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• moon phases

Letter from the Pen Offeiriad

Hi fOaks,

As you know we recently approved a new set of Bylaws for Red Oak Grove and one of the main changes was instituting a new leadership structure which is so far unique in ADF. Instead of having a Sr Druid who acts like the President and calls all the shots, we have 3 leaders of equal rank, who make all major decisions jointly, but each has their own area of primary concern.

I'm the Pen Offeiriad, (pron: off-EYE-ree-ad) which means "Head Priest" and the Bylaws say the following about my job:

1. Pen Offeiriad - Head Priest and Spiritual Leader. Shall be the
person primarily responsible for the following:
a. Setting the liturgical calendar for the Grove
b. Conducting rituals and religious services
c. Conducting weddings, funerals and other rites of passage
d. Maintaining the practice of Awen o' Duwiau
e. Supervising the Crefyddion and their Offeiriadion
f. Acting in the office of President, for legal purposes
g. Appointing Offices and assistants as needed, for example, Grove
Liturgist, Grove Bard, Grove Seer, etc.

(You can read the complete Bylaws at the bylaws page.)

Some of the projects I want to tackle right away are the following:

1. I want to work to develop the membership of the Crefyddion. These are the sub-groups within ROG dedicated to each of our Gods. So there is a Crefydd Brigedd, for example, whose members hold Brigedd in especially high esteem. I'd like to see each Crefydd have at least a few members and make sure that there is someone studying to be the next Channeler for each of the 4 Deities. (Each Tylwyth is encouraged to join one of them: Brigedd, Lleu, Rhiannon or Math. Which one do *you* want to join?)

2. I want to work with all the Awenyddion (channelers) to discuss ways to make channeling fit better within our rituals. We've all seen that sometimes the rituals can drag out when lots of people want to have personal time with the Goddess (the Gods are way more succinct!) and I want to explore ways to fix that.

3. I want to develop the Awenydd training program a little more fully to make sure each one gets the right training at the right time and we don't skip any important steps.

4. I want to develop other ways for members of ROG to feel more Spiritual connection with Nature, with the Ancestors, and with the Gods. Perhaps other ritual structures, meditation, nature walks, chanting, etc.

5. I want to develop more interest in Divination, especially the Ogham, and have more people explore this fascinating tool.

So those are some of my ideas. I encourage you to let me know what you think of these and to give me other ideas about what you think I should be working on. You can write to me privately or use this list.

Also, please remember that I have some counseling skills and am most willing to help any Grove member who wants help of any kind.

Blessings,

Dream