Note: You don't have to live anywhere near Chicago to be welcome as a participant in the discussions on this list. We do, however, ask that events announced on this list be located somewhere in the Chicago area (Cook, DuPage, Lake, Will, and Kane county in Illinois, Lake county in Indiana). This is a networking list created by and for people in our area, but our area is but a small part of a much larger world. Forming bonds between communities, and enjoying the opportunity to learn from each other, are also part of what we try to do here, on this local community building list.

Let's start by saying what we are not and will not agree to be: a "clandestine outreach program for the church". "Wink, wink, nudge, nudge ... we know you guys HAVE to say that ..." will start some fundamentalist who thinks he's in on the joke, but he's not, largely because there is no joke. The earliest polytheistic form of Christianity familiar to us, that of Gnostic Christianity, was not a serious evangelistic presence and had no desire to be. It was a demanding path not suited for everybody, without the easy answers religious mass marketing would demand. One might say the same about modern Christo-Paganism in its many forms. If we are going to be hesitant about accepting any given newcomer into our own fold, rest assured, we're not going to experience a sudden personality change and get comfortable with the idea of aggressively chasing him into a fundamentalist one, especially given the massive philosophical differences we have with that camp.

"What, don't you want to share Jesus' love with people", some of the "true believers" will ask, scowling angrily and not understanding as we shake our heads in wonder. As if the love of Jesus or any of the other gods was something that we, as mere humans, had the power to give or withhold. As with any of the gods, we seek to neither give nor withhold that which is not ours to give or withhold, but merely to not get in the way as each seeker finds the path that the Divine in its totality would lay out for him (or her) individually. We will not seek to thrust the love of any deity upon the unwilling, not only because this would be a violation of that individual's sovereignty, but because we would not know what form that love would (or should) take. What to one is a warm and nurturing embrace will, to another, be a smothering stranglehold. If, under the circumstances, one of the gods, in his wisdom, feels that he can help best by hanging off in the distance and barely perceived, we don't feel that we would be qualified to second guess his choices in that matter and are amazed by the notion that somebody would attempt to do so in the name of "piety". Piety, we feel, begins in a dictum well known to many of the ancients: "Know thyself", as in "know that thou art not God". When we see alleged holy men turning red in the face as their faith based views are not quickly agreed with, we wonder if they are clear on that one.

For this and so many other reasons, we are not going to be tolerant of those who come to this list to "witness", not in spite of our love and respect for Jesus, but precisely because of that love and respect for Jesus, and for the other gods as well, who we are tired of seeing maligned without reason or any real attempt at understanding. Nor, as members of a contemplative path, can we be accepting of the presence of those who would use heat to drive forth light from their midst and our own, if we are to be true to our own convictions and sense of purpose. To those who are willing to fully accept this, welcome, we hope that you will find some of what you are seeking here. To the rest, we say it firmly though without hostility: "please knock the dust off your sandals and depart". (Enter the list)