Dedication of Veteran Markers with Pentacles

Markers with Pentacles honoring deceased Wiccan/Pagan veterans are now in cemeteries. Photos of some of these markers and headstones are now on-line:
http://www.circlesanctuary.org/liberty/veteranpentacle

Dedication ceremonies will be held this month in a national Veterans cemetery in Virginia and in a national Pagan cemetery in Wisconsin.

If your circumstances permit, we invite you to attend. If you are not able to be physically present, we invite you to join in spirit. Feel free to forward this email on to others you know who might be interested.

Kooiman Headstone Dedication
Wednesday, May 23 at 3 pm
Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia

Dedication of the Marble Headstone with Pentacle honoring

This Dedication is being organized by the Kooimans' daughter, Kathleen Egbert. It is being held on the anniversary date of their burials -- Kathleen's father Abe was buried on May 23, 2003 and her mother, Rosemary, was buried on May 23, 2006. The interim headstone without any emblem was replaced by one with a Pentacle on May 1, 2007.

The Dedication ceremony will be an honoring of the lives of Abe and Rosemary and a celebration of their burial site finally getting a headstone with the Pentacle on it. The Dedication will be held at their burial site, which is in section 54, across the parking lot from the cemetery's administrative building.

If you wish to attend, please RSVP by Tuesday, May 22 by emailing events@circlesanctuary.org -- with Kooiman Dedication in the subject line. At Kathleen's request, Circle Sanctuary staff will be collecting these RSVP emails and forwarding them to her.

Memorial Day Dedication
Monday, May 28 at 11 am
Circle Cemetery at Circle Sanctuary Nature Preserve near Barneveld, Wisconsin

Open for arrivals at 10 am. A potluck reception follows the ceremony.

This event is open to the public as well as to members of Circle Sanctuary. The interfaith Dedication ceremony will honor the lives of three veterans, consecrate their markers, and celebrate the Pentacle being added to the VA's list of emblems of belief that can be included on the veteran grave markers it issues.

Media will be present to document this historic event, which is America's first Memorial Day ceremony of dedication of VA-issued markers with Pentacles honoring deceased Wiccan veterans.

The ceremony includes the Dedication of 3 Granite Markers with Pentacles honoring:

The Dedication will be facilitated by Rev. Selena Fox, senior minister of Circle Sanctuary. She will be assisted by Rev. Angie Buchanan and Rev. Drake Spaeth of Circle Sanctuary, and Wiccan and Pagan veterans from Wisconsin and other states. Jill Medicine Heart Combs of Ohio will also be assisting.

The Dedication will include participation by the veterans' widows:

All markers with Pentacles are new markers and mark the sites where the cremains for the veterans have been buried. The markers for Patrick Stewart and Jerome Birnbaum arrived on May 1, and the marker for Douglas Wilkey arrived on May 17.

Participants in the ceremony are invited to bring fresh flowers to leave at the three burial sites, plus a prepared dish of food to share at the potluck reception after the ceremony.

If you plan to attend this Memorial Day event, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can send you more details. Email events@circlesanctuary.org -- with Memorial Day in the subject line; or call: (608) 924-2216.

Circle Cemetery is a conservation cemetery located at Circle Sanctuary's headquarters, a 200 acre sacred Nature preserve in the rolling forested hills of southwestern Wisconsin near the village of Barneveld, about 25 miles west of Madison. Circle Sanctuary, founded in 1974, is an international Wiccan church serving Nature religion practitioners and organizations throughout the United States and more than two dozen other countries.

Circle Times: Friday, May 18, 2007

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