After a four-year fight, The Druid Network has finally been given charitable status by the Charity Commission. The first Druid group ever to be accepted by the Charity Commissioners and entered onto the Register of Charities, the move establishes Druidry as a bone fide religion under English Charity Law, and gives Druidry equal status with other qualifying religions. It also recognises that The Druid Network exists to advance religion for the public benefit.
Phil Ryder, Chair of Trustees for The Druid Network, had overall responsibility for making the application. He says: “It was a long and at times frustrating process, exacerbated by the fact that the Charity Commissioners had no understanding of our beliefs and practices, and examined us on every aspect of them. Their final decision document runs to 21 pages, showing the extent to which we were questioned in order to finally get the recognition we have long argued for.”
Emma Restall Orr, founder of The Druid Network, hopes this landmark decision will make it easier for other modern Pagan traditions to get charitable status for their aid organisations. She says: “The Charity Commission now has a much greater understanding of Pagan, animist, and polytheist religions, so other groups from these minority religions – provided they meet the financial and public benefit criteria for registration as charities – should find registering a much shorter process than the pioneering one we have been through.”
October 2010ce