FT269

Druidry is to become the first pagan practice to be given official recognit­ion as a religion in the UK. After a four-year fight, the Druid Network has been granted charit­able status by the Charity Comm­ission for England and Wales, making it the first pagan group to be recognised under the 2006 Charities Act. This guarantees the group, set up in 2003, valuable tax breaks, although it doesn’t currently earn enough to benefit from this. It could also pave the way for other minority faiths to gain charitable status.

Emma Restall Orr, founder of the Druid Network, said: “The Charity Commission now has a much greater understanding of pagan, animist, and polytheist religions, so other groups from these minority religions – provided they meet the financial and public benefit criteria for registration as charities – should find registering a much shorter process than the pioneering one we have been through.”

In its assessment the Commiss­ion accepted that Druids worship nature, in particular the Sun and the Earth; and that they believe in the spirits of places such as mount­ains and rivers as well as “divine guides” such as Brighid and Bran.