Shifting the Balance

Posted on September 22, 2021June 19, 2025

Help us shift the balance towards an ever-stronger, ever better Cherry Hill Seminary.

At the autumn equinox, Cherry Hill Seminary pauses to reflect on this year. Even in these uncertain times, we have flourished. For example, thanks to your investment in quality education we were able to:

Pioneer a Pagan SpiDir (Spiritual Direction Certificate) cohort, which began their two-year journey towards offering their own services as a spiritual director.
Launch Coming to the Center, an online interview series with thought leaders, scholars, & experts in Pagan spirituality.
Engage a consultant to review our entire curriculum, map learning outcomes, and develop a guide for ongoing management of our programs.
Initiate our search for a new academic dean as Dr. Candace Kant prepares for retirement.

Giving is a fundamental part of showing up for the CHS community and showing others that investing in quality education and transformative spiritual growth is essential to our future. By making a contribution, you become part of our students’ fearless learning.

By asking you to give, we hope to show you that we are serious about being a force for good, serving the spiritual needs of those around us, bringing healing where we may, and developing the next generation of Pagan leaders.

We are thankful for community members, just like you, who understand the value of quality education and how it can shape the future for the better. Two generous donors have offered to match every dollar raised between now and Samhain, up to $10,000 USD! That means that your gift will automatically be doubled.

Your gift will put us in a stronger position to add the academic dean’s new salary to our 2022 budget.
Your contribution, of any size, ensures that CHS is around to provide quality education for years to come.

Anything Can Happen: Let’s Make it Good!

Posted on March 15, 2021June 19, 2025

Anything can happen in 2021…

We survived and thrived in 2020, despite all the challenges before us. Not just as a center of learning, but we rallied to those challenges as spiritual beings with an appetite to know more, be more, and do more!

And now? In April, our very first SpiDir (Spiritual Direction Certificate) cohort will begin their two-year journey towards offering their own services as a spiritual director or companion. This summer we’ll begin Coming to the Center, an exciting program which launches in the summer featuring live online interviews with notable experts on wide-ranging topics. We’ve held symposia jointly with the University of South Carolina since 2013, bringing together scholars, students and the public around sacred lands, religion and the environment, and white supremacy. We believe we can do so much more this year, with your support.

After all, Cherry Hill Seminary is now well into our second decade as the only graduate and continuing education program of its kind in the world, a surprising milestone for a Pagan organization. How has that happened? Not without a great deal of hard work, patience, and a lot of people envisioning a world where we are on equal footing with others in the ministry professions.

So why not make this year –2021– one to remember, one that inspires us, a year of bold, visionary action?

Hypatia of Alexandria, the guardian ancestor of Cherry Hill Seminary, has been a model for fearless learning since the third century of this era. Hypatia taught her students to pursue knowledge and live with the integrity demanded by a rapidly-changing society. This is why we each year we invite you to celebrate March 15, International Hypatia Day, by honoring our spiritual ancestor with a contribution to CHS in support of her passion for excellence in education.

Over the years, we’ve thrown Hypatia parties, held drawings for prizes, and in various ways invited the world to become part of our Seminary family with a gift (or a pledge to give sometime during 2021). Thanks for the memories pictured in the photos here!

Will you support Cherry Hill Seminary with a contribution today? Then perhaps you will tweet or post what you’ve done with one of the memes found below? The world loves stories of generosity and goodwill, after all. (Don’t forget to link back to this page.)

Most importantly, anything can happen in 2021, so make it good, starting with your contribution to Cherry Hill Seminary.

Feel free to share the images below on Facebook or Instagram!

Download Images (.jpg)

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Download Animations (.mp4)

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Volunteer With Us

Cherry Hill Seminary relies on the generous spirit of individuals who have available time and talents that serve the purpose of providing quality nature-based seminal training.

If you are interested in volunteering your time with us, please fill out the form below!

Fundraising Ideas

Simply ask each person in your group or circle of friends to Donate to CHS
Throw down the gauntlet! Have each member of your group compete to see how many other folks they can get a gift or pledge from.

If you are part of a group, set up a competition among the covens or circles in the group. Be sure to celebrate the winners when next you gather as a group.
Use your imagination on events and parties. For examples see our Host an Event page.
Put a donations box on your table if you are a vendor at an event, or in your store, if you are a retailer.
Hand-write notes to your friends, asking them to support your favorite cause, Cherry Hill Seminary.
Send an email request – make it passionate! – to your regular listserves, and direct them to this link to Donate to CHS. (They should write in the note space what group asked them to donate.)
If you are raising funds for another purpose, add Cherry Hill Seminary to your drive, and designate a portion of funds raised to go to Cherry Hill Seminary.
Got more fundraising ideas? Let us know about them!