Annual Clergy Report for 2023

I’ve gotten away from posting these on a monthly basis, but we’re still required by ADF to compile our report for the year, and I shockingly find it fulfilling.  

I tend to suffer from imposter syndrome, and one of the best ways I’ve found for me to fight that is to list out all the things I’ve done and reflect on them.  So, this report, in the way that I fill it out, helps me combat the feeling that I don’t know what I’m doing.  So, without further ado, here’s how I fulfilled my oath last year:

Clergy Council Member Annual Report Form

Priest Name: Rev. Jan Avende

ADF Number: 5589

Time covered: January 1 2023 – January 1 2024

This report is designed to illustrate how each individual priest has chosen to fulfill their oath to love the land, honor the deities, serve the folk, and continue in their studies as best suits their individual vocations.

Loving the Land

This section is for you to record your continuing relationship with the land.

Nature-Based Community Service:

  • Created a Garden Share relationship with my neighbors and community, which has helped not only improve community interconnectedness, but also made sure that food surplus from our collective gardens doesn’t go to waste, and gotten fresh food into the mouths of people who need it.
  • Did service work with 3CG at Sunbury Urban Farm.  We weeded, spread compost, broadforked some of the fields, and generally did garden prep work.

Nature Awareness Work:

  • On my own homestead I continued developing my personal relationship with the land as I planted and tended my gardens and animals.
  • I learned more this year about preserving food by canning, drying, and freezing. I used a pressure canner for the first time (thanks, OSU Extension for the help!)
  • I continue to raise meat rabbits, which helps me stay connected to our food sources, knowing where our food comes from and ensuring that it is sustainably and ethically harvested.  I added Rex to our herd this year, and hope to provide hides to others to continue the mission of using as much of the animal as possible.

Advocacy & Environmental Activism:

  • I continue to educate others on meat rabbits – benefits and sustainability, how to get started raising their own, dispatch process, and laws surrounding raising them and selling them both as breeders and as meat.  I continue to host hands-on sessions, including humane dispatch and how to honor our food in a spiritual context.

Natural Spaces Built & Maintained:

  • Planned, planted, and maintained my homestead garden.   I continued the process of expanding our garden beds in my effort to slowly remove our entire lawn and replace it with plants that will increase biodiversity and sustainability.  I also implemented Winter Sowing in recycled milk jugs for the first time this year

Serving the Folk

This section is for you to record your continuing relationship with the folk.

Special Occasion Services:

  • Baby Blessing (2/10/23)
  • Funeral (2/27/23)
  • Oracular Rite (3/10/23)
  • First Day of School Rite (8/13/23)
  • Wedding (10/13/23)
  • Dedicant Oath Rite (11/11/23)

High Day & Moon Services:

  • 3CG High Days: Imbolc, SpEq, Beltane, SuSol, Lunasa, AuEq, Samhain
  • ORW High Days: AuEq, Samhain, Yule
  • 3CG Druid Moons: Rivros, Anagantios, Ogronios, Cutios, Gaimonios, Simivisonnos, Elembivios, Ædrinios, Cantlos, Samonios

Digital Media Created:

Sacred Art Created:

  • Painting completed during “Guided Painting” class by Kim Keffer @ Appalachian Summer Solstice
  • Experimenting with pages from the Coloring Book of Shadows series to create altar pieces and magical tools

Pastoral Service Work:

  • Hospital visits: NICU x2; Longterm care x2;
  • Volunteered at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, providing spiritual care and religious services to inmates
  • Provided several New Years Look Ahead Divination readings
  • Hosted the Annual #PrayerADay Project; brought on help from Revs. M Ashton, Dangler, and Mart this year.
  • Individual pastoral conversations (in person & virtual), both informal and formal, throughout the year

Chaplaincy:

  • Spoke opening prayer for Otterbein Senate meeting
  • Took a job at the Ohio Reformatory for Women as a contracted Chaplain, serving primarily the needs of the pagan inmate population, but also others on an as needed basis. (My caseload averages 200-250 people). Duties include:
    • Teaching a weekly beginner class.  I am using Rev. Dangler’s “Dedicant Path Through the Wheel of the Year” to guide these classes. These classes have roughly 40-60 people.
    • Teaching a weekly advanced class.  Topics for this class vary based on interest, but we’ve covered an intro to divination (including ethics around divination), writing prayers, and are moving into sigil crafting and related magical work. These classes have roughly 5-10 people
    • Leading a weekly blessing rite.  These follow the COoR, and include set prayers and songs, and an opportunity for the inmates to make offerings.  These services have roughly 40-60 people.
    • Leading High Day services.  I’ve been slowly teaching the advanced class to write and speak high day liturgy.  We have celebrated Autumn Equinox, Samhain, and Yule together so far. These High Days have roughly 50-80 people.
    • Providing Pastoral Care both as needed, and by appointment, every week.
    • Overseeing the Pagan Choir I helped the inmates form, and providing them with music and guidance.

Grove Specific Activities:

  • Did service work to maintain the building and grounds of 3CGs partnered UU church
  • Led several Hike Clean-ups: Scioto Audubon Metropark & Wyman Woods Park; partnered with our Cub Scout Pack
  • Annual Liturgical Planning Meeting
  • New bank account opened
  • Weekly bardic rehearsals
  • Weekly planning and teaching for the Cub Scout Pack our Grove charters

Service in Leadership Roles:

  • ADF Vice Archdruid:
    • Attended Mother Grove Retreat in December.  We discussed budgeting & financials, ADF International, goals, and did some team building
    • “Meet the MG” for an open discussion with ADF Membership
    • ADF Annual Meeting
    • Keep ADF Calendar up to date
    • Calculate and send out Mound Journey dates
  • ADF Initiate Preceptor:
    • Includes administrative tasks, mentoring, and occasional reviewing of courses
  • ADF Children & Parenting SIG Coordinator:
    • Welcoming new members, maintaining the FB group, encouraging conversation, and compiling resources for parents (including kids book lists)
    • Note: this position is going away with the new website/forum only group option
  • ADF Blog Editor in Chief
    • Solicit, edit, and schedule relevant and timely posts to the new ADF Blog

Honoring the Deities

This section is for you to record your continuing relationship with the Deities.

Seasons & Cycles Observed:

  • 8 High Days, New & Full Moons

Order Work & Regular Devotional Practice:

  • Mound Journeys most months (includes short ritual, offerings, trance journey, and write-up/reflection)
  • Altar Work roughly 4x/week (includes prayers, divination, and offerings)

Shrines/Sanctuaries Created and/or Maintained:

  • Personal home shrine/working altar
  • Personal Homestead

Deity Relationships Initiated and/or Maintained:

  • Patron Relationships: Poseidon
  • Regular Work: Hestia, Teutates, Artemis, Garanus, Earth Mother
  • Occasional Work: Anahita, Ogmios, Ushas

Continuing Study

This section is for you to record your educational activities defined further as the things you have done to fulfill our obligation as an organization to provide trained clergy to our church.

Oak Leaves Articles Published:

Festivals/Workshops Attended:

Attended Wellspring, Appalachian Summer Solstice, Summerlands, and Harvest Nights, which included the following workshops/rituals:

  • Oracular Rite Practice Session @ The Magical Druid
  • “Magic in the Ancient World” by Fritz Graf @ OSU Lecture Series
  • “Wellspring Bardic Chair” judged with Thexalon @ Wellspring
  • “Hekate” by Matthew Sawicki @ Wellspring
  • “Hekate Liminal Rite” by Matthew Sawicki @ Wellspring
  • “Fire Behind the Wire” by Rev. Kirk Thomas @ Wellspring
  • “Wellspring Main Rite” @ Wellspring
  • “Pagan Hearth & Home Religion” by Dr. Leesa Kern @ Appalachian Summer Solstice
  • “Wolf Conservation” by the Ohio Canid Center @ Appalachian Summer Solstice
  • “Non-Binary Healing Circle” by Carver Casey @ Appalachian Summer Solstice
  • “Guided Painting” by Kim Keffer @ Appalachian Summer Solstice
  • “Osteomancy” by River @ Appalachian Summer Solstice
  • “Brewing 101” and “Brewers Meet & Greet” @ Appalachian Summer Solstice
  • “Grounding, Centering, and Basic Meditation” by Kathleen @ Harvest Nights
  • “The Gates, The Omen, and The Blessing: Visualizing In Ritual” by Kathleen @ Harvest Nights
  • “Herbal Tea Blending” by Joan @ Harvest Nights
  • “Creating Daily Devotionals” by Kathleen @ Harvest Nights
  • “Crafting Prayer Beads” by Kathleen @ Harvest Nights

Workshops Taught:

Books & Articles Written outside of ADF Publishing:

Books & Articles Read:

  • Sigil Witchery by Laura Tempest Zakroff
  • A Ministry of Presence by Winifred Fallers Sullivan
  • Regularly read “Under the Ancient Oaks” posts by John Beckett
  • Various articles from the Encyclopedia of Religion on tikkun olam, grace, and related theology topics
  • Various articles on different pagan paths from the Encyclopedia of Religion and beyond

Self-Reflection and Future Plans

Reflect on the previous year. Discuss what you intended to accomplish, what you did accomplish, what you learned from this year of service, and what your plans are for the upcoming year.

Year in Review:

Last year I came to terms with anything that related to professional chaplaincy would have to be indefinitely put on hold, due to both finances and being a member of a minority religion.  However, this year was amazing in terms of job prospects, and the stars seemed to align with opportunities for professional chaplaincy falling into place.  The previous pagan chaplain at the Ohio Reformatory for Women was retiring, and reached out to the community asking for an ADF Priest to replace him.  I shadowed him a few times, applied and interviewed for the job, and am now working as a professional pagan contracted chaplain.  This has also meant that I can now afford to take CPE, and gain more training for chaplaincy work, which I’m hoping to take this coming year.

One thing I was hoping to do more of this past year was teach more, and that has really delivered as well! Not only am I teaching every week as part of my Chaplain job at ORW, but I’ve also started teaching monthly at the Magical Druid (a local pagan shop).  Additionally, we retarted our Oracular Group this past year, and started working with a couple new folks to train them.

As I predicted, resource building has slowed with being VAD, but I’ve also been in a much better place to empower people to use their specific skill sets for the betterment of our organization and our shared vision.  One of the things I’m most proud of this year in this regard was my team building work at the MG Retreat.  I did successfully work with the webteam to get the ADF Blog up and running this year.  It posts at least weekly, and I’m working with our Social Media Manager to get those posts out where people will see them.  I would still love to have an assistant editor, but thus far no one has applied for that position.

Some goals I missed on last year:

  • “brainstorm and gather feedback from parents, families, and possibly children, on what they are looking for in terms of family support or access to a child membership”:  I didn’t manage to get that done, but I think it’s important enough to continue working towards that.
  • “Write more songs”: I don’t think I managed to write any this year.  However, i think a lot of my creative time got soaked up in the new job, so for this year I’d say that’s a fair trade-off
  • “Be more involved with Sacred Table Community Garden”: the grove didn’t seem to pick up on the interest in this, so I stopped attending.  I was able to devote those Saturday mornings to improve my own homestead and work on establishing our produce share crate.

Future Plans:

Love the Land

  • Create a Garden Share Cart (improve on last year’s iteration)
  • Continue expanding my garden space and decreasing my lawn
  • Learn more about composting, crop rotation, and companion planting

Serve the Folk

  • Post workshop handouts, notes, etc to my Patreon, and delayed release to my blog as appropriate
  • Continue writing for both Oak Leaves and my personal blog
  • Teach 1 workshop a month to the community (local shop or festival)
  • Continue serving the inmate population
  • Gather information on what needs pagan families have, and brainstorm resource creation
  • Continue serving in elected/appointed ADF Leadership roles, requesting help where necessary, and accepting help as needed.
  • Continue serving as a Priest for Three Cranes Grove

Honor the Deities

  • Write 1 bardic piece per quarter
  • Participate in #PrayerADay

Continuing Education:

  • Apply for and take first unit of CPE
  • Complete “Pagan Theology 2” in CTP3
  • Complete “Comparative Ritual Theory” in CTP3
  • Work with Tarotorial deck to work on learning standard tarot meanings

Books & Articles to Read:

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