual practice and Prof. Ronald Hutton came along to talk about the History of Christmas. During this first term we developed a brilliant social dynamic during our post meeting trips to the pub, and it is pleasing to see that above all our society is an open and friendly one. In the second term we started to get big ideas! We gained a few new members and introduced workshops. In this term we held workshops on Tarot, storytelling and Dowsing and had talks on Natural Magick, Chaos Magic and Music and the Paranormal. February (Imbolc) heralded the first Pagansocs conference in York, we sent a bunch of people up there and established links with many other pagan societies. Upon our return we made the decision to publish the first UoBERS newsletter. After testing the waters a little we decided it might be fun to go out more, we started off with a visit to Glastonbury and later Avebury and West Kennet where we met up with Warwick Pagan Soc. March was marked by the AGM and the voting in of the new committee. Claire handed the reins over to four very brave people who are to date doing a great job of keeping things running smoothly. In April we took the going out idea a stage further with a special access visit to Stonehenge, we booked a coach, invited along Cardiff Pagan Soc and spent a wonderful evening wandering amongst the stones. The summer term brings exams, and in UoBERS terms, video nights, guided meditations (to relieve exam stress) and barbeques. UoBERS also joined the University Pagan Network. So there it is, that was the first year or UOBERS. If you are interested in being part of this contact the President at uobers@hotmail.com |