Thanks, Alison, for yet another thoughtful and perceptive. You're batting a thousand with your ideas about the gifts Neopagans could offer Christians, both individually and corporately. Of course, tremendous challenges remain, not the least being the triumphalism among so many Christians that effectively closes off communication with "outsiders." Like pretty much all interfaith work, I suppose fruitful Pagan-Christian cross-fertilization needs to happen on the micro-level, among individuals of good-will who are willing to invest the time and effort to form relationships and reach the level of safety and vulnerability where engaged conversation (critical in the best sense of the word) can take place. Ideally, such open-hearted Pagans and Christians can find ways to embody the very suggestions you offer: perhaps create an interfaith community garden (or, thinking bigger, wildlife preserve), engage in interfaith storytelling and theologizing, and interfaith ritual-making. Sure, none of this will happen overnight, and for now, perhaps it's significant enough of a step forward when Christians react to non-Christians not by saying "Have you been saved?" but by saying "Can I ask you a few questions?" (How I wish there had been an opportunity for that conversation with Peter Rollins. Perhaps some other time). Ironically, the Wild Goose Festival is perhaps the only gathering of Christians where I would feel safe flaunting your Druidness (I feel a pang of guilt in that I didn't ask your permission to identify you that way, a clear breach of Pagan etiquette — may I beg forgiveness for that oversight?), not only for your sake, but for the sake of so many Christians who still have so much work to do learning just to feel safe being vulnerable in the presence of the "other."

Anyway, I'm rambling here, just conscious both of the hope your post embodies as well as the profound internally-created challenges that the Christian community still faces. Thanks for giving me yet more food for thought. Eager to see parts 2 and 3.