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PostPosted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 9:46 pm 
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Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2007 7:04 pm
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Location: Pathos
'Alloween all ... Pc's pagan holiday

A PAGAN police constable has won the right to take holidays on Halloween and the summer solstice in a move designed to encourage greater diversity within forces.

Andy Pardy, of Hertfordshire Police, who is now pressing the Home Office to approve the creation of a Pagan Police Association, is being allowed to take a total of eight pagan holidays a year instead of the traditional public holidays.

The concession, which is likely to prompt concern from some critics as well as amusement among others, is intended to allow him to pursue his beliefs and has been defended by police chiefs in his local area as a sensible measure that will have no impact upon operational policing.

Pc Pardy, who has been an officer for seven years and worships Norse gods, including hammer-wielding Thor, the one-eyed Odin and the god of fertility Freyr, today praised his force for recognising his beliefs and insisted that they were neither bizarre nor dangerous.

"Paganism is not the new age, tree-hugging fad that some people think it is," he told Police Review magazine.

"It is not the clandestine, horrible, evil thing that people think it is. A lot of people think it is about dancing naked around a fire. But the rituals are not like that.

"It involves chanting, music, meditation, reading passages and for pagans the practices are seen to have the same power as prayer does for Christians."

He added: "It has been practised in this country since before the concept of God arrived here.

"It is all about dedication to nature. Most pagans practise some kind of conservation work as well, to give something back to the planet."

PC Pardy, who is also an equality and diversity representative for the force, said he now hoped to set up a Pagan Police Association to "provide support and guidance" to pagan police officers who want to fit their beliefs around their police work.

Hertfordshire Constabulary allows PC Pardy the eight pagan holidays off each year, including Halloween - which signifies the pagan new year - and the summer solstice.

The days are deducted from his annual leave, but because of his religion these days off are fixed.

There were 30,500 people practising Paganism in England and Wales in 2001, according to the Office of National Statistics. Last year the Home Office introduced the Pagan oath for use in the courts.

It is not known how many pagan police officers and staff there are in Britain.


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PostPosted: Fri Jul 17, 2009 6:58 pm 
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May I just ask you JGG (especially as your username derives from paganism) why this is a 'strange' holiday?

http://www.ancientspiral.com/greenman.htm

The Green Man of Now

Today the Green Man is still with us, whether illustrates on tins of sweetcorn an the 'Jolly Green Giant' or as a deeply spiritual instinct within. A respect for nature has always been an important part of most religions, pagan or otherwise. Communities of different people from many countries with diverse beliefs have aspired and learned to be self-sufficient by living directly from the land.



Paganism is one of (if not THE) oldest religion. Christianity et al are much much younger AND they stole the majority of 'feast' days from paganism. I see nothing 'strange' about the holiday at all - you would be surprised how many people actually practise paganism as opposed to 'organised' religion.

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