Hypothetical Interfaith Ritual Outline

That's kind of how my group does it. Even when we have an altar where all of our deities are represented, the ritual itself is usually more along the lines of "here's why we're all here today, so let's connect and celebrate and raise some energy."

i'm glad you brought up the idea of not inviting deities because all the times i've been involved with things like this and deities have been invited, it felt really weird? and alienating if no gaelic deities were invited by the leaders. though tbh, as i don't think the leaders ever really had connections to gaelic polytheism, when someone was invited (usually the morrigan during samhain festivals :\) it could be really uncomfortable. the things you put up with for a sense of community...

so yeah, i really like the idea about it being more about personal spirituality and community bonding than any kind of connection with deities. maybe if the ritual is during a time that's especially important to a deity that someone in the group has a relationship with, it could be a good opportunity for sharing your experiences with that deity with others and maybe some education if the person is feeling up to it? but i don't really see why anything beyond that would be necessary

Yeah, I think that's great. I think the idea, like Cass said, of it being more about personal spirituality and community bonding is really important. I also really dislike the phrasing of "invoking" a deity and can often be uncomfortable around deities perceived as men (Christian baggage leftovers & PTSD, yum), so there's also that.

Also, as far as even the structure, I personally never really do anything that you might consider "raising energy" per se. So I like the idea that it would be more focused on learning!

That sounds awesome Caelesti

I have been thinking about this thread recently and how important it is to do community work over devotional deity work in larger groups, which makes sense when most attendees may have different beliefs.

So, two thoughts on this subject I had.

Cultural education and community building seems to be the best way to go about doing an interfaith ritual. Calling deities from different pantheons will quite often be problematic. Perhaps you could start the ritual by allowing each person to say a quick prayer simply giving thanks to their gods as a whole. That way everyone's gods are represented and acknowledged without bring their energies down. Thoughts?

If I'm not mistaken, most of our traditions have a lot of reverence for nature. I think that at some point during the ritual/festivities/gathering/whatever perhaps the group should do something as an act of service to the land that you're on. Clean up trash, spread some grass seed, everyone plant a flower that is beneficial to the local ecosystem, or something else. *shrug* I don't really know, these are just some thoughts I'm having.

Reviving this thread because I'm having thinky-thoughts.

I'm wondering how a ritual can involve worshiping in conjunction with education. In other words, I don't want a polytheistic interfaith ritual to be secular. But I don't know how to exactly do that?