Public Rituals?

I suppose for starters what sort of ritual/ceremony/gathering would be taking place would largely determine if I were to attend. Also, the context of the group(s) involved would play a major factor in it as well. While I feel, as a Heathen, that I have about as much in common with Wiccans or Neopagans as I would with Anglicans or Catholics, I am a firm believer in maintaining a positive sense of interfaith networking and communication. The majority of my experience in attending Heathen events have been in private/semi-private context, although I have attended some public/semi-public events in the past that have ranged from overwhelmingly positive experiences to dreadfully awkward. These weren't simply Heathen events, of course, as I have attended Wiccan events, Gaelic polytheist events, Slavic polytheist events, interfaith gatherings, and so on. But that being said, coming from my personal context as a Heathen, as a Norse polytheist under the category of Forn Siðr, one of the things factoring into my personal willingness to attend an event is who would be in attendance. If you are unfamiliar with how these work, typically a drinking horn is filled with mead, cider, wine, or other drink, and is passed around to those assembled to make their various toasts. This may vary depending on if the event is a Blót, Sumbl, Bragarfull, etc. But the significance of sharing that horn with the persons assembled is that you would become more interconnected with them, and thereby causing their actions to be linked with yours for good or ill. So you could understand why I would feel deeply uncomfortable with a skinhead standing next to me at a Heathen Blót. This is slightly different for events outside of my own faith, as I approach it more out of a feeling of diplomacy and expanding my own understanding of other traditions; these I am more comfortable attending if I am not familiar with the group hosting them, but I would still wish to attend with at least several friends alongside me just in case.

I lead meetings of local pagans in my area, and we've celebrated several holidays together. We have a few Wiccans, and then a mess of other faiths and traditions. We've celebrated Samhain and Yule together, but since we've got so many other traditions, we aren't doing them one set way. Our Samhain festival, I lead a ritual to the Roman god Pluto to honor our dead, and a few others brought things representing their own heritages. Our Yule altar had representations of Brigid, the Morrigan, Pan, Odin, Tyr, Pluto, Persephone, Bast, and Isis.

That all being said, I think it's hard to find groups like ours. Even within our group, we do have an older Wiccan man who's kinda set in his ways and has a hard time adjusting to all of our non-Wiccan beliefs. The only rituals in my area besides my group's are all Wiccan.

I for one would love to see that! 

It'll probably be much better than the "interfaith" service I went to today, where I learned that everyone is Catholic inside.

I don't enjoy rituals that attempt to mesh more than one religious tradition together or are 'interfaith'. Cause...I don't think that's what ritual is for, and I'd really rather not participate in any that are like that. It's why I don't usually attend Pagan Pride Days. Unless you're getting a specific group to put on their own thing, you usually get a messy, unfeeling ritual. A lot of those rituals have focused on blending the communal feeling with a larger vague spiritual element, and I haven't seen it work. A strictly communal ritual, in which it is clear that the purpose is to create deeper bonds beyond people, would be something I could find interest in.

One of the largest problems I've had with public rituals:

• People don't know the purpose of the public ritual. Is it to educate? Is it to get new members interested and involved? Is it to show off to other groups? There may be a focus like a specific holiday or spiritual event or focus, but that seems to be as far as the consideration goes. If people figured out what they want the public ritual to be - essentially, why it needs to be public - the rituals would likely be stronger.
• Lacking necessary information beforehand. There have been a few rituals where there were gods or spirits called upon that made me extremely uncomfortable, and if I had been properly informed beforehand I would not have joined in. There are also certain ways of performing ritual that I find to be disrespectful or just don't want to participate in, and, again, proper information on how rituals were operated was not provided. The 'secrecy' that some groups have needs to go to the sideline when they're putting on a public ritual.
• They are too long. I went to a ritual that went on for two hours, and one of those hours was the 'clergy' ranting about how all the other groups suck and why don't people come to his group more. It was disgusting. Other rituals I've gone to are more performance pieces...which is fine, but they should be called what they are. These rituals rarely raise any energy or emotion or call anything up. Instead, they're just slow, dragging events. I could, and have, done better at home, meaning they posed no reason for me to continue attending.

Yeah, there is a difference between an Interfaith Ritual or Interfaith Service and a ritual that is open to people of differing faiths. I think the latter is what most Pagan events end up being.

I'll make a separate thread with the ideas someone and I meshed out on how an Interfaith Ritual may look.