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European Congress of Ethnic Religions

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European Congress of Ethnic Religions
Formation1998
FounderJonas Trinkūnas
TypeModern paganism
Location
Membership
11 organisations (2023)
President
Uģis Nastevičs
Websiteecer-org.eu Edit this at Wikidata

European Congress of Ethnic Religions (ECER) is an organisation for cooperation among associations that promote the ethnic religions of Europe.[1] The primary goal of the ECER is the strengthening of pre-Christian religious traditions of Europe, emphasizing and fostering their ties with modern pagan movements.

History

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A "World Pagan Congress" was hosted in June 1998 in Vilnius, Lithuania, organized by Jonas Trinkūnas of Romuva, a Lithuanian neopagan organization. It was attended by members from a number of neopagan organizations from Europe and North America, as well as observers from the academic field. At the meeting it was decided to make the congress an annual event and to form an organization around it.[2]

The organization's name was the result of a day-long passionate debate.[3] The words "pagan" and "heathen" were rejected because of their perceived cultural associations with immorality, violence and backwardness. The word "polytheistic" was also rejected as an oversimplification.[4] "Indigenous" was seen as satisfactory on a linguistic level, but was voted down with regard to its established use by groups distinguished from European colonizers.[2] Other suggestions were terms along the lines of "old religion" and "ancestral religion". "Ethnic", the Greek equivalent to the Latin paganus in early Christian sources, was eventually agreed on.[4] The word's history and the connection to ethnology were things that appealed to the majority of the participants.[2]

To avoid misunderstandings, the founding declaration of the organization makes clear that ethnic here does not refer to ethnic politics.[4] The founding member Denis Dornoy also clarified this in the organization's newsletter The Oaks in 1999:

Is ethnic connected with ethnic cleansing? Is it another pure race ideology? Do you have to belong to a long-lost people to be ethnic? Isn't ethnic a subject for white-haired academics? Ethnic is none of the above, and its meaning is far simpler. Ethnos is Greek, meaning people, and ethnic means related to a particular people, i.e., anything that defines a people: its language, customs, daily behaviour, food ... or spiritual outlook. We call this last point ethnic religion. It is a set of traditions, worship, way of life, related to a people. It often, but not always, involves ancestor worship. Sometimes it is so integrated into everyday life that it cannot even be called "religion" (i.e., belief) according to Western standards.[5]

The congress was held under the name "World Congress of Ethnic Religions" from 1999 to 2010. The 2006 and 2009 conferences were held in India, in the spirit of collaboration between Western Neopaganism and Hinduism. The intention of a worldwide scope was "more of a dream than reality", as the congress mostly consisted of representatives of neopagan movements in Europe. To reflect this, the organization was renamed "European Congress of Ethnic Religions" in 2010.[3] The congress was an annual event until 2010, and has since then been held once every two years.

Members and leadership

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ECER's website defines the scope of the organization: "By Ethnic Religion, we mean religion, spirituality, and cosmology that is firmly grounded in a particular people's traditions. In our view, this does not include modern occult or ariosophic theories/ideologies, nor syncretic neo-religions."[1]

Since 2023, the president of the ECER is Uģis Nastevičs.[6]

Member organizations represent Baltic, Slavic, Germanic, Greek, and Roman traditions. As of 2023, the member organizations of the ECER were:[7]

Chronology of the congresses

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Year Location Theme/Notes[1]
1998 Vilnius, Lithuania Foundation of the ECER
1999 Telsiai, Lithuania laying down a structure and aims for the organisation
2000 Bradesiai, Lithuania solving administrational issues
2001 Vilnius, Lithuania with delegates from the Vishva Hindu Parishad
2002 Vilnius, Lithuania "the continuity of ethnic religions in the modern world"
2003 Vilnius, Lithuania "Global Initiatives for Ethnic Cultures and Religions"
2004 Athens, Greece "The High Values Of The Pre-Christian Ethnic Traditions and Religions"
2005 Antwerp, Flanders "Spirituality and Tradition in an Anti-Traditional World"
2006 Jaipur, India "Spirituality Beyond Religions"
in cooperation with the International Centre of Cultural Studies and the
World Congress of Elders of Ancient Cultures and Traditions
2007 Riga-Jūrmala-Sigulda, Latvia "The Spirit Will See New Light in the Turn of Ages"
2008 Poznań-Głogów, Poland "Ethnic Religions in Modern Europe"
2009 Nagpur, India "Renaissance of the Ancient Traditions: Challenges and Solutions"
2010 Bologna, Italy "Ethics in Contemporary World"
2012 Odense, Denmark “What can Ethnic religions do for Europe – and what can Europe do for the Ethnic religions”
2014 Vilnius, Lithuania "Mother Earth, Unite us"
2016 Prague, Czech Republic With the participation of Czech deputy Minister of Culture
2018 Rome, Italy With the Joint celebration of the Natale di Roma
2023 Riga-Lokstene, Latvia With the compilation of the Riga Declaration

References

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b c About ECER.
  2. ^ a b c Strmiska 2005, p. 14.
  3. ^ a b Strmiska 2005, p. 276.
  4. ^ a b c Elst 2015, pp. 86–87.
  5. ^ Strmiska 2005, p. 15.
  6. ^ "Par Eiropas etnisko reliģiju organizācijas prezidentu kļūst Uģis Nastevičs". tvnet.lv [lv] (in Latvian). 3 July 2023. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
  7. ^ "The RIga Declaration of the European Congress of Ethnic Religions (2023)". European Congress of Ethnic Religions. 4 July 2023. Retrieved 1 August 2023.

Sources

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