CST News, Passings, & Services

April 2000 - Community Relief Fund: CST now has a Community Relief Fund up and running. Your donations to this fund are tax-deductible - we will send you a receipt UPON REQUEST. Please make your checks out to "Church of the Spiral Tree" and attach a note or write in the memo space, "Community Relief Fund." This way we can keep up with exactly how much is coming in for this fund. Please consider donating now, before we actually need it, so that when someone is in need, we can send a check immediately. We recently received a thank-you letter from the Governor of North Carolina for our $120 check we sent in fall 1999 for the North Carolina Disaster Relief. Mail checks to: Church of the Spiral Tree, P.O. Box 8396, Columbus, GA 31908.

June 1999 - Homeschool: CST has formed a cover school for Alabama pagan homeschoolers, called Sacred Grove Academy. In Alabama, to homeschool your children, you need to be either a certified teacher, or be part of a church with a cover school. Now Sacred Grove meets this requirement!

June 1999 - CST received its tax-exempt status. We're recognized by the IRS as a Section 501(a) organization under 501(c)(3) of the code. So start sending in those donations!

December 1998 - An article on Pagans in Alabama was published in the Birmingham Post-Herald on December 9, 1998, and subsequently picked up by the AP and carried in many, many other papers throughout the southeast, and probably the country. If you know of a paper that carried the article, please email us and let us know!

View the article in its entirety in text and color photo form here. Note: This requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Jonathan Medley, who was a Church of the Spiral Tree member and was also an elected Member-at-Large on our Board of Directors, passed away on Tuesday, June 7, 2011. He was a dedicated member of CST, and helped get the Pagan Prisoner Ministry re-started and was a great help with networking. Green Gate Grove had a very moving memorial ritual celebrating Jon's life & spirituality before their Litha ritual on June 18.

Sandi Craig, a long-time member of CST, and previous member of our Pagan Prisoner Committee, passed on Friday morning, November 24, 2004, after having suffered serious health problems for many years. She had just recently gotten engaged.

Ossian Gillebert, an Irish pub singer and old friend, passed on Thursday night, November 23, 2004, after an 8-month battle with lung cancer. Ossian previously wrote for The Hazel Nut (to see his articles, go to Index of Articles and scroll down to "From Other Traditions: The Three Worlds of the Oide Column by Adrian"), and was a High Priest of his own tradition.

Stormy, the organizer of Earthdance, passed on Friday, October 1, 2004 at 4:15 pm, after a 2-year battle with pancreatic cancer. Stormy had requested that people donate to Pancreatic Cancer Research, in lieu of flowers.

Patricia J. Hembree, aka RoseHawk Blue, formerly known by Cherokee Rose or Myra, passed away on January 1, 2005. She is survived by her mother and daughter, Amanda. RoseHawk was an inspiration to many, having gone through many personal battles. After working a 12-step program successfully, she began sharing this method with other pagans at gatherings. She was the first to do a 12-step program during a gathering at Dragon Hills. There were several memorials held in her honor, including the first memorial where her family requested her Wiccan friends, fellow CST members, her Bird Clan friends, and her 12-step brothers and sisters to each come together by the river to honor her in their own way; a fire walk in her memory; and a sweat lodge. Her laughter will always be remembered as well as her spirit of service.

Natural Family Planning: Cathy, a health services professional, is offering counseling on natural methods of family planning, both fertility and contraception. For more info, email her at tabbatcat@yahoo.com.